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After the Spotify phenomenon, seeing competitors rising to get their share of the cake was only a matter of time.

Muziic is an online music player that lets you access and play millions of songs for free, and in a completely legal way. It enables you to browse an extensive music catalog that includes classic hits and recent top lists, and also lets you view the video clip associated with the selected song (courtesy of YouTube).

Muziic features a sleek, dark interface that looks a bit overwhelming at first sight. Unlike Last.fm or Spotify, you can’t search by styles or radio stations. Instead you can check different ‘playlists” and ‘channels’ created by other users, or perform a search for your favorite artist, before creating a your personal playlist from the results.

Despite being a desktop client, Muziic still relies a lot on the web. Every time you want to browse playlists, channels, skins and other material, you’ll be redirected to the program’s website, where you’ll be able to import all of it right into Muziic with just one click. Remember to select mprotocol.exe (and not muziic.exe) in order to import data successfully.

As for streaming speed and audio quality, Muziic seemed to work very well. If your Internet connection is fast enough, you can switch to HQ stereo and enjoy an even higher sound quality. Other customization options enable you to mark certain channels as favorites and add skins to the program’s interface – which sometimes makes it more readable.

That said, there were a few small details I didn’t like about Muziic. To begin with, I missed having radio stations like in Last.fm or Spotity. There’s no easy way to browse and manage your playlists. Finally, Muziic doesn’t support hotkeys to control it from other apps – not even the multimedia keys on my keyboard.

Muziic may not be as intuitive as other online music tools, but still it offers a wide music catalog and a good streaming quality.

Download Muziic Player 2.0 in Softonic

Download Sharepod 3.9.4 Preview 7 in Softonic

iTunes has become one of the most widely spread music managers today. The release of the iPhone and the new iPod models has only contributed to increase this popularity, thanks to the seamless synchronization of contents between the computer and your device.

Now with iTunes 9, Apple continues to develop and improve this music software masterpiece with fresh new features that enable users to make the most of their multimedia library.

Managing your iTunes library is a piece of cake. You can view extended information about each track, edit their tags and rate them. Also, iTunes lets you comfortably browse through your library with the amazing Cover Flow system or the newly implemented grid view, which displays cover artwork sorted by album, artist, genre or composer. And for those of you who work in a LAN environment, the great news is that you can share your music libraries with your network mates. If your family at home all have iTunes, you can activate Home Sharing, which allows you to combine your libraries, and keep them all up to date with new purchases and added music.

One thing I particularly like of iTunes as music manager is its ability to create playlists. The Smart Playlist tool enables you to create almost any kind of playlist based on just about any criteria you set: artist, genre, date added, star rating or even the number of times you’ve played each song. Another great playlist is the so called Party Shuffle, which comes in very handy when you invite some friends over to your place. You can then leave iTunes working as a DJ and play music on its own, but if you drop by the PC at any time, you can freely add more songs to the list or rearrange them in any way.

Regarding playlists, iTunes 8 includes now an exciting new feature called Genius. Just like other popular music sharing tools, Genius learns from the tracks you play on iTunes and recommends you similar songs, either from your own library or from the iTunes Store. In this way you can easily build thematic playlists by grouping similar songs, and also meet new bands you may not know about. The only drawback is that Genius needs to gather information about your music library and send it over to Apple in order to work, something that privacy freaks won’t be happy about.

If you have multiple computers in your house, you can turn on
However, if there’s something where iTunes is not perfect yet, that’s the player function. You may disagree here, but I think the iTunes player falls too short, especially when compared to its music manager side. It does have some interesting features, like the Smart shuffle function and crossfading playback, but I still find it too simple. I also missed the ability to control the player from anywhere with global hotkeys, which is great if you listen to music while you’re working on the PC with other apps. Fortunately there are some plug-ins that cover this need.

In all, despite these slight flaws, iTunes is probably the best choice to manage your music collection – and that includes Windows users.

