| Whether you call them media players, jukeboxes, mp3 | | | | full effect iTunes makes a great Windows based |
| apps, music managers, or whatever - we all need a | | | | Jukebox. Noteworthy is the Apple Lossless codec that |
| proggy to listen to our digital music with sowe decided | | | | allows one to rip CD's to the ACC format that sound |
| that it was time to publish the Online Music Blog Media | | | | as good as the CD itself to our ears. On the negative |
| Player Shootout. For the sake of this article I am only | | | | side, the iTunes jukebox feels heavy on moderately |
| going to discuss players you can get for free and I am | | | | powered PC's compared to Winamp or WMP. It runs |
| not going to go into p2p apps. | | | | a little slower, seems to use more resources, etc. |
| So with that, lets dive right in. For my money there are | | | | Last (of yea, except for RealPlayer... ) Windows Media |
| are only 3 choices - Winamp, iTunes, or Windows | | | | Player 10 is one of Microsoft's best pieces of |
| Media Players - but I'll talk a little about RealPlayer 10 | | | | software and is some much better then the last |
| as well. All of these applications share baseline | | | | generation of MS media players. The jukebox itself is |
| features - playing various media files, cataloging digital | | | | stuffed with features such as its ability to monitor |
| media, etc. We'll focus on things about them that are | | | | changes to your digital media files and update itself, |
| different. | | | | simple sync and burn, ratings, and the auto tag |
| Back in the day, we had Winamp, and it was good. | | | | features are all very nice. |
| Unfortunately the original Nullsoft team has all moved | | | | One of the changes in V.10 is the ability to rip files if the |
| on and instead of the hacker cred that Winamp used | | | | format and with ( or without ) the DRM of your choice. |
| to have back when Justin Frankel et all were on the | | | | You also get the ability to listen to Internet radio |
| job it is now just another corporate media player with | | | | streams with WMP, and although they tend to be |
| a hazy future. | | | | more corporate then the hip shoutcast radio you can |
| Winamp lost a lot of momentum that it had when it | | | | still find some good music. WMP also features a |
| released a ( very ) bad Winamp3 - but with the | | | | lossless ripping of CD's but I was less impressed with |
| release of Winamp5 they seem to be back on track - | | | | the results then I was with Apples Lossless. |
| it is useable, responsive, and has a lot of plugins and | | | | And finally there is RealPlayer. The free RealPlayer 10 |
| skins created for it. | | | | is better then previous version although that is not |
| The major problem is that for all of it's features it is not | | | | saying much imho. It still takes over your file formats |
| much, if any, better then the two dominant media | | | | by default, tries to force you register, runs in the |
| players that are tied to successful music stores iTunes | | | | background (phoning home ?) unless you can find the |
| and WMP. Additionally you have to pay $14.95 to get | | | | settings to tell it not to - all of the problems that it has |
| the pro version that add features that iTunes and | | | | always have. I say stay as far away from Real as |
| WMP include for free. One of the bonuses of using | | | | possible even if you can use "Harmony" to use your |
| Winamp is the ability to tune into all of the cool | | | | iPod with the Real store. While I may be being over |
| shoutcast radio stations.iTunes is, of course, is the | | | | critical of Real's jukebox - I do think that there are |
| digital jukebox front end for the iPod and the iTunes | | | | other alternatives that are less intrusive and have |
| music store from apple computer. The iTunes music | | | | better feature sets. |
| store was the first to get pay for digital music | | | | All in all I think that either iTunes or WMP is a solid |
| downloads right and it still has the largest legal | | | | choice and far and away the best media players |
| downloadable catalog on the net giving the iTunes | | | | available. Winamp is a okay too as long as you don't |
| jukebox a hefty advantage. | | | | need to rip music or burn it back to a CD - but it is |
| If you are using a Mac then it is a no brainer - you | | | | worth the download and install just to listen to |
| should be using iTunes as you media player, but even | | | | Shoutcast stations from time to time. Personally I use |
| if you are using Windows iTunes provides an | | | | WMP at work and iTunes are home, so take that for |
| attractive alternative. The iTunes store is superior ( | | | | what it's worth. I think that I like WMP a little better, but |
| imho ) to the Windows Media based stores such as | | | | not so much that I would take the time to switch my |
| Napster and with the legendary Apple ease of use in | | | | iTunes set up at home. |