iTunes replacement for Mac

nuromantix · Post by **nuromantix** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:39 am

I use itunes a lot to organise my own recordings.
I use it to convert AIFF to mp3 and I make lots of playlists to try out running orders for albums and EPs.
Now they are scrapping it, what would be a good alternative?
I basically want an equivalent to the very early versions of iTunes.

I think I'm finally going to give up on Macs next time I buy a new computer. So sad after over 20 years of using them.....

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 8:10 am

I have several older Macs still running older versions of OS X - Mountain Lion on 2 of them and Snow Leopard on one. I do all of my music stuff on one of the ML machines, gonna keep doing that until I can't keep it running anymore. Yeah, Mac hardware and software really suck any more. I'm up to Sierra on my "everyday" machine but that's as far as I plan to go with OS. Thinking about building a Win7 machine.

nuromantix · Post by **nuromantix** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 9:10 am

Me too, I have a 1998 Powerbook for superquick OS9 stuff, 2005 Macbook for Ableton Live and Bias Peak, and a modern powerbook for looking at the internet.
Such a shame.

NotHerbert · Post by **NotHerbert** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:44 pm

I use VLC as a player, but you'd need something else for conversions.
http://www.videolan.org/

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:57 pm

OWC has some used 2012 Mac Minis for sale, ~$400-500 depending on the hard drive configuration you want. They're not power machines but they'd make a great music server. They come preloaded with Sierra but you can easily "downgrade" them back to Mountain Lion - I've done it and it works fine. Then you can work with the older more user-friendly versions of iTunes - I'm running iTunes 11.2.1 on one of them.

MARK27 · Post by **MARK27** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:35 pm

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 4:48 pm

OWC = Other World Computing - macsales.com

hru · Post by **hru** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 6:56 pm

Cmus works well on my Apple Air Book with Sierra
https://cmus.github.io/

ignatius · Post by **ignatius** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 11:28 pm

swinsian seems good. i haven't used it though.

http://swinsian.com

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Thu Oct 17, 2019 4:48 am

This must be the first time anyone ever said they want to use iTunes! It's mind boggling it took crApple so long to scrap this POS.

Maybe it dawned on them that having to use a bloated music player app to manage the contents of your phone didn't make any sense. Sounds like they finally put that functionality where it should have been from the start, ie the Finder....

They're saying that the new Music app (which looks like more of the same without the phone syncing BS) will work with your existing music library.

There are much much better apps for handling your audio files! (pretty much anything else)

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Thu Oct 17, 2019 6:01 am

Panason wrote:This must be the first time anyone ever said they want to use iTunes! It's mind boggling it took crApple so long to scrap this POS.

Maybe it dawned on them that having to use a bloated music player app to manage the contents of your phone didn't make any sense. Sounds like they finally put that functionality where it should have been from the start, ie the Finder....

They're saying that the new Music app (which looks like more of the same without the phone syncing BS) will work with your existing music library.

There are much much better apps for handling your audio files! (pretty much anything else)

As usual, commenting for the sake of commenting without adding any substance. There are a lot of people who like and use iTunes, just like there are a lot of people who like and use Ableton, etc, etc. Yes, newer versions of iTunes aren't as user friendly as older versions but that's the way it is with a lot of software. And that's just MY OPINION - your are entitled to yours.

ersatzplanet · Post by **ersatzplanet** » Thu Oct 17, 2019 12:22 pm

nuromantix wrote:I use itunes a lot to organise my own recordings.
I use it to convert AIFF to mp3 and I make lots of playlists to try out running orders for albums and EPs.
Now they are scrapping it, what would be a good alternative?
I basically want an equivalent to the very early versions of iTunes.

I think I'm finally going to give up on Macs next time I buy a new computer. So sad after over 20 years of using them.....

Apple is NOT scrapping iTunes, they are REPLACING it with "Music", a new app dedicated to just music, and not music, videos, and podcast like iTunes was. I have a dedicated Mac Mini for my media server and updated it to Catalina and had no problems at all. The Music app looks and acts just like iTunes used to. Now there has been some problems with some DJ software that accessed the iTunes library with XML Library exports, and they no longer work because the library database files are different now.
You iDevices (iPods, iPhone and iPads) are updated through the finder and show up in the sidebar when connected, just like a Hard Drive would.

