There’s a plethora of music players to choose from, among which iTunes and Winamp usually have the upper hand. However, if you are curious enough, you might find that lesser known alternatives like MediaMonkey offer a reasonable amount of features and tools to organize and equally enjoy your music library.

MediaMonkey automatically scans your PC for all types of music formats. If you have playlists from other programs, it’s good to know that the application also adds m3u files, sparing you the pain of having to recreate them. The file explorer view on the left lets you easily navigate your music collection by categories like artist, genre or rating. You can convert tracks into any format you wish, depending on what size or quality of sound you’re looking for. MediaMonkey also lets you analyze and adjust the volume of tracks to increase your listening experience.

MediaMonkey has made its reputation on its advanced tagging management feature. Every time a track is added, the program will verify its tags. You can automatically fill in missing details with info from Amazon or Filename. The program can clean up your tags, move information into the correct categories and synchronize tags for selected tracks. You can also rename and move multiple files thanks to the auto-organize function. MediaMonkey also supports Winamp plugins and visualizations plus skins can be applied to spice up the interface.

If you want to make your own mix CDs, you’ll be happy to know that MediaMonkey rips and burns CDs and DVDs. Create a virtual CD of your favorite tracks and let MediaMonkey do its job. Budding DJs will enjoy the auto-DJ mode, which mixes tracks for you and the Party Mode, which blocks your configuration but lets anybody play their favorite tune. MediaMonkey’s versatility doesn’t stop there. The music manager also lets you synchronize with your portable music devices like your iPod or iRiver.

If you feel like completing your library with a couple of fresh albums you can browse sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or AllPosters and purchase tracks. However, unlike Songbird, where you can type in a URL, browse and save your favorite music blogs and sites, MediaMonkey only allows you to browse their selection of online stores.

We were disappointed with the web radio selection, which only features Shoutcast and Icecast, and were surprised to see no sign of podcasts anywhere in the application. However version 3.0 is planning on incorporating this to the application.

Despite these drawbacks, we recommend MediaMonkey to anybody looking for a solid alternative to iTunes or Winamp. This original music manager is more than capable of organizing a very large music library and offers advanced tagging management rarely seen in other music applications. While the browser and web radio are fairly limited, MediaMonkey allows you to rip your custom CDs and connects to most portable music devices. If you really take a liking to MediaMonkey, cough up a few bucks and upgrade to the Gold version, which will open up all of the program’s functionalities like finding missing tracks or creating auto (smart) playlists.

Download MediaMonkey 3.0.3.1183 in Softonic

DRM Dumpster will allow you to remove the digital protection from your DRM tracks in iTunes.

Although it looks like DRM will probably be abandoned in the future you may still have purchased DRM tracks in the iTunes Store. You might want to remove the DRM so that you can play these tracks on any device and make your own copies. The simplest way would have been to burn them to a CD and rip them to an unprotected format, which can be a bit of a hassle.

DRM Dumpster takes tracks in groups of 10 to 20 and automatically removes the DRM without you having to worry about it. It automatically goes through the protected tracks and performs the erase/burn/rip cycle for you, saving you a lot of time and effort.

DRM Dumpster still remains pretty expensive, with a current price of $40, given that it only performs one specific action. Also, we found that the trial itself doesn't even let you try out removing DRM from a track, so you're basically forced to dish out $40 to see how it works.

DRM Dumpster is limited to iTunes, which is a bit of a shame as you might also want to remove the DRM from protected tracks bought on another website or stored elsewhere.

Despite being a little expensive, DRM Dumpster offers an effective way of quickly remove the protection from DRM tracks.

Download DRM Dumpster 3.0.0 in Softonic

Believe it or not, this is another program designed to address the problems that are being experienced by Windows Vista users with DirectSound3D games.

