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 3.0.5.1187 in Softonic

There was a time when video files all conformed to some basic requirements and could be played without protest using any media software. As technologies change and licensing becomes more restrictive and specific, simply playing a video file has now become a challenge and thanks to the plethora of obscure proprietary formats now available, finding a media player that works for the majority has become more hassle than it’s worth. Thankfully the open source community have come up with a solution in the form of VLC, otherwise know as VideoLAN Client.

This cross platform player doesn't strike as particularly good-looking when put side by side with Windows Media Player or Winamp, but you'll appreciate its far superior usability within moments. Its power can be demonstrated with any video files you happen to be downloading, which can be played in whatever form they exist, be it an actual video format or an unclassified temporary one. As you preview a video, it will skip the parts that have yet to be downloaded and let you see the rest – Media Player in comparison, can't preview files in this way.

Apart from playing incomplete videos, because lets face it not many people want to do that anyway, VLC has support for a huge range of video formats. If it doesn't recognize the file type it will try playing it anyway often successfully or if it's an encrypted file it will display the scrambled video in its raw form. The interface is stripped down to the bare bones, with the apparent objective of making it as unobtrusive as possible. With superb hotkey support, you can do practically everything you want without touching your mouse.

Put simply, VLC is a video player that doesn't stray in to other areas. There is only one alternative skin available, but all it will take is one look and you'll quickly be switching back to the default.

This free player should appeal to true cinephiles who want as little distraction as possible from their viewing experience. Being open source it's free to use and thanks to a small file size and a friendly installation process, we would recommend it to absolutely everyone as their "backup" or "catch-all" video player.

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If you are looking for an alternative music player which can also read Ogg Vorbis files and has an elegant, minimalistic GUI, Foobar2000 is worth a try. It features all the standard functions of other main players, like the possibility to import music folders and to create playlist, but it also supports advanced tagging and a useful converter to 9 music formats.

It's amazing how all these tools can fit into an installer file of just 1.6 MB, compared to the 36 MB for the iTunes download. The plus of this application is its fairly active community which develops add-ons in order to customize nearly every aspect of this player.

When you download these plug-ins, you'll get a .dll file that you have to add to the components folder of your foobar2000 directory and restart the program. Many users like it, others don't find a specific reason to leave Winamp for it. It's another good option you have, with the plus of conversion tools and many plug-ins.

Foobar2000 is a light, effective music player with a high level of customization, thanks to a personalized GUI and downloadable add-ons

Download foobar2000 0.9.5.6 in Softonic

Singing your favourite songs aloud, especially when nobody sees you, is one of those little pleasures in life. But you obviously need to know the lyrics to the song you're trying to follow, something you can easily find with MiniLyrics.

This plug-in includes one of the most impressive lyrics database I've ever seen in my whole life as compulsive MP3 collector. It launches simultaneously with your music player, which is probably found among the 15 players supported by MiniLyrics. Then, just click on the Play button and the program will automatically look for lyrics, based on the information provided by the file's tags.

During our tests, the program found the lyrics to every single track we played, including English, Spanish, German, Italian and even Japanese songs. Also, in the few occasions the program didn't find the proper lyrics, we were able to download and display them is less than 30 seconds.

On the downside, MiniLyrics displays a nag window every time you launch it and another registration reminder on top of each lyrics file, but that's a price I'm willing to play to be able to sing almost any of the 4,300 files in my Winamp playlist.

Download MiniLyrics 6.0.3715 in Softonic

If you've never had a media streaming server before, Subsonic is probably an excellent choice to take your first steps.

This application includes just about anything you need to turn your home computer into a fully-featured media streaming server. You may still need to install some missing codecs but in general terms, starting Subsonic is just a question of launching the Windows service and opening your web browser.

As an admin user, you'll be able to configure every single detail about your server, such as folders to be included in the media menu, user accounts and security settings, to name a few. As a common user, you have also plenty of features available, from downloading music files to rating songs - all depending on the permissions given by the admin. The whole procedure is done via web, while the streamed media can be played with an array of media players including Winamp, Windows Media Player and iTunes. You can even make Last.fm register what you're listening to in Subsonic.

On the downside, and despite the simplicity of the program, I still had some problems to perform certain tasks especially in playlist management. Even worse, I couldn't find any help about it.

