How to Add Music to Your iPod Without iTunes
Monday, February 18, 2008 at 06:42PM How to Add Music to Your iPod Without iTunes
Not everybody who owns an iPod is a fan of everything that comes out of Apple, including iTunes. Thankfully there are many alternatives to manage your iPod should you
not want to use iTunes. Today we’re going to take a look at some of the programs available for adding music to your iPod without iTunes.Some of the options listed below are only compatible with Windows. If by chance you are using Linux, you’ll want to reference our article that offers six tools to manage your iPod on Linux systems.
Before you dive into exploring with the options below, you’ll want to enable your iPod as a portable hard drive. Apple has created a tutorial that explains how to do this, and it’s very simple. You can find that tutorial here, and once you’ve got that set-up, you can start playing around with the four different iTunes alternatives below.
–Anapod Explorer–
Created by Red Chair Software, Anapod Explorer is great for managing the content on your iPod through Windows Explorer. Your iPod will show up as a device in “My Computer” and from there you can drag and drop your media content! You also have right-click menus with the option to copy and paste, and “send to” menus.
Unfortunately this isn’t a free option. Anapod is currently offered as Shareware and will cost about $30 to buy. It is compatible with Windows 98, ME, 200, XP, and Vista.
Purchase Link–Floola–
Unlike Anapod, Floola is a freeware option. You can manage your iPod using the software, and it’s compatible with Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows (including Vista). Using Floola you can copy both music and videos to your iPod and from your iPod on just about any computer. Aside from offering the basic iPod management, Floola is capable of helping you manage your music and play lists, and it also checks for duplicate songs. If it finds a duplicate, it will remove it.
Once you download the application, you’ll drag it onto your iPod, and then you’ll be able to use Floola wherever you go!
–Winamp iPod Plugin–
Winamp is a popular media player that can also be used to manage your iPod. If you’re using an older version of Winamp, you’ll be required to download the iPod plug-in if you’d like it to work. If you’re using a recent version, you’re all set to go. Getting your music on your iPod is as simple as adding your music to Winamp and right-clicking to choose the option to send your music to your iPod.
–XPlay–
Xplay is yet another option for managing your iPod. It’s a drag and drop application which makes it easy for you to get your music on your iPod. You can also automatically synchronize your iPod with your music selection on your computer Unfortunately this is another manager that will cost you money, but they do have a free trial version available for you to play with.
