Alternatives to iTunes?

I've been using iTunes for over ten years, starting on my dual-USB iBook running System 9. It's been a bumpy road at times, but I've now reached a point where there is little redeeming value in the bloated mess known as iTunes 11. Does anyone have ideas for alternative players that just play music? Ideally something that can start up in less than 60 seconds, and doesn't have a UI that takes 5 seconds to resopnd to button presses, and can stream to Airport Expresses. I have AirFoil, and it works great with Spotify -- but Spotify has its own issues with muddling my library with the online one (and ads). I use iTunes on my Macbook Pro, and on my Windows desktop, so it would be great if the replacement ran on both (but not required).
Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks.

There are no alternatives if you want to buy and play tracks from the iTunes Music Store.
If you can continue to use iTunes for the iTMS or don't care, you can try the now-free Audion. It's no longer in development, but from what I've seen it still works quite well (though your mileage may vary).

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Alternatives to iTunes (Mavericks/iOS 8)

I recently "upgraded" from an iPod Touch 4 32GB to an iPod Touch 5 16GB, mainly because I wanted to see how iOS 8 works. I am syncing this with iTunes on a Macbook Air, but my music library is over 16GB. I have used a playlist to limit what music should sync, but it is still a significant amount of data, leaving almost no room for apps or other data.
I know that I can reduce the music data by creating a playlist that excludes specific songs, albums, or artists, but with this many songs in my library, it isn't worth my time to go through the playlist line by line. So I was wondering if there are any alternatives to iTunes that include a feature that would allow you to limit how much music data is synced to the device, and the software would randomly select songs from a specific playlist to fit that data limit. Older versions of MediaMonkey for Windows would do this, and I'm actually surprised that iTunes does not include this feature. This feature would allow me to set up a playlist of the music I want to listen to, and synchronize a random subset from the playlist up to a specified limit. Each time I perform a sync, the playlist would include a new, randomized subset, so that I don't have to completely exclude songs or albums from future syncs.

I am not aware of any such app. There are computer apps that can transfer music to an iPod but they are really manual.
Have you tried compressing the music so it takes less space on the iPod ?
To compress go to the Summary pane for the iPod in iTunes and under Options check the box that says "Convert higher bitrate songs to XX kb/sec ACC". XX of 128 is a good compromise music quality and storage space.

Surely there is an alternative to Itunes since they won't help with ANYTHING having to do with iTunes although they are certainly willing to sell my family thousands of dollars worth of music???

Surely there is an alternative to Itunes?? They offer ZERO support unless I own a device although they were certainly willing to sell me thousancs of dollars worth of music. They have now wiped out all of my windows drivers and make no apologies for it, nor will help.

Itunes in Window xp has all of the missing and duplicating file problems. I finally said enough after reading dozens of posts, and trying the fixes that worked only for a short while.
I went to cnet and looked up media players and read the reviews.
MediaMonkey had the best rating. I have a portable/removable drive where I backup files and downloaded MediaMonkey to it. Volia! In three and one half hours I completed what three weeks of frustration never fixed. It's suppose to support iPods, but I won't know until I put it on the home computer.
Only downer is a lack of artwork. But I just copy and paste off the net and it stays put. And for Window users it's far more friendly than iTunes.
I may purchase the Gold Edition if it remains stable.
Love the iPod, hate Itunes.
michael235

Watching television broadcasts online - looking for alternatives to itunes

Hello,
How can I watch discovery channel, pbs, national geographic episodes online ? Is it only through purchasing past episodes through Itunes or is there another way ? Is there a service/software that will allow me to watch it as it's being broadcast on television ?
Thank you,
Raven Bruce

Check out season passes in the TV section of the iTunes store. In my case, when I had cable, I always watched just a few TV shows on a few channels. If I buy season passes for only the TV shows I'm interested in that are available in the iTunes store it ends up being cheaper on an annual basis than paying for cable TV every month just to watch a handful of shows.
The iTunes store usually always has a few pilots or other introductory TV shows available for free. Download some of the free stuff and watch them in iTunes or on your iPod, if you have one, and see if this is an alternative that suits you.
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Are there alternatives to itunes.?

