For the last 3 years I've been a content user of iTunes. But recent versions made the program progressively worse in my opinion. I've had to up and downgrade with an update a while ago and the newest version seems to crash my pc when I run it together with a game (at least with Trackmania sunrise). Also it hogs more and more memory with every release which is less of a concern since I have enough RAM, but still.

I know there is a big range of more and less known mp3 players. And I really don't know what's good and what's not.

What's important to me is that it has a clear overview of my music which I can sort and select however I want. Which iTunes does extremely well for me and Winamp totally NOT.
I also like simple controls. (spacebar should be play :P)
It also has to have a plugin for last.fm.
What I also really like in iTunes is the smart playlists.
And it should automatically sort my music folder.
It doesn't have to play anything else than music (I don't care about movies or visualisations)

Any suggestions would be helpful

Uh, Winamp has tons of sorting options? It's called the Media Library.

But if you have some perverse obsession with not using Winamp, then try foobar.

I do have a perverse obsession with not using winamp (although I have used it for 6 years in the past and still use it for videoplayback)

My main problem with winamp is that the interface is a total mess. They tried to put as many possible button on as little space possible and it lacks every bit of userfriendlyness. Also containers suck.

I'll give foobar a try.

What?

Winamp is totally the easiest player to use EVER.

Yeah seriously, I don't even use 95% of the buttons on there. I have global hotkeys for the majority of the functions. I only start clicking when I make my playlist using Media Library.

i never have had any problems with winamp. the windowshade mode allows all the functions you need and takes up very little space. combined with global hotkeys just makes it the easiest thing to use.

That's exactly why it sucks thanks for the illustration!

edit: Oh and compared to foobar winamp is heaven.

edit2: And I don't want a small player with a million buttons. I want one that has a play/pause and forward and backward button. And uses the rest of my frickin' two screens to display my vast music library and various dynamic playlists. So I can easily select any music I like. Meh I'll probably just end up downgrading to an earlier version of itunes.

VLC for videoplayback, winamp for music, maybe a bit of songbird thrown in for flavor.

I must agree that what I've seen of VLC is pure awesomeness.

Foobar isn't great out of the box. But after an hour or so of customisation I wouldn't use anything else. It's simple, lightweight and every aspect of it is completely customisable to your needs.

itunes is king!

Apparently downgrading didn't help. The problem persists
So I guess I'm just screwed.

It has the same buttons as iTunes, which is what confounds me so much.

Play, Pause, Forward/Back, Stop, Shuffle/Repeat, and Volume. Plus a menu button for the rest of the extra options.

I mean, seriously, how is this any different than any other media player in existance?

If the regular display is too big, then double click the top bar, and it'll go into compact mode, which is REALLY FREAKIN TINY.

It's not too big. It's too small. Start paying attention.
Like those 3 pixel letters that have to pass for a menu. And those buttons that hide behind others :S And it just really feels cluttered to me. But then most media players do. With their metalic skins and whatnot.

I guess if I spent some time turning everything off in the options and taking the time to download a decent skin it could work out.

And I'm not saying winamp is a bad program, in fact I use it almost daily for my TV needs. But I just really don't like the interface at all.


FYI I downgraded to some archaic version of iTunes and that works just fine for me.

Foobar2000 is indeed the most powerful and most customizable player for any platform ever developed in the history of the universe. Period.

However something like MusikCube or Songbird would be more fitting to your needs I think.

Hmm songbird does look nice. It seems to have everything I mentioned in my first post. I'll give that a try as well.

Songbird is probably your best bet, although it is still a development release. Eventually Amarok will be cross-platform, that might be something to look into.

Songbird seems nice. It still misses some things, but it has great potential. I'll defenitely keep an eye on it.

I have a love affair with WMP11, mostly because of the library and color chooser.

Ew, wmp. I use that for... er, movies, but only because winamp takes at least 100 years to open.

For music, Foobar is fine for me.

WMP11 is actually really awesome. I would use it for everything if I didn't desire the advanced tagging, DSP and other features of foobar2000.

Songbird is a nice concept, but it's bloody slow.

I like WMP11 but unfortunately it doesn't have global hotkeys so it is useless.

Wow really? Do you mean custom hotkeys? I can't imagine it not working with standard media keys.

Yes I mean custom hotkeys. I don't have any keyboards that have media keys on them. Plus, if I remember correctly, they aren't really "global". They only work outside of games and such.

You should look to see if there's a plug-in for that.

I did. No one writes plugins for WMP11 :p