The interface is divided into two main levels. The left sidebar offers a folder browser with some filtering options at the bottom. It is for example possible to filter for specific audio formats or file names. The confusion can be attributed to the right main window. This window is divided into a main tab with buttons to rename, tag, edit, organize, retrieve online information and play. The two lower menus change depending on the main tab that is selected by the user.

The rename tab for example contains buttons to scan, open or save playlists, open the rename options, execute scripts and handle changes (like undo or ignoring files. More confusing than that are main options like the organize or online tabs where the choice in the second menu level changes the third menu.

Here are some of the highlights of the music manager:

• Batch rename of files using Tag/Filename/Folder name/Audio file information.
• Batch Tag update.
• Manual / single file editor.
• Album/filename rename & update using freedb.org or www.allmusic.com, Amazon, and custom sites
• Powerful library.
• Encode/decode your files with LAME,Ogg Vorbis or mpcenc. (trans code with out losing tag information from one format to the other)
• Restructure the files on your hard disk ( copy,move or even create shortcuts ) in new user defined location based on Tag field information.
• mp3, ogg, mpc, ape, flac, aac, apl, wv, mp4, ofr, spx file support

The Godfather is available at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most Windows operating systems and can be downloaded as a stable or beta version.

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Songbird is able to import the iTunes music library and playlists if iTunes is installed on the computer system as well. It does not really make sense to use both iTunes and Songbird unless iTunes is used to purchase music and fill music gadgets like the iPod or iPhone as Songbird provides an equal – and sometimes even advanced – functionality otherwise.

Users who do not use iTunes can import music easily by adding folders from the local computer system. Songbird will automatically recognize tags and categorize the music accordingly. One of the most interesting features is the support for plugins. A handful of plugins are installed by default unless the user opts out of the installation. Plugins expand the functionality of the music manager. Available are for example a Shoutcast Internet radio browser and player, the Last.fm radio player, concert information, various skins and interface enhancements and dozens of additional plugins that sound mighty useful.

Especially the plugins make Songbird a viable alternative to other music players.

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A look at the interface might confuse some users as it is packed with many buttons and functions. It can be divided into three parts. The menu toolbar, a sidebar that switches between different display modes and the main window that is divided in two rows as well.

The left sidebar contains the following modes:

• Simple Mode: Contains a listing of all music tracks as well as suggestions on the top which are computed after time.Suggestions include preferred, newest, rarely listen, other albums and similar artists.
• Files: A file browser that displays a directory tree with all music directories that have been added to the software. Filters, covers and a queue to create playlists are provided here as well.
• Tracks: Tracks sorted by genre using their mp3 tags. Filters, covers and the queue are offered in this menu as well.
• Albums: Displays either an album catalog that displays the album art or a albums table. The thumbnail size of the cover can be changed on the fly.
• Playlists: Contains an overview of all playlists on the system. Playlists are divided into new, best of, novelties and bookmarks. Again with options to save playlists.
• Display: Display the cover, lyrics and an animation while playing music. Covers and lyrics are automatically loaded from the Internet.
• Information: Displays information about the current band on Wikipedia.
• Config: Dozens of settings.
• Stats: Displays tracks per monht, size by directory, collection size by month and the genres

The software is packed with additional features that are interesting. It contains a so called DJ mode which makes it easy to create playlists based on factors like proportions (e.g. 20% heavy metal, 30% rock), transitions (Heavy –> Pop) or ambience (Party, Soft).

Additional features of interest:

• Mp3 tag editor (Ogg,ID3 V1/V2, WMA, Flac), Online (CDDB) retagging
• Finding duplicate files
• Configuration of web radios
• Last.fm information queries, scrobble
• CD Scanner
• Keyboard controls
• Alarm clock

Jajuk is an interesting alternative to music management programs like Media Monkey or iTunes.

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Well it’s a shame then that many music jukebox applications don’t provide the functionality for people like you. If you’ve ever wanted to be able to browse your library by genre, sub genre, sub-sub-sub genre, music label and city of origin then I have found something in which you can do it.

Helium Music Manager unfortunately isn’t actually free, but it has a 30 day trial period so if it sounds good then I’d recommend giving it a shot.

Helium Music Manager provides a way to actually use every piece of data you have on an artist. You can have biographies, lyrics for every song, associated artists, see which bands individual musicians have been in and much more. Everything is analysed and collected into graphs and statistics, so you can see how much of your library was produced by EMI during the year 1970 if you so wished.

The biggest problem with Helium is just that it takes a lot of time to get your collection organized… there is no ‘batch tag’ option and for every artist you will need to go through and individually download and save data, lyrics, details, biography, reviews etc. However if you don’t mind then I would defiantly recommend this as a music organizer alternative.

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