For some reason, in Windows Vista, Microsoft have decided to remove the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for DirectSound and DirectSound3D. This means that any of your games that require use of this card will be rendered almost useless or at least, not work properly. Fortunately, this small program from Creative Labs allows you to enjoy them still as the developers intended with full hardware accelerated 3D Audio and EAX support. The program works by translating the legacy DirectSound calls into OpenAL and simply isntalls a few files in each game directory. Unfortuantely, at this stage it still does not work with all games and you'll have to check the developer website to see whether the games you want to run are supported. Note that this is not some kind of driver software and therefore requires that you have an appropriate driver installed and functioning properly first.

An essential little program for all DirectSound3D card owners but note that it doesn't work with all programs yet.

Download Creative ALchemy 1.10.01 in Softonic

There's nothing better than having the lyrics to your favourite songs with you on iTunes. Unfortunately, iTunes doesn't include a lyrics retrieval tool but you can get round it by adding this program.

iTunes Lyrics importer or "iLyrics" automatically searches the net when you click "Get Lyrics" and downloads the song lyrics based on their titles. It has a huge databank to choose from thanks to the Lyricswiki project which allows users to upload the lyrics of their favourite songs. Because of this, you're more likely to fine the lyrics of obscure songs rather than other lyrics sites which concentrate more on mainstream offerings.

Normally, iLyrics will give you a direct hit and provide you with exactly the song you were looking for. However, occasionally it will confuse the song with another one but you only have two modes "Update automatically" or "Manual Mode". If you select the former and it finds the wrong lyrics, note that you'll lose the old lyrics and they will be replaced by lyrics that may be wrong. If your initial experiments prove to be a bit dodgy, then I'd recommend using the latter mode which gives you control over whether to definitely replace the lyrics or not.

An excellent addition to iTunes which has a huge resource of lyrics to draw from although be careful which mode you use.

Download iTunes Lyrics importer 1.1 in Softonic

Making a din on a piano is great especially when that piano can replicate multiple instruments in much the same way as a professional keyboard.

And if you're learning the piano and can't afford your own instrument, then this is a brilliant solution. Well, it's better than nothing anyway. Virtual HS Piano is a simple MIDI piano which simulates everything from traditional piano to honky-tonk, marimba or an accordion. It also backing from a drums and other percussion so that you can really feel like you're making sweet music. You're certainly not limited by choice - there are 128 instruments to choose from although the sound effects selection is pretty poor - 12 to be exact - and there are only 3 melodies for which you can play to. However, the keyboard features all 36 notes you expect to find on a keyboard so it's very realistic in that respect although the MIDI sound effects can never be a substitute for a real piano. The interface and design are pretty flimsy and basic looking but it's very simple to use and does the job it's built for.

A simple and flexible tool for anyone that loves that MIDI sound or needs to familiarise themselves with the piano..

Download HS Virtual Piano 1.0 in Softonic

Mac users are often said to be the most loyal customers in the computer market, but that's because they have very good reasons, such as iTunes, to stick to Apple products. And if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't miss the opportunity to have this application on my Windows PC.

iTunes has become one of the most popular music managers available today. When you run it for the first time, you can choose your music folders or let the program take care of everything. Then you can keep on adding new music, videos, podcasts and other multimedia elements from various sources and – of course - synchronize all this content with your iPod or iPhone thanks to a perfectly seamless integration.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. The program's interface is simple and straightforward, plus there are right-click shortcuts and keyboard hotkeys for many tasks. You can view extended information about each track and edit their tags, give them a score with the iTunes star ranking tool and comfortably browse through your collection with the amazing Cover Flow system. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star ranking or even the number of times you've played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

However, if there's something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that's the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. The visual effects in the Viewer window are particularly poor. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you're working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection –and that includes Windows users.

Download iTunes 7.6.2.9 in Softonic

If I told you that your computer could recognize songs just by listening to them you probably wouldn't believe me. If you use Tunatic though, you'll manage to do just that.

To make the application work the inbuilt microphone of your computer needs to be working or you need to have a microphone installed. Just run your media player and let the computer listen to your tracks. You'll have to click on the interrogation mark in the application window for the program to search its database. It lists the title of the song and the artist's name as soon as it finds it.

Obviously Tunatic doesn't get it right all the time, and depends hugely on the database of songs that is being maintained by the developers. It is still quite a surprising tool and can find certain songs really quickly.

