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Ask Slashdot: Best FLOSS iTunes Replacement In 2013?
First time accepted submitter cs80 writes "I've been looking high and low for a decent, open-source, cross-platform audio player that can import an existing iTunes library and sort my files based on their ID3 tags. Nightingale, with its iTunes-like interface, would have been the obvious answer, but its file organization feature was pulled for being too buggy. What open-source audio player did you migrate to after dumping iTunes?"
winamp always worked for me. So simple, so tiny...
It's annoying, and a bit weird, but it works and can play FLAC. It's also gotten better than it used to be, I don't worry nearly as much about losing all my playlists now. Which is good because there's not really a central "library" where you can just look at everything : (
Honestly though, I'm not sure there's such a thing as truly "good" music software. Just one you know how to use so you stick with it.
just give up, like the rest of us...
fuck your iTunes library. Set up mpd with a decent client like ncmpcpp. Light years ahead of Apple bloatware.
... is what I went to after ditching iTunes. In addition to getting the podcast(s) I subscribe to, it plays Grooveshark and Digitally Imported in the same playlists as my local files.
Model 551, Chambered in 6mm
I like Clementine, mostly because it seems to be the only music player in existence which displays the image embedded in a song's MP3 file. All the others I've tried insist on displaying the same single image (which they found in the first song they happened to scan) for every song in my entire playlist.
Also, If anyone knows of a music player for Android which can do the same, I'd love to hear of it.
They both have the same library management mechanisms, and come from the same place. There are a bunch of differences though.
Clementine is more old school and the development team seems to focus on online services (spotify, grooveshark and whatnot).
The playlist management is pretty basic though
Amarok is flashier and has much fewer online services, but is top notch for automatic playlists, both the automatic playlist generator and the dynamic mode are awesome.
There was a GSoC this year that brought to Amarok the ability to import and export libraries from a bunch of other media player (including iTunes).http://konradzemek.com
There's no official mac port though, because no Amarok developer uses a mac.
winamp always worked for me. So simple, so tiny...
So missed. :-(
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Wow. Replacing that is going to be a tall order.
Ubuntu 12.04 Overview: http://bryanquigley.com/reviews/12-04-music-player-review-my-top-choices
(also has a stuck on Windows section)
iTunes is sort of like a stubborn child...it will do everything else before the right thing...
I use iTunes of course ;)
One place iTunes still hasn't caught up to Winamp's late 90s releases..."playlist"
See, if you never used Winap by default it had two windows that listed your music files...one was a "library" which listed all your songs (in a file tree if you wanted IIRC). The other was you "playlist" which was...the songs you were playing in order.
You could of course save a cool playlist, and open it...all your saved "playlists" were also listed in the "library" window. You could have two "playlist" windows open at the same time...resizing each as needed...
I know iTunes tried w/ their little "up next" thing but it's 5 abstraction layers and 10 clicks too many...
Thank you Dave Raggett
quodlibet has excellent searching and tag editing
I've never used iTunes. I just use folders and store everything by /Artist/Album. It's easy enough to right click the folder and select "play in VLC".
You could probably go out and get a homeless person and just hand them all of your music. Just tell them to do whatever they want with it. It'll be a better interface, and at least someone will know where the hell all of your music is.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
This was the one and only serving a TB-size musiccollection well.
You can stream to different speakers, laptops, mobile phones in parallel.
It's really good as DLNA server and you can have him on Linux, Mac, Windows, NAS, BSD.
http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download
I'm not sure on the FLOSS status, there are a lot parts from this development on sourceforge and github.
And yes, it's running local as your server without any ties to Logitech.
Give version 7.7 up to 7.8 a try, higher ones are crippled.
A couple of months ago, I switched to AIMP. I hate iTunes like sin itself. Never liked anything about it. If I didn't have to use it to put files onto my wife's iPad, I wouldn't allow it anywhere in my house. I can't believe that in 2013 she can only use an iPad properly with one computer.