With a tool like Subsonic - and some spare time to configure it properly - you'll be able to turn your standard home PC into a professional media streaming server.

Download Subsonic 3.4 in Softonic

Choosing a multimedia player used to be a real no-brainer. However, during recent times the raft of new features and updates added to classic media players like Winamp, Windows Media Player, and even iTunes have left the apps increasingly bloated. Far from being the slick, well-oiled machines they once were, these programs have been stuffed with so much that they are in danger of ending up like a sluggish, overweight athlete still holding on to past glories.

For those looking for a fresh alternative to these ballooning apps, The KM Player could be your ticket. The application has a small desktop footprint and its minimalist interface, somewhat akin to the original Winamp 5, means that access and playback are quick and hassle-free. Like Winamp, the interface is fully skinable, and there are some nice aesthetic touches, such as the changing of colour on the player with every new track. There are all sorts of options to help you pimp your player, such as visualizations, plug-ins and playback options, but the beauty of KM Player is that these are turned on at your request rather than being forced upon you at the outset.

The application handles both audio and video, and supports a wide range of different formats, meaning that once installed, you should never need to touch another player. Video playback is particularly impressive thanks to the range of processing tools available that allow you to sharpen, change picture properties, apply filters and even make video captures from within the program.

Download KMPlayer 2.9.3.1432 R2 Beta in Softonic

Winamp was born as a very basic media player and has slowly but consistently improving for many years. Its main purpose was to be completely customizable and through the years, many people have contributed to a library that now consists of 20,000 skins and 461 plug-ins.

When 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 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.

The player 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.

Download Winamp 5.541 Full in Softonic

Winamp Lite is a small version of Winamp, it weighs less than one megabyte, that will essentially let you play audio files and use classic skins and plug-ins. Great to fit onto your desktop and if you don't to use up to much hard drive space. However, if you want to enjoy the complete benefits of Winamp, you should install the Full version instead.

Download Winamp 5.541 Lite in Softonic

Have you ever wanted to record audio for a radio broadcast, phone call or media player but couldn't be bothered fiddling with complicated software to do so?

If that's the case, then Meda MP3 Recorder is a useful solution for those that want to record Mp3 audio outputs. Meda MP3 Recorder can record form just about any type of source including internet broadcasts, video games or media players such as Windows Media Player, Real Player, Quick Time, Winamp and more.

Even more useful, Meda MP3 Recorder can also record conversations you have on VoIP software such as Skype and any other audio input that comes through your microphone jack, CD player and other audio from your sound card. The name Meda "MP3" Recorder is a bit misleading because it doesn't just save MP3 audio - it can save just about anything but unfortunately, only in MP3 format although for most people, this is the best format to save audio in anyway.

Meda MP3 Recorder also doesn't rely on you starting the recording on time. Meda MP3 Recorder has a useful Auto detect control tool which can auto start , auto stop, auto pause and auto restart according to when the audio kicks in.

A versatile and simple to use audio recorder, Meda MP3 Recorder is not really for professionals but for those that need a simple and flexible audio recorder.

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Since most music that you'll playback on your PC is in Mp3 format, then it's useful to have a tool which can save them.

Easy MP3 Recorder records not Mp3 files but also WAV audio too. This makes it an excellent option for those that want to record online radio, CD's and music played on major audio players such as Windows Media Player, Winamp and iTunes. The first thing you'll notice is that it's a very stripped down interface which requires no real instructions. Simple browse to the feed for file that you want to capture and Easy Mp3 Recorder captures and converts the audio on the fly. This means that there's no annoying conversion pauses or external application needed to convert audio in WAV format to Mp3.

There's not much more on offer however except an ID3 tag editor (so you can label your tracks) and a basic audio editor to edit recorded files. The only other options you can change are the bitrate that the file is recorded from and a timer which puts a limit on the amount of time you want a particular recording to be recorded for.

Lightweight and easy to use, this not the most advanced audio recorder you'll ever use but it does a solid job of recording Mp3's with minimum fuss.

Download Easy MP3 Recorder 2.0 in Softonic

According to some happy users, Spider Player is so good that it could even rival Winamp in the popularity stakes for basic players one day. It's certainly a very good looking player and not only that, it makes life easy where listening to music is concerned.

