Music Player suggestion for Windows?
 

A friend (not very tech savvy) asked me for a recommendation for a music player suggestion for his Windows machine (I think running Windows 7, but I am not sure). Something simple to use that he could combine lots of files in various formats (including WMP) and eventually sync his iPod.

Is iTunes okay on Windows (I am happy with it on the Mac, but I didn't know if it works as well on a Windows box).

I have no complaints about it on Windows. From what I understand the functionality is almost identical. Then again when I add music to my iPod I treat it as an external drive and copy/paste it over instead of synchronizing.

iTunes works pretty well, the biggest problem I have with it is just that it fails to follow a few Windows-standard ways of doing things (just in terms of keyboard shortcuts and other details of GUI behavior). Things only a power-user would really care about.

Um, how about Windows Media Player? Comes built-in with windows, and has played everything I've thrown at it effortlessly.


I constantly have issues with iTunes. For one thing, there's an upgrade every 3 or 4 days. PITA. But none of them seem to fix the glitch that songs played are mixed from one's ending to the other's beginning, no matter how many times I manually change that option. YMMV, but why bother? Windows Media Player for the easy Win.

Except media player doesn't easily sync with an iPod. Not that there aren't other solutions (see BtD), but if what his friend is looking for is a single-interface-solution, iTunes is it, and works reasonably well.

Winamp Pro- I use it to manage music for my iPods and my Android phone now.

Thanks everyone. I'll point him towards iTunes.

I have fvckton of music and need a good tagger and de-duper. I've been using MusicBrainz and Magic MP3 Tagger but they don't spot dupes.

I have been slowly going through, looking at the details of the dupes to decide which track to keep (usually, but not always, going with the higher bit rate). Tedious, but it is the only way to make sure I get the right tracks (I am fussy about sound quality).

Yeah, I'm fussy about sound quality, too - which is why I have little use for iTunes, or mp3's at all. Yep, I download 'em to my phone - but I rarely listen to anything that way. One of the perks, imo, of being so old is we like our sound not to sound like crap.

...and never wore hearing protection to concerts so we probably can't tell the difference anyway but don't let that get in the way of being contrary.

Nope, see, I DID wear ear protection to concerts.

Wuss

So you never really heard the music as intended

Yes, but I can hear music now, so it's a trade-off.


And I understand the trade-off of listening to music on a portable vs. listening to uncompressed music at a stand-still. But it seems to me "kids these days" don't have anything to measure the difference by. I don't spend a lot of time on the bus or out in the world all alone, so portable music means very little to me.

Even so, though I listen to CD quality or wave files at home, I rarely use my really good sound system - but instead listen to things from my computer. It's got excellent speakers, but the sound of the computer is always there in the background. I'm compromising even then ... I don't need my music condensed to make it sound even worse.

Why a good pair of headphones is a good investment. I'm partial to Sennheiser and Coaster Matt likes his Grado. Of course, were talking full surround headphones, not "on-ear" or ear buds.

Ditto! My iPod is now for listening to audiobooks

I have a fantastic pair of headphones. But I just don't like wearing them.

When I was a kid listening to music in my parents' home, I lived inside headphones. Now that I can play anything as loud as I please, I never wear 'em. Sometimes, I check recordings I make with them - but I find that, even though music sounds fantastic with them - the fact that the sound is not traveling through the field of air in a room makes the sound quasi-unpleasant to me.


Anyways, sorry for the tangent - and for not properly reading the O.P. - I glossed over that your friend wanted to sync to their iPod. I still love WMP for playing everything I've ever thrown at it.