Download iTunes 9.0.1 in Softonic

Download Super Sound Joiner 3.1.1 in Softonic

Download WinAudio Recorder 2.2.1 in Softonic

If you like to buy high quality music files, as many sites now offer files in lossless WAV format, you will probably need to convert them for use on a portable device.

Free Audio Converter is a tool that does exactly that. It can convert between MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV WMA and OGG files, unfortunately not the lossless FLAC format. However, that covers most formats you might see, and it almost couln’t be easier to use.

Simply drag in any files you want to convert, choose a format, destination and quality for conversion, and hit Convert. It’s pretty fast, and does it’s job well. More advanced users might want more configuration options than are available, but it will cover most people’s needs.

The only bad things about Free Audio Converter are that installation automatically opens your browser and loads the developer’s homepage, And the buttons in the application’s toolbar are largely useless.

Free Audio Converter is exactly what is says it is, and it’s a reliable and relatively flexible tool for conversion of audio.

Download Free Audio Converter 1.1.2.51 in Softonic

Cuberok is a music player based on the popular Amarok application.

Cuberok allows you to listen to music stored locally on your hard disk plus with streaming services such as Magnatune and Jamendo. The program can automatically create playlists and organize your music collection based on style, artist, and the albums listed on the labels. It can also retrieve information about your favorite artists from the Internet.

I like the fact that Cuberok is extremely lightweight and integrates with sites such as Last.fm, Libre.fm and those mentioned above. In the case of Last.fm, it even downloads album covers and data, although it doesn’t do this with the others. The overall look and feel of Cuberok is a bit flimsy and basic compared to big hitters such as iTunes. However, this is offset somewhat by how lightweight it is – surely one of the least intrusive music players out there.

If you’re a big Last.fm, Libre.fm, Magnatune or Jamendo user and also pine for an Amarok clone for Windows, you’ll certainly be pleased with Cuberok.

Download Cuberok 0.0.11 in Softonic

I have to admit that I had my doubts about reviewing this program. A CD player? Who listens to CDs anymore? Well, plenty of people, according to a quick survey of the Softonic office, and, using a tool like OrangeCD Player, I can understand why.

Like all the best programs, OrangeCD Player is very discreet, sitting in your taskbar until a right click brings up all its options. You can then control it directly, assign hot keys or bring up sub-menus to further modify its function. While a CD is playing, a quick roll over of the icon brings up the details of the disc.

OrangeCD Player also has a whole host of options, and its detailed track and album fields will be of interest to dedicated music fans who want to record as much detail as possible about their music. OrangeCD Player also downloads track information from the Internet, so you don’t have to worry about finding everything yourself.

You can modify just about everything else, from adding notes on the track and picking a default action for the program to take when it detects a CD, to playback options for when your computer restarts – no more listening to the same track twice because the CD starts over when the computer does!

With myriad options and excellent sound quality, OrangeCD Player is a winner.

Download OrangeCD Player 6.3.6.14015 in Softonic

There are occasions when you may need to edit an MP3 track to make it shorter so it fits on your portable device, remove annoying commercials or join a few together.

MP3 Trimmer aims to help you do all of these and more via a fairly simple but powerful interface that doesn’t take long to learn. The first thing to note is that when you open MP3 Trimmer, you’re subjected to a 15 second wait while the program prompts you to register. Hiding the window doesn’t help either so you’ve just got to put-up with it.

Once open, the interface requires you to load an MP3 track. If the audio track had a varying bitrate, MP3 Trimmer will warn you although it offers no help in equalizing it. On the left panel you can mark the in-point and on the right, the out-point. You can preview the 5 seconds preceding each point with the “Try” button to fine tune your editing. There are a few other boxes which you can check to edit your track such as adding an auto-fade and keeping the ID3 tag. There are also a few preferences which allow you to configure how your files are named and whether to check for the bitrate .

