Music Software?

[azoomm]

What do you use?

I have a new laptop - with enough room on the hard drive to keep all my music here. Now, the question is... what software is best for organizing, tagging, filing, playing, updating, syncing [blackberry AND iPod].

Running Windows 7 - must be compatable. I am willing to pay money for something that is truly worth it, but need to know it's worth it.

[Rider]

I use I-Tunes. I hate it but it works.

[marko138]

iTunes. No complaints from me....well....wait, I wish the 'shuffle' was more random.

[azoomm]

I use I-Tunes. I hate it but it works.

iTunes doesn't auto-tag - I have about 60gb of music that I actually like [another 20gb that I can do without, but have]. The only thing I've found iTunes to be really good at is renting movies when I travel. I might just go with NetFlix now that I have an HDMI output that I can use on our TV's at home.

[marko138]

iTunes doesn't auto-tag - I have about 60gb of music that I actually like [another 20gb that I can do without, but have]. The only thing I've found iTunes to be really good at is renting movies when I travel. I might just go with NetFlix now that I have an HDMI output that I can use on our TV's at home.
I have no idea what auto-tag is.

[Rider]

iTunes doesn't auto-tag - I have about 60gb of music that I actually like [another 20gb that I can do without, but have]. The only thing I've found iTunes to be really good at is renting movies when I travel. I might just go with NetFlix now that I have an HDMI output that I can use on our TV's at home.

You can set up play lists though, so you can choose what to sync. You have to create the playlists manually but it will autosync whatever playlists you choose in the setup. I have 4 playlists on mine, one for each member of the family.

[pauldun170]

Also on Win7
Windows Media Player\Media Center works fine for just about everything I have. I do keep a MP3Tag on it for when I need to tag in bulk or update older tags to new.

For my oddball formats I use VLC player.
but thats for the non ipod devices when it comes to synching


We also have iTunes\iTouch and I don't like iTunes at all. I personally think its garbage but if you rock an iPod you are stuck with it (unless you feel like going open source..but it can get messy).

[marko138]

What are the benefits of this "tagging" gimmick you guys are talking about?

[pauldun170]

FYI: http://www.mgtek.com/dopisp/

[azoomm]

FYI: http://www.mgtek.com/dopisp/

Thanks! I don't mind iTunes as an interface - I just loathe what it does to computers. My previous laptops have just never been the same after putting that software on them. And, it's like AOL - you can't ever get rid of it.

I haven't put it on this laptop yet. And, don't ever want to.

[pauldun170]

What are the benefits of this "tagging" gimmick you guys are talking about?

At the simplest level, tagging insures that the
Track names show up,
those track names are associated with the correct artist and album, year etc

From a usabilty standpoint...it means when you are playing the song on your mp3 player

the song name and the person who sings it shows up instead !.@fefrfeeef.mp3

If all your music\movies\pics are properly tagged...it opens up a whole can full of useability whoopass.

[marko138]

At the simplest level, tagging insures that the
Track names show up,
those track names are associated with the correct artist and album, year etc

From a usabilty standpoint...it means when you are playing the song on your mp3 player

the song name and the person who sings it shows up instead !.@fefrfeeef.mp3

If all your music\movies\pics are properly tagged...it opens up a whole can full of useability whoopass.
Ok, thanks. I've never had a problem with that stuff.

[azoomm]

What are the benefits of this "tagging" gimmick you guys are talking about?

It's a better sort than doing it yourself. And, when you have a good program it will know the file through looking it up and tag them for you. When you have a shit-ton of songs to do, it's better to have a program do it for you.

I used to have MusicMatch Pro - just curious if there is anything better out there for it.

[Amber Lamps]

Thanks! I don't mind iTunes as an interface - I just loathe what it does to computers. My previous laptops have just never been the same after putting that software on them. And, it's like AOL - you can't ever get rid of it.

I haven't put it on this laptop yet. And, don't ever want to.

Boy, you got that right!!! I had to do a system restore to eliminate Apple attack ware that came with Opera!!! Jesus, what a mess and none of the versions were compatible with Win 7...

Windows Media Player is working pretty good for me but to be honest, I mostly stream music to this laptop from my PS3 which is connected to a 500G portable hard drive. When I want to listen to music on the go, I turn to my phone. So I haven't bothered to move a bunch of music over here... FWIW I have used Rhapsody and it seemed to work really well for the little bit I tried it. In the past Sonic was my all time favorite but I am unsure of it's compatibility with the new system.

[Tsunami]

Dont mean to thread jack but I just got a external harddrive and I have my songs on Itunes. Now when I move the stuff it says I have to create a new pathway. So I have to individually click on each song? And what happens if I want it to play on a different computer?

[Amorok]

Dont mean to thread jack but I just got a external harddrive and I have my songs on Itunes. Now when I move the stuff it says I have to create a new pathway. So I have to individually click on each song? And what happens if I want it to play on a different computer?

No, if you look in iTunes help it'll tell you how to run your library off an external. Just go to this link (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449) and it'll give you step-by-step instructions.

[Tsunami]

No, if you look in iTunes help it'll tell you how to run your library off an external. Just go to this link (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449) and it'll give you step-by-step instructions.

Gasp! I love you!

[Amber Lamps]

Gasp! I love you!

I think I love him too! Oh Amorok!!! Hahahahaah!

[Amorok]

The awesome, I has brang it.

[the chi]

For the crap it does in slowing a computer down and the possible issues from bad files, I would recommend only keeping music on an external, but I too use Itunes with an external, and thanks for the link Amorok!