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edge.it · Mar 21, 2007, 11:55 AM

are there any free mp3 players liek itunes online for macs?

TETENAL · Mar 21, 2007, 12:04 PM

If you want something like iTunes, then why not use iTunes? It's free.

If you don't want iTunes, then tell us what you exactly you are looking for, and we might help. Might be difficult though. iTunes is one of the best Mac apps, and that sort of killed the market for alternative mp3 players.

edge.it · Mar 21, 2007, 12:09 PM

its cause i constantly am changing my itunes library as in when im sitting down at my desk its on my one hard drive then i move later on in the day and it changes to my usb disk or my internal. its constantly changing which in turn takes time to recopy or move the songs in the itunes GUI, album art, lots of waiting and hectic itunes activity just to change librarys, so i wantes a second app that i can use to hold like 100 songs that i can sort through when im upstairs or not at my dekstop.

peeb · Mar 21, 2007, 12:18 PM

I'm not sure I understand - you are using a laptop, with an iTunes Library, and you have an external drive on a USB connection that has another library?

edge.it · Mar 21, 2007, 12:24 PM

really it dont matter why. i just need a new mp3 prog. or a better way to change from library to library.

peeb · Mar 21, 2007, 12:38 PM

Well, if I understood what you wanted, I might be able to help. What don't you like about iTunes, and how are you changing librabries right now?

TETENAL · Mar 21, 2007, 12:45 PM

a) You can change libraries by holding down the option key when launching iTunes. There is no hectic copying done when you do this.
b) If you don't want to have songs copied into the iTunes library, you can turn this off in the iTunes advanced preferences.
c) If you are upstairs and want to access your iTunes music downstairs you can share your music (in the iTunes sharing preferences) if your computers are networked.
d) If you described your problem better we might be able to help with iTunes or suggest a suiting alternative program.
e) When you insist on the "doesn't matter" attitude I'm going to suggest Audion and Songbird and be out of this thread.

edge.it · Mar 21, 2007, 12:59 PM

sweeeet thanks so much guys!! this really whelped

Boris_Noir · Mar 28, 2007, 06:09 AM

Songbird is still in the relatively early stages of development, but a promising piece of software, but certainly I wouldn't recommend it over iTunes. It is excellent if you read a lot of music blogs though. I believe it is made by the guys who did Winamp.

I presume you want something quite specific - so you should do a search on osx.iusethis.com for iTunes and it will list a lot of iTunes alternatives with comments.

Good luck with finding something better than iTunes though, Apple have invested an awful lot in the product and it seems to be a key driver of people switching to Mac from PC because of the strong iTunes/iPod experience.

DewD · Mar 28, 2007, 11:14 PM

Audion 3.
It's all you need. Records streams , too. In fact , it records anything you can hear on the Mac, and many other amazing tricks. Great selection of Skins, too. And it's all free (thank you Panic for your generous gift .... Audion is dead; long live Audion !)

A shame that Apple stripped the audio recording capability out of SoundJam when they bought it from Cassady & Greene and made it into iTunes...