The look is obviously a key part for the developers and they've even included a "tuning" bar in the 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, equaliser 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, 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 us 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 minimised, the player also sits neatly in your system tray so it's well integrated into your OS. This is one of the best Mp3 players I've tried outside of Winamp although it lacks the plugins of the former.

Download Spider Player 2.3.5 in Softonic

CoolPlayer is a simple MP3 and OGG player with a similar interface as WinAmp, however CoolPlayer does use up much less CPU ressources. The download includes skins support, an advanced playlist editor, an ID3 tag multi-editor, a quick MP3 to WAV decoder and an 8 band equalizer.

Download CoolPlayer 219 in Softonic

LyricWiki harnesses all the power of Wikis to allow you to compile and enter your favourite band and artist lyrics into a very simple and user friendly database.

LyricWiki has been designed to work via the context menu which can be opened via a right-click on the main window. The real appeal of the program is that it can perform synchronization with several different audio players simply by clicking on the player's name in the Player menu. These players include Foobar2000, Winamp, WMP and musikCube. If LyricWiki cannot detect the song that is playing, there is a help section in the FAQ's that advises you on how to solve the problem. The other nice thing is that, if you want to print out the lyrics, you can export lyrics in text format or XAML. XAML has been included so that you can maintain the elegant look of song sheets in in LyricWiki but unfortunately, it's only available with Internet Explorer as Firefox is not supported yet. This is a real shame as the song sheets look much better in their original format than simple text but it's a minor point on what is generally an excellent program.

For music lovers and those that want to link their music player to a lyrics database, LyricWiki is an excellent choice.

Download LyricWiki 1.4 in Softonic

Most of us who own an MP3 player or play digital music on a computer will admit that it’s possible to get a little precious over your audio collection. There’s something very satisfying about having a hoard of music with the correct track and album names for each song. Not only does it look a lot cleaner in your player, but it makes it a darn sight easier to organize your collection and manage playlists. Ensuring that all the tags in your audio files are correct can be a thankless task, but there’s plenty of software around that will make a much quicker job of it.

mp3Tag is one of the better tag editors around, allowing you to edit the metadata (the information about a track’s name, size, album name, artwork, etc.) with a good degree of autonomy. The app lets you rename files based on this tag information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames, import/export tag information, and create playlists. It carries out its dutiesdoes the job very well too. For instance, the program has a much cleaner interface than many of its rivals and is smaller to boot, making it very quick and responsive.

If you find that you have a lot of different audio formats on your machine that you want to keep in check then mp3Tag is perfect. It supports virtually every major audio file type, so you can edit tags for Ogg, Musepack, and AAC/MP4, besides just MP3s. tThe program isn't just a tagger, as it also includes cutting and joining functions that perform pretty well.

Perhaps the biggest boon though is the inclusion of a link-up with the online FreeDB database to import tags from the appropriate album, spelling a swift end to those MP3 albums you get with track names like ‘track01’, ‘track02’, ‘track03’, etc.) While the data returned from the FreeDB is sometimes erroneous, it’s generally pretty good (though probably not quite as quick as the import tool in Tag&Rename).

It’s fair to say that mp3Tag is one of the clear leaders in its field, and considering it’s a freeware app, it’s well worth downloading if you want to clean- up your music collection. Tag editing is very quick and once you’ve given your audio the mp3Tag treatment, you should find it so much easier to organize your tracks.

Download mp3Tag 2.41 in Softonic

One of the best ways to speed up your productivity is to take your hand off the mouse and start using your keyboard a lot more.

However, this is easier said than done. First because we're all so used to doing everything by mouse that using anything else just feels weird and clumsy but most importantly, Windows doesn't come with any kind of hotkey configuration utility to help you get more out of your keyboard. That's where Hotkeycontrol XP comes in because it provides an ultra easy and convenient way to configure hotkeys for just about any task - well almost any task. The excellent thing about this program is that it can make use of all those multimedia keys that you never use anymore - the ones that launch the internet, your media player, file browser etc. Rather than have them redundant, Hotkeycontrol XP maps your keyboard and them allows you to assign actions to each one. This suddenly enables you to use your keyboard for everything from running programs and opening files to moving folders and saving webpages. One of the most useful functions of this program however is that it can save you hours of time in wasted typing - if you regularly type the same sorts of e-mail responses, you can use the program to automatically enter a block of text based on the simple press of a hotkey.

