When Winamp version 5 was released, Nullsoft redeemed themselves in the public's eyes after producing a much improved player to replace Winamp 3. They didn't need much encouragement as they justified skipping version number 4 by saying that it was such a huge improvement that it deserved to be called 5!

Luckily they are justified in their opinion, as Winamp offers everything you might want in a media player. Using the skins, you can set it to look like the original or the current default which looks great and puts you in control of all your media quickly and easily. I particularly like Winamp's minimized player that consists of a small bar that you can place on the edge of your screen. Of course, if neither of these agree with your taste you can download and try any of the thousands others available on the Winamp website.

Winamp supports a wide range of file formats, and because the program is small and simple, it works quickly on almost all computers. Have a look through the available plug-ins and you will also find that you can hook up your iPod and manage its music library.

Winamp may have been around for ever, but it hasn't been left behind and is a fully featured music player that's really customizable. A good alternative to iTunes.

Download Winamp 5.621 Full in Softonic

With JetAudio you can:
- enjoy your favorite music and videos
- add awesome visualization effects to your music
- customize the player's appearance with a great selection of skins

The main purpose of JetAudio is obviously playing audio and video files. The program includes elements with which you can improve playback and make it more enjoyable, such as sound effects, cross-fading between songs and support for lyrics.

JetAudio Extra features
Besides the basic functionality, the program also features a bunch of extra tools that enable you to rip CDs, record sound, convert music files from one format to another, listen to online radio stations and burn your favorite MP3 to CD.

You can also run JetAudio as an extra bar that sits on the Windows taskbar and control its main functions from there without interrupting your work.

JetAudio is a complete, handy media player for anyone that would like to do more than just play audio and video files.

Download JetAudio Basic 8.0.14 in Softonic

With AIMP you can organize your MP3 files in a library, edit tags if necessary and enjoy them in excellent audio quality. AIMP works with other popular formats as well, including karaoke files and several playlist formats.

AIMP offers all the standard playback functions you find in other similar apps: an 18-band equalizer, visualization effects, a separate window to view your current playlist, fading effect between songs, a normalizing filter to avoid sudden volume changes and support for global hotkeys.

But there’s more to AIMP than just that. The program also plays online streaming radio stations, includes a complete tag editor and can be set to repeat a certain part of the song – which comes in handy when you’re trying to decipher the lyrics!

The interface in AIMP is both attractive and intuitive. All functions and buttons are clearly laid out, and the design can be easily tweaked with skins.

We tried hard to find any, but there are really no cons about AIMP. It’s an awesome audio player you just have to try.

If you’re still searching for the perfect music player, AIMP may be the answer.

Download AIMP 3.00.832 Beta 1 in Softonic

With iTunes 10, the library has been improved with an extra view that adds album artwork where there’s room, instead of the traditional album title next to each song. This smartens up library viewing a lot, and generally underlines the new, clean look of the interface. It's no revolution, but looks neater. Playlists and iTunes DJ are untouched, and managing your library is as easy as ever. Creating playlists is one of iTunes' strengths, and it's still simpler and more user-friendly than the competition.

Syncing iTunes with iPods and other Apple devices is really easy, and there are no longer problems using Mac-formatted devices in iTunes for Windows, or vice versa. Home Sharing is a great way to keep your library across multiple computers at home; it is really easy to set up and means all your computers will automatically have up-to-date libraries.

The biggest change with version 10 is to the iTunes Store. Ping, which is linked to your iTunes account, allows you to create a personal profile and share your purchases and reviews with friends, and artists you like. It looks very much like a basic Facebook News Feed or Twitter, but just about music. At the moment Ping feels underdeveloped. You can't share your listening habits, like Last.fm, and manual sharing is limited to the iTunes Store, not your own library. There's no option to share what you're listening to right now, which is pretty terrible! Ping will surely develop and improve very soon.

The basic library function of iTunes is unparalleled, and syncing with iPods, iPhones and iPads is excellent. iTunes 10’s new social features are interesting, but limited at the moment.

