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MediaMonkey is a music management program that contains a long list of desirable features. According to the publisher, MediaMonkey will “help you manage and play very large music collections, consisting of a variety music formats (MP3, WMA, AAC/M4A/M4P, OGG, APE, FLAC, MPC, VQF, WAV files) and/or audio CDs.”

The default, free version of this MP3 software contains a significant amount of coveted elements, but there are two Gold (paid) versions that provide access to the entire suite. The Version 3 License lets users download all iterations of MediaMonkey 3.x for $19.95, while the Lifetime License accesses all future upgrades.

Standout Features

• Auto lookup, tag, and album art
• Sync with iPods and other MP3 players
• Complete control over sound quality
• DJ and Party mode
• Comprehensive file converting

Interface:

MediaMonkey has one of the most aesthetically pleasing and professional-looking skins of any MP3 software program. The default skin is a sleek, dark gray theme with lots of gradients for added depth.

The left pane contains branching nodes, structured much like a folder/tree diagram. The first node is the Library, which is used to view your collection according to different metadata attributes. For example, the Album node lists all albums in your library, while the Composer node does the same, respective to the song's composer.

In that same pane, users can manage playlists, podcast subscriptions, view their CD drive, use the Net Radio function (discussed later), and even browse the web.

The main panel contains all the tracks/albums/what-have-you, sorted by the criteria chosen in the left panel (Album, Composer, etc.). Apart from just listing the track name, album, and artist, it also has an elaborate list of other categories (e.g. Album Volume).

All those categories allow for precise sorting, which is especially helpful with large collections.

On the right hand side of the window is Now Playing, which displays the active playlist.

At the very bottom is the Player, which, naturally, plays the selected track(s). Right above that is an Album Art box.

The toolbar at the top has buttons for different actions (e.g. rip a CD) and sorting options, along with a Search field.

Displaying that amount of information within one window could result in crammed content, but this isn't the case with Media Monkey. Everything is proportioned efficiently and cleanly.

Music Management:

The first time you launch the player, it will scan your drive(s) for supported file formats, and then add compatible files to the library, sorting them based on the files' ID3 tags. Two helpful functions occur during this process: Auto-Rename and Auto-Tag, which can pull tags from websites like Amazon.com. These two features also keep untagged files from being ignored.

A large amount of filters exist for precise sorting. For example, if you want to set up a playlist for your children, you can display tracks within only the Kids genre by applying a filter, and then selecting those and creating a new playlist containing said tracks.

To add additional content, users can rescan their drive for new additions. Re-scanning a drive does not take a lot of time (it's simply a matter of going to File → Add/Rescan Tracks to the Library).

When scanning, users have options to specify things like which file types MediaMonkey will search for, whether it will scan CDs or a drive, and even the option to import missing ratings, play count, and last played data associated with tracks associated with Windows Media Player, iTunes, or Winamp database.

An automatic updating function (called the File Monitor) easily manages your library based on folders that frequently update. This is especially helpful, because manually rescanning can become tedious, specifically if your library constantly expands to fit new music.

Once files are within the library, MediaMonkey allows users to edit them to their heart's content. Users can change whichever attributes they wish, regardless of whether the new attributes are correctly labeled. Of course, MediaMonkey automatically fills these fields through a variety of means, including downloading information off the web and using the preexisting ID3 tags when inserting tracks into the library. You can simultaneously edit as many files as you wish.

Additionally, you can add tags to not only MP3 files, but also for AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, APE and WAV.

After importing files, some may appear as “synchronized”, which means some tag attributes differ from MediaMonkey to the hard drive. In that case, the program has a few functions that resolve this issue: “Clean Tags” and “Edit Unsynchronized Tags”. The two latter features are rare in music suites and greatly appreciated.

For missing album art—a common and frustrating issue—MediaMonkey has the Auto-Tag from Web tool, which will search the internet for any relevant information, including album artwork, and apply it to the corresponding track/album.

You can also manually delete duplicate tracks after prompting Monkey to scan the library for them.

Even if you don't bother ripping a CD's contents to your hard drive, MediaMonkey can still catalog CDs (Audio CDs or data CDs containing compressed audio Tracks).

The final feature I'll mention is “Preview.” It permits users to create small samples of songs as opposed to the entire track. While this doesn't sound great on the surface, MediaMonkey has a few suggestions for its implementation: You can show your new favorite band to a friend without sitting through all 45 minutes of the album; or you can play “Name That Tune”.