Ok, you’ve got loads of music on your computer - but is that all
cluttered, unorganized, unmanaged and simply not easy to access?
May be you need to do something. Literally hundreds of free
software let you play, organize, burn and do lots more with your
digital MP3 music collection. Have a well tagged, sortable music
collection that you can be proud of!
Here comes a carefully chosen list of free programs that might
help you squeeze the best out of your MP3 collection.
Part I - Audio Players
The default audio player software on your Windows is probably
not enough, when it comes to extensive features and
customizability. Here’s a pick of the best media players that can
let you sort through and efficiently play most audio formats on
your Windows computer:
VLC Player - It’s more
light on resources that you would imagine. VLC is a very versatile
player - throw any odd format, and it plays them for you instantly
(FLV included).
Winamp - Winamp has its own
fans, it’s customizable to a large extent and can come as a great
saver. If you listen to music every other day, you need to have
Winamp installed. A similar player is Jet Audio.
Songbird - A feature
rich application that has great looks, go for it if your Windows
computer has got some memory to spare, it’s
reviewed here. You can customize it by adding extensions
(similar to Firefox).
Part II - Organizers/Taggers/Jukeboxes
Jukeboxes are music software that come with amazing
capabilities. Go for them if you have huge music collections
scattered all around - not just in your computer, but also in audio
CDs.
Media Monkey - The
best piece of software out there that you’ll love using. Tag
editor, format converter, CD recording, iPod support, you name it -
it’s got all the tools that squeeze the best from your tracks.
J River Media Jukebox
- Very pretty, has good features. And might serve as a good
jukebox.
>> I missed out Foobar, thanks for the heads up
Ashwin!
MP3 Tagger - The best ID3
tagger out there in the market, that’s free as well.
Magic MP3
Tagger - Update: Oops, sorry guys this is not freeware.
Part III- Rippers, Converters
Audio Grabber
- Fantastic audio ripping software, with FreeDB tagging support
included. Another similar ripper is FreeRip. Another one a few commenters
have mentioned is Exact
Audio Copy
Part IV - Audio Editors
Trust me, as far as I know, there’s no free editor as much
capable as the professional ones out there. But still if you’d like
to do some basic recording and effects, you could try these:
Audacity - Open
Source, and is very light weight.
Wavosaur - Comes with no
installer, and is a single exe file that does the job. Supports WAV
format
Part V - Other
Last.fm - A social networking
site for audiophiles out there. Listen, get interesting tracks
based on what you’ve played, and add friends! More such music sites
here.
Tunatic - A song
is playing on your head, but you just can’t get it’s title right?
Then download this, install, hum the song through your mic and let
Tunatic locate info on the song for you! Quite cool for show off as
well 
Audio
Files GDS Indexer - Google Desktop Plugin - Install this one if
you have got Google Desktop installed. Adds a bunch of
functionality to the Desktop Spider to make it more friendlier
towards Audio files.
That’s it. What else do you know? Share with us in the
comments.