Got a question from a friend of mine who is not anti-Apple per se, he just thinks he might do better for his listening needs with something that is not iTunes.
He does have an iPod. And a phone that also stores music.
He’s also not willing to spend extra money on streaming services or cloud-based apps – he just wants something to organize his collection and put music on his iPod, pretty much.
Oh, and he’s considering setting up a Linux server for shared stuff with his family – music, pictures, etc. So he’s thinking in terms of something that everyone can use to build their own playlists, etc. independent of one another. So it might not even have to be Windows based. (He’s not a Mac guy.)
Any suggestions? Is iTunes really the best vehicle for this? I don’t know what to tell him but I just put stuff on my iPod and go on about my business. Maybe I don’t know any better. I rarely buy anything from iTunes (or anywhere else(; I have a ton of stuff at home and I’m an old fart musically. So both of us need a little education.
If you are going to be using an iPod, you are going to have to use iTunes. I have also worked with VLC as a computer only library for music and its behavior is exactly like iTunes and exactly like Creative Nomad’s library software from 10 years ago. There just isn’t much difference to be had in handling files, organizing them, and playing them.
The real difference occurs when looking at file types which have different pros and cons in the size versus quality. This is also where compatibility becomes a problem.
I use Rhythmbox (Ubuntu) just fine with my iPod, and I love it. I understand (though haven’t tried) that Banshee also works with iPods.
However, I haven’t been able to sync my iPhone with it, so it does make a difference what iThing you are using, and also which generation since some of the Apple OS updates break functionality until the Linux community figure out a workaround.
Rhythmbox is a little stark on presentation, no shiny buttons or jukebox-cover-art flipping, but otherwise way superior on speed, playlist management, sorting, and everything else a proper database of music should be doing.
foobar2000 is my music library/player of choice. It’s free, open-source, and has plenty of plugins to choose from. Very light-weight app, highly customizable. There’s a plugin for iPods as well, but I’ve never tried that one.
No, iTunes is not necessarily your only choice for MP3 managers. (Some alternative iPod managers may require iTunes to be installed in order to sync correctly; it may depend on which iPod your friend owns. I have a 2nd gen iPod Touch; when I was researching alternatives, oh, 2 years ago, that was the case - I could use some alternative, but I needed to have iTunes installed anyway to make the sync work. It may be different now.)
I still use iTunes (since I had to have it installed anyway, lo those couple of years ago), but I’ve also installed MediaMonkey and find it to be pretty fully featured and easy to use. No idea about its syncing capability though.
iTunes and my computer never got along. I installed and uninstalled it twice, then said the hell with it and bought an Sansa Mp3 player and got all my music from Amazon.