Once Tunatic finds a song, it will also let you search iTunes for it, let you look for the ring tone, or search Google to find the lyrics.

Tunatic may not work all the time, but it is a really clever way of finding title's of all those unnamed songs in your library. Worth a try.

Download Tunatic 1.0.1 b in Softonic

Express Talk basically makes calls between computers using IP Telephony. This application is compatible with other software-based VoIP SIP protocols which can be called free of charge to computers that have installed Talk Express. In addition to the functions typical of a VOIP call via the Internet, Talk Express maintains up to six simultaneous conversations, reduces background noise and can be configured to circumvent firewalls, record conference calls in MP3 format, identify incoming calls, store numbers etc.

You can configure up to 6 lines on one phone with the ability to put calls on hold. It supports video (H263, H261) for webcams or IP Phones and also integrates with Microsoft Address Book (with some difficulty). Business users will however have to upgrade to the Business Edition which supports call transfers and allows up to 6 people to join one call using the Call Conferencing feature.

If you need something that offers a bit more than Skype or your normal VOIP service, Talk Express is a useful option for individuals and business users alike.

Download Express Talk 3.06 in Softonic

iTunes Agent sits in your system tray and will automatically synchronize with iTunes. Associating with playlists is a nice feature and helps you to constantly renew the music in your playlists and in your MP3 player. You can also have iTunes Agent recognize the file type for each device. This is particularly useful as each MP3 player usually favors a different file format.

Although the interface is fairly basic it lets you easily set up your devices and how you want them to interact with iTunes. This program is great use for anybody looking to sync MP3 players other than an iPod with iTunes. It launches quickly and efortlessly.

Download iTunes Agent 1.2.2 in Softonic

How much time do you spend scrolling through your iTunes library, trying to decide what to listen to? Ever try to find songs that fit your mood, event, activity, or sound you're after, only to give up because it takes too much time to find them?

Soundflavor DJ can help you to find the right song for the right moment. This program is able to find in your library songs that are similar to the one you're playing in iTunes. It also enables you to discover and download free new songs that match your taste based on the songs that you already have in your library.

Soundflavor DJ can create instant playlists based on sound, style or era and play them on iTunes or save them to your iPod. It can even generate the necessary code for a widget that will allow you to display your playlists on your webpage.

Download Soundflavor DJ For iTunes 1.30 in Softonic

Bossa allows you to be in total control of your iTunes music library by providing a new approach to audio file organization based on tags and keywords. This handy app works as an add-on for iTunes automating your music, generating playlists and mixes and finding information about artists.

Tag your music according to genre, artist and other ID3 data, organize playlists and create mixes that can be scheduled to be played at certain times of the day. Play what you want, when you want!

Player

This is Bossa's Jukebox. Easily play your music any time, anywhere

Lab

Bossa's "kitchen". Find selectors, pictures and information about your music

Automator

Bossa's built-in Timer, which allows you to schedule your music when you want and how your want

Generator

A playlist generator that can create a timed playlist by selecting what to hear and for how long

Selector

Select your music to quickly find the music you want to hear

Mix

Store your music selections to a mix for later use

Download Bossa 3.1 in Softonic

MyTunesRSS lets you enjoy all the songs in your iTunes music library on any device that has network access to your iTunes computer. MyTunesRSS is a application for configuring and starting a server. You can access this server with any web browser, search your iTunes music library and create an individual play list. The playlist is published as an RSS feed with the feed items containing links to the music files. These files are served through the server as well.

MyTunesRSS supports MP3 and unprotected AAC files from your iTunes library. You can also create RSS feeds directly from your existing iTunes playlists. Access to the web application and therefor your library can be protected with a password.

With MyTunesRSS you can for example use a Playstation Portable to listen to the music from your iTunes library. The songs are streamed to the PSP through the WLAN feature. Also any other device with a web browser and capable of receiving podcasts can be used. Listen to your music with any such device even if it is not iTunes enabled.

Download MyTunesRSS 3.1.5 in Softonic

Airfoil is one of those standout applications you come across sometimes.

