The title of this post is a play on the title of Elvis Costello’s book How To Play Guitar & Y, of which I recommend the audiobook
.I’d been an iTunes power user since early on when it became compatible with Windows in the mi-2000s. In fact, I’d go as far to say I was a power user of iTunes. I used it to build hundreds of playlists and a simple mechanism to burn a playlist to a CD. Once Apple launched their store, I found it almost too easy to purchase music that I didn’t have in my piles of CDs. iTunes was the first application I downloaded and installed on a new computer along with Chrome. I always had it installed on both work and home machines. At some point, iTunes became “Music” and was built in to Mac OS. I started having so many issues with my Mac that I was in over my head at knowledge and skill with MacOS, that I engaged with a local Mac specialist. As he used his diagnostic tools to assess why my Mac became unresponsive so often and found the primary problem to be with Mac Music. Specifically the size of my library (around 6 terrebytes, and the second being my smart playlists. I asked him if he could recommend an alternative to iTunes that could handle a massive sized library and similar playlist functionality. With that in mind, he recommended I try Swinsian. I can’t remember if there’s a Windows version, nor can I speak to any functionaliy While not free, (license fee per installation), it fit the bill for running “thin” without hogging resources like iTunes/Music would do even when not active, and could handle a large library like mine without taking a galf hour to open.
The main uses I had for iTunes was to listen to and organize my music. I did this through several highly curated playlists and a series of smart playlists of artists, genres or other criteria, I can’t remember the last time I purchased music through the iTunes Music Store, because for over 10 years I’ve exclusively bought music through Amazon’s digital music service. Music downloaded from AmazonMP3 has no DRM requiring logins to share music across platforms withou needing my iTunes password to be known.
It’s been a couple of years and I really like Swinsian While there is a license cost for it, Being able to have my library not crash the app is worth it. Another feature I really enjoy is watched folders. You can tell Swinsian to watch a specific folder for new tracks and they will automagically be added to your library. I have a specific folder that my downloaded music goes to, and when specified as a watched folder, those songs are added to my library.
Despite Swinsian exceeding my expectations as a music player and organizer. There are a few things missing. iTunes was accessible by remote using the remote app. That feature uses airplay, which isn’t something mission critical. Another feature I don’t consider essential is the interface with an iPod or iPhone, but it’t been years since I’ve “needed” that function.