A superb utility that speeds-up your working day, makes hotkey configuration a breeze and makes better use of your keyboard.

Download Hotkeycontrol XP 6.0 in Softonic

With the recorder you can directly digitize recordings of music cassette tapes, streaming Internet audio, vinyl LPs, videos, and meetings directly to your computer's hard disk, creating popular mp3 or wave sound files on the fly.

Perfect Sound Recorder can record from any sound card input line, from microphone, line-in, cassettes, LPs, to CD, DVD, your home stereo or an MD player. What's more, it can record sound played by other programs (e.g. RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Quick Time, WinAmp) including live Internet broadcasts.

Download Perfect Sound Recorder 6.6 in Softonic

AIMP Classic is a powerful audio player that allows you to listen to your favorite music with an outstanding sound quality. Its appearance resembles that of another classical audio player (Winamp), so you'll get used to it very quickly. It can also be customized with skins.

The program includes a 18-band equalizer, a visualization window to display rhythmic visual effects and a playlist editor to organize your audio files. A nice fading effect makes your list of songs look like an endless music loop and a handy volume normalizing feature avoids drastic volume changes between tracks. Also, the player's main functions can be conveniently controlled by global hotkeys.

Besides playing music, AIMP Classic features three extra utilities which also enable you to record any sound on your computer, convert audio files from one format to another and view or edit tags.

AIMP Classic is based on the well-known audio engine BASS, so it's easy to connect new plug-ins (from the plug-in library included in the program) and expand the player's functionalities.

Download AIMP Classic 2.11 in Softonic

Audio Recorder Pro is an useful real-time audio recording software that lets you record any sounds from your sound card and save the recording directly into MP3, OGG or WAV files. It's fast and easy to use. Audio Recorder Pro is the perfect utility to record your own voice, music or any other sound by working directly with your sound card.

It supports the input/source from a microphone, streaming audio from the Internet, external input devices (e.g. CDs, LP, music cassettes, phone line etc.) as well as other applications like Winamp, Media Player, etc. It produces high quality recordings with its built-in advanced audio record engine.

Features:

• Records audio and sound into MP3, OGG or WAV format directly
• Pre-define audio recording qualities to quickly set & manage recording parameters
• Start and stop recording automatically with built-in timer
• Supports silence detection (Voice Activation) during audio recording
• Built-in advanced audio record engine to produce high quality recording
• Allows you to preset/preview your audio recording device before starting record

If you're looking for an application to help you for audio recording, you won't be disappointed by Audio Recorder Pro!

Download Audio Recorder Pro 3.53 in Softonic

If you're someone who listens to your music collection in Windows Media Player then now, thanks to Lyrics Plugin for Windows Media Player you can enjoy the words to your songs within the player as you listen to them. As long as you're connected to the Net the program will automatically search for the lyrics and display them in real time.

Unfortunately, probably due to my rather eclectic taste in music, the application failed to provide the words to many of my tracks. However, there is a neat facility for quickly adding lyrics to a particular song so over time more songs will have lyrics attached to them as people continue to upload them. Of course, mistakes may creep in but you can always correct these yourself.

Download Lyrics Plugin for Windows Media Player 0.3 in Softonic

Got a music collection with hundreds of poorly labeled mp3 files? Like having complete information about your music files – album, performer, genre, lyrics, year of release, and so on? Hate editing tags manually?

mp3Tag is a tag processor for MP3, WMA, OGG, APE, AAC, MPP/MPC/MP+, MP4/M4a files with great features, like an automated search for lyrics and pictures (album covers); tags import from Amazon and FreeDB. Another important advantage is the automatic tag filling option, which works great for mp3 albums that come without tags and meaningless file names, like 01.mp3, 02.mp3, 03.mp3, etc. The program takes the track lengths and compares this information with FreeDB data to find the appropriate album to import tags from. After confirmation the information is stored in the tags and if required can be used to rename the files.

mp3Tag allows the users to view and edit tag information, save lyrics and pictures inside MP3, M4a or WMA-files, view technical information about music files and delete unused MP3-tags.The program is capable of changing one or more tag fields simultaneously (including multiple files), generating WinAmp and Windows Media Player playlists, exporting tag information, renaming groups of files according to their tag data and much more. And special feature for iPod lovers – m4a tag editor!

Download maniactools mp3Tag 5.9 in Softonic