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:09 am

arthurdent wrote:
As usual, commenting for the sake of commenting without adding any substance. There are a lot of people who like and use iTunes, just like there are a lot of people who like and use Ableton, etc, etc. Yes, newer versions of iTunes aren't as user friendly as older versions but that's the way it is with a lot of software. And that's just MY OPINION - your are entitled to yours.

If you read my complete comment, (it's not that long), you'd see that I mentioned that the OP should be able to continue using their iTunes playlists... if they for some reason want to update to Catalina. But of course the Apple bashing must have gotten in the way of some readers finding any substance.

I will take a chance to point at Apples' BS wherever I can, thankyouverymuch. Because opinions.

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 9:52 am

Panason wrote:
arthurdent wrote:
As usual, commenting for the sake of commenting without adding any substance. There are a lot of people who like and use iTunes, just like there are a lot of people who like and use Ableton, etc, etc. Yes, newer versions of iTunes aren't as user friendly as older versions but that's the way it is with a lot of software. And that's just MY OPINION - your are entitled to yours.
If you read my complete comment, (it's not that long), you'd see that I mentioned that the OP should be able to continue using their iTunes playlists... if they for some reason want to update to Catalina. But of course the Apple bashing must have gotten in the way of some readers finding any substance.

I will take a chance to point at Apples' BS wherever I can, thankyouverymuch. Because opinions.

I did read your comment; yes, you did inform the OP that they can continue to use their existing playlists but the bulk of the your comment, in MY opinion, was just Apple bashing. Nothing wrong with that, your ARE entitled to your opinion as am I and everyone else on this forum - as long as it doesn't involve politics, religion, etc. But, once again in My opinion, you seem to have a habit of commenting for the sake of commenting - say your recenting bashing of Ableton, or how about your thread on speaker isolation pads as snake oil? Looking at your post count, it seems as though you're only here for the numbers - but then again, that's only My opinion...

sutekina bipu-on · Post by **sutekina bipu-on** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 10:59 am

Install an older version of itunes and stick with it. If you burn MP3 and audio CDs all the time, and cant be having playlists end up out of order or anything not as expected, you know itunes is the most reliable by far.

I use foobar2000 on PC very happily but it does not have any cd burning functionality. If you don't need that, it has many other useful features for organizing one's music and converting tracks.

I do music and normal computing with different computers so my music one has an itunes version from 2012 or 2013 and my normal computer has the current itunes and i only manage my ios devices with it. The older version itunes is one of the last before they forced the non-playlist view on you so it's a bit easier to keep your existing itunes stuff managed.

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 11:09 am

sutekina bipu-on wrote:Install an older version of itunes and stick with it.

I do music and normal computing with different computers so my music one has an itunes version from 2012 or 2013 and my normal computer has the current itunes and i only manage my ios devices with it. The older version itunes is one of the last before they forced the non-playlist view on you so it's a bit easier to keep your existing itunes stuff managed.

This. My music computer is a 2012 MacMini running Mountain Lion with iTunes 11.2.1 I also have a 2012 Mac Pro (last of the big towers) on ML with iTunes 12.3 - don't like this version as much but it's not as bad as the newer versions.

subbasshead · Post by **subbasshead** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 5:37 pm

i use Vox player app - its a great alternative to ITunes & plays FLAC...
(I use the free version as dont need cloud storage etc)
https://vox.rocks/mac-music-player

touyube · Post by **sduck** » Fri Oct 18, 2019 8:50 pm

Panason wrote:
I will take a chance to point at Apples' BS wherever I can, thankyouverymuch. Because opinions.

Could you not? The amazing amount of negative opinions that flow from your posts is mind boggling. The world doesn't need it. It's impossible to take you seriously as you very rarely add positivity to anything you participate in. How's this for an idea - from now on, only post positive opinions on things? I mean, really actually positive, not some kind of snarky back handed nonsense - only post about things you actually have positive things to say about. Give it a try! I'm not asking as a moderator (yet), although I might have to go that route if you don't find a way to temper your negativity.

fishphacurr · Post by **fishphacurr** » Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:56 pm

I guess I am in the minority but damn, I so love the revised Music app in 10.15. Especially using Dark Mode on the Mac (because I really missed the dark version that was removed from iTunes years back). Paired with Apple Music, I've never been happier with music... constantly finding new albums and artists to try out every day.

