Thanks for the tip, Trollheart. I did some research over the weekend about different alternatives to iTunes, and Media Monkey did seem like the best one. One of the articles that was the most helpful in getting a basic idea of the different options was this one:

https://www.1and1.co.uk/digitalguide...-alternatives/

Media Monkey looks pretty good in that lineup but there's something to be said for the other options too. Hopefully that link will help other people in case there's anyone else out there who's fed up with iTunes

Just get spotify.

That's another option, but I feel a little better supporting musicians by buying their stuff as much as I can (though obviously that's difficult financially for a lot of people)

Then you should probably use Bandcamp.

Being that I still lug around my IPod Classic wherever I go, I'll be a long term user until someone comes up with a baddass device that lets me have a Pono experience with Media Monkey. :)

Artists get royalties when you play their music.. you alone might make up a small portion of that, but you're still supporting them. They choose to put their music on there after all. Seems like a win win to me unless you have some incredibly obscure taste.

If you really want to support an artist, get a Spotify account and play their music all day. This way you can give them streaming money while you go out and buy their merch or see them perform. Better yet you can try to make a bot that skips after 31 seconds (that's when the song registers), maybe alternating so that Spotify doesn't catch onto the fact that you're not actually at home listening to music to support your favourite artists, you're out buying their **** and seeing what else in their back catalog you don't have etceteretera.

Basically what I'm trying to say is streaming is cool but buying is better.

Those are all good points/tips -- thanks all. I'll try to keep up some kind of a streaming and buying combo strategy :)

At a certain point the whole obsession with supporting the artist can be pretentious as **** cause you're just trying to get pats on the back for having the absolute most integrity of all the music fans. I think you're just about crossing that line.

It's more about wanting your favourite artists to have money to be able to make more dope **** that you love.