As I see..here plp like this kind of matches so here is........

I will vote for amarok because

1. I can download/view lyrics
2. I can view the wiki page of the artists
3. I can use my iPod or almost any USB media player
4. I like the brain music feature (It shows you how much do you like a group etc..)
5. Its integrated with lastfm
6. I can download your covers from amazon (yeah...without even spend a cent in the itunes store)
7. I can change the skin or make one myself
8. It can live in the system tray (Itunes dream with that)
9. I can use hot keys to change songs even if the player is on the systemtray (itunes is dreaming again)
10. It can play almost any music format if you have the plugins in your system (even wma)
11..a lot more... but I want to hear other comments

www.animenakama.com/imagenes/amarok.jpeg
www.animenakama.com/imagenes/amarok1.jpeg
www.animenakama.com/imagenes/amarok2.jpeg

enjoy :)...ah one more thing amarok is exclusive for linux now...so stop dreaming about it if youre a windows user
Sorry I was trying to post the images but this doesnt allow me to "break" the look and feel of the page with my big images...so I think you can just see the images using the links

AMAROK RLZ

useful and powerful tool for music

Neither :P

I use Winamp, mostly cos I like the skin system. Heres my current skin btw:



I never really rated iTunes to be honest

Yes I know..winamp rlz..but for me the only feature that I really miss are the skins rather than than amarok kick its ass...

All those things you listed...i have no use for.
besides, youc an download album art from the itunes store for free too. And it's higher quality :3
you can also have the lyrics integrated in the songs.
i see no point in changing skins, veiwing wiki pages for artists, using lastfm, and wma quality makes me cringe, so if itunes played it, i'd be dissapointed.
For me, it's itunes. It's stupidly easy to use, but if you want to immerse yourself in techy stuff, it's there. i like the fact all i have to do is click on the dock to change whatever i need. it's definitly better on the mac than the PC, thats for sure.
and one thing i hate about PC keyboards, no volume control :P
(at least not the ones that come with the uber-HP systems we have in classes)
we have amarok on the linux systems, but it collects dust since, most everyone else finds those options pointless. It's a rare case where i sit around and stare at my music player, or even do anything more than add tracks and make playlists. I use it to play in the background while i do work. I also don't need some music player to tell me how much i like a band, thank you very much. i think i can figure that out on my own :P

That's the point...maybe they dont have use for you but for me they are great features (and yes amarok can read the lyrics from the mp3 files too)..and if you hear radio stream as musch as I do...the Wiki and lyrics feature comes to help you if you found a new and unknown group for you ..then you can check its story and etc.......


For the rest you can change the cover service for another (I dont know if you can grab them from the itunes store)... but at least they dont ask me to open a paypal account with them just to add covers to my old mp3 collection

The majority of features you listed, I wouldn't/don't use.
Plus I don't use Linux much anymore.

I'd have to vote for iTunes.

I use iTunes to play music and videos stored on my flatmates computers, and to stream music to various Airport Express's around the house. I also use iTunes to stream music and video's to a Mac Mini which is hooked up to a TV in the living room.

I use my PDA or Phone with Sailing Clicker to remote control iTunes from anywhere there's a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal. It has the bonus of displaying cover art and other info on the screen.

iTunes synchronises iCal, Address Book, Delicious Library, Podcasts and my iPhoto library with my iPod.

iTunes is integrated into Front Row and works with CenterStage.

When I'm using Linux I use Rhythmbox, as I like it's simplicity. I did use Amarok a bit a long time ago.

I might try Amarok sometime as Wikipedia says that it runs on OS X, though I can't seem to be able to access the site at the moment.

I'm also going to vote for iTunes. I used to use WinAmp alot but it started to really annoy me, the libary system is just no where near as powerful as the iTunes one in my opnion. I also use it because of my shiney little iPod (iPoo), although I converted way before I got that. I just like iTunes because it's simple, it looks good, it's library system is awesome and for my iPod. It must admit though it definatly works alot better on my boyfriends Mac than it does on my PC, but what they hey, that doesn't really bother me too much.

I've never even heard of this Amarok player thing but all the features you mentioned don't bother me at all, plus I don't use Linux.

First off, a large majority of the people on this forum are either Windows or Mac users so being a Linux-only program, it already has a mark against it for being so "exclusive". I doubt people would switch over to Linux just for a music program, which isn't really that fantastical in the first place.

