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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I’d like one, thanks !
I’m using winamp & musicmatch but like to try any new or interesting features to compare.
IT’S THE BEST MUSIC PLAYER THAT I KNOW
Nice giveaway !!!
i think Multiple Music Collections will be helpful to me !!!!
mp3 everywhere in my HDisk :)
Multiple Music Collections and Advanced Playlists are the features I covet this holiday season!!! Mediamonkey rules!!!
Hi Martin,
Have used the free version occasionally, does a good job. So, Gold version should be even better.
Count me please in.
Thanks,
26Dolphins
I’m concerned about backing up the songs meta data which are the basis for all the play lists.
I did a manual back up for the meta data of my Itunes collection (had to format the HD) which failed miserably, causing me hours of tedious work.
So does Media monkey have a way to reliably back up meta data? It is no problem to back up the songs themselves (although Itunes built in back up messed that up too). The problem is the meta-data.
I love the fact that
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.. I can customize my media to all of the various playback options.
Yes! Haven been looking forward to try the gold version of mm, finally need a good all-in-one tool to get a grip on my music collection. would love to do some serious tagging :)
thx!
hello please count me in. I love the virtual cd function.its unique for a music player.
hi i like the comprehensive tagging feature of media monkey along with the converters it has.thanks.
I use MediaMonkey because of it’s awesome tag fixing and album art downloading skills. Of the Gold Edition, I’m interested in auto playlists and the ability to convert music to many formats.
Not just only to play music better, it can easily convert music via different formats as well as burning them to cds. I really love and eager to have this software and hope I can win this time.
file tagging :)
pls i want it for its tagging feature
Please add me to this list.
I would love to play with all the nice features on this app.
Thanks.
the library and tag management plus all plugins makes it so powerfull and still its so light compared to ITunes…
Well, i have a collection of about 200 CDs (and growing) which is waiting to be ripped but it is really a pain to look up every single album cover and tag the files properly. I use foobar2000 uncustomized because i don’t really have the time to learn how to customize and use it properly. I just want a player that works.
So i tried the free version of MediaMonkey and i’m really pleased with its functions. Having used seperate tools for ripping, tagging and playing in the past, this makes it a lot easier and saves a lot of time, too.
From the features of Gold version I’m intrested in file monitoring, virtual cd and sleep timer :-)
As an avid user of foobar2000 for years I want to change players/Library manager. I here this is the best thing out there at the moment as it tags and keeps track of all your music.
I would like to have a serial of software…
Se possível gostava de ter uma licença deste maravilhoso programa,obrigado.
I like the music management features of media monkey,
I am a big fan of media monkey have been using its free version and it is a wonderful music organizer with a great media player in built into it, I wish have the full version of it ,please consider me for this.
Hi all
I use free version of MediaMonkey, like it
The gold version would be appreciated.
Multiple collections and auto tagging are best features imho.
I t is a great music organizer ,have been a fan of it the free version of it please consider me for this , media monkey does have a very good music player also
Great giveaway and good luck for everyone
Hwy I currently use musicmatch jukebox but these facilities in thils software particularly the multiple formats that are playable will almost certainly force me to use this. Hope I get the code.
I’ve used the free version of media monkey in the past like a lot of the features but noticed it seems to take up a lot of resources. the new version looks promising especially the ability to manage different collections of music.
Great giveaway and good luck for everyone =p