Whether you’re using iTunes or Windows Media Player to listen to music on your computer or to keep your music collections synchronized with your smart devices, there are plenty of free alternatives to choose from. Here are five such tools- and the great news is that they are also free. If you’re tired of your boring music player, find out other options that suit you.
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1. MusicBee
MusicBee has one important caveat: it’s only available for Windows. More than just a music player, it allows you to organize and manage your music collection.MusicBee will import your existing iTunes library to get you started, but you can also specify other folders to be included. Sound levels can be tweaked using a 15-band equalizer, and you can also sync your music with mobile devices.
Platform: Windows
Download: MusicBee
2. Clementine
Clementine (available for Windows, Mac) might not be the most attractive music player and manager (though the same accusation could be leveled at iTunes), but it certainly gets the job done. With ripping, library management, tag editing, music playback, and the ability to copy music to supported devices, it has everything you could want. Clementine also provides you with interesting music trivia as you listen to your collection.
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android
Download: Clementine
3. MediaMonkey
Media Monkey can be used as a near-complete replacement for iTunes; you can even use it to sync music to your iPod or iPhone if you keep iTunes installed. Like MusicBee, the program can be installed in the usual way, or as a portable app if you would like to move it from computer to computer with a USB drive. The interface isn’t attractive, but when it comes to managing a large music library, the program does an excellent job.
Platforms: Windows, Android
Download: MediaMonkey
4. PodTrans
PodTrans has a particular approach to replacing iTunes, and it does not do so by trying to replicate all the features of Apple’s software. In fact, it keeps everything minimal. The sleek interface focuses on making it easy to copy music between your computer and iPhone or iPod. It’s available for both PC and Mac, and the aim is to make everyday management as quick and simple as possible.
Platform: Windows
Download: PodTrans
5. foobar2000
The foobar2000 is not the best modern-looking programs ever created, but looks can be deceiving. While the program might look like a blast from the past, it’s highly customizable and powerful. You start off with a music player that looks basic, but there are endless add-ons available that can be used to tailor it to your needs. You can use foobar2000 to extend your music library thanks to support for CD ripping, and the range of supported playback formats is vast.
Platforms: Windows, Android, and iOS
Download: foobar2000
6. AIMP
AIMP is another impressive and cool music player for music lovers. It is loaded with lots of features that enhance the experiences of any music lovers. AIMP can play almost any music format and has internet radio features too. It also includes the sound engine that allows the user to equalize, use built-in sound effects, normalize volume and also mix the sounds. The music library is easy to organize and smart playlist options allow to filter and group data. It also has an audio converter built in to encode popular music formats, import audio from audio CD, simple scheduler to schedule alarm clock and auto shutdown the computer and much more.
Platforms: Windows and Android
Download: AIMP Music Player
7. Winyl
Winyl has a beautiful interface and offers great new ways to organize and enjoy your music collection. It organizes your library by folder, has a great mini player with cover art. It uses the least system resources but works very fast and is more suitable for your laptop. If you have a large music collection then this may be a good choice. Besides, you can also listen to music and radio, rate your favorite tracks, create playlists, browse song lyrics, tag music and many more.
Platform: Windows only
Download: Winyl Music Player
8. Resonic Player
The Rresonic Player is a lightweight music player that makes extensive use of multi-core processing that provides extremely fast browsing, seeking and playback. The graphical user interface is clutter-free and user-friendly without any nested menus and dialogs without compromising any powerful features. Navigating through folders and playlists is super easy with just single left-click. Keyboard shortcuts features allow the users to perform different operations comfortably at high speed. It has also Pro version available with lot more features than the free version.
Platform: Windows only
Download: Resonic Player
9. Song Director
If you have large music collections and having a tough time organizing them, then Song Director can help you. Song Director organizes all your music and audios files on your computer. You can then easily find, edit and play them in one place for free. It scans your computer automatically looking for various music/audio files and builds a searchable database of your music. Once the database is created, you can easily play any songs, build your favorite playlists, sorts by artists, song, title, genre, year, etc. You can also easily copy, rename or move your music files to different locations, view information about songs and also easily locate any songs and artists instantly.
Platform: Windows
Download: Song Director
10. Audacious
Audacious, a descendant of XMMS, plays your music without consuming your computer’s resources. It has a simple functional user interface that makes it easy to operate. Once you load your music library folders, it loads up the tracks with track details, artist information and so on. A horizontal playback status bar is situated at the bottom that shows the currently playing track information along with album art and a spectrum visualizer.
Audacious has also a powerful search functionality and supports all popular audio formats such as mp3, wma, aac, wav, ogg, etc.
Platforms: Windows and Linux
Download: Audacious Player
Wrapping Up
The above music players are among the best music players available on the internet for free. I have switched from default Window Media Player and iTunes to MusicBee a long time ago and MusicBee has been my favourite since a long time. Some other honourable mentions include VLC player, 5k Player, Zune Player, Winamp and Song Bird. Based on your requirements, your choice may be different than mine.
Let me know which one is your favourite music player in the comments below.
