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iTunes Alternative?
- Thread starter kpeterk
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you're joking... right?
iTunes... alternative??
sry, j/k
what's your issue with itunes? why do you need something else? we forums goers may be able to help you treat your woes with itunes so that you don't need an alternative...
just a thought,
reality
iTunes... alternative??
sry, j/k
what's your issue with itunes? why do you need something else? we forums goers may be able to help you treat your woes with itunes so that you don't need an alternative...
just a thought,
reality
Yes, for some reason, the stream for my brother's radio show (12AM-3AM Saturday nightsblue&whiteman said:
</shameless plug>) will not play in iTunes. Well, it does, but only for a few seconds, then it rebuffers the stream, (rinse repeat ). So that's the only thing I use Audio for, it just seems like the interface is less-simple (not really more complicated, just less-simple) than iTunes.It would help to know why you're dissatisfied with iTunes. I haven't even looked for anything else as iTunes is far and away much better than any other MP3 player program I've seen before.kpeterk said:
Counterfit said:Yes, for some reason, the stream for my brother's radio show (12AM-3AM Saturday nights
plus audion can download a list of every shoutcast radio station there is. I have seen as many as 4800 in the list. anything you want is there. there are even ones that broadcast dutch police scanners and such
The main reason I am not completely satisfied with iTunes is that anything I play automatically gets added to my playlist and I have to manually delete every song or URL that is played. I am used to Windows Media Player or Winamp for the PC where once I quit the program, my playlist is cleared unless I decided to save it myself. I recently switched from Windows so all of my files are arranged by directory (Oldies>Folk>Simon & Garfunkel). iTunes just doesn't seem to work well with my setup.
kpeterk said:
So let me get this right, you only listen to each of your mp3's once and then delete them? Else I don't see why this is a problem....
unless you don't use iTunes to organise your music and keep them in folders somewhere on your HD and click on each one when you want to listen to them....this is just strange.
You do know about the great organisation facilities of iTunes, you HAVE clicked the browse button havn't you?
TBR said:
I remember the days when I thought that WinAmp was the greatest thing in the world. Now I don't know what I'd do without smart playlists, those things are great! I especially like setting up a playlist for "forgotten" music, anything 4-5 stars that I haven't listened to in the past week.
IIRC Audion doesn't play AACs and it hasn't been updated in a while. I guess the Panic guys realised Apple had them screwed with iTunes so moved on...blue&whiteman said:
TBR said:
Actually, I understand his problem. I do download random stuff at times and if I don't like it, I throw it away. Only it is still in my playlist... quite annoying if you do not use iTunes exactly like Apple intended you are running in inconveniences.
kpeterk,
i totally know where your coming from, i had the same problem when i switched over. Exact same...i used winamp and would drag all my mp3's over...or maybe just an album..whatever...
anyway, i would suggest trying out itunes the way itunes wants to work..after a week you can decide if you like it or not. basically it keeps all your mp3s in that giant playlist, and you can make cool smart playlists where you listen to them...or search for an album and it'll come up.
I would suggest doing this, put the copy all music to itunes folder on, and drag your "mp3s" folder or music folder into the main itunes window... now this will take awhile but it will copy all of them in whatever specified music folder is (it shows you that right in the advanced prefs too)
then use it for awhile... if you don't like it...delete that itunes music folder... if you do like it...delete the music folder where all your other mp3's are.
also, itunes keeps things organzied if you have that checked off in the advanced prefs. it organizes by artist/album/ basically and whatever in itunes it will make a folder as it looks in itunes so if i tunes has "led zeppelin" in the artist column and nothing in the album column...put in I, or II or whatever the album is and itunes will make a folder and put the song in there.
i hope i explained it will, let me know if you have questions or how it goes.
personally i liked itunes better after a bit of using and understanding how it works
i totally know where your coming from, i had the same problem when i switched over. Exact same...i used winamp and would drag all my mp3's over...or maybe just an album..whatever...
anyway, i would suggest trying out itunes the way itunes wants to work..after a week you can decide if you like it or not. basically it keeps all your mp3s in that giant playlist, and you can make cool smart playlists where you listen to them...or search for an album and it'll come up.
