Local music library software - need alternative to iTunes (Windows)

[cmdOptEscape]

Hi,

I've been using iTunes as my music library/player of choice for well over a decade now.  I used used to be a Mac guy (was a Windows guy before that, and am now a Windows guy again) - and I've stuck with iTunes just out of convenience as I could bring my library with me across platforms.

 

iTunes has this annoying problem where for some reason it will randomly cut the end of songs when playing. It's a well known problem and it seems the only way to fix it is to reimport any files that do it - and since I know it's happening to a not-insignificant number, and I can't know which ones have the problem without listening to all of the songs all the way through (which is impossible), I would have to basically create a new iTunes library and reimport everything...and then there is always the likely chance of it happening again down the line. Plus, I've got a pretty substantial library (13000+ songs) and so it's not something one does willy-nilly that takes 10 minutes or something

 

So....does anyone have any recommendations for apps that perform a similar function as iTunes?  Some of the things I like about iTunes:

 

1. Playlists - just normal playlists I add to manually

2. Smart Playlists - where a playlist is populated based on data stored in the ID3 tags and it live updates as new songs are added to the library.

3. I can sort the playlists by artist, title, genre etc...and I can toggle all of them sortable headers.

4. There is a "number of plays" tag so I can also sort and play just my most played tracks - if I just wanted to listen to songs I really love.

 

Any advice welcomed! Thanks!

[MrMcMuffinJr]

4 minutes ago, cmdOptEscape said:

Hi,

I've been using iTunes as my music library/player of choice for well over a decade now.  I used used to be a Mac guy (was a Windows guy before that, and am now a Windows guy again) - and I've stuck with iTunes just out of convenience as I could bring my library with me across platforms.

 

iTunes has this annoying problem where for some reason it will randomly cut the end of songs when playing. It's a well known problem and it seems the only way to fix it is to reimport any files that do it - and since I know it's happening to a not-insignificant number, and I can't know which ones have the problem without listening to all of the songs all the way through (which is impossible), I would have to basically create a new iTunes library and reimport everything...and then there is always the likely chance of it happening again down the line. Plus, I've got a pretty substantial library (13000+ songs) and so it's not something one does willy-nilly that takes 10 minutes or something

 

So....does anyone have any recommendations for apps that perform a similar function as iTunes?  Some of the things I like about iTunes:

 

1. Playlists - just normal playlists I add to manually

2. Smart Playlists - where a playlist is populated based on data stored in the ID3 tags and it live updates as new songs are added to the library.

3. I can sort the playlists by artist, title, genre etc...and I can toggle all of them sortable headers.

4. There is a "number of plays" tag so I can also sort and play just my most played tracks - if I just wanted to listen to songs I really love.

 

Any advice welcomed! Thanks!

https://level1techs.com/video/ultimatehomeserver-building-our-own-spotify-replacement-navidrome

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

Wmp? I like wmp, use it since 30 years or so lol.  I think it does all/most these things you want to.

 

4 hours ago, MrMcMuffinJr said:

https://level1techs.com/video/ultimatehomeserver-building-our-own-spotify-replacement-navidrome

 

 

yeah thats cool and stuff but boy is he bad at explaining stuff… all i got is "its dangerous and unsecure af, mmk?" OOF

[cmdOptEscape]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

Wmp? I like wmp, use it since 30 years or so lol.  I think it does all/most these things you want to.

 

yeah thats cool and stuff but boy is he bad at explaining stuff… all i got is "its dangerous and unsecure af, mmk?" OOF

Man I had no idea WMP was still a thing - but I just did a search on my PC and it's still there HAHA!.  Do MS still update that or is it end of life?

 

Thank you for the suggestion! I actually stumbled across MusicBee - I am just testing it out now and to be honest, all signs are very promising. Seems to be mad customisable and it seems lightweight yet feature rich.  But if that falls through, I'll check out WMP!

 

The Level1Tech thing doesn't seem like it's what I was after. Appreciate the reply though.

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, cmdOptEscape said:

Man I had no idea WMP was still a thing - but I just did a search on my PC and it's still there HAHA!.  Do MS still update that or is it end of life?

yeah, thats why i thought why not use whats already there… nah i dont  think they still update it but it pretty much just works (possibly needs a few codecs for video types from the store though) 

It pretty much didnt change at all, thats part of the charme lol.

 

And well, i also use it because it works really well, vlc and some wmp "clones" have some issues playing videos properly, for example .

 

you can even still dl some old themes and skins. 

 

 

 

 

[Franck]

11 hours ago, cmdOptEscape said:

Do MS still update that or is it end of life?

it will be part of windows as long as .Net Framework will be supported and i doubt that will ever be dropped in my lifetime. So yeah it's kept up to date. It's not like MP3 codec change that often. Anyhow My current audio/video player is my own programmed with WMP as the core player

[cmdOptEscape]

Just wanted to come back and say that MusicBee is pretty awesome. Can definitely recommend!

Thanks for the input guys ♥