MediaMonkey

[tarekma7]

Is your music library a mess?   Movies missing artwork and other information?  Scattered across various locations?  Full of duplicates? Get MediaMonkey and get organized. MediaMonkey is a music player and manager for serious music collectors. It will help you to easily navigate, manage and sync large music collections. You can easily organize and rename all your files.  It supports many audio file formats such as, MPC, FLAC, APE, OGG, WMA, WAV and MP3. In addition, it has a built-in tag editor which search for missing album art and track information over the web. The program supports the use of plug-ins to extended its functions to play video files and other media formats.

Homepage:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Download link:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/



Add ons:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/addons/

Current version: 4.1.16.1836

Release date: May 21, 2017

Comparison between Free and Gold versions:
 


Purchase Gold:

After you complete your purchase, you'll receive an e-mail containing your License Key and installation instructions. You can easily register MediaMonkey Gold and enjoy all its features. You can purchase lifetime license for the current program version or for all future upgrades. To do purchase; visit this page:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/register/en



Requirements:

The program supports Windows XP, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 – both 32/64 bit versions are supported

Installation:

Installation of the program is easy and doesn’t require any skills. Simply double-click the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions to complete installation. You can select full or portable installation. The portable installation will let you have the program to be used on any other computer. After complete installation, you will have a wizard which will guide you in a step by step way to setup the program options. The steps include welcome note, registration (if you have gold purchase), windows integration, context menu and file associations, scan media on your computer and share media. The media scan result will appear after you finish the stepped wizard




























 
User Interface:

The user interface is very friendly, easy to use and well arranged. If you don’t like the classic look, the program is skinny to suit your needs











Menus:

File:


 
Edit:

 

View:
 


Play:


 
Tools:


 
Help:



Taskbar icon right click menu:



Features:

First let’s discuss the free version features:

MediaMonkey is the movie and music organizer for the serious collector
Supports many formats as MP3, AAC (M4A), OGG, WMA, FLAC, ALAC, MPC, WAV, CDA, AVI, MP4, OGV, MPEG, WMV, M3U, PLS, etc.
Automatically identify movies and tracks that are missing information
The built in MP3 Tag editor helps to tag music easily
Helps to easily create Playlists with ease
Automatically organize and rename music and video files.
Automatically update your music library or video collection (with any changes on your computer or network) using the file monitor
Download audio content using the integrated Podcatcher
Download media files from any website using the file monitor
Sync / Backup Android, iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc. devices
Share over UPnP / DLNA
Record CDs to your hard drive
Convert audio and video files from almost any format and preserve tag information
Burn Audio CDs using the integrated burner
Used for parties or other public events with its jukebox mode
Visualize your music with funky trance-like effects powered by Milkdrop and hundreds of other visualization plug-ins.
Create Statistics and other Reports of your music collection (as Excel, html, or xml files)
Customizable with skins, visualizations, plug-ins and other addons.

Gold Version Features:

In addition to all the features of the FREE version that are listed above, you will enjoy many extra features:
Manage large music and movie collections.
Automatically organize and rename audio and video files on your hard drive into a logical hierarchy of your choice according to a set of rules that you define. This will be a background process
Create advanced AutoPlaylists which automatically generate a music mix to suit your mood.
Auto-conversion allows you to automatically sync, share (over DLNA) or burn tracks, converting tracks on-the-fly to a format that is supported by your iPod/iPhone or other portable device or CD/DVD/DLNA player, while retaining all metadata.
Auto-leveling levels track volume on-the-fly so that tracks play at a steady volume on CDs/DVDs and on devices that don't support volume leveling
Professional-quality CD Ripping
Automatic lookup for artwork and lyrics
Find music with advanced search functionality
Encode unlimited MP3s without having to manually install a new MP3 encoder
Catalog your physical CDs and use the Virtual CD feature to keep track of what CDs you own and which subset of tracks from those CDs are copied to your hard drive
Use virtual CD to import and save audio tracks from audio CDs and MP3 CDs
Create Previews, short samples of audio tracks to help you decide which to add to your collection
Use a Sleep Timer to play your music: perfect for listening to tunes before you go to sleep
Burn CDs at the maximum speed permitted by your hardware

Multilingual support:

The program supports over 15 languages to suite users’ needs. This lets you enjoy using the program in your own language. Languages supported include English, Afrikaans, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. If you want to change the program language, simply use the language option of the settings.



