Dump iTunes, Winamp is the hawtness

I've used Winamp since the early 90's because it's always had the easiest to use playlist management. When they were bought out by AOL I was seriously concerned because it meant Winamp's almost certain death.

Fortunately they've actually managed to do a good job of keeping the core goodness that is Winamp while adding features that are pretty useful. In the latest version they have a feature called Winamp remote which turns your MP3 collection at home into a mini internet radio station.

Winamp also lets you manage portable music players which is great, I've been using Windows Media Player to manage the music on my phone but I am switching to Winamp for that, it's so much easier to use than WMP.

If you're using iTunes to copy music to your iPod stop reading this and download Winamp now. The only reason to use iTunes is if you're buying music though the iTunes store, but you'd never do anything that stupid would you? Would you?!?!? If you did then you deserve everything you get. Buying music with DRM is about the dumbest thing you could do.

The free version of Winamp isn't very limited but the pro version will rip your collection of CD's and let you burn mixes the same as iTunes. It's pretty easy to find a crack for it if you don't want to pay the $15 for the pro version though. I almost wouldn't mind paying the $15 if I thought Justin Frankel (the original creator) was getting any of the money. As it is I'd rather crack it and send Justin a check personally, he definitely deserves it.