Then again, iTunes was always usable for me- I didn't personally have any issues with it, and that was with my library being around 35k tracks at one point, before Apple Music came around LOL.

Disclaimer though, I am an Apple fan and user since 1994 (G3 Mac), and currently own an iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch 4th gen, latest Apple TV and 2015 MacBook Pro, so the syncing of music is pretty seamless in my current setup.

dpcoffin · Post by **dpcoffin** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:24 am

Possibly of interest?

https://www.imobie.com/anytrans/transfe ... -files.htm

On sale just now:

https://www.macheist.com/sales/pay-what ... mac-bundle

Panason · Post by **Panason** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:44 am

sduck wrote:
Panason wrote:
I will take a chance to point at Apples' BS wherever I can, thankyouverymuch. Because opinions.
Could you not? The amazing amount of negative opinions that flow from your posts is mind boggling. The world doesn't need it. It's impossible to take you seriously as you very rarely add positivity to anything you participate in. How's this for an idea - from now on, only post positive opinions on things? I mean, really actually positive, not some kind of snarky back handed nonsense - only post about things you actually have positive things to say about. Give it a try! I'm not asking as a moderator (yet), although I might have to go that route if you don't find a way to temper your negativity.

NO thanks. Feel free to delete my account and/or any and all comments. Not interested in this BS anymore. Anyone can check my comment history. I 'll try to delete everything now but if there is no way to do that quickly, then I'll leave it with you.

naturligfunktion · Post by **naturligfunktion** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 1:16 pm

nuromantix wrote:I use itunes a lot to organise my own recordings.
I use it to convert AIFF to mp3 and I make lots of playlists to try out running orders for albums and EPs.
Now they are scrapping it, what would be a good alternative?
I basically want an equivalent to the very early versions of iTunes.

I think I'm finally going to give up on Macs next time I buy a new computer. So sad after over 20 years of using them.....

I don't know any alternative to iTunes to play and organize your music, but the program "Max" is actually fantastic just to convert files. I use it all the time to make wav to mp3s. Simple, and it's free!

https://sbooth.org/Max/

ersatzplanet · Post by **ersatzplanet** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:46 pm

arthurdent wrote: This. My music computer is a 2012 MacMini running Mountain Lion with iTunes 11.2.1 I also have a 2012 Mac Pro (last of the big towers) on ML with iTunes 12.3 - don't like this version as much but it's not as bad as the newer versions.

If you are using that old a mac then you can't install the latest replacement for iTunes, the Music app, but your iTunes will keep running fine and won't suddenly not work. What are you worrying about? You can't upgrade that machine to a version of OSX that will like iTunes.

arthurdent · Post by **arthurdent** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 5:28 pm

ersatzplanet wrote:
arthurdent wrote: This. My music computer is a 2012 MacMini running Mountain Lion with iTunes 11.2.1 I also have a 2012 Mac Pro (last of the big towers) on ML with iTunes 12.3 - don't like this version as much but it's not as bad as the newer versions.
If you are using that old a mac then you can't install the latest replacement for iTunes, the Music app, but your iTunes will keep running fine and won't suddenly not work. What are you worrying about? You can't upgrade that machine to a version of OSX that will like iTunes.

I'm not worried. I was just trying to sympathize with the OP, make some suggestions of how to handle his "issue" going forward. And both the MacMini and the Mac Pro are capable of running Sierra with iTunes 12.8 'cause I've tried it just to see how it performs. But I have no plans to attempt anything higher. I've got a lot of old software that just runs fine the way things are with ML. For surfing and going out onto the nasty ole WORLD WIDE WEB, I've got machines with newer software and browsers that are "safe".

sutekina bipu-on · Post by **sutekina bipu-on** » Sat Oct 26, 2019 3:14 pm

Mac users going to PC for their main machine should think about building their computer, these days you save so much money doing it and anyone who can rack a module can assemble a PC. obviously you might need a laptop.

Dont feel bad if youre feeling like that. My family all Mac users started with the apple ii and always used them. In 2006 i switched to pc but kept apple everything else. My mom switched to a windows 10 laptop earlier this year after asking about mine a bunch and she also keeps an ipad and iphone around but it is not difficult to work a windows PC into an apple ecosystem to be honest.

MUFF WIGGLER

MUFF WIGGLER

iTunes replacement for Mac

iTunes replacement for Mac

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Re: iTunes replacement for Mac