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 5.63 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 8.0.17 in Softonic

iTunes 11 has been completely redesigned from the ground up. Development of iTunes has been stagnant the last few years so Apple needs to get this one right. Has Apple nailed it or is the new iTunes a mess? Read on to find out.
The interface of iTunes has been completely re-imagined. Everything is simpler and space is better utilized. In the previous version of iTunes, there was a persistent bar on the left where you can access playlists, albums, devices, and more. While it provided quick access to those features, most users didn't use them most of the time. Apple has scrapped this and has made the default album view take up the entire window.

Browsing by album is a pleasure. Click on an album and the tracks will show up below. iTunes also analyzes the color of album artwork to create a colored background for each individual album. It works well for the most part but the effect blurs the album art around the edges.

New in iTunes 11 is the "Up Next" feature, which is basically a fancy name for your queue. Add songs to your queue from wherever you are in the interface. You don't need to manage a playlist to arrange and rearrange the tracks to your liking.

Creating playlists is much improved. Instead of having to jump in and out a playlist to add and arrange tracks, playlists now have a dedicated pane on the right where you can manipulate tracks without having to jump around the program.

iCloud integration has also been tightened. Every track you've bought in iTunes will now show up in your music library, whether or not it has been downloaded. Click on it to download the album. User can now also stream directly from the cloud instead of having to download the track first. This also applies to all your TV and movies that were purchased in iTunes. There's also a dedicated tab for iTunes Match, Apple's music matching service to make all of your tracks available across devices, if they're available in the iTunes store.

The iTunes store has also gone through a redesign with featured content up top. Top lists are still there and are easier to browse. iTunes 11 will also allow you to access the iTunes store content from your music library, suggesting similar artists and tracks, without having to take you to the iTunes store.

The mini player has also been completely redesigned and is actually useful now. The mini player has gotten smaller but utilizes that small space much better than previous versions. Player controls will show up with you hover your mouse over the mini player. There's access to search and your Up Next queue can be manipulated from the mini player.

Devices now show up as a button at the top right. Clicking on it will take you to a detailed page where you can manage everything. Choose what you want synced, manage your apps, and even play music directly from your iOS device. Everything is easier to read and comprehend in the device tab.

The only thing missing from iTunes 11 is a music streaming service. iCloud gives users the ability to download tracks locally but not stream them. There is no subscription service in iTunes to compete with the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and Xbox Music. It's only matter of time before Apple releases its own music subscription service but it's disappointing that Apple didn't release it with iTunes 11.

iTunes is still one of the best media players around. It has gotten easier to use, feels less bloated, but is still missing a music subscription service.

Download iTunes 11.0.3 (64 bits) 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 3.20.1165 in Softonic

Muziic is an online music player that lets you access and play millions of songs for free, and in a completely legal way. It enables you to browse an extensive music catalog that includes classic hits and recent top lists, and also lets you view the video clip associated with the selected song (courtesy of YouTube).

Muziic features a sleek, dark interface that looks a bit overwhelming at first sight. Unlike Last.fm or Spotify, you can't search by styles or radio stations. Instead you can check different 'playlists" and 'channels' created by other users, or perform a search for your favorite artist, before creating a your personal playlist from the results.

Despite being a desktop client, Muziic still relies a lot on the web. Every time you want to browse playlists, channels, skins and other material, you'll be redirected to the program's website, where you'll be able to import all of it right into Muziic with just one click. Remember to select mprotocol.exe (and not muziic.exe) in order to import data successfully.

As for streaming speed and audio quality, Muziic seemed to work very well. If your Internet connection is fast enough, you can switch to HQ stereo and enjoy an even higher sound quality. Other customization options enable you to mark certain channels as favorites and add skins to the program's interface – which sometimes makes it more readable.

That said, there were a few small details I didn't like about Muziic. To begin with, I missed having radio stations like in Last.fm or Spotity. There's no easy way to browse and manage your playlists. Finally, Muziic doesn't support hotkeys to control it from other apps – not even the multimedia keys on my keyboard.

Muziic may not be as intuitive as other online music tools, but still it offers a wide music catalog and a good streaming quality.

Download Muziic Player 2.0 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

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 5.622 Lite in Softonic