New Features in version 4:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/information/changelog/

Video support: program functionality is extended to support playing Video (AVI, MP4, WMV, etc.).
New audio system that offers higher quality, lower latency audio, via the Windows Audio Session API.
Manage multiple collections from a single UI
Sharing: you can share collections using UPnP/DLNA so that your xBox, PS3, or DLNA-enabled television can play your music and videos.
Automatic synchronization with support for a variety of devices. This lets you easily transfer media via connection
Portable mode: the program can be run from a USB device so that you can take it, along with your music collection, to whatever Windows PC you're using.
Secure ripping:  CDs are copied with great accuracy by slowing down the discs rotational speed whenever inaccuracies are detected. 
Tabs are added to let you browse different parts of your library in separate tabs.
Easier than ever
Bug Fixes



Now, let’s discuss the main features that make MediaMonkey one of the best media apps for you:

Play:

MediaMonkey will liven up your events. You can choose music, while Jukebox secures your collection, normalizes volume levels, and kicks in automatically with music and playlists based on your criteria.
The MediaMonkey player has three different looks; the standard player, miniplayer and microplayer. You can easily switch between the three shapes using the option in right upper corner. You can use it as the default music player for your computer. The program options let you easily set file associations which make it easy to use the app with all supported file types
To open a file, you can browse your computer for any audio contents; for example, music, songs and many more. The process is similar to your windows explorer. You can also insert URL of the audio content to start enjoying it. The 'Now Playing' queue on the right side of the main program interface shows the currently active playlist and the currently playing Track.
Your tracks can be played in random order or even with no end using the shuffle or the continuous mode. The built-in search function helps you to easily find your favorite music or song. Basic and advanced search options are available. If you are in a in a public environment (e.g. at a party), it is advised to use “Party Mode”. In this mode, additions, deletions, and edits are disabled. In addition, the amount of playback and playlist control is configurable. This helps you to use the program while protecting the content of your library. 
If the number of remaining tracks is limited, the program can be configured to automatically add tracks to the now playing queue using Auto-DJ feature. The built-in equalizer tool, you will be able to customize your music to suite your equipment



Media Library:

The Library node includes all tracks, songs and music available in your collection. These are organized using various subnodes; for example, Location, Title, Artist, Album, Genre, etc. In this way, you can easily browse your collection using any of these options.
You can add any media files you want to your Library to create playlists and autoplaylists as well as keep track of play counts. The process is very easy and can be done manually through scanning files into the Library. All you have to do is to select Add/Rescan files to the Library located under file menu, then select the folders you want to scan for media files and the program will do everything for you. You can also add individual files using drag and drop. In addition, you can also locate moved or missing files. Don’t forget to back up your library database and settings using simple copy of the contents of the program directory





Playlist:

These are lists of tracks (from the Library) arranged in a set order. Simply launch the program, create new playlist then you can easily add, rearrange or delete any tracks. You can also add, delete, or edit an .m3u Playlist (Not part of the library). Playlists can be used to create a mix of music, sync to a portable device, or burn to a CD.



AutoPlaylists is a built-in tool in MediaMonkey that lets you create dynamic collections of songs or a mix of music to match your mood. All you need to do is to specify the criteria you want. In this type of playlists, if new tracks are added or changed, the process will be adjusted dynamically so that only the tracks matching the chosen criteria will be added to the playlist, otherwise removed. If you can share your playlists or AutoPlaylists with another application if you want. The process is very easy. Simply, export your playlists as standard .m3u files. This format can be easily loaded by most media players



Organize:

MediaMonkey is the media organizer for serious collectors. Music files present on your computer will be automatically organized in the way you wish. This is done using an auto-organize function that help to rename and relocate media files based on library and tag information.
MediaMonkey helps to easily organize your multimedia files into collections including large numbers of files arranged according to the content. You can manage small to large collections of audio files, videos and playlists whether on a hard drive, network, or CDs.  In addition, you can define how individual files are handled based on the file type.
Using the program, you can also lookup artwork and other missing information online, tag any audio or video format, rip CDs and download podcasts

Tagging:

The program has a built-in multi-format tag editor that supports many tag formats (for example; ID3, Vorbis and many more). It can also read some obscure tag formats (for example .WAV file tags). Automatic intelligent tagging of songs is done based on file names and playlist information (using the auto-tagger). In addition, more information can be obtained online (for example using Amazon and FreeDB).

