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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MediaMonkey 4 Gold
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This music mgmt might be better…..i would like to have… thanks
A Different music mgmt tool to try out….sweet…..
can i have….thanks…
I HOPE WIN =p
I like that it really is an all-in-one package…I really need to settle down and clean up my collection and mm looks like a great way to do so.
MozyHome works pretty well for me – on both Mac and PC. MozyPro needs a lot work, however – the interface is extremely convoluted and not user friendly at all.
Use the following link to get 20% more space on a free MozyHome 2 Gb account:
https://mozy.com/?code=D685JF
I like the fact that you can sync an Ipod on it.
And the all-in-one program way of doing things.
First post for me :-)
Marc Laberge
I like the Media Monkey player as a whole. Easy to use with nice tagging features.
I have subscribed to your feeds , and suprisingly found MediaMonkey Gold as a giveaway. I was in fact looking for one Gold licence
As I am using Media Monkey as my music manager, I have Winamp also, but I dont use it .
Hence I would like to prefer to answer your second question as you given an “OR”
◦What you like in MediaMonkey Gold?
I like several things in Media Monkey Gold
a) Performance – it start up very fast
b) Very user friendly interface – One day I moved from Winamp to Media Monkey, just to check it. But in that day only, I learned to use all the functinalities of Media Monkey only becuase of their user freindly interface . I dont use Winamp after that day
c) Auto Tag from Web – this feature is very useful for me , as I listen to lots of songs, of which I dont have all the Album covers. This feature searches the proper cover fromthe web and lets me download it.
In one sentence, I would say Media Monkey Gold is the leader in the category
Looking forward in getting a licence of Media Monkey Gold.
Sujay
I am most excited about the ability to save reports/stats into .xml files in order to post them onto my blog so that my readers can see what I think is hot and whats not at any given moment.
Greetz
File tagging… Media Monkey definitely one of the best multipurpose music manager
Hi, thanks for nice offer. The aspect that I find most interesting is the tagging features of MediaMonkey. It would be really useful. Thanks once more.
I use the free and would like to have the Gold version. I think the mp3 converter would be most useful for me. Thanks
I have been using MM for years. I love the media sorting, tagging from web, album art, scripts people have written, file conversion it makes so easy, and its flawless sync with ipods.
Program appeals to me because it covers all the bases, full featured. I think the tagging capabilities are especially good.
Thanks for a great site (which I normally follow daily with RSS, but your special Christmas generosity always gets me here also).
I really dig the web lookup for missing tag info and the really intuitive auto-organize feature. Also, it is one of the few programs that makes iPod management fairly painless.
I consider APE format support as the best thing in MediaMonkey player, many possible views are also handy.
I like the Virtual CD ability.
I like Media Monkey because it is a great music manager.
The tagging features are very easy to handle.
Hope to win this great software.
Never had a chance to own a real copy of media monkey, thank you for providing this opporrtunity.
For my opinion the bets music organizer that we can find in the web.
I use the free version but the gold version would be o so much better. Like the play lists, nice and easy to do
The file tagging features are extremely useful. I also use mm for encoding with the lame encoder.
please count me , send me 1 license
i like it because :
He manages énormémement audio devices including all iPods
marvel of simplicity and versatility.
Hi
I will love to have a genuine copy if the destiny anwers in favor.
I have used this software. This is excellant replacement for iTunes. Some of the features are even not avialable in iTunes. Please give me this…please….
Hi, i’m currently using itunes to manage my music collection but would love mediamonkey gold as i really like the sound of the “Automatic library organizer” :)
Great piece of software,
I use it to sync my iPhone.
Its a iTunes killer :)
I need this , this is excellant replacement for iTunes. some of the features are not there in iTunes as well. Please give me this
Hi, i am currently using itunes but would like a less bloated application to manage my music collection.
The Automatic library organizer feature really appeals :)
The advanced management and auto-playlst tagging features are really kewl! Sign me up for the drawing.