Winamp to iTunes
When I find software that does what it should without getting in my way, I tend to remain faithful. For several millennia—or seven years in Internet Time—I’ve used Winamp as my primary music player on my computer. The free version did everything I needed it to do without trying to “help” me do things I didn’t need or want; yes, I’m looking at you, Windows Media Player.
The simple fact is that iTunes works very well. Its organization and playlist capabilities are simple and elegant; I can’t say that for Winamp and WMP is just abysmal. I hesitated letting iTunes organize my music files because I had carefully categorized my files by genre before I concluded that it would be easier than trying to determine if a song should go in the “Rock” folder or the “Alternative” folder or if new Aerosmith is still considered “Classic Rock.”
Say what you will about the iPod’s irreplaceable battery or the Nano’s screen, but Apple did a fantastic job with iTunes, the best music management software I’ve ever seen. I’m switching.
Et Tu, Mekosh?? As an avid WMP fan (and resident MS fanboy), I have to say that WMP is a very good organization tool when it comes to music- iTunes would just create a mass genocide of my .wma files to convert them into .whateverthehell for no good reason. A good music player would support all music formats.
iTunes converts .wma files into .mp3, one of the most widely-accepted music formats. Yes, Apple does have it’s own proprietary formats like Microsoft, but can WMP even play AAC files or convert them to .wma? I don’t think any music player supports all music formats. I’d much rather see all companies embrace .mp3 because it’s universally accepted and isn’t tied to one company.
It’s about time you switched
Haha… I thought you’d say that!
Booooooooooooooooooooo
That is all
iTunes is the best thing around for organizing large music collections (mine is very large, and iTunes does a good job with it), but I keep Winamp or some other small simple music player on any computer I use because iTunes is (typically for Apple) all-encompassing. If I just want to play an MP3 or a stream, and don’t want to file it, describe it and stick it away where it goes, then iTunes is frustrating. Winamp will let me click on a file, hear it, then erase it without wondering how my library will react. And for streams, the default iTunes behavior is obnoxious. It’s like a filing system that made you put every piece of paper away before you could read it, even if you hadn’t read it yet. Plus, Winamp loads quickly and iTunes takes a while.
I agree that Winamp might be good for playing a file quickly, but only if you don’t use it to manage your music collection. It won’t change file names and organize your music into folders, but if you have it set to scan for changes (additions, deletions, filenames) then it takes a long time to sort through that information. Perhaps every player has trouble starting quickly with a large music collection?