Great alternative to iTunes

Foobar is a great alternative to iTunes.
Use less RAM, much faster and smaller filesize, and has iPod support via 3rd party plugin.

Foobar 0.9.5.3 <- STABLE version!

Beta:
0.9.5.4 beta-2

New features in 0.9.5.4:

Here's an ipod plugin for ipod users:
FooDop

 

Indeed it is, have you got any nice DUIs or PUIs?

 

But it won't let me play my iTunes tracks and it doesn't come with a shop where I can buy more .

When I hear the term "iTunes alternative" I really tend to think of a player/music store combination.
If I just wanted to play mp3 or other non-DRM protected files it's probably rather unlikely I would choose a heavy package like iTunes just for that job in the first place.

Foobar2000 is great though - I used it a couple of years ago before I started buying all my music online, and I'm assuming it has only gotten better with more recent versions.

 

When I hear "iTunes Alternative" I think "A better software that plays nice with an iPod" - it doesn't have to play anything, lol. Yeah that's how much I hate iTunes.

 

I've tried just about any music player on the market, from the most bloated ones to the most minimalistic ones. My final decision landed on musikCube ( http://musikcube.com) being the overall greatest player for my use. Its minimalistic interface is compelling, and it does the job it's made to do. The library is easy to use, and compiling and saving playlist is easy as nothing.

More info, check the link above. I changed to musikCube from Winamp and have never looked back.

 

It's a good program but there is no development of it which I don't like. foobar and Winamp are constantly being developed.

 

Ohh... I'm usually a Winamp user, but I dabble with other programs sometimes. I really really like musikCube so far. Great simplicity, great organization. Sometimes programs are needlessly cluttered with options, you know? I especially like the "collected" portion of musikCube; I already do that, but I end up having to make playlists and organize my new music differently. I'll definitely be using this, though I'll probably continue using Winamp as well.

 

I'm using the latest beat of foobar and i can say it's never crashed on me once and it's much better than anything else that i have tried, and i've tried hundreds. That's how i bloated up my registry.

 

Hey Calvin do you know of any good DUIs or PUIs?

 

man, i use only iTunes ...or WMP for testing single track...iTunes is the best app on my laptop

 

Woo hoo, I'm so happy that there is a foobar thread on this forum. Heres a screen of my ColumnsUI setup:


Sorry about the swearing in the band name

What you see there is the album art plugin, album list plugin and quick search plugin all in the side panel. It only ever runs at about 15000k IIRC. Found having the quick search there very efficient in finding what i want to play. I found most PUI setups not that efficient for browsing my music. I'd always be scrolling for ages so I switched to my own CUI setup.

Thanks for the iPod link!

 

You mean skins right?

 

Yup please

 

I found a ton i liked at deviantart.com but for some reason they wouldn't install for me even though it worked for everyone else.

 

Hmm they are old though. We need more focus on skin development with foobar ;p

 

I found Foobar pretty tough to customize.. so I just stick with Winamp. It does it's job quite well, is easy to customize.. and works wonderfully with iPods. All I had to do to switch from iTunes is remove the DRM from my songs via myFairTunes 7... VOILA! they all work with Winamp.

But.. I'm going to get a Zune soon, so I'll get to see how that software works.

 

Zune....the new Zune software is kick arse. Itunes has always blown chunks. It, quictime and that joke of a browser safunky sucks big time on Windows.

Itune would never monitor a folder....WHY? Media Player has been doing it for years. Lots of people store their music collection on a workgroup/server PC.

 

foobar is easy to customise

 

Only problem when switching from iTunes to Foobar, is tags.
220 out of my 3800 song had incorrect tags in Foobar, so I had to write the tags all over again

 

But it was worth it so it's all good.

 

I use MediaMonkey...

iTunes is for kids!

 

yes it WAS worth it

Anyone have nice skins?

P.S, just compared the two. Foobar use 13.76MB RAM, iTunes use 72MB RAM. Of course this changes over time, especially iTunes, if you scroll "cover flow" it may even use 100+

 

Mediamonkey is nice too.

