I have been hearing reasonably good things about the recently-released iTunes media player for Windows. I have downloaded it and installed it, and have been using it for a few days now.
Perhaps one of the most controversial features for Windows users is the ability of iTunes to manage your music library for you. Indeed, this has been referred to as less of a "feature" and more of a "problem" -- what it ends up doing (if you select the "Let iTunes Manage Your Music For You" option) is re-arranging your file and directory structure on your disk. It does this without explicitly telling you it's what's going to happen, and there's no way to undo it if you decide you don't like it (other than moving and renaming each file by hand).
The idea behind this is to allow you to use iTunes to do much more flexible sorting and playlist generation. If you are like me and are used to WinAmp, you probably have your MP3 files sorted into directories by genre, with the filename capturing the artist and title. With iTunes, this is no longer the easiest way to go. iTunes uses the oft-overlooked ID3 tags -- built into each and every MP3 file. These ID3 tags are able to be understood by software, and include spots for artist, composer, title, album, track #, year, genre, and other information. If you are dilligent to keep track of ID3 tags, converting to iTunes will not bring your world tumbling down if you decide to let it manage your music.
I have added about 800 songs to my iTunes library, and while it did take a little time to get all the tags in order (not sure why "Blues" seems to be the default genre) I have found it to be worth the trouble. The library and playlists are managed intuitively in iTunes, and you have the option to create smart playlists, which automatically generate themselves based on criteria that you specify. For example, I have a playlist named World that builds itself based on "genre contains 'World'" OR "genre contains 'Celtic'". As you add to or update your library, these playlists reflect the current state of your music.
iTunes contains the other basic functionality of most media players (shuffle, equalizer, capture song information from the Internet), as well as the ability to burn playlists directly to CD. It also comes with a radio section, with several music streams pre-programmed and sorted by genre.
Overall, I am impressed with iTunes. I will be spending some time making sure that all my ID3 tags are in order (Public Service Announcement: The vast majority of my MP3 files are legal downloads from services such as MP3.com and other free download sites. I have found that sites like these are on top of the ID3 tags and, thus, I have not had to do much maintenance. Thank you.) before I commit my entire collection to it -- but so far I like what I see.
Posted by wrodina at December 17, 2003 8:49 AM | TrackBack