What did Macs use before iTunes?

[jive]

?_?


I've never thought about it before and iTunes is still new (compared to WMP)...

[.Andy]

Well Soundjam MP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundJam_MP) for starters. It's what Apple bought and morphed into the iTunes we know and love today. I'm sure there were other programs that the more veteran mac users here will be able to fill you in on :).

[iMeowbot]

There were lots of Mac MP3 players before iTunes. There were AudioCatalyst, Audion, QuickTime Player, Soundjam (which became iTunes), MacAMP/MACAST, Winamp (briefly), more.

There was one, I can't remember the name, that I used to use because it used less CPU than the others. It was a drag and drop deal with just a plain white window and simple menus -- probably came from Info-Mac. [edit: Oh yeah, it was called SoundApp! (http://www.mac.org/utilities/soundapp/) ]

[Jaffa Cake]

There was Audion (http://panic.com/audion/) from Panic. You can read up on it's history (and find out a little about life pre-iTunes) here. (http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/)

[WinterMute]

There was also the Apple CD player, that's all it did mind.

Very useful bit of software too, tiny RAM footprint, quick and with all the features you need. I'd still like to see something like that in OSX.

[Xeem]

I used CDs until iTunes came out. iTunes really isn't that new (it was in OS 9); I think I've been using it for like 6 years now.

[Lixivial]

Yeah, I used MacAMP for the longest time before and after iTunes, in both its Classic flavor and OS X flavor. It was consistent with WinAmp (and I prefer consistency whenever I can get it) and it ran a lot better in OS X than iTunes did on 10.1 and 10.2.

iMeowbot covered the good and memorable ones. There's also an MP3 player for 68k, but I don't believe it predated iTunes, called MpegDec (http://members.aol.com/xanathus/mpegdec/). It's useful if you still have a 68k-based Mac lying around.