I don't like iTunes. I don't even understand why anyone would prefer iTunes, aside from ipod connectivity and the iTunes store. But strictly speaking in terms of a music player, there are multiple other players that do virtually everything it does, except better.

 

Like foobar2000.

 

Why is the most popular media player iTunes disliked here? its the interface which is the most important

 

Hey, I use Media Monkey.. it is a program which is continuously under development.. and is one of the best Music player I have seen so far....

 

I fail to see how its interface is any better than other players out there. I mean, is it just because it's simple? I suppose I can understand that for some people, but I'd much prefer Winamp any day...

 

I agree that interface is important because almost all players have the same features that make them good but i prefer foobar and wmp to itunes.

 

New Beta-6 released! See first post for link

 

Before i bought iPod i used to love Winamp...i still love it....but i USE iTunes as it has this entire music library stacked into one place

 

and it has cool internet radio

 

Who uses the radio, and why would you want to use it via the internet. There are much easier ways to listen to better quality music.

 

i find itunes to be better

 

iTunes is better at tagging and organizing. But when it comes to resource usage, Foobar wins. And that's why you can use Foobar while playing games and not lose fps.

But when it comes to cd ripping and ipod management, itunes win by miles!

 

Right now I'm using itunes and I don't have many problems with it. The only thing I don't like is how, for some magical reason, it just opens itself automatically. Then starting itunes actually slows down my laptop while it's opening. Okay, it's really annoying. I think I'll try foobar after reading all this.

Edit: I forgot to add this. Why does itunes have to have quicktime? I don't like quicktime since I don't like crippled video players for a format I rarely have to use.

Edit: Okay, I'm definitely not fixing about 1000 song titles. Sorry foobar, if it made the transition easier I'd switch, but itunes doesn't piss me off THAT much.

 

Yeah I know, as I said earlier Foobar is really bad at handling tags

 

I pretty much just use anapod explorer to transfer songs to and off my ipod.

 

I'm using Mediamonkey (the beta release candidate for version 3) linked to winamp for my player (I like the windowshade bar).

MM syncs with iPods, organises your music very, very well and has a bucket load of features that come in handy. I use it to sync my Cowon D2 (seen as a UMS device in windows) and it puts the music on there in any file structure I'd like with cover art saved how I want it too (cover.jpg in the album folder).

So in my mind MM > iTunes (which doesn't support ogg vorbis/FLAC files as far as I know anyway so it's not an option even if it was any good).

I tried using Foobar2000 but even after spending hours trying to get things set up I gave up, it wasn't worth the effort to save a bit of RAM usage. I don't use the advanced features either. So if you're a power user and have the time/patience to play around with the features, Foobar is probably a good choice.

 

this is also an alternative, more a rip-off than alternative, lol

Songbird

 

Songbird is terrible. It's very slow and buggy and always leaks memory. I don't think it's sensible creating a program using CSS, XML and a web engine.

 

I've heard many people say that. That's why i've never tried it.

 

Used it for like 5 mins. and then deleted it

 

:laugh: That's the same as not trying it lol.

 

Beta-7 released. Use link on first page!

 

I am a foobar2000 user - it uses little resources and has kernel streaming support so you get bit-perfect playback. My sound card handles that and it sounds wonderful. I also use iTunes, mainly for videos.

 

I dont agree with it even a bit. I think that the itunes are maintained there standard and security along with the quality of data. It is not a bit lower than this software.

 

Could be, but iTunes is bloated. And the fact that it needs Quicktime to run, is so stupid.

iTunes is not near as responsive as Foobar. And as Chaz said, there's a difference in sound quality

 

I use mediamonkey its a great alternative to the bloated iTunes.

 

What advantages does itunes have over other video players such as vlc, mpc, zoomplayer and etc.?

 

Full iPod support, easier to manage your ipod in iTunes.

Although there are ipod plugins for foobar, winamp etc. they're not nearly as good as iTunes