Alternatives to Itunes?

[Mr. Shankly]

Someone mentioned in a thread once that they hated Itunes and used something different. I can't remember what program they said they used. I will admit I'm ignorant about what else is out there other than windows media player. Itunes has been pissing me off lately, not locating files and being unable to play flac files. So I'm looking for recommendations. What media player/program do you use? Do you know of one that will play flac files? Do they have an equivalent to Apple Lossless? Is your program better at locating files in an external hard drive? Please give me some recommendations. Thanks!

[Wombi]

It could easily have been me professing my hate for itunes. I personally use WMP but I understand some people aren't fans. With what you mentioned I would recommend the fairly well known winamp. It's incredibly functional and incredibly simple which is great (and if you're particularly a fan of the itunes layout I think it's quite easy to get different skins. )


http://www.winamp.com/

[albummaster]

[19loveless91]

I use winamp as well.

[Jimmy Dread]

For general playing of mp3, etc, the prettiest and best software to use would be the Zune software - much easier interface than iTunes and you don't need a Zune to use it. It's essentially a bigger, better, prettier version of WMP. Also for the statisticians among us it also has the facility to see 'most played', etc, etc, but not in the clunky way that iTunes does. Don't think it works for FLAC files, however... though I could be wrong.

The other player to use (although it doesn't catalogue anything like Zune, WMP or iTunes) is VLC - that'll play absolutely anything... FLAC, OGG - you name it.

Winamp... haven't used that since the days of Napster in the late 90s!
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[Bork]

I believe I professed my...strong dislike for iTunes a while back as well. I have been using Winamp for several years and have no plans to stop doing so. WMP is not an option because when the music collection gets large it tends to mess it up quite a bit, being unable to locate some files and posting some more than once in the interface. iTunes will never be an option because they try to lock their users in. Winamp has so far never failed, the interface is more user-friendly than Foobar and the only drawback I have found is that you can't cross reference search fields (example: If you list composer as Lennon/McCartney in WMP the track will be listed separately both under Lennon and McCartney, in Winamp it will be listed under Lennon/McCartney).

Edit: Winamp plays FLAC's. There is one more "flaw" though. Unless you pay the $20 to "Go Pro" you can't rip to MP3, if so desired.

[Wombi]

[Applerill]

WINAMP IS FOR NEWBS LOLOLOL GO GET FOOBAR 2K NAO

Really, guys, WinAmp and Zune Player are fine, but if I were to use them instead of iTunes, they would still be way too bloated. If you want a great sense of holy minimalism in your music software, you can't beat Foobar 2000. It's free, too

[Wombi]

tried foobar when whoever it was suggested it last time (was it you Applerill?) pretty sucky program.

[Polythene Pam]

Rhythmbox, it's like I-Tunes except it never does anything wrong. Not sure if it works on Mac's or windows though