I have found this site recently and it has saved me from throwing my computer out and starting fresh because of the ravages of down loading itunes upgrades.
I have had to revert to the original itunes software supplied last year with my ipod. That version is now doing stange things (like shutting down my computer in the middle of an itunes function).
I don't download music, and just use itunes for managing the music on my mini.
I can't believe the problems and many frustrating hours that itunes has caused me and others.
Are there programs that are alternatives itunes?

The obvious answer is for me to suggest that you get a new computer because yours is a relic. I'm not trying to be funny but todays new software have requirements that your Win ME wasn't designed for. Prices are so low these days that it would be worth the investment. Other than that, I can't offer any more help.
Good Luck...

Alternatives to iTunes music syncing for the Pre

Now that Apple has closed the door on syncing with their iTunes (for those that do upgrade past 8.2), let's discuss alternatives. After this happened yesterday, I've seen other alternatives such as:
Reverting back to a version that works: http://www.oldapps.com/itunes.php
iTunes Agent: http://ita.sourceforge.net/
DoubleTwist: http://www.doubletwist.com
Missing Sync (Mac now, will have windows version out "Coming soon"): http://www.markspace.com/products/pre/mac/palm-pre-sync-overview.html
I heard of others using things like Songbird (Pre not supported yet, but soon?), and WinAmp (Windows only?).
PreThinking also has a good article about using something called Sailing Media Sync. See http://bit.ly/fppvl for more info.
Others?
P.S. responses in this thread about Apple's decision, why it was made, etc, etc... will be removed. Thank you.
Post relates to: Pre p100eww (Sprint)
Message Edited by PDAGuy on 07-16-2009 03:25 PM

I looked at the Missing Sync app and it looks like it solves the iTunes problem. However, it's $39.95 and most of its synching conflicts with the Synergy web sync that I have with Google for contacts and calendars. So I don't know how that would work - for now I'd disable the contacts and calendars in the app, although I like the Missing Sync's capability to sync with contact groups that doesn't work with the Google sync (they don't show up at all on my Pre, just the flat contact list - my gmail labels aren't accessible either in the Pre, only the inbox, sent mail, and trash - it would be nice if you fixed both of these).
The other option, removing iTunes 8.2 from my Mac and downloading and installing an earlier version, frankly scares me. I'm afraid I'll lose my libraries, etc., and I still have an iPod that I use for podcasts (while driving) and videos. BTW, I had no choice on updating to 8.2 - Apple pushed it to my iMac without asking. I saw a post on the blogsdna.com site on how to uninstall using a terminal window on the Mac and executing a series of linux-looking commands. So if I do that, do I lose my iTunes libraries, Playlists, Podcasts, etc.?? If not, how do I get them back when I install the older iTunes?? I see some suggestions on the same site but they are conflicting and very brief. And how do I prevent Apple from updating iTunes again without asking?? So as I said, I'm scared to go that route.
SO..., given that every Pre owner and prospective Pre owner is facing this iTunes problem, I suggest one or more of these options for Palm/Sprint:
1) Give current Pre owners a discount or coupon to use for buying the Missing Sync app. $39.95 is steep to fix something that was supposed to work seamlessly (one of the reasons I got the Pre, not an iPhone). Also get Missing Sync to work with Google web syncing so their contacts and calendar syncing don't conflict with the web sync.
2) a) Provide detailed instructions on how to uninstall iTunes 8.2, keep your iTunes libraries, playlists, podcasts, vidoes, etc. intact, install an earlier version, 8.1.1? (recommend one and a download site), and restore the iTunes libraries, playlists, podcasts, videos, etc. to the new installed version that will work with the Pre.
b) Provide detailed instructions on how to prevent the old iTunes version from getting updated automatically by Apple, thus defeating everything you did in a).
3) Provide some other fix/workaround that is free or not as involved as 2).
I realize that Apple is the bad guy here, but we need to fight back!!

TS1363 Is there any alternative to iTunes for copying music onto an iPod? I am sick to the back teeth of Apple and I am really getting annoyed at having to uninstall and reinstall iTunes every few weeks.