I would suggest doing this, put the copy all music to itunes folder on, and drag your "mp3s" folder or music folder into the main itunes window... now this will take awhile but it will copy all of them in whatever specified music folder is (it shows you that right in the advanced prefs too)
then use it for awhile... if you don't like it...delete that itunes music folder... if you do like it...delete the music folder where all your other mp3's are.
also, itunes keeps things organzied if you have that checked off in the advanced prefs. it organizes by artist/album/ basically and whatever in itunes it will make a folder as it looks in itunes so if i tunes has "led zeppelin" in the artist column and nothing in the album column...put in I, or II or whatever the album is and itunes will make a folder and put the song in there.
i hope i explained it will, let me know if you have questions or how it goes.
personally i liked itunes better after a bit of using and understanding how it works
Before iTunes I would spend hours organizing my MP3's. After reading this thread I realized that I haven't even manually looked in my iTunes folder in probably a year. The organization and browsing in iTunes makes it so much easier to find the song I want to hear.
caveman_uk said:
all I use audion for is to find a good station. once I have found one I just add its address to itunes and use it. when I said audion was better I meant more in the way it can download a current list off everything on shoutcast. itunes can't do this.
kpeterk said:
I had the EXACT same problem, and I believe I actually started a thread in this forum asking other for iTunes alternatives. Everyone just kept bashing me, telling me that nothing beats iTunes
Anyway, I eventually came upon a small slick player called Mint Audio. It doesn't play AAC files, but it does play mp3's, ogg's, and even modules! Its the closest I was able to come to winamp for something that I can quickly use to play a single mp3 without having to worry about it being added to any library.
I use Real Player for single plays of songs I don't want to add to my iTunes library. They really should give you the option not to automatically add songs to iTunes when you play them.
I'm not totally understanding the problem. Download something, play it in iTunes (thereby importing it into iTunes), and then delete it. If you delete it from within iTunes it'll be gone--out of the library, off your playlists--gone. If you go to the iTunes folder and delete it, it will still be in the playlists. If this is what's going on, the problem is that you don't know how to use iTunes.
If you just want to play something once and not bother with iTunes, ctrl click on it and tell it to open in Quicktime.
If you just want to play something once and not bother with iTunes, ctrl click on it and tell it to open in Quicktime.
If you're used to Windows Media Player (and you liked it), why not use Windows Media Player for mac? I'm not sure what the latest version is, but like everything else MS makes for mac, it's based off the Windows version, but is completely differnt (i.e. Office XP for PC and Office X for Mac). The latest version I know of is Windows Media Player for Mac OS X (supports wma, wmv, ect.). I think it's like WMP 7.
horrortaxi:
exactly! i just drag the song on to the quicktime icon in my dock and let it go from there. if i llike the song i open it with itunes, fix its ID3 tag, and delete the original.
and btw, WMP is version 9 and has been for a while. they only call it 9 because it can play that "high-def" video (aka "waste of space" in my mind. who needs video that's 7mbit/sec??)
WMP for mac is just a player anyway and in no way similar to the music manager on windows. it's only there so mac users can listen to the occasional .wma....
reality
exactly! i just drag the song on to the quicktime icon in my dock and let it go from there. if i llike the song i open it with itunes, fix its ID3 tag, and delete the original.
and btw, WMP is version 9 and has been for a while. they only call it 9 because it can play that "high-def" video (aka "waste of space" in my mind. who needs video that's 7mbit/sec??)
WMP for mac is just a player anyway and in no way similar to the music manager on windows. it's only there so mac users can listen to the occasional .wma....
reality
realityisterror said:
iTunes is a recourse hog, it slows down the system. That's why very few people in thr PC world use it. Winamp is on top.
Well, if you think about it, iTunes isn't designed to play just 1 song. Or just a group of them. It's designed to import songs from a CD or D/L from the Music Store. The work around is set it to copy them into your iTunes folder and delete the original. But that won't work too well for you.
I too was used to Winamp and WMP, but once I got used to the way iTunes does it, it actually seems much easier. I love the playlist implementation. I just play mp3s in WMP (or QT). If I want to keep them, I set it to import them automatically into iTunes (and copy them into my music folder) and use playlists. It's great for music you already have or rip from CDs. That'd be the best way to do it.
Check VersionTracker for some freeware apps that are more like Winamp. I'm sure there's something out there.
I too was used to Winamp and WMP, but once I got used to the way iTunes does it, it actually seems much easier. I love the playlist implementation. I just play mp3s in WMP (or QT). If I want to keep them, I set it to import them automatically into iTunes (and copy them into my music folder) and use playlists. It's great for music you already have or rip from CDs. That'd be the best way to do it.
Check VersionTracker for some freeware apps that are more like Winamp. I'm sure there's something out there.
"Get Info" on any .mp3 file (File Menu, from the Finder). Under "Open With", select "QuickTime", instead of "iTunes". Then, click "Change All". This will make all your .mp3 files open in Quicktime instead, so they're not added to your iTunes library. This might not be exactly what you're looking for, but it's what I do, because I also hate how iTunes adds everything you open to the library. Also, you can use this procedure on all the different audio file formats you have, in case you have .aac or some other type of file.