What it does is allow you to send any audio from your computer via wireless to any other computer (PC or Mac), Apple TV or Airport Express. It works with any application that plays music in your computer.

Syncing is both easy and fast. The clear GUI will list up all the devices that you can sync to, and all you have to do is activate them and set the volume and equalizer. That means you can pretty much listen to your music anywhere. Rogue Amoeba have really succeeded in making a program which is efficient, useful and very easy to use.

The download also includes Airfoil Speakers, which basically turns any PC or Mac into an Airport Express unit which can then receive audio from the Airfoil of another computer.

On the help side, the Rogue Amoeba team is known to offer great support and respond quickly to user queries.

Naturally though, if your wireless connection is poor, then Airfoil will perform poorly, so make sure your WiFi is well set.

Airfoil is a smart and intuitive program, to sync music wirelessly to any computer, Airport Express or Apple TV.

Download Airfoil 2.5 in Softonic

If you want to download podcasts directly onto your mobile device then JsiPodFetch is a simple application that allows you to do so with ease.

The program downloads the files and RSS feeds into well organized playlists so it's really easy to keep track of what you have and haven't listened to and what type of content it is. The trick is however that the program does not download directly to your external device - it downloads to your PC which "sycnhronises" with JsiPodFetch so in reality, it's a synchronisation tool. To set it up, first you have to configure a folder on your media player where you want to store the podcasts. You then instruct the application how much space it can use on your phone or media player as well as on your computer. In the main window, there are four clickable images - Feed Manager, Information, Refresh and Copy. The Feed manager is the most important image as from here, you manage all your inputs. When you have listened to a podcast, tick the checkbox to the left of the title and it will be removed the next time you copy to your player.

A very ingenious idea, it's a shame it doesn't allow you to download directly to mobile devices but nevertheless, this is an excellent podcast manager.

Download jsiPodFetch 8.05 in Softonic

Zune™ software is your one stop for music and entertainment. Manage and view your songs, videos, and pictures. Rip and burn CDs. Create playlists. Edit track and album information. And Zune software can automatically import your existing files, including your music and video from iTunes® and Windows Media® Player.

Browse Zune Marketplace to discover new tunes and find old favorites. Plus, Zune works with Xbox™ 360! Access media right in the Xbox dashboard, or listen to music while playing games. And don't forget, Zune works with...Zune!

Download Zune software 2.3 in Softonic

I've always had curiosity about podcasts, but never tried to create one of my own until today. And I must say it's been a great experience!

This is probably thanks to Wildvoice Podcast Studio, a great application that helps you take your first steps into the podcast universe. Once you read the accompanying guide and familiarize yourself with the program you'll be able to handle every stage in the process, from recording your voice to publishing your podcast. What's more, if you don't have any web space where to store it, you can create an account in the Wildvoice site and publish your podcast right there for free.

Of course, podcasts are not only about talking. The program enables you to easily add music, with support for the most popular formats. You can insert short music clips or else use it as background soundtrack by adjusting the volume level. Wildvoice Podcast Studio includes also a great variety of sound effects to add to your recording, achieving a higher degree of realism or producing a hilarious mixture of sounds. The only problem I found here was that some sound effects are much louder than others, which affects the quality of the recording.

The podcast can be created as a series of short audio clips and that makes the job even easier to manage. Once you're happy with the result – which you can check at any time with the Preview function – you can save it as an MP3.

Although it may look complicated at the beginning, Wildvoice Podcast Studio is an excellent tool to get you started with podcasts.

Download Wildvoice Podcast Studio 1.0.2502 in Softonic

Audio/Video To EXE converts audio files and video executables and allows you to send them to another person without having a player and codec. In addition to this primary function, Audio/ Video To EXE also performs conversions between various media formats.

