Revisiting iTunes alternatives for the Mac

[kphinney]

Just wait until MAcOSX Leopard, in a month or 2, because it will probably handle the FLAC format natively !

Hard to imagine, but it's been three years and two OSs since we guessed in that post that Apple would include FLAC support.

They haven't.

I'm aware that you can install codex for QT which allow FLAC support in iTunes, but I'd rather replace iTunes instead.

I'm more frustrated today at iTunes than I've ever been. I want a simple front end to import, add art work, and manage tags. Has anyone ran across anything they like? I've used both Cog (feature lacking) and Play (from the makers of Max) but am still open to something ne aw.

Oh - I really like Songbird, but the Mac being used as a server is PPC not Intel so I can't use that. In the same vein, since that Mac is basically only a server now I really don't need a feature rich front end anymore. Just something to manage tags and import.

Thoughts?

[audiomuze]

Not sure if it can be made to run on Mac, but it runs on *nix and windoze... http://prokyon3.sourceforge.net/

[kphinney]

Not sure if it can be made to run on Mac, but it runs on *nix and windoze... http://prokyon3.sourceforge.net/

Looks perfect, but no Mac support. I'm beginning to think that I need to upgrade (either to an Intel Mac or back to Fedora).

You'd think with all the design/film/creative geek crowd on Macs there would be a good music management app.

Don't get me wrong -- I appreciate their hardware and support. This Mac has only been off for maybe 20-30 hours in 6 years and that was to move it from apartment to apartment to new home. And a maybe 20 minutes to give it RAM and HD upgrades.

[garym]

You'd think with all the design/film/creative geek crowd on Macs there would be a good music management app.

This has always puzzled me as well. Most people think of MACs as the best for audio/video/media but there seem to be no _true_ contenders for replacing the following programs running natively on the MAC:

1. dbPowerAmp
2. EAC
3. foobar2000
4. mp3tag

[kmr]

I tried Songbird out a couple of weeks ago but could not figure out how to export playlists to an M3U; that's a deal killer for me. Play from sbooth.org has the same issue.

For ripping and tagging, I gave up on Mac apps and now run dbpoweramp in a Windows VM. I tried Max from sbooth.org, but its tagging wasn't very good. Maybe the new Rip application under development there will be better.

My big problem right now is creating playlists for mysb. If I could only export playlists from Songbird...

[kphinney]

This has always puzzled me as well. Most people think of MACs as the best for audio/video/media but there seem to be no _true_ contenders for replacing the following programs running natively on the MAC:

1. dbPowerAmp
2. EAC
3. foobar2000
4. mp3tag

True, as long as you don't care to use FLAC and don't mind iTunes. Most are happy with ALAC and the functionality of iTunes. I'm not a fan of it, but it does have pretty close to the same functions as the above named programs. In fact, many years ago I had a G3 B&W Mac and a scavenged 8 bay SCSI CD tower that I picked up at an MIT swap-meet. All I needed to do was plug it in to the wall and the B&W's SCSI port and I was able to drop 8 CDs in and rip them in ALAC with only the need to drop in another cd when one was ejected!! That was a fun day!

[garym]

True, as long as you don't care to use FLAC and don't mind iTunes. Most are happy with ALAC and the functionality of iTunes. I'm not a fan of it, but it does have pretty close to the same functions as the above named programs. In fact, many years ago I had a G3 B&W Mac and a scavenged 8 bay SCSI CD tower that I picked up at an MIT swap-meet. All I needed to do was plug it in to the wall and the B&W's SCSI port and I was able to drop 8 CDs in and rip them in ALAC with only the need to drop in another cd when one was ejected!! That was a fun day!

Yep, I use itunes for synching my ipods/iphones and like it just fine as a music management tool in many ways. Easy to search, etc. (if only the web interface to SbS was half as easy to use in terms of showing libraries, sorting, creating smart playlists, etc.... Yes, I use dynamic playlists, custom browse, etc. etc., but none of this is as simple as the basic itunes model). Unfortunately, itunes doesn't do secure rips and/or have AccurateRip access. And I much prefer FLAC files for use on all my SqueezeBoxes. I have no need for lossless on my IPOD, and the SB environment seems to work much better with FLAC files as compared with Apple Lossless.

[kphinney]

Okay so at the most primal what are my/our wants:

1) FLAC
2) Mac PPC compatible
3) Edit tags
4) Import (via CD or download'd file)
5) Add artwork (less necessary)
6) Play music
7) Save and export playlists
8) Rip a CD

(It sounds a lot like iTunes minus FLAC support, but there are a host of things I don't want: a system resource hog, a bloated program, something that dials home to the Apple iTunes store when it thinks I want to buy something, tries to determine the audio volume on all my tracks - whether the option is selected or not, wants to manage my internet audio content, which wants to import and manage my video content, and most importantly ** can't do FLAC natively **.)

[kmr]

kphinney's list is good EXCEPT it left out: playlist creation tool!!!

[davep]

kphinney's list is good EXCEPT it left out: playlist creation tool!!!

Try VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html) which comes in Intel and PPC flavours and is quite handy for playlist making as well as being a potential replacement for iTunes as a player and general library organiser. Doesn't do album art though.

davep