MediaMonkey Gold is an all in one music manager for the Windows operating system. The developers are offering a free version of Media Monkey which for itself is a very capable music manager. MediaMonkey Gold adds features on top of that that make it one of the best Windows music managers. Both versions of MediaMonkey offer media playback, audio converting, music tagging, playlist generation, CD ripping or syncing with devices like the iPod. That for itself is a very extensive feature set.
Upon first launch the program will display a directory browser that can be used to select the folders that contain music on all connected hard drives. All discovered files are automatically added to the library based on their ID3 tags. The library itself comes with several subfolders that sort the music collection by genre, rating, composer or artist automatically which makes it very easy to access specific music faster than usual. Specific information from iTunes and Windows Media Player (like ratings) can be imported into MediaMonkey.
The tagging features of MediaMonkey come in handy at this point. Most music collections contain at least a few files that are not tagged properly and MediaMonkey offers the tools to correct these issues automatically. The music manager makes this easy as it will list all files with improper tagging in a Files to Edit folder in the library. These audio files might appear in other folders as well depending on the ID3 tags that are missing (it will be listed in the genre if the genre is set but not in the album folder if the album is not set).
Files to Edit will sort the music with missing ID3 tags into different folders that specify what is missing (e.g. missing genre, unknown album art). A right-click on any folder or one on selected files will provide the option to automatically tag the music based on file information or by searching for the information on the Internet. The Internet option makes use of various Amazon stores to find the information needed to properly tag the audio files.
It is also possible to manually edit the tags for a specific audio file or multiple files to fine tune the tags or edit specific tags that could not be identified by automatic tagging. This in combination with the auto renaming features can turn an unsorted improperly tagged music collection in a properly tagged and named collection in no time.
New music can be added to the software program by adding new locations that should be searched for music, by ripping audio CDs, using the build in file monitor or syncing devices like Apple’s iPod or other mp3 players with the music manager.
Adding new locations will simply repeat the steps outlined above and add any new music that is found in those locations to the MediaMonkey library. MediaMonkey comes with the option to rip audio CDs and use the information offered by FreeDB to tag them automatically. The build in file monitor is only available in the Gold version of MediaMonkey. This handy feature will monitor specific locations on the local computer system and spring into action if it discovers new music which then gets added to the program.
Another option offered is the ability to convert music into different music formats using build in
- the MP3 converter
- AAC/M4A converter
- OGG converter
- WMA converter
- WAV converter
- FLAC converters.
MediaMonkey Gold is not only a tool to properly maintain a music collection. It comes also with all the media playback capabilities – and then some – that one would expect from a all-in-one audio manager.
- Play: Play CDs and digital audio files (popular formats like MP3, AAC/M4A, OGG, WMA*, MPC, APE, FLAC, WAV, etc supported) or use MediaMonkey in combination with Winamp to use Winamp as the player. Music volume can be adjusted automatically and the equalizer and dsp audio effect plugins allow to fine tune the playback.
- Multiple Music Collections: Ability to filter large music collections into smaller collections like Rock, Classic Music and Podcasts which can be customized with their own playback settings.
- Playlists: Playlists can be created by dragging and dropping music, using the auto-playlist option or auto-dj to automatically create mixes.
- Burn: Option to burn music to CD.
- Visualization: Display visualization on the computer screen while playing music.
- Reports and Statistics: Ability to create statistics and reports that can be viewed in the program and exported into xml files.
- Customization and Plugins: MediaMonkey can be customized and extended with plugins and new skins that are offered on the developer’s website.
- Virtual CD: Ability to catalog the CD audio collection to keep tracks of CDs
Users interested in MediaMonkey can download the free version right away from the developer’s website:
Ghacks Giveaway:
We are giving away ten 25 licenses of MediaMonkey Gold to users who reply to this article. Please tell us which feature excites you the most (if any).
Windows7news.com is giving away including the file recovery software Recovery My Files, a Mozy online backup account and other software. Check it out.
Raju from TechPP is also offering MediaMonkey Gold today. Go over there for another chance to win this excellent music manager.
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excellent music manager
using the free version to send files to my mp3-player
dear all
I hope in this program as a valid alternative to media player
regards
Nice tool. If u give away, I do try this ;)
The converter and plugin system is great in mediamonkey.
So i hope i’m a lucky winner :-)
I like the fact that MediaMonkey is an all-in-one package. Using different packages to accomplish different tasks gets tedious. And I especially love having a good quality, built-in file format converter.
I am impressed with the free version of MediaMonkey, but some features in Gold that I’d really like are the automatic file organisation, Create Previews, Advanced AutoPlaylists and the customisable filters.
Currently my music collection is a bit of a mess, and I think MediaMonkey Gold would be the perfect candidate for helping me clean up that mess.
best regards
Christian, aka TucknDar
From what I’ve seen from the free version I love the Auto Tag Editor with Album Art Lookup feature. I’m looking forward to use the Automatic library organizer feature if you get me a license :)
hmm, i use foobar2000. but it’s a bit clumsy with drag n drop. also i tend to reorganize file locations, and fb2k lacks some kind of link rediscovery (refinder?) Also the playlist tabs are a bit tricky if they wrap to multiple rows (of tabs).
do(es) either mm g or mm free have fixes for those aspects of fb? the playlist feature (as described above).. is it better than in mmfree?
thanks…
(aaahhh. 3 am.. zzz. i should be zzz)
I guess I’d be most interested in the sleep-in-function and the auto playlists.
I use MediaMonkey occasionally but a gold license would be great!
I have heard so much good about MediaMonkey Gold that I really would *LOVE* to win a license!
Sounds interesting – I’d definitely like to give it a try.
i used MediaMonkey it very great. I hope win license version Gold.
Mediamonkey gold is one of the best multimedia.
Multiple Music Collections, is the most excited feature for me.
therefore, I would be glad to receive one license from you.
best regards.
I like the feature converting music into different music formats.
I would like the Party Mode, auto-dj thing for those “crazy” nights, and the opportunity to gather all my unedited tracks for finalisation (there are quite a few, and I’m just lazy).
Add me in this… I would love to try out the automatic file tagging… I have 100s of untagged files. ty
The truth is, I have no idea which feature that I like since I don’t have this one. Yes I heard so many times before that this paid version is the best audio manager ever. I guess this can be the starting point for me to start using MediaMonkey Gold, if I can win the license. Thanks.
I think it is the tagging features of Mediamonkey Gold.
Thanks for this offer.
Dieses Programm macht glücklich. Wäre ein schönes
Weihnachtsgeschenk – darum möchte ich’s haben.
I used the free version back then and then moved to itunes. I would like to try the commercial version out.
I have been using MediaMonkey free for a long time. I like it better than WinAmp. MediaMonkey Gold includes tagging features which can be useful for me. Hope to win this one.
This is really a super good program. I’d like to have one please.
Thanks
Hi,
Thanks for this.
I like the MP3 converter part .
Best regards !
I’m particularly interested in MediaMonkey Gold’s ability to manage multiple collections simultaneously. I’d love to see that in action with my extensive music collection.
I’m interested in winning a MediaMonkey license! The feature that interests me most is the ability to have different collections, because I listen to very different music styles.
Hii Ghacks..
I currently have the free version and love its ability to convert music between
different formats on the fly…
Please inlude me in this giveaway…
Thank you
I do not know that software… I am curious to find out.
Hi, I would really like to win this, MediaMonkey is my favorite music manager. I like the organization features offered in the gold version.
The search is very fast, accurate, and intuitive. It organizes the way I like to organize.