Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Ventis Media has released a new version of its award-winning MediaMonkey music management software that syncs with Apple's iPhone 3G and iPod Touch v2. For music lovers seeking an alternative to iTunes, it is the only application capable of syncing to the new iPhone 3G and iPod Touch. Until today, iTunes was the only software that could manage music on Apple's iPhone 3G and iPod Touch. With its new iPhone 3G functionality, MediaMonkey provides a free, powerful alternative for syncing with and managing music collections on these devices. Unlike iTunes, MediaMonkey also allows users to copy tracks from an iPhone or iPod to a PC, enabling users to backup music from their iPhones or iPods."

MediaMonkey is my all-time favourite tool for managing my music, specifically for correcting and updating metadata. It's also extremely adept at removing and embedding album art. Now, it adds a new trick: allowing users to sync their iPhone or iPod Touch without needing iTunes. And did I mention it's free? I sprang for the gold version because I want to support their work, but if you want to take it for a spin, the free version probably does everything you need. Download it today.

"Music Manager for Serious Collectors Now Supports Over 100,000 Tracks, Includes Over 200 New Features and Improvements. Ventis Media has released a new version of its award-winning MediaMonkey music management software for serious collectors. With storage becoming cheaper and serious collectors building massive music libraries, MediaMonkey now supports multi-terabyte music collections with over 100,000 tracks. MediaMonkey 3 is available today in free and paid versions at www.mediamonkey.com."



I have a hard time wrapping my brain around a 100,000 track music collection, but people say the same thing about my music collection which is only 12,000 or so tracks. MediaMonkey remains my favourite tool for metadata manipulation - it's a fantastic way to correct metadata in batch mode, embed album art, and keep things organized. I use the Zune software to listen to music, but MediaMonkey to keep my collection organized. You can use MediaMonkey for free, and if you like it they have a commercial version for $19.95 that offers some additional great features. I purchased it because it saved me so many headaches a few years ago when I was trying to clean up my music collection - I was surprised how many metadata problems I had despite having a library full of music ripped from my own CDs.