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Before the last Windows reinstalling (today), I had been using iTunes. I have an iPod Classic and I like the library feature. But now I'm thinking about a replacement, because iTunes is a bit big and slow and not very 'plugginable'. I want a player, which:

  • is extemely lightweight and fast (no no not sonGBird)
  • is easy to use
  • can keep my library
  • and can syncronise it with iPod

Is there any?

(If it will have a 64-bit version, it will be better: I believe what 64-bit programs run even faster)

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I don't think a media player will really benefit from having a 64-bit version in terms of speed (except maybe for video playback). – Sasha Chedygov Nov 2 '09 at 5:04
@musicfreak - agreed. Most of the codecs music players rely on are 32 bit anyways, so if the player was 64 bit, what would you gain? – DaveParillo Nov 2 '09 at 5:28
@valya; did Winamp work for you? If so you should accept DaveParillo's answer. – RJFalconer Jan 17 '10 at 13:52
No. I'm using Zune Software since I've bought Zune HD. And I've bought more RAM – valya Jan 17 '10 at 14:13
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4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

You might like aTunes. It is cross-platform (java) & skinnable. I'm not sure if you consider that 'lightweight' or not. I'm not aware of a plugin architecture for it, but it's young, so it might develop one.

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Update: Just realized the default player for aTunes is mplayer, (normally considered a linux player), you can find the download instructions here (Windows/Linux/Mac OS X).

I think this is more work than you care to put in.

Idea #2: Have you considered Winamp? It's a fast popular music player that's native windows & has an ipod plugin.

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oh, thanks! I gonna try it now – valya Nov 2 '09 at 5:04
Oh, "Currently aTunes can only READ iPod contents until 4th generation. It has not been tested with later versions. It can't write songs to iPod." – valya Nov 2 '09 at 5:15
+1 for winamp. I still use the Winamp version 2 which is lightening fast, has small memory foot print and does the job I want it to (just play songs). – Hemant Nov 2 '09 at 5:31
I've rarely heard about winamp last several years ) I'll try to give it a second chance – valya Nov 2 '09 at 5:40
I've been using winamp for a long time now. I quite like it, and it works fine with my ipod (I think it's nano 2nd gen.) I don't think it works with newer gen ipods - something worth checking out. – Noam Gal Nov 2 '09 at 5:49
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up vote 1 down vote

MediaMonkey is my music player of choice. It is light, and fast. And is the only player that I have found to handle very large libraries. Also, read this forum topic ..

mediamonkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35865

Some people have had a few issues with the new 'SuperTray' and MediaMonkey. But there is a fix out there.

I use MediaMonkey on my XP system. I have over 100GB of MP3's. And it starts faster than a newly installed iTunes does. There are many .vbs scripts that are hosted on the MediaMonkey forums, that will help to tag your entire library. It took me 2 days to fix my library to the way I wanted it ( fully tagged; looks professional too ). And most of that was waiting for the script to do its thing ( takes a while to process 100+GB of MP3's, tag and save )

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up vote 0 down vote

there is an open source porject from mozilla called songbird, very nice! http://www.getsongbird.com/

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up vote 0 down vote

foobar2000 is lightweight and has all the functionality of itunes (you have to install extra components).

  • Supported audio formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, SND... and more with additional components.
  • Gapless playback.
  • Full unicode support.
  • Easily customizable user interface layout.
  • Advanced tagging capabilities.
  • Support for ripping Audio CDs as well as transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component.
  • Full ReplayGain support.
  • Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
  • Open component architecture allowing third-party developers to extend functionality of the player.
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