There are two types of conversion offered - EXE and multimedia formats, with a list of tasks and completed quickly. The only drawback of this free version is that you cannot select the sampling frequency and hence the quality of the resulting files. This is a great tool for sending small videos and songs by e-mail, ensuring that the recipient can play the file. Almost all audio/video formats [3GP, AAC, AC3, AIFF, ASF, AVI, EXE, FLAC, FLV, GIF, M1V, M2V, M4V, MOV, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, MPG, NUT, OGG, RA, RM, SWF, VOB, VOC, WAV, WMA, WMV, WV, YUV] are supported. You can even play and convert your executables without a player or a codec. It works as a standalone and the latest version adds M1V, M2V, M4V, and YUV support.

If you love to share clips with someone who's forever having problems with their media player, then Audio/Video to EXE is the answer to your prayers.

Download Audio/Video To Exe 1.5.2.1 in Softonic

Ease Jukebox is a complete multimedia tool with a huge number of functions which allows you to enjoy music in all senses of the word. The program has 9 main utilities, among them a file manager, a playlist manager, a CD ripper and a CD burner.

You can work with the more common digital formats such as WAV, MP3, WMA and Ogg and replay them from the Ease Jukebox, to standardize the volume, to pass them from one format to another and to cut them as you want.

Ease Jukebox also allows you to publish tags of the files and to use these this data to rename them, one by one or as a batch. This ID3 tag editor supports ID3v2 as well as ID3v1, the two industry-standards. The ID3 tag editor supports batch processing by simply pressing the Ctrl key while clicking the files or pressing the Shift key and using the arrows to select a range of files and then edit them. All the functions of the program are easily accessible through the toolbar which also offers you more skins.

As far as comprehensive music players go, Easy Jukebox is hard to beat in terms of features and functions.

Download Ease Jukebox 1.40 in Softonic

If your music collection has grown too much, then it's time to start using a manager. Even if you're not a big fan of this kind of apps (just like me) you'll find they're extremely helpful to keep your music collection perfectly organized, no matter how much it grows.

Magix Music Manager 2007 is the perfect example of a well-done music manager. In fact, it's so complete you feel overwhelmed by all the options displayed on its interface. Luckily enough it only takes a few minutes to create your own database and start adding music.

Besides the usual features in these apps, such as a tag editor, an embedded player or a 10-band equalizer, Magi Music Manager includes other interesting extra functions like the possibility to record CD and DVD or a simple, yet convenient mini DJ console to play and mix two tracks simultaneously in real time and direct access to Internet radios and podcasts, as well as support for portable music devices.

Unfortunately, I was so excited to see such a wide variety of tools that the nagging window that appears when you try to use many of them really pissed me off. I know this is a trial version and that you're expected to buy the full application, but I prefer to have an fully functional app during a limited period of time rather than a crippled tool that leaves me yearning for more.

Download MAGIX MP3 Maker 12 (US) in Softonic

MAGIX have a long history of experience in the Mp3 business and MAGIX MP3 Maker 12 reflects much of this. Don't be fooled by the title though - it also handles WAV, OGG, AAC and WMA files just as easily as MP3s although it still does not support FLAC. The program aims to be an all-round solution for music enthusiasts providing everything you need to manage your music at home, on the road, and online.

There's very little you cannot do with the MP3 Maker. You can perform everything from creating MP3s, finding duplicate files and searching for track information to ripping CDs, creating unique mixes and copying & burning both CDs & DVDs. It even allows you to record webradio broadcasts and integrates with many mobile phones for MP3 transfers. The interface is clearly divided so that you can see which function each section pertains to. At the top of the screen you've got buttons that allow you to launch each separate function.

Of course, for most users, you'll spend most of your time in playback mode and your playlist will take up the majority of the space in the main window. The controls however are located in a small strip at the bottom of the screen which can be slightly cumbersome. It would be better if these were more easily accessible higher-up the screen or to the right of the playlist.

If you throw parties sometimes, one nice little bonus of MP3 Maker is the DJ function which intelligently matches the tempo of tracks so that your cross-fading and mixing sounds surprisingly professional. You can also create your own mixes by cutting and splicing tracks how you want them. This shows just how comprehensive MP3 Maker is and there are few solutions out there that make music management so easy within one application.

Download MAGIX MP3 Maker 11 (UK) in Softonic