Alternatives to rubbish iTunes

[Sebastian Cobb]

Vlc is perfectly fine and free, slimline, no corporate bollocks, seems to play every file format in the known universe without kicking up a fuss.

I'm going to assume if you use vlc as an mp3 player then you probably navigate your music collection by directory structure rather than a 'library' that indexes all your files by tag.

[Utter Shit]

I've installed Music Bee now, am I being thick or is there no option to have a similar layout to iTunes with the bit at the top that allows you to filter the library by Artist, Song, Album etc?

[Puce Moment]

So, I have been trialling five players, including vlc, and I have to say that MusicBee is coming out way on top. It is super-smooth, quick, intuitive and does not have some of the functionality that made iTunes such a fucking chore to use. Also, it doesn't constantly crash or drop-out, which is lovely. However, in many ways it is far simpler than iTunes, so has some of the layout economy that Foobar enjoys.

Utter Shit - at the (almost) top of my MusicBee there are three greyed out words. On mine they are:
Album Artist   Album Tracks    Upcoming Tracks

If you hold your cursor over them an arrow will appear giving you display options.

[Utter Shit]

Ah yes I've seen that now, but I'm not entirely sure what I would need to recreate something similar to the iTunes panel. Not sure of the correct term, but it's the bit I've highlighted here...I'd ideally like that sort of layout, with the songs listed underneath (I don't really listen to music as albums any more, so this is more useful for me!).



If I can get that sorted then Music Bee looks fantastic to me - love the variety of skins (is there a reason why iTunes has never offered alternative skins? I mean the one they use is perfectly functional but it's very bland, and it's quite unusual to not offer any alternatives nowadays isn't it) and it even allows you to put half-stars in the ratings!

[olliebean]

I've installed Music Bee now, am I being thick or is there no option to have a similar layout to iTunes with the bit at the top that allows you to filter the library by Artist, Song, Album etc?

Click on the Configure Layout icon at the top right, next to the search box, and select Column Browser - Horizontal. Then you can right-click on the headings to decide which columns to show.

[Famous Mortimer]

Another vote for Music Bee here. It's so customisable and skinnable.

Agreed. MusicBee is a belter.

EDIT: Oh, it's moved on. Never mind.

[Cloud]

I don't like only having temporary access to my favourite music that could be withdrawn at any time if the copyright holders decide to yoink it from whatever service, so Spotify et al are definitely out here except for discovering new music to later buy and squirrel away.

TBH I do use iTunes for some aspects but not heavily reliant so don't have issues with it.... also I'm on a Mac where it's just called Music now it's not as bad as their shitty PC port.
Storage: Google Drive
Management: iTunes (only needed to keep the tagging, cover art and directory structure tidy, and for syncing)
iOS: Good old fashioned iPod style syncing (remember that? Still works on the latest iPhone)
Android: DriveSync to keep the music folder synced iOS style, and Pulsar to play the music
PC: Browse the synced Drive and use standalone player like the good old days (VLC, but Winamp would work)

Shouldn't be too bad to remove iTunes from that equation, it's just what to use for tagging etc that is the question.