MP3 Trimmer is a very accomplished and professional feeling app which will cater to just about any basic MP3 editing need.

Download MP3 Trimmer 2.9.3 in Softonic

There’s a plethora of music players to choose from, among which iTunes and Winamp usually have the upper hand. However, if you are curious enough, you might find that lesser known alternatives like MediaMonkey offer a reasonable amount of features and tools to organize and equally enjoy your music library.

MediaMonkey automatically scans your PC for all types of music formats. If you have playlists from other programs, it’s good to know that the application also adds m3u files, sparing you the pain of having to recreate them. The file explorer view on the left lets you easily navigate your music collection by categories like artist, genre or rating. You can convert tracks into any format you wish, depending on what size or quality of sound you’re looking for. MediaMonkey also lets you analyze and adjust the volume of tracks to increase your listening experience.

MediaMonkey has made its reputation on its advanced tagging management feature. Every time a track is added, the program will verify its tags. You can automatically fill in missing details with info from Amazon or Filename. The program can clean up your tags, move information into the correct categories and synchronize tags for selected tracks. You can also rename and move multiple files thanks to the auto-organize function. MediaMonkey also supports Winamp plugins and visualizations plus skins can be applied to spice up the interface.

If you want to make your own mix CDs, you’ll be happy to know that MediaMonkey rips and burns CDs and DVDs. Create a virtual CD of your favorite tracks and let MediaMonkey do its job. Budding DJs will enjoy the auto-DJ mode, which mixes tracks for you and the Party Mode, which blocks your configuration but lets anybody play their favorite tune. MediaMonkey’s versatility doesn’t stop there. The music manager also lets you synchronize with your portable music devices like your iPod or iRiver.

If you feel like completing your library with a couple of fresh albums you can browse sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or AllPosters and purchase tracks. However, unlike Songbird, where you can type in a URL, browse and save your favorite music blogs and sites, MediaMonkey only allows you to browse their selection of online stores.

We were disappointed with the web radio selection, which only features Shoutcast and Icecast, and were surprised to see no sign of podcasts anywhere in the application. However version 3.0 is planning on incorporating this to the application.

Despite these drawbacks, we recommend MediaMonkey to anybody looking for a solid alternative to iTunes or Winamp. This original music manager is more than capable of organizing a very large music library and offers advanced tagging management rarely seen in other music applications. While the browser and web radio are fairly limited, MediaMonkey allows you to rip your custom CDs and connects to most portable music devices. If you really take a liking to MediaMonkey, cough up a few bucks and upgrade to the Gold version, which will open up all of the program’s functionalities like finding missing tracks or creating auto (smart) playlists.

Download MediaMonkey 3.1.1.1261 in Softonic

If you’re looking for not only a media player but also a recorder aswell, then JetAudio basic is a super solid solution that’s packed with features.

It’s secret lies in the ability to not only reproduce formats but convert them and even record audio and video. You can convert among all the major audio file formats and convert analog audio to various formats. There are also several visualization features including Sound2Vision tag editing for MP3, OGG, and WMA files plus you can add basic sound effects including wide, reverb, and x-bass. It would have been nice to have had a few more sound effects here but it’s not really big on graphic equalizer effects. You can control the speed of audio playback and also perform cross-fading between two songs which is useful if you want to use it as a party and turn yourself into your own DJ. There a re a few skins to change – there should be more – and karaoke fans are not left behind either as there is an options to used synchronized lyrics with karaoke audio files. You can even search for lyrics via “Leo’s Lyric Database” although the number of songs is very limited and sometimes the lyrics aren’t correct anyway.

A very useful all round player for anyone that would like to do more than just playback their audio files.

Download JetAudio Basic 7.5.5 in Softonic

Freez FLV to MP3 Converter is exactly what it claims to be. If you download videos from Youtube or similar sites, they will likely be in FLV format, and this application will convert such a file into an audio (MP3) track.

