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Alternative to iTunes?

S

stringtheorist

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 1, 2008
244
0
After switching from PC I find iTunes frustrating. I used to use Winamp... I like the skinnable interface and the fact that I can sort songs by Artist and Song Title. I don't appear to be able to do either in iTunes? (Does anyone know how to sort songs so that Artists AND song titles appear in alphabetical order?)

What other MP3 players are folks using?
 
The only one I can think of is Songbird, but I don't know if it is exactly what you are looking for. I know that there are a bunch of skins that you can download that are cool, but I don't remember anything different sorting options.
 
I also wish there was an alternative to iTunes for the Mac.

OK, I'm going to say it:

ITunes for the mac is one of the most Monopolized segment of software in the industry. There is literally NO alternative to iTunes for the Mac.
 
songbird is closest to a viable alternative as u can get. its a bit slow tho. see if final will do better.
 
doug in albq said:
I also wish there was an alternative to iTunes for the Mac.

OK, I'm going to say it:

ITunes for the mac is one of the most Monopolized segment of software in the industry. There is literally NO alternative to iTunes for the Mac.
Click to expand...

But it isn't like there couldn't be. There are plenty of alternative apps for most everything else, the fact that iTunes has a monopoly is not necessarily Apple or iTunes' fault (unless you can show me otherwise, preferably something other than Wikipedia)... so if you feel so strongly, make your own software, the dev tools are all available for free, as is quite a bit of documentation.
 
doug in albq said:
ITunes for the mac is one of the most Monopolized segment of software in the industry. There is literally NO alternative to iTunes for the Mac.
Click to expand...

Once Songbird reaches 1.0 status, this will no longer be the case. iTunes will be like Safari, with supporters and haters. Mozilla is looking to make this the new FireFox, and I think they have every chance of succeeding. The developer support for this project, even though its still an alpha, is astounding and it really could take off.

It looks bound to take over the Linux platform, and that may prompt Apple to create a Linux version of iTunes to compete.
 
songbird is not a project of Mozilla. Just like Flock, they are using gecko as codebase, but they don't belongs to Mozilla.

Songbird so far is slow on my MB. I sure hope 1.0 will be better.

Another chance is Amarok, if it were to get a mac version, it would very cool.

I don't see songbird taking over linux in any sense soon. Amarok, Banshee are all great products, as well as Rhythmbox, there are much more competitions there.
 
' I like the skinnable interface and the fact that I can sort songs by Artist and Song Title. I don't appear to be able to do either in iTunes?"

whoah there, do you mean like when you hit the eye symbol on the bottom right corner? allowing view of artists, genres and albums?
 
speakerwizard said:
' I like the skinnable interface and the fact that I can sort songs by Artist and Song Title. I don't appear to be able to do either in iTunes?"

whoah there, do you mean like when you hit the eye symbol on the bottom right corner? allowing view of artists, genres and albums?
Click to expand...

I can see the icon but it's greyed out and doesn't work. Isn't this just a shortcut to Cmd. J (View options)? :confused:
 
TheStu said:
But it isn't like there couldn't be. There are plenty of alternative apps for most everything else, the fact that iTunes has a monopoly is not necessarily Apple or iTunes' fault (unless you can show me otherwise, preferably something other than Wikipedia)... so if you feel so strongly, make your own software, the dev tools are all available for free, as is quite a bit of documentation.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am not a programmer. However, I am very surprised no one else has created an itunes-like program. Makes me wonder if Apple finds out about developers who are making an itunes knock-off and either buys them out or threatens them with a LS.

I will say it again, MONOPOLY. It Reminds me of Bil Gate's IE a few years ago.

Also, a great player of music is COG, but it will not do much else for you. Also, AUDION sort of works on 10.4, not sure about 10.5. There actually used to be MORE choice for iTunes like software in the old days that there is today.
 
Personally, I like Itunes and how it has developed. I have an ITouch, and it's a nice marriage...by design. I also buy and watch TV shows and Movies through ITunes. Skins are nice, but they don't offer any functionality...it's just a look.
 
killmoms said:
You can sort music by artist or song title in iTunes anyway. Just click the column header for the column you want to sort by.
Click to expand...

Not using the Artist and Name columns I can't. I want both to appear in alphabetical order. If I click on Artist so the names are alphabetical, the song titles are not, and vice versa.

Can anyone tell me what the Sort Artist and Sort Name columns are for?
 
It's funny how iTunes is like Apple's flagship app, almost. Even the Finder has now been updated so that it is "just like iTunes" :D Everything is "just like iTunes" :rolleyes:

And the best part is that iTunes isn't even a cocoa app. Nor does it conform to the Mac OS X interface. Why the different scrollbars and proprietory buttons? Why the non-Leopard-style preferences tabs? For a time, iTunes didn't even change to a lighter colour when the window was out of focus/inactive! Come on Apple!

I'm surprised the DVD player hasn't been merged into iTunes (and probably glad). But I guess Apple wanted to distance the player from the pile of (*^&*&%^ that Windoes Media Player is/was.

Still, Apple thinks it's the best so you're stuck with it, like it or lump it.
 
stringtheorist said:
Not using the Artist and Name columns I can't. I want both to appear in alphabetical order. If I click on Artist so the names are alphabetical, the song titles are not, and vice versa.

Can anyone tell me what the Sort Artist and Sort Name columns are for?
Click to expand...

Wait.... you want both the song titles, and the artists alphabetically.

As in you want the songs from each artist organized alphabetically under that artists name? If that is the case, i can understand where you are coming from, iTunes treats it like an album, so the songs are organized by track number. The albums from each artist are organized alphabetically I believe though. (I only have like 20 songs on my MacBook, the rest are all on my Windows desktop since that is where all my hard drive space is, although that is rapidly dwindling)
 
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