AIMP even works with most Winamp plug-ins, has a clean interface and light footprint. The skin I'm using has some nice meters, a proper equalizer and everything I'd want in a player.
I'd still be using Winamp, but I'm pissed that it's going away, so I just decided to uninstall it once and for all.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Try iTunes on OS X.
It's much harder, better, faster and stronger that the Windows version.
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
I vote you go with Nightingale, and fix the file organization feature. IT's clear from your FLOSS requirement that you are a fan of Open Source, so send patches: that's what you do with Open Source.
If you don't want to do that because you're not a coder, then you might as well just with a closed source product, since it's not like you'll be looking at the code.
How is babby duck formed?
Because it holds the key to millions of people's music that they paid for?
The iTunes Music Store hasn't sold a song with DRM since April of 2009. Anyone who ever bought any song, that was DRM'd off the iTunes store is able to download a free DRM-free replacement anytime by logging in to their iTunes account...so long as that music is still currently for sale on the iTunes store. Heck, that replacement copy will even be upgraded to 256kbps quality too! If the music is still not for sale on the iTunes store, then anyone can use the good-old-fashioned burn and re-rip method to remove the DRM.
So missed. :-(
Software whose installers are downloaded to local storage, run locally, and have no dependencies on web services, is never missed. It just works.
and by "free" replacement you mean $.35 a song right?
No, by "free" he the OP means "free as in beer".
The DRM still exists, it's just more subtle - they imbed your personal account info into the tracks you buy, so if you die and bequeath your music collection to your kids, they'll lose your entire music collection at best, and go to jail at worst - or possibly pay an exorbitant fine.
Apple's claims of 'no drm' are bullshit, but most people seem to have bought into it (much like Google's 'do no evil' and look where that's gotten us). This blinkered acceptance comes part and parcel with the creeping surveillance society, apparently.
You seem to not understand what DRM is.
Tagging a file with your Apple ID is not DRM. What Apple is doing there is discouraging you from sharing your music with the entire internet, but not discouraging you from sharing it with your immediate friends and family.
An iTunes file tagged with your Apple ID will play back on any music player capable of reading AAC files.
If you die then your entire music collection isn't lost. It's just there on your hard drive. I wasn't aware that your hard drive got deleted when you die.
Your kids certainly won't be sent to jail or fined for listening to it.
Man, the Apple haters get crazier every passing day.
Years back when I initially moved away from iTunes, I used Songbird. Songbird was built with the Mozilla engine and closely mimics the functionality of iTunes. Unfortunately, the application had a persistent memory leak which would make it useless if left running for a couple of days. I've tried Rythmbox and Amarok but was never happy with those either. My typical fallback is VLC, which many others have suggested. VLC doesn't offer a nice music player interface but it's really easy to use, plays everything, runs on anything and won't hijack your music library. These days, I'm using XBMC. My music, along with my movies and television programs, are managed and played using this application. I have XBMC installed on 4 PCs (3 Ubuntu, 1 Windows) and can also play directly from the Android app. XBMC integrates well with Last.FM and Headphones, an application used to search, download and sort music files. You can also use XBMC to stream upnp to other devices, like an xbox.
the ONLY reason to use itunes is that you own an iDevice or want to buy from the Apple store. If you are not doing that, why the hell are you using itunes?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
You could always just use iTunes, if you want something like iTunes.
Or you could switch to something that works, like MediaMonkey: http://www.mediamonkey.com/
I think Amarok has a fantastic user interface and helps me manage my files well. My only complaint is that it crashes about 50% of the time if I ask it to actually play music. Apart from that its great.
If you're going to bold the word "rights" there, then can we make a pact here on slashdot to never call it "Digital Restrictions Management" again?
As seen in this thread, the term "DRM" seems to mean "whatever makes Apple/Sony/Microsoft/hated-company-du-jour the bad guy".
I picked a pretty generic place to cite the definition (wikipedia) - that supports my position, but apparently that's not enough. I guess all the wikipedia contributors are in Apple's pocket or something.