6 Free iTunes Tools You Need To Have On Your Mac.

iTunes is no longer included in Apple’s iLife, but the free music player is used by about 120-million Mac and PC users just to sync music with iPods.

Does iTunes do more than just store and playback your music? The answer is an unqualified “yes”. iTunes does more and there are many additional Mac utilities and tools which add enhancements to the popular media player.

Whether iTunes is the best PC or Mac music player isn’t in question. There isn’t a music player that does more than iTunes. Use it to play music, play music videos, play movies, watch video Podcasts, listen to internet radio, sync your iPod, sync your iPhone, and, uh, what else?

Oh, yes, buy music, videos, movies, TV shows from the iTunes Store. If ever a Mac and Windows utility resembled a Swiss Army Knife for media, it’s iTunes, Apple’s Trojan Horse of the 21st century.

How do you make iTunes better than it is? Apple continues to fix a bunch of bugs improve iTunes with almost weekly updates in the past month. One notable new feature is ringtones. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Apple’s way to ringtones is less expensive than most, and offers a reasonable way to build your own without hacking the iPhone.

What utilities enhance the iTunes experience for Mac users? The list is healthy and growing.

#6 - MakeiPhoneRingtone
The most recent is the free MakeiPhoneRingtone from RogueAmoeba. Their newest version isn’t yet compatible with the latest update of iTunes, but look for a new version for both in the next day or two, if not sooner.

This is a typical Mac-like utility. Drag your AAC file over MakeiPhoneRingtone, drop, and you’re nearly done. Of course, it doesn’t edit a song to 30 seconds. You need RogueAmoeba’s $32 audio utility, Fission, to do that.

What Make iPhone Ringtone does is take any unprotected AAC audio file and make it a ringtone compatible file for your iPhone.

For $15 try iToner from Ambrosia Software. It works with MP3 and AAC audio files and the publisher says it’s compatible with the latest version of iTunes.

#5 - iTunes Manager
For those of us who are busy on our Macs we don’t always want to switch back and forth to iTunes while listening to music. Enter iTunesManager to give us control and more.

For example, not only does iTunes Manager handle music playback for iTunes, there’s a built-in volume control, information about the song being played, keyboard shortcuts, the ability to switch tracks and playlists, and a music alarm.

This is a case of getting much more than you pay for since iTunes Manager is free.

#4 - DOT.TUNES
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could share your music over the web from iTunes? Mac and Windows users rejoice. It’s easy and free to become your own internet radio station.

DOT.TUNES lets you listen to your music from a web browser, an iPhone, Wii, PSP, PS3, Treo or via streaming tracks from a web site or MySpace. You can even control who listens.

#3 - Aurora
Do you let a loud, obnoxious disk jockey wake you up in the morning? Do you start your daily downer before you get out of bed just by listening to the news?

End it all with Aurora, and let your Mac wake you up to whatever playlist and music to get you started the right way, the Mac way, the Appian Way, what does Valerie Bertinelli weight, anyway?

Aurora is simple. It’s a free alarm clock for your Mac which wakes you to your favorite playlist in iTunes or even a TV or radio channel from Elgato’s EyeTV.

#2 - Sing That iTune!
Face it. You won’t make it to TV as a contestant on The Singing Bee, but you can use iTunes and Sing That iTune to check the lyrics on most songs.

I’m not fond of Dashboard Widgets but Sing That iTune! is one of a few for iTunes that are worth keeping around. Click Here for the publisher’s home page. Hint: How’s your Japanese?

#1 - GimmeSomeTune
Album artwork for iTunes is easy to get. Buy from the iTunes Store and Apple provides a healthy supply and it’s built in to iTunes. But what about the rest of the music on your Mac? How do you get the album artwork?

GimmeSomeTune downloads both lyrics and album art in a way you’ll like. You don’t do anything.

While you’re not doing anything you’ll see one of those new fangled translucent floating windows on your Mac which displays information about the current song, lyrics, and album art, and automatically add the art to iTunes. How’s that for convenience?

There are dozens and dozens of nifty utilities for iTunes including, but not limited to CoverSutra, the popular G-Force visualizer, and others, but they’re not free.

Got an iTunes tool or utility you can’t live without? Add it to the list and share with other readers in the Comments section below.

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