iTunes is the largest music store in the world since February 2010, you can find almost any music you want. In addition, it is also a great music player. However, it has a big disadvantage that it is a very complex bloated software. It may take up lots of the memory on the computer whenever you start it, causing your computer runs slow or freezes. As a result, some people don't like to open iTunes to listen to music only. In this article, I will review the top 5 best iTunes alternatives for playing music on Mac, you can follow me to find the one you like most.
Top 1. Ecoute - Simple Music Player with Clean Interface
It is known as a simple music player for Mac with clean and elegant interface. With it, you can access iTunes library without starting iTunes on your computer and the iTunes library can be detected automatically and sorted by artist, album etc. Besides, it integrates Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm, you can share your music to others quickly. Finally, it enhances your playing experience with the features for playing music such as 'play next', 'shuffle by albums' etc.
Pros:
1. It is a lightweight program, takes very little space;
2. Create indexes for music files quickly;
3. User friendly interface.
Cons:
1. Doesn't show long track names;
2. Doesn't work for embedded covers;
3. Only supports 15 days free trial.
Top 2. Tomahawk - Combine Streaming Music from Different Sources
If you have multiple kinds of music located in different places, you should get Tomahawk. It is a powerful tool to manage music from different online sources such as Soundcloud, Spotify Last.fm, Grooveshark and various local devices which are authorized. By syncing all the music, it enables you to find the best version of music whenever you are looking for a music from the system. And you can connect to your Google, Facebook, Jabber, Twitter account etc. so that to see your friends' collection. Tomahawk also has the option to save your searches to personalize your listening list automatically.
Pros:
1. It is totally free without any advertisements;
2. Manage your music from all sources;
3. Support to connect to cross platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux etc.
Cons:
1. Doesn't have instructions online.
Top 3. Swinsian - Advanced Music Player Supports Multiple Formats
This tool is an advanced music player runs on Mac which supports multiple formats and has multiple functions and features. For instance, you can use it to help you customize, organize your music and control the music to play with high flexibility. The interface looks like an old version iTunes and the supported formats include MP3, AAC, ALAC, Ogg, WMA, WAV, AC3, AIFF etc. The main features are extremely useful such as iTunes library importing, duplicate track finder, smart play list, playback over AirPlay and a lot more.
Pros:
1. Very powerful with a lot of features and formats compatibility;
2. Easily to edit songs tags and metadata.
Cons:
1. It is not so easy to use;
2. It is not free, only supports 30 days free trial.
Top 4. Sonora - Manage Music with Visual Layout
Sonora makes viewing music files comfortable. It is a small and beautiful music player for Mac which can manage all the music with visual albums grids, you can add or delete any music you want on the queue of the software easily. Also, you can search the music you want from it and discover new fresh music such as finding tracks from Last.fm. Similarly to the tool Swinsian, it supports multiple formats such as MP3, MP4, FLAC, OGG, WAV, AIFF, MOD etc.
Pros:
1. Easy-to-understand Interface;
2. Support multiple formats.
Cons:
1. Doesn't support playlists;
2. Take long time to import a large library.
Top 5. DoubleTwist - Easily Sync Music Files to Android Devices
DoubleTwist is a very powerful iTunes alternative to play almost any media files such as music, videos, photos with different formats. What's more, it allows users to sync the media files to a large amount devices and you can share your media files with your friends. Generally, this is a tool which has the similar appearance and features of iTunes. If you have multiple mobile devices and want to sync files, you can take a look at this app.
Pros:
1. User friendly interface;
2. Support to sync files to various devices;
3. Include a player for audios, videos and photos.
Cons:
1. Some devices are not supported;
2. Doesn't have lots of settings.
Conclusion
To summarize, all the 5 iTunes alternatives mentioned above are awesome regarding playing music, you can check and pick up one you want to enhance your experience to enjoy music. However, there is a problem that they are not compatible with the Apple Music which are DRM protected. So sometimes you may encounter the popup error 'This music is DRM protected and can not be played' when you are trying to play an Apple Music song. If you want to get rid of the DRM limitations from Apple Music, I'd glad to recommend the ViWizard Apple Music Converter for Windows/Mac to you. It can losslessly strip DRM in a fast speed and you can get lifetime free technical support if you encounter any technical issues. To get started, you can download the trial version from the product page to evaluate it simply.
- ViWizard DRM Audible Converter Review
- Top Three Best DRM Audiobook/Audible Converter
- How to Play Apple Music in a Car Freely
- Top 5 Best Video Players for Mac OS X
- Top iTunes DRM Removal Shareware Reviews
- Best iTunes Video Converter to Convert DRM M4V to MP4
- How to Play Apple Music on Android Phones & Tablets
Nick Orin is a review writer, software geek and Mac OS enthusiast. He spends all his free time in searching useful software and gadgets to share with others.