This is a really basic program. You have to have your FLV files downloaded already, but then you simply add them to the file list, choose your audio settings (if you wish), output directory and click ‘Start Converting’. Files are converted quickly with no further questions, and conversions aren’t limited in any way (unusual for software of this type). Obviously, whatever audio options you choose, quality is limited by the quality of the source video, but there at least seem to be no loss of quality.

As mentioned above, this is a very basic application, and it would benefit from a few more features. Obviously, choosing output format would be better, as not everyone chooses MP3, and it would have also been nice to see an option to convert only a part of a file.

Although it’s almost devoid of options, Freez FLV to MP3 Converter is an honest and capable little converter

Download Freez FLV to MP3 Converter 1.5 in Softonic

When I first heard about Spotify I though it was just another competitor to Last.fm, but soon discovered it offers a totally new way to enjoy your favorite artists and discover new bands online.

While comparisons to Last.fm are inevitable, Spotify has its own characteristics that make it a different beast entirely. To begin with, Spotify doesn’t have that many social network features. You won’t find friends lists, or an events calendar, or buttons to mark songs as “banned” or “loved”. That means that you don’t have a “user profile” with lists of songs you’ve recently played or tagged. Also, Spotify’s radio works in a different way: instead of searching for a specific artist or tag, you select a decade (between the 50s and today) and a music style, and the program plays the correspondent music.

There are several functions in Spotify that I’ve found especially useful. First of all, you can search for your favorite artist in the program’s built-in search tool and load all their available tracks on a play queue. This queue lets you check what you’re currently listening to and what’s coming next, and also works when you listen to the program’s radio.

Second, Spotify lets you build personal playlists, with no limitations. These playlists can be made of the individual songs you listen to on Spotify’s radio, or from the songs you have on your play queue. What’s more, you can make “collaborative playlists”, that is, share a playlist with a friend so that both of you can listen to it and add new tracks. The sharing though must be done via email or IM.

Finally, Spotify’s features a real built-in player: unlike the play/skip buttons in Last.fm, here you can go back to the previous track, jump to the next one and of course, pause a song whenever you want. The only thing missing in Spotify to be perfect, in my opinion, is the ability to control it from another app with global hotkeys.

Generally speaking, I think Spotify offers a better, easier and more optimized way to enjoy your favorite music online than other services like the aforementioned Last.fm. This program is the true online alternative to having to take your massive collection of music everywhere with you. Spotify lets you listen to the music you want to, not the music you’re supposed to like because it’s similar to the artist you’ve selected. First released as a beta version with limited access, Spotify is a truly promising music app with which I’m sure thousands of people will fall in love at first sight.

Spotify lets you browse, play and share streaming music for free, including not only your lifelong favorite bands but also new styles and artist.

Download Spotify 0.3.19 in Softonic

There are lots of people who have problems typing, whether they have some sort of disability or injury or perhaps literacy problems. In circumstances such as these, speaking, rather than writing, a message is the perfect solution. Speak-A-Message allows you to do just that – record a message and send it as an email.

Although Speak-A-Message’s interface is a little old-fashioned, it does the job well and has plenty of configuration options, allowing you to change the appearance of the tool, choose from web or POP-based email, send photos with voice commentary and even add a small range of special effects to your messages. It also comes with comprehensive online and offline help.

The messages we tried were received perfectly, even by people who don’t have Speak-A-Message installed (they are sent as .WAV files and can be read with any type of .WAV-enabled music player, which is most of them). You can modify the text sent in the email, but there doesn’t seem to be a way of changing the default message. You don’t even have to send the message, and can save it to your computer or as an .MP3 file and use it for presentations or reports, for example. Similarly, you can send photos or slideshows by email, or upload them to a private server where they can be accessed by friends and family with a special code.

Speak-A-Message – a sweet tool for sending basic voice messages by email.

Download Speak A Message 4.0.5 in Softonic