Fully featured and free! (Musicmatch Jukebox)

Member Name: Stalin

Product:	Musicmatch Jukebox
Date:	07/07/01 (764 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Feature packed, Excellent radio, Customizable in every respect

Disadvantages: Crashes, Questionable ripping quality

There are basically two camps when it comes to music apps on the PC. Those which give you maximum control of how your music is played and how it sounds, with few file management or other features (such as Winamp and Sonique) and those that provide (or at least aim to) all of the music related functions you are likely to need. Until now, the only real contender in the second of these categories has been Windows Media Player, which is a pretty nasty piece of work. But now we have MusicMatch.

MusicMatch has a wide range of features, including digital ripping (into mp3, wma and wav), conversion between these formats, a file management system, CD recording, radio and live info from the MusicMatch web site about the media you are listening to.

The ripping facilities are highly customisable, with pre-made quality settings for those who don't want to fiddle in the details, but also the option of changing many options manually, including many I have never heard of like DAE speed and multipass. I am sure that audio enthusiasts will appreciate this. I have to say that the default settings provide below average results, with a 128kb rip sounding more like a typical 96kb. On the plus side, ripping is very fast. File conversion offers a similar level of customisability, including batch conversion, which is particularly handy. CD recording is on the simple side, but little more is needed if you ask me.

The file management is outstanding. Once ripped, an album is automatically ID3 tagged with all the info available from the CDDB and entered into your database. You can then drag albums from your file library to the play list for easy playing, or drag individual tracks. If your files are from other sources, it is still easy to add them to your library, although you will need to tag them manually. The tags themselves have actually been extended beyond the standard specification; with optional lyrics and notes sections, and even album cover art, which if
loaded, is displayed whilst a track from the album is playing. A nice touch!

The real beauty of this app is the radio features, and in general its integration with the web. Select an artist you like, and you can then listen to your own personal radio station, featuring artists similar to the ones you have selected. It automatically chooses a bit rate that matches your connection. It couldn’t be simpler. You can maintain favourites lists for easy access. Other web related features are a ‘Now playing’ tab that displays information on the current album, complete with reviews and the option of buying the CD. The programme also analyses your listening habits, and gives you recommendations as to what else suits your taste. This works quite well.

The interface is entirely controlled by the skin you are using, and there are a fair few to choose from, so you are likely to find one that suits you. All, however, are quite clean with all the main buttons in sensible places. They are also quite attractive, better than Media Player certainly, and in my opinion better than Winamp (what I mean by that is you can actually see what you are doing!) The only real problem with this programme is its stability – or lack of. It crashes frequently, highly annoying. Although, once it’s going, it normally stays going.

For the price of this product (free) it really is a very polished piece of work. The only ads you have to look at are the ones on the online portions of the app. There is a paid version, but it doesn’t offer much more than the free one. This is simply fantastic, and beats Media Player hands down. Download now!

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