Comments on: The futile search for global hotkeys on iTunes for Windows

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:02:17 +0000

Foobar 2000 is awesome, I’ve used it since .7 (now in .9) and it’s great, light, easy to use, great tagging features, etc. Tremendous stuff just under the hood if you take the time to tweak it but works great right out of the box if you’re not into messing about with it. There is no other software I’ve used and loved so much.

By: mp3dave77

mp3dave77 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:24:57 +0000

Well I gave songbird a shot – no pun intended. I guess I’m too used to my iTunes and didn’t like having to use a different program to manage my music all over again, i know, i know – embrace change! Anyways, thanks for your response. I’m going to keep looking for something that has global hotkeys for iTunes. I’ll let you know if I find anything.

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:44:21 +0000

Songbird turned out to be my best bet for hotkeys, although it’s not terribly good about managing music (iTunes manages the adding and deleting of songs for you, and Rhythmbox scans a specified directory for changes; but Songbird makes you manually manage the library and files separately).

By: mp3dave77

mp3dave77 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:31:39 +0000

Have you had luck with any hotkey utilities? I like my iTunes, but the hotkey issue is driving me nuts! I’m not a programmer, so I need something nice and easy too.

By: tytycoon

tytycoon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:10:07 +0000

Have you tried songbird (www.getsongbird.com)? It’s an excellent media player for all platforms that I use when not on Ubuntu myself. Global shortcuts included!

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:59:02 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion, Carson. I’m trying it out now. Seems good so far.

By: Carson

Carson — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:47:07 +0000

If you haven’t tried iTunesControl (http://itunescontrol.com), I think it might be what you’re looking for (although since I’m the author, I’m a bit biased). I originally wrote it for a friend who missed Winamp’s global hotkeys.

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:10:52 +0000

WinAmp looks pretty good! It seems a little difficult to add items to a playlist or make smart playlists, but I like the interface better than Foobars, and the global hotkeys seem to be working.

Thanks for the recommendation!

By: ubuntucat

ubuntucat — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:44:47 +0000

I may look into WinAmp again. Right now I’m using Foobar and actually finding it a bit limiting (I’m not that much into tweaking things), but it is providing me with global keyboard shortcuts, which is at least one good thing.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 23:40:13 +0000

Seriously, go back to WinAmp. I’ve been looking for AGES for a linux-based player that equals up to what a decently customized Winamp install will do, and I have yet to find anything close. Rhythmbox is amazing, no doubt about that, but it just doesn’t have some of the advanced functionality. I don’t know how long it’s been since you used WinAmp, but it is (with the exception of a well-tweaked Foobar2000) the best media player out there, at least for my purposes. Particularly if you already know how to use it. Sorry I sound like an advert, but I’m a tad evangelical on the subject.

By the way, look up KameleonDUI for a skin if you want some absolutely unbelievable windowing tech in Winamp, I have yet to see any media player (and very few applications in any case) that have that kind of a system.