I have iTunes on 2 PCs, one running Windows 7 pro, the other running Windows 8. I also have 2 iPods which show up in Windows but not iTunes. Every time this happens I have to delete and download iTunes again, losing my library (nearly 10,000 tracks) in the process. I have had enough of Apple and their crap software as this problem has happened to me on previous computers as well and I think iTunes is crap. Is there some alternative I can use instead of iTunes to put music on my iPods?

If you have an iPod touch you could probably use DropBox.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8

Podcast Alternative with iTunes Sync???

Can anyone tell me if there is a alternative i can sync via iTunes?
I want to put my podcasts via itunes from my mac on my iphone - is this possible without the podcastapp???
What about instacast???
Thank you

I'm looking into Instacast as we speak: I don't think it can sync from iTunes, but you can buy an additional $20 app that lives on your computer, so you can have podcasts synced across your computer and iOS devices. However, I'm not sure if that $20 app has access to the normal audio on your computer - Airplay, for example.
But a good question - at first I thought iOS 7 / iTunes 11.1 had at least improved podcast sync capability, at the expense of, um, everything else, but now I'm losing podcast episodes and other things keep reappearing and I have no idea what's going on. It's starting to look like Apple has set up a Podcast system that ONLY works if you're using iOS devices only.

Alternative to iTunes for video Podcasts?

Is there an alternative App for downloading and organising Video Podcasts? I don't want to watch the on my iPod and don't want them cluttering up my organised iTunes library. However I would like to view them in FrontRow ffrom time to time.
iPodderX does seem to work with Video Podcasts yet.
Failing that does anyone have a script or Automator action to remove to video from iTunes Library folder and move it into a subfolder of my Movies folder?

You can do it from the Finder, just open Music -> iTunes -> iTunes Music -> Podcasts and you'll see the folder with your videocasts in it. Drag it to your Movies folder.
Now you can find them and watch them with anything you want, like QuickTime.

Any alternatives to iTunes for iPod Touch

Hi all,
I too am experiencing the same no-launch issue with the new iTunes (no errors, no missing files, QT works fine and I know a lot about computer so this is APPLE'S PROBLEM).
Even aside from this, I have a bigger issue when iTunes does run. I'm a paying customer to Apple many times over (iPod Classic 40GB, iPod Nano, MacBook Pro, and now iPod Touch). Here's my problem:
I have a network at home where the file server is running Windows XP Pro. The network works fine for everything... web, streaming HD videos to my media receivers, streaming music, etc. But *_iTunes is DOG SLOW_* accessing my music which resides on the file server... something like 100,000 tracks in over 500 GB. Yes, the library is huge, but I convert old music from records and tapes into high bitrate MP3 as well as rip CD's and what not.
Previously on the iPod Classic and Nano (which I still have), I've used MediaMonkey, a music player/manager for Windows that's extremely fast and had absolutely no problems accessing the networked music library. It will even sync my music to those 2 ipods. But with the new iPod Touch, I'm forced back to iTunes. I only use iTunes to maintain my iPods. I could care less about the music store... never bought anything and never will... *_Amazon's DRM-free MP3_* is better if I do go that route.
So, is it too much to ask Apple to come up with a simple utility so I can just load my music into my iPod Touch? Something where I can just drag a bunch of files/folders into my iPod? I'm more than happy to manage the music on my iPod manually... I just want something that works and works well. *_iTunes for such a large collection absolutely scuks balls_*. Leveling volume... takes forever. Gapless playback... forever. Updating album art... forever and a day. There used to be a utility like this (still is for older iPod's) called *_Anapod Explorer_* that worked just like this and worked very well. But alas, it won't work with the newer and updated iPods because Apple for some **** reason would change the internal database format. I mean come on... I paid $400 for this iPod and many times over for other Apple products.
Can't I get something that just works? Please!
Message was edited by: phuocle

