(no subject)

[listersgirl]

I have recently been the target of much mockery because I use Windows Media Player to listen to music. Of course, the person doing the mocking is a certified Apple freak, so it's not surprising that he would prefer iTunes.

But now I'm curious. Is one player better than the other? What about other things that are out there? I use WMP because it was there, but now I have piles of music on my computer at home and I'm thinking about playlists and things like that, and I don't want to build them all on one system only to change my mind.

So, Wise and Wonderous Interbets, pick a system for me! I am at your disposal.

Comments

[dramaqueen-23.livejournal.com]

Apparently I am also deserving of mockery, as I also use Media Player. I have iTunes but use WMP for the same reason as you: It was there first. The interface for making playlists, burning CDs and rip music is simple to use and since I don't do anything else with my music, I see no reason to switch.

[kylegirl.livejournal.com]

I use iTunes I guess because I have to use it to change settings on my iPod. Also I download a reasonable amount of music from the iTunes store. I think the interface is a little prettier than WMP. That's all.

[morag-gunn.livejournal.com]

I use iTunes because I can buy music on it. Then I was given an iPod so I still used it. I like having all my music needs met on one site. If you're not going to buy music online though, I don't see why iTunes would be better than another. I'm sure computery people would know more than I do.

[tinkerer.livejournal.com]

My iPod (Nano! :D) has forced me to switch to iTunes. Before that, I was mostly a WinAmp person, because I don't tend to interact much with my music-playing software. It did CDDA, it made MP3s go, all was good.

(I prefer to have different software to rip CDs, or to burn them... but I acknowledge that that's a very geeky bias of mine.)

Nano!

[listersgirl]

Ooh, I'm jealous of your Nano.

And I totally use different software for ripping CDs. I don't know, I just like something with only one real purpose.

Re: Nano!

[tinkerer.livejournal.com]

My Nano was a gift to my self for passing my qualifying exam. (It's just one of the many things that I've been too delinquant/busy to toss onto LJ... :D) It is much fun. I am currently using the Notes functionality, the Photos functionality, the Calendar functionality, the Games functionality[1]... oh! and the music functionality!

I've also discovered that 2GB is plenty for me, thank-you-very-much. My computer has a larger collection, but I never need the entire thing; I just take a subset, and tweak it occasionally as the mood warrants. :)

As for one software application per function... that's exactly it! I don't like things that try to do too much, and end up doing it all wrong...

[protoainsley.livejournal.com]

I use WMP at work because I have to, but iTunes at home. In the past three months, I've used eight different music players, and I've found iTunes to be by far the most intuitive and user-friendly. That's, to me, particularly noticeable now that I'm dealing with playlists a lot.

I also feel less monitored when I use it. Oh, the irony, seeing that I have it set to show everything I play on a public website.

[sh1mm3r.livejournal.com]

iTunes is fantastic and wonderful. Seriously. I love it. And it lets me create "smart playlists" so that every time I download or upload another song by the same artist, it sticks it in that playlist too, so if I'm in the mood for "holiday" music or just Franz Ferdinand, I can clicky and it does it all for me.

And iTunes lets you make your own playlists, burn CDs, create inserts, download podcasts, and buy music by track on the Music Store.

I'm a huge fan!!!

[listersgirl]

Ok, question for you - I've been playing around with iTunes, and the only thing I can't seem to find (of the things I use regularly in WMP) is the ability to have it basically refresh - search my music folders and add anything new, plus delete anything that's not there anymore. So far I can add, but it seems like I have to delete manually, one song at a time. True?

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

My iTunes seems to figure out when stuff is gone.

If you want to delete a bunch at once you can click on one, then hold down shift and click the one and the end of the list you want to delete. I find the search window very useful for creating temp lists that I can then delete or edit. For editing, while you've got the bunch selected, right click, and then choose Edit. In the edit screen, you can rename artist, album, genre, whatever en masse. I got this book from pauliatchy which is amazing for tips like that.

I use iTunes and prefer it to WMP because:

1) I use a Mac
2) I own an iPod
3) I like the interface and features
4) I've found WMP to be twitchy when playing (although this could be a MS feature to annoy Apple users) and the skip search function blows and often causes it to hang.
5) Built-in Spyware
6) The less Microsoft stuff on my computer, the better.
7) I can share my music with any other computer in the house over the network
8) Hockey strike! (although episodes may soon be available in Windows Media format anyway)

[sh1mm3r.livejournal.com]

You can list duplicate songs, but I think that songs that are deleted just have to come up as bad, as far as I can tell. I never delete songs, so I've never dealt with that. I just keep listening and listening.....

Oh and you can always select multiple songs by holding down shift (for consecutive) or control (for random) songs.

[zoje-george.livejournal.com]

Oh I totally used WMP when I worked at That Stupid Office. For one thing, unlike real player and (this was before itunes) its shuffle function actually worked.

I think iTunes is a very heavy progam. I'd like it if there were a "lite" version which you could just load songs and have a limited number of clicky things. Like the old CD player app on Sys 7.

I feel the same way about WMP, it uses too much memory when it's running. There used to be a smaller version or a related version called winamp...

geekette8 just said she uses something called xine, I've not heard of it.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

I'm a mac person and I do use iTunes. But I also use VLC Media Player (which is multi-platform), especially for music that I DL from the internet (friendslist, websites).

[gmajor.livejournal.com]

I use VLC for "anything Quicktime won't play".

[emiline.livejournal.com]

I use WMP at work, because that's what is here. I use iTunes at home, because I make Scott download stuff from his ipod onto my computer. I haven't really played around with either player, though, so I can't give you any specific details.

WMP ..

[xiz111.livejournal.com]

That's Windows Media Player, to the TLA crowd (Three Letter Acronym, gah!) is, in and of itself, not a bad player .. it's a bit resource-hoggy, and has a lot of doo-dads that really aren't necessary for simply playing music, but by itself it's fine.

Ther are alternatives .. Real Player is probably the best of the rest .. it's a little easier to use, and does pretty much everything that WMP does. There's another program called WinAmp, which works well for playing music, and, I believe, burning CDS. ITunes is fine, as well, though I had limited success with it, for burning audio CDs ..

Apple evangelists, though are a bit like Linux evangelists, in that they're often not so much in favour of Mac and/or Linux, but simply violently opposed to anything Microsoft. That there's anything wrong with opposing Microsoft, as it is a huge, powerful company and produces mediocre, buggy software, which over 90% of the computing world uses .. but, sadly, in the world of computers, it's ubiquitous, and you'll run up against it everywhere.

So, there ya go.