@Cliff: It didn’t “blow away” your album art – it’s still there, locked away in iTunes’ album art folder. The problem is that iTunes stores album art in a separate own location, and, as far as I recall, gives the filename an obscure code to relate it to the album, so there’s no way to read it with another program. Considering what I wrote to zmonster above, I don’t see how it gave all of the tags in your files identical artist/album tags. I’m also pretty sure it didn’t do that to the tags in its database all by itself. I’d say that powerful, highly customizable software is not for you – stick to the simplicity of iTunes.

That was for the version I tested when I wrote this review (2.5.4.978)
The new versions of Mediamonkey offer browsing by album art by default and don’t need a plugin!

The ressource matter is often overlooked. Most players will fail miserably in that matter, starting at several thousands titles. MM could not care less even at 100k+ .

The last release brings a cooler interface, though some still don’t like it. The “browse by album” feature has been nicely implemented, completing the already solid contextual (right click) menu.

The database becomes very precious after some months and it is quite easy to backup. Even to edit through scripts (ever tried sql queries?) or directly in MSaccess or open office (limited support).

One incompatibility I found is that the skinable executable refusing to run while “true transparency” (a nice XP add on that brings one of vista’s coolest features to XP) is running. MM 2.5 skins did not have that problem, which implies that MM is probably the cause here.

Though Foobar could be compared to mediamonkey, feature-wise, the program is much more geek oriented. And most of us are no geeks. The rest of the competition is completely left in the dust : MM simply runs circles around them poor apps.

One thing last: you have to try it for good before you even realize what you have at hand. Which most people won’t do and still post their opinion, sadly.

MM, at 30 USD is well worth buying if one single program ever was. The free version is still fully functional and feature-rich. Great article on a program that deserves it.

Thanks