Welcome to the discussions,
did you try http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473:
Adding content on your computer to iTunes
iTunes helps you add digital audio and video files on your computer directly to your iTunes library. You can add audio files that are in AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF, Apple Lossless, or Audible.com (.aa) format. If you have unprotected WMA content, iTunes for Windows can convert these files to one of these formats. You can also add video content in QuickTime or MPEG-4 format to iTunes. To learn how to add these files to iTunes follow the steps below.
Open iTunes
From the File menu, choose one of the following choices:
Mac
Add to Library
Windows
Add File to Library
Add Folder to Library
Navigate to and select the file or folder that you want to add
If iTunes is set to "Copy files to the iTunes Music folder when adding to library," iTunes will copy all content that is added to the iTunes library to the iTunes Music folder. To adjust this setting or change the location of this folder, go to the Advanced tab in iTunes Preferences.
If you did the backup using iTunes, did you follow this article to restore the library? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1382

Alternatives when iTunes doesn't have song?

Where can I go to buy mp3s for song tracks that iTunes doesn't have?
I don't want to join a download service or fill out a subscription--I like
the simplicity of iTunes and the fact that you just plunk down your 99 cents and the song is yours. Any other reputable sites that you go to in order to "fill in"
the gaps in your song collection? Thanks!

Bump. I was wondering the same thing.
Thanks.

OS takes up over 3 GB of space. Can I minimize this as I am struggling with constantly managing the sync which is making me think the droid alternative with iTunes app is the better approach.

I am restricted to a 16 GB phone and am constantly struggling with space when I sync or update. I noticed today that the OS takes up over 3 GB of space as the capacity is listed at 12.68 GB. Any suggestions on this other than get an android and use the iTunes app instead? Frustrated.

No, the OS doesn't take up over 3GB of space.
The difference between 16GB and 12.68GB is primarily attributable to the difference between decimal math (used by every computer and component manufacturer on Earth for stating capacity in customer facing documentation) and binary math, used by processors and operating systems. This has been an issue since the 1970's.
Think more about managing the content and apps you actually keep on the phone. If you haven't used an app in months, you probably don't need it. Don't let your phone get cruffed up with games and apps you don't use. You also probably don't need to keep your entire media library on it for when you're on the go.
Extract photos from the phone to your computer on a regular basis then delete them from the phone as you would from any other digital camera. Sync the photos you actually want with you to the phone. iCloud Photo Library may give some relief from this once it's out of beta.

Alternatives To iTunes Syncing

I want to get my laptop's pictures and videos on my iPad without them becoming read-only, what are my options?

Could I put them on a local server or network and download them off that? (IDK if that makes sense but I'm trying to describe what I've done on my iBook.)
Because I would have to rename a lot of pictures. I bought a 64GB iPad hoping I could transfer all my laptop's data on it and retire the laptop. I knew an iPad wouldn't replace a computer, so I still have access to all my husband's laptops and desktops, but I just want all my data in one place; the one I use most.

Still no playlist shuffle order view in iTunes 11.0.1. Alternatives?

iTunes 11.0.1 has not restored the ability to view and export playlists in shuffled order. Does anyone know of a good Mac alternative to iTunes?

View > Show Status Bar will out the b=grey bar back on the bottom where your data will be displayed

Strange itunes w/iPod Touch glitch--alternative itunes?

Hello.
I have an iPod touch 2g, 8gb on itunes 8, windows Vista 32-bit.
For some reason, certain songs will not add into the itunes library to be transferred onto the ipod.
For example, I have a few Jack Johnson songs. One will add, but the rest of them wont. These were all burned from the same CD at the same time, legally owned and all. Itunes will transfer one song, but not the other six. I try manually dragging into the library and it doesn't work, and manually dragging to the ipod touch does not seem to have any effect either.
Is there some way to add songs that I'm not aware of, some reason that the songs are not being added, or even an alternative to itunes that would be able to add these missing songs?
Message was edited by: vertexoflife
Message was edited by: vertexoflife

That's what I assumed at first too, it it's not just Jack Johnson, I have a Don McLean CD from the 90's, a few A Fine Frenzy CDs, The Academy Is... (one of their CDs) among others. It's far too diversified to just be one particular thing. I have tried un-installing and installing iTunes a couple times, and it doesn't seem to be a driver problem at all.

Alternatives to iTunes?

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