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jon_chaissonOkay, so people have probably heard me go on about this in the past, and to this day I still have not found an acceptable program that comes even close to what I'm looking for. And here we go again...*sigh*
For the longest time, at least since 2003 or so when I first got my Dell, I used the MusicMatch program that came with the computer. It definitely had its own share of problems--the main one being its propensity for crashing midway through a cd rip--but its cons have never really outweighed its pros. From the beginning it's been a great media player for the following reasons:
--single-window format--no multiple windows that make navigation a pain.
--multiple types of view--by artist only, album only, year only, etc....and are kept in subfolders instead of an onslaught of tracks, which are a pain to read.
--the Artist only view KEEPS the tracks in chronological and track order, unlike many other media players where it needs to be tweaked each time.
--track tagging makes sense and is easy to use.
--easy playback, playlist creating, and cd burning.
--downloading tracks from the music service was easy, and the tracks pretty much work anywhere.
There's more to this, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. Anyway, I found out sometime last month that MusicMatch had been bought out by Yahoo and as of August 31 it would be replaced by Yahoo Music Jukebox. MM services would be discontinued, though I'm pretty sure that it would still be useable after that date. An annoying popup window comes up with MusicMatch now, suggesting I change to YMJ.
Bad move.
YMJ had the following problems for me, right out of the gate:
--cataloging that made no sense
--multiple-window format and a pain in the ass to read.
--track tagging didn't translate well at all from MM, and its own tagging system SUCKS.
--slow-as-hell loading time to turn on. A good 30 seconds to a minute. And for some odd reason made Yahoo Messenger pop-up on my system tray, even though I disabled it a month ago.
--playback reaction time slow, and was automatically on repeat when I first tried it. Not good.
--I didn't even attempt the downloading service, as it was a monthly service price that was too expensive. Besides, I like eMusic too much now.
So yeah, YMJ was definitely not a good replacement for MM, not at all. I removed it from my hard drive today, and sent the following comments via their feedback page:
I am sorry to hear that MusicMatch Jukebox was being discontinued, as I find it the ONLY media player that sufficiently catalogs my music collection in the way that I want. Despite its own flaws as the later versions came out, it remains the one media player I use the most.
I did give Yahoo Music Jukebox a chance over the past several weeks, once I found it was "taking over" MusicMatch Jukebox, but from the beginning I was unimpressed. Once again, it does not have a sufficient cataloging setup (just like many of the other insufficient media players, it cannot save the listings in any sort of chronological order...I must change the order each time I set it up), something I find VERY important in a media player. Also, I have noticed that many of the albums I'd correctly tagged in MusicMatch did not tranlate well and received a completely random album cover in its place. Which brings me to the fact that the tagging system for YMJ is VERY incomplete and VERY unacceptable.
I also have a problem in the loading time--it takes an extremely long time to load up, and once it does, playback is very slow. My mp3s reside on an external hard drive, which of course might make it slow, but MusicMatch was able to pick it up in less than a second, where YMJ takes much longer.
All in all, I am LESS than impressed with YMJ and am removing it from my computer. I'd hoped to give it a better and longer chance, but it let me down right out of the gate.
Anyway.
I've tried a few other music players in the past, including WinAmp, RealPlayer, iTunes and Napster, and none seem to have a decent library-styled cataloging setup for the music geek like me. Nearly all of them are aimed towards the downloader and listener and not the collector--at least in my eyes, anyway--which makes listing tracks easy, if you want all your tracks displayed for you all in one go, but that's not what I want. Let's just say it: I want to stay with MusicMatch, but I need a backup incase MM doesn't work anymore.
So again, after all this time, I still ask:
Is there a music player out there that can match my standards, or am I asking too much?
Please--tell me what you use, why you like it, and if I would like it.
For the longest time, at least since 2003 or so when I first got my Dell, I used the MusicMatch program that came with the computer. It definitely had its own share of problems--the main one being its propensity for crashing midway through a cd rip--but its cons have never really outweighed its pros. From the beginning it's been a great media player for the following reasons:
--single-window format--no multiple windows that make navigation a pain.
--multiple types of view--by artist only, album only, year only, etc....and are kept in subfolders instead of an onslaught of tracks, which are a pain to read.
--the Artist only view KEEPS the tracks in chronological and track order, unlike many other media players where it needs to be tweaked each time.
--track tagging makes sense and is easy to use.
--easy playback, playlist creating, and cd burning.
--downloading tracks from the music service was easy, and the tracks pretty much work anywhere.
There's more to this, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. Anyway, I found out sometime last month that MusicMatch had been bought out by Yahoo and as of August 31 it would be replaced by Yahoo Music Jukebox. MM services would be discontinued, though I'm pretty sure that it would still be useable after that date. An annoying popup window comes up with MusicMatch now, suggesting I change to YMJ.
Bad move.
YMJ had the following problems for me, right out of the gate:
--cataloging that made no sense
--multiple-window format and a pain in the ass to read.
--track tagging didn't translate well at all from MM, and its own tagging system SUCKS.
--slow-as-hell loading time to turn on. A good 30 seconds to a minute. And for some odd reason made Yahoo Messenger pop-up on my system tray, even though I disabled it a month ago.
--playback reaction time slow, and was automatically on repeat when I first tried it. Not good.
--I didn't even attempt the downloading service, as it was a monthly service price that was too expensive. Besides, I like eMusic too much now.
So yeah, YMJ was definitely not a good replacement for MM, not at all. I removed it from my hard drive today, and sent the following comments via their feedback page:
I am sorry to hear that MusicMatch Jukebox was being discontinued, as I find it the ONLY media player that sufficiently catalogs my music collection in the way that I want. Despite its own flaws as the later versions came out, it remains the one media player I use the most.
I did give Yahoo Music Jukebox a chance over the past several weeks, once I found it was "taking over" MusicMatch Jukebox, but from the beginning I was unimpressed. Once again, it does not have a sufficient cataloging setup (just like many of the other insufficient media players, it cannot save the listings in any sort of chronological order...I must change the order each time I set it up), something I find VERY important in a media player. Also, I have noticed that many of the albums I'd correctly tagged in MusicMatch did not tranlate well and received a completely random album cover in its place. Which brings me to the fact that the tagging system for YMJ is VERY incomplete and VERY unacceptable.
I also have a problem in the loading time--it takes an extremely long time to load up, and once it does, playback is very slow. My mp3s reside on an external hard drive, which of course might make it slow, but MusicMatch was able to pick it up in less than a second, where YMJ takes much longer.
All in all, I am LESS than impressed with YMJ and am removing it from my computer. I'd hoped to give it a better and longer chance, but it let me down right out of the gate.
Anyway.
I've tried a few other music players in the past, including WinAmp, RealPlayer, iTunes and Napster, and none seem to have a decent library-styled cataloging setup for the music geek like me. Nearly all of them are aimed towards the downloader and listener and not the collector--at least in my eyes, anyway--which makes listing tracks easy, if you want all your tracks displayed for you all in one go, but that's not what I want. Let's just say it: I want to stay with MusicMatch, but I need a backup incase MM doesn't work anymore.
So again, after all this time, I still ask:
Is there a music player out there that can match my standards, or am I asking too much?
Please--tell me what you use, why you like it, and if I would like it.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 07:15 pm (UTC)I thought not, because 80% of the programs I found listed on CNet very much confirm that. I did kind of like WinAmp, but it's a lot to drag through.
I have to agree with the Windows Media Player, though. It's definitely different from MusicMatch, but I like its setup. Added to the fact that it's a lot more compatible to the various download sites than other places. Plus it has all the shiny visualizations! ;)