ITunes is extremely easy to use and navigate. I don't even have an iPod and I still find myself using features meant for iPods such as podcasts because of the fact it is just that easy to use. Most lyric sites are not going to have anime or Japanese song lyrics so that feature is pretty much useless. I could just go to www.animelyrics.com and find the song I'm looking for, and integrate the lyrics into the mp3 file. I could care less about a wiki of the artist. That's what Google's for if you're really interested about that stuff. As people mentioned before, you can download cover art for free from iTunes, provided that you have the correct song or album name. Some people may or may not like having programs in the system tray. I hate having a cluttered systray and would rather have it minimized in the task bar. My keyboard has dedicated media control buttons so I don't have to deal with hotkeys. And like DeepDragoon mentioned, iTunes can be remotely controlled. I use my PDA along with RemoteAmp to control iTunes wherever I can get my wifi connection. As an end note, the music list interface looks like an iTunes ripoff.

There are just too many reasons why iTunes is superior to Amarok, the main reason being iTunes is insanely easy to use and is available for Windows and Mac, the two current dominating platforms. I'm sure if you run Linux, Amarok would be fine. Anyway, I also use Rhythmbox on the rare occasions I play music on my Linux box.

HIa

As I see..here plp like this kind of matches so here is........

Yeah, matches for a Linux program? I doubt you're going to get any real arguments here. Besides which I'm not sure it's going to be so exclusive in the future. It's currently built againts kde libraries which don't work on windows because of QT issues. KDE 4 will be based off of QT4 so it is very likely you may see amarok on windows. The main issue then would be the fact that there is no back end for windows audio but that could be coded and hooked in just like gstreamer support was (which mysteriously dissapeared one day).

I use winamp on windows mainly because it's the only program that can actually play all the music formats I'd like. All .mod, .nsf, and .spc players suck on ALL other platforms. Having been away from winamp for some time I now feel that the interface isn't very good. It's functional but could be improved a lot.

On OSX I used to use iTunes since it was made by apple. Eventually I decided that iTunes was a bloated peice of garbage so I use MacAmp Lite instead. I found my entire machine MUCH more responsive since I stopped playing music with iTunes. I've been checking to see if amarok is available on OSX every couple weeks for about a year. It supposidly can be installed via fink, but I hate fink so I'll have to wait for it to be put on darwinports.

Personally I'd say Amarok far and away stomps all other music players. But most of the things that truly make it better aren't things that are tangibly uber features. Small stuff like being able to scroll through tabs, adjust the volume, and song position all by using the mouse wheel depending upon what your mouse cursor is over. The easily adjustable OSD. There's just so many usability improvements in the program that you could never list them all.

Yes I forget that 99.9% of plp with an Ipod (75% of the plp that have an mp3 player) are using itunes... also only 10% use linux as it primary machine... maybe this match was not fair.... and for my part I always use winamp for all when Im in my windows box.


:)

karbonfyber

First off, a large majority of the people on this forum are either Windows or Mac users so being a Linux-only program, it already has a mark against it for being so "exclusive". I doubt people would switch over to Linux just for a music program, which isn't really that fantastical in the first place.

Ah, but amaroK is open source, therefore one can feel free to port it to any OS one desires.

karbonfyber

Most lyric sites are not going to have anime or Japanese song lyrics so that feature is pretty much useless.

Actually, for pretty much all songs for which I have asked for lyrics, there have been lyrics in the database, including Japanese ones (though it gives the lyrics in romanji).

ChocolateNinj4

Ah, but amaroK is open source, therefore one can feel free to port it to any OS one desires.

How many people have the ability or the knowledge to port an application? I understand your point that it is open source so one may do it if they feel like it, but we're comparing Amarok to iTunes. The majority of people will use iTunes because they probably have an iPod. I can't see a valley girl, who can barely manage the iTunes Store porting an application to a different platform.

As for the lyrics, I do agree that some Japanese or anime songs may have lyrics in some of the major lyric sites but I usually find myself crawling through Google, trying to find that one obscure Geocities page where some kind soul has offered up lyrics for a song that I need. Maybe it's because I'm weird and I listen to weird music, I don't know. But I do like how some of the more popular Jpop songs are on the large lyric sites and that they are kept in romaji, instead of a full English translation.

I understand your point of view. It's just that I'm thinking more holistically. Sure one could port the app to a different platform but no one has yet. It would be nice to see and I'd be more than willing to give it shot if someone did.

Def amarok. but in terms of most of the listed features, mpd offers them and then some. imo the ability to stream via an ice server and control the program via another networked comp is awesome.

I haven't used amaroks techy feats at all, at least I havent noticed. But for some reason I prefer it over iTunes and I prefer iTunes over winamp because of ease of use. There some skins for amarok too in kde-look.org if I'm not wrong.
I don't know, I'm just a linux fanboy and I despise windoze, I'd be glad to buy 2nd hand iBook though.
It's usually "mine is best" matter when it comes to software, the more you use the more you like. I can't use photoshop at all anymore after using gimp for half a year. Total off-topicing once again...
But yeah amarok since I use it all the time and it's damn hyped player in the "nerd-OS" world :P