Download iTunes 10.6 (64 bit) in Softonic

Few can dispute the fact that Apple created a flawless product when it built the iPod. However, the company did omit to include one feature that still bothers many users. The legally-aware developer made it so that you couldn't copy tunes from your iPod onto another computer. While it does mean that everything is above board, it also means that if you get a new computer or your hard drive fails, you have to build up your MP3 collection all over again. Luckily, there are now several programs available that let you copy your iPod tunes to any machine. CopyTrans is a good example of one of these.

The process of synchronizing your music with CopyTrans is a simple one and you can choose to archive your collection or import it into a new iTunes library. All you need to do is connect your iPod, wait for the program to scan the device, choose your transfer settings then wait for CopyTrans to work its magic.

CopyTrans does take quite a long time to copy across the music, but the operation works very well and the only hitch came when the program didn't manage to reproduce all of the album art. CopyTrans boasts some nice features such as selective transfers, incremental back-ups, and repair to damaged iPod databases as well.

If you're scared of losing all your iPod data then install CopyTrans and quickly erase your worries.

Download CopyTrans 4.72 in Softonic

Spider Player is certainly a very good looking player and not only that, it makes life easy where listening to music is concerned. The good news is that now, Spider Player Pro is now effectively free. The Basic version has been discontinued and replaced by Pro. Formerly, Spider Player had some limitations such as it didn't have Last.fm support, radio recording were limited to 5 minutes, you could only rip a CD track and convert one file at a time and you couldn't use custom encoders. However, all these limitations have been removed in this latest version.

The look is obviously a key part for the developers and they've even included a "tuning" bar in Spider Player's skin which allows you to change the tone of it according to the mood you are in. As with Winamp, I like the fact that you can also divide-up the player as you like. For example, when you open it, the main playback window, equalizer and playlist are all joined together. But you can split these up as you like and place them in various parts of your desktop for easy access.

To control playback in Spider Player, you can simply drag and drop the status bar and it responds very quickly. There's also a pitchshifter, echo and reverb bar to play with. One nice added little extra that Spider Player also has a built-in ID3 tag editor and CD ripper that can burn in MP3, WAV, OGG and WMA formats. Once minimized, the player also sits neatly in your system tray so it's well integrated into your OS. Spider Player is one of the best Mp3 players I've tried outside of Winamp although it lacks the plugins of the former.

Altogether, Spider Player is an excellent package which now offers all the features of the Pro version for free.

Download Spider Player Free 2.5.3 in Softonic

Songbird is an open-source music player and organizer with which you can manage, play and discover music. It's free, cross-platform, highly customizable thanks to a wide variety of plug-ins and can be improved and extended by the contribution of its user community.

The first thing you'll notice about Songbird is its resemblance to the iTunes interface, which means that if you've ever used iTunes you won't have any problem in learning how to use Songbird. Then, as you explore the program's menus and options, you'll start discovering all the goodies it has to offer.

Songbird automatically imports your music files from a selected folder, monitors that folder for future music additions, organizes your music in a handy, easily browsable catalog, is compatible with iTunes and Last.fm libraries, can be controlled from any other app thanks to global hotkeys and also supports Last.fm scrobbling. It also includes album art and a simple equalizer.

Songbird is such a complete tool that's hard to find negative sides to it. Plus there's an army of developers constantly working on improvements and new features. The only thing I missed so far, in fact, is support for podcasts – which I'm sure will probably be added some time soon.

Songbird is a complete, full-featured music player and organizer with support for plug-ins and an extensive user community.

Download Songbird 1.10.3 in Softonic

Winamp offers everything you might want in a media player. Using the skins, you can set Winamp to look like the original or the current default which looks great and puts you in control of all your media quickly and easily.

I particularly like the minimized player that consists of a small bar that you can place on the edge of your screen. Of course, if neither of these agree with your taste you can download and try any of the thousands others available on the Winamp website.

Winamp supports a wide range of file formats, and because the program is small and simple, it works quickly on almost all computers. Have a look through the available plug-ins and you will also find that you can hook up your iPod and manage its music library.

Winamp may have been around for ever, but it hasn't been left behind and is a fully featured music player that's really customizable.

Download Winamp 5.621 Lite in Softonic