Editing Track Properties:

You can edit the properties of a single or multiple tracks at once. This is done easily using the properties dialogue. The associated tag information will also be updated. You can quickly edit album art and album properties. If you have multiple tracks of the same album but with different artists, you can combine all tracks into a “Multiple Artist Album”. Moreover, you can find and delete duplicate files and clean MP3 malformed tags.

Share:

MediaMonkey offers the universal media manager that make it easy to sync music and video to many portable devices; for example; iPod, iPhone, iPad, Android device, or most any other MP3 player. You can also share media files with most any UPnP / DLNA player and let MediaMonkey convert unsupported formats on the fly. You will enjoy your favorite music on all of your devices.

Conversion:

MediaMonkey also allows automated conversion from all supported formats to MP3, OGG/Vorbis, WMA and WAV with total control over quality and volume settings. If you plan on converting more than 5 files to mp3 you will be required to purchase a license for MediaMonkey gold. You can also set a certain configuration that lets files to be auto converted to formats supported by your device on the fly



Synchronization:

The program supports many portable audio devices; this allows one-button synchronization and auto-synchronization to be done with a simple mouse click. Your audio tracks and playlists will be easily synchronized with all your portable devices. On-the-fly music format conversion is supported during synchronization. Supported devices include apple iPod Standard, Mini, Photo, iPhone, iPad, Some mobile phones, USB Mass Storage (MSC) devices, Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) devices and many more

Audio CDs:

Music can be easily ripped from Audio CDs with the help of the program. You can then encode it into most supported formats. In addition, you can burn music to CD/DVD format in compressed or CD audio format. The volume level of the songs can be optionally normalized in this process 
 
Podcasts:

These are the audio and video files that are published periodically and can be subscribed to online. Simply, expand the Podcast tree on the left side and browse one of the Podcast directories. When you find something you are interested in, double-click to subscribe. That’s all!
In another way, you can search online for your favorite podcast, then copy the URL, right-click on the Podcast node and select subscribe to new podcast then paste the URL into the subscription dialog. Very easy and you will enjoy your favorite podcasts in two clicks







Net Radio:

The program will let you enjoy listening to different stations of the internet radio and enjoy your favorite music, songs and many more. You can easily save your favorite station. Simply, drag it to the desired Playlist. That’s all!

Customize:

The program is highly customizable with skins, plugins, visualizations. You can also customize the toolbar and the layout of the program. There are many user-written scripts (available for download on the website) that extend the functionality of the program. In addition, you can manage filters and views; for example you can make a filter for your kid’s music. The program can also be configured for use in multi-user networked environments through independent library database

Portable MediaMonkey:

Simply check the option "Portable Install" during the setup wizard, and choose the folder where MediaMonkey should be installed

Keyboard & Mouse Shortcuts:

The program has a very useful feature which allows users to do many functions using keyboard and mouse shortcuts. This will help you and save your time

Scripts:

You can add a lot of new functions to the program by downloading and installing scripts. MediaMonkey users have created many scripts which add many functions to the program. Browse these scripts and select the ones that you need. These scripts help you in many ways, for example tag files automatically, download information (track info, lyrics, covers, etc) from the internet, customize the playback of files, and much, much more.



Program Settings (Options):

These can be accessed in tools menu. It includes many options divided into many sections; general, play, download/podcast, library, portable device sync and skin



Pros:

Music player
Organise your media files
Sharing and synchronization with multiple devices
Easy to use
Customizable
Include tag editor
Rip CDs
Support internet radio and podcasts
And many more

Cons: More help contents and documents are needed

Conclusion:

MediaMonkey is a professional music app that lets you play, organize and share all of your media files. You will enjoy your favorite tracks on all of your devices. The program has many features that will help you, such as format conversion, rip CDs, tag editor, download podcasts, internet radio and many other. In addition, it is easy to use, customizable and supports portable version. Simply download it, install and try. 

[Mike]

Another great review Tarek of a good music app.

[baziroll]

thank you very much tarek,very detailed review  
as always

[Starship]

Thanks tarek for the detailed review!

[scot]

Thank you for an in-depth review.

[dinosaur07]

Thanks for the review for an interesting player. I will definitely try it!  ;)