MediaMonkey forum

Hello everyone.
I'm new here, from Brisbane, Australia.

I have a Windows 10 desktop and laptop, and me and my wife both have Android phones.

To date I've been using iTunes on the computers (and I hate it) and trying various other players on the phones.
I've done a lot of research and it appears that MM might be just what I'm looking for,

Despite having read the website, I do have a few questions before committing. I'd appreciate if people are able to answer the following as to whether MM can do it and, if so, whether the PAID version is required for that feature. Thank you.

QUESTIONS

1. My music library is currently an iTunes one. Can this be converted readily to MM formats / organisation?

2. I do have a couple of iPods that my missus uses. I gather MM can handle syncing these, but that it was (at least) necessary to have iTunes installed on the computer, even if not used (presumably for codecs?). Is that still the case or can MM do this all on it's own?

3. Obviously I want to have only one working copy of my music library (on the DT computer). Would I be able to access these files via MM on the laptop? (The desktop / laptop connection would presumably be via the wifi router).

4. Is anyone running MM on a Linux system at all? (natively or if not available, via Wine etc?)

5. It appears I can read/convert media from my CDs to MP3 format to add to my library easily? iTunes could do this for free, is that the case with MM or is the paid version required...

6. Does the MM 'paid' version allow the paid version to be installed on multiple devices owned by me? (i.e two computers and two phones)


Thank you for your help.

1) No need to convert to MM format, there is none. MediaMonkey handles most file types.

2) iTunes is still required to be installed for any iOS Apple devices.

3) You can use DLNA to stream to any DLNA capable client including other MediaMonkey installations.

4) MM5 may become available for Linux eventually (they're working on the MAC OS version).

5) To MP3 requires a License after 30 days, but other formats are for free.

6) Yes, on up to three of your own computers.

Thank you

Perhaps I wasn't clear on a few points, allow me to elaborate...

1. When I say MM format what I mean is the folder / file organisation method used by MM as opposed top iTunes.
I've looked but can't see any definitive guide to how to import all the iTunes stuff into MM.
I'd envisage allowing MM to manage the media files, with it moving all the actual files into directories as it should.

If there is a comprehensive guide for the ITunes to MM migration, I'd appreciate if someone could point me to it !

2. Bugger. So as long as its on the hard disk then? Does anyone know how I'd tell iTunes NOT to start up when Windows starts, and even more importantly NOT to organise, catalog or fiddle with files in any way?

3. OK time forme to look up DLNA...

4. That'd be cool. I'm sure the Linux community would embrace it.

5. That's shame because the MP3 ripping is the only feature I need that is NOT offered in the free version (and sadly budget is a real issue just at the moment.) I thought I read somewhere that it is possible to add an encoder top the free version to do the MP3 side of things? iTunes allows this for free, so it's a shame MM doesn't but hey that's not forme to criticise. Perhaps I'll need to find a way to do the ripping in iTunes and then import it across to MM somehow...

6. Cool, great

[quote="VladTepes"]Thank you


1. When I say MM format what I mean is the folder / file organisation method used by MM as opposed top iTunes.
I've looked but can't see any definitive guide to how to import all the iTunes stuff into MM.
I'd envisage allowing MM to manage the media files, with it moving all the actual files into directories as it should.

There is no MM folder / file organization (nor is there one that is actually required for iTunes). The Add/rescan feature will add files from the source you specify whatever its organization (as will iTunes for that matter). And the Auto-organize feature will allow you to re-organize files to whatever organization you want, but you have to specify that. Bottom line, there is no need to change your file organization to use MM and MM won't change it unless you tell it to.

To add files to MM use the Add/rescan feature under the File menu. Find the highest level folder that includes your music (on my system it would be C:/Users/User/Music/iTunes, if I were using iTunes), click on the box next to this folder to get a check mark there and then press okay. Depending on the size of your collection, you could go have a snack or just twiddle your thumbs for a bit. You can then find your music under Music in the media tree (left column). If you have several top level folders with music (I have seperate top level folders for classical and for other) you can check both.

The only time file / folder organization matters is if you use Auto-tag from filename; but again, if the filename is okay in iTunes it will be okay in MM.

You will find, however, that there is data about your files that is not stored in file tags and so cannot be read by MM (or any other player). For example, iTunes does not store track and album ratings in a file tag, but in the iTunes database. And thanks to Apple not playing well with others that information cannot be read by other programs. And due to some limitations of the standard ID3 tag system there may be other pieces of information that are not in file tags but in the iTunes database (and so inaccessible to other programs).

The iTunes drivers are necessary to sync to iPods, but it is not necessary to have all of iTunes installed as explained here: https://www.copytrans.net/support/insta ... ng-itunes/. That said, iTunes store may be a source you use for which you will, of course, need iTunes installed somewhere.

Frankly, I don't use the MM ripper as I think I get better tagging control using dbpoweramp's ripper, but I have almost exclusively classical albums and dbpoweramp provides tags from SonataDB which is much better than freedb. I know a number of MM power users prefer Exact Audio Copy (which is free). A real advantage of MM over iTunes is that it will play FLAC files (to me this is a much better reason to use MM than "I hate Apple") and will automatically convert them to MP3 when syncing to devices that only accept MP3 files.

Users can change the lame encoder, but MediaMonkey can't offer it for free as there are licenses on the MP3 codec. However MediaMonkey can still rip to a variety of other formats for free.

OK thanks for those further explanations.

A real advantage of MM over iTunes is that it will play FLAC files (to me this is a much better reason to use MM than "I hate Apple")

Fair call, but I still hate Apple...


I think I must have had some setting checked (or perhaps it is a default setting) in iTunes as it was (is) constantly moving or copying files from elsewhere into its iTunes media folder... and tagging / naming them as it sees fit...
Any idea with iTunes what I need to do to:
1. Have it NOT start with Windows.
2. Close when closed ie NOT run in background.
3. NOT do any re-organising of the physical location of my files, or amend them in any way.

Ta

That's why I hate itunes so much, it wants to take over everything

1) start task manager and disable auto start for itunes
2) see 3
3) open itunes go to edit/ preferences/ advanced and disable - keep itunes media folder organised, copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library, show iTunes icon in the system tray and warn me if itunes is not the default player.

Thank you !