The most productive way to play music on your computer

Since we’re in the subject of being productive, I wanted to share with you yet another productivity tip that is especially important for me since, as you can see, I’m a music addict.

You might be asking: what’s productivity got to do with music? The simple answer would be: it takes the hassle out of finding, playing and organizing music, and keeps it a pleasurable experience! Does this sound like something you want to have?

I reckon that lots people are either using the default media player that ships with their system (e.g., Windows Media Player on Windows PC), or are using third party music players either because they have to (read, iTunes) or because they chose to.

When you have the choice of which media player you use to play music on your PC or Mac, it amazes me how many people settle for the default media player, and it really makes me feel sad seeing how many hoops they jump through to try and do the basic things like playing and rating songs, building play lists and managing their music collection. So if you’re that person, then take a couple of minutes today to read and find out about the world’s best media player.

Everybody, I want you to meet Winamp. A brilliant free media player that will rock your world with its super-friendly user interface and ease of use. If I had to describe Winamp in one sentence, it would be:

What Winamp is for music is much like what Firefox is for the web!

Quick overview

It's probably one of the oldest and most popular media players in the world. Currently in version 5 and going, it has gone through a lot of fine tuning to make it such a stable and efficient piece of software.

To get started with Winamp, first download it from the official website. Installation is pretty fast and simple. Once installed, it will launch with the default "modern" skin that looks something like this:

To start playing some tunes, drag your music (files or folders) to any part of Winamp and it will automatically add them to the play list and start playing. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's just that simple!

Of course, there are more than one way to do things with Winamp, but I'm trying to showcase the simplicity of this player and how it can save you time and make you more productive. 

By the way, some of you folks might recognize Winamp from it's old look (which I frankly prefer because I'm more emotionally attached to it )

So how can you boost your productivity with Winamp?

I realize that if you're not a fan of this awesome player, you are still not convinced that it's any different than the good ol' insert-name of your-favorite-player that you're used to. Well in that case, check out this list of top 5 features of Winamp that will give you a productivity boost:

1. Global keyboard shortcuts
   Want to stop the current song? Perhaps you just want to skip a couple of songs? If so, who says you need to do that by a) clicking on Winamp b) clicking Stop or Next button. By going to Winamp preferences, you can set custom keyboard commands for over 50 commonly used media player commands, all done from any application, even if Winamp is minimized or hidden in the tray bar.
2. Jump to file dialog
   When you're suddenly craving a certain song, please don't go scrolling through that fat play list to find the song. In Winamp, finding a song could never be easier. In fact, I'd say this is the single most superior feature that is unmatched by any other media player out there in terms of speed.

   All you have to do is press J in Winamp (or set a global shortcut) to bring up the Jump to file window. Now type any word you remember about the song including name, artist, album, file name or path. No matter how huge your list is, Winamp instantly shows you relevant list of matches that you can Up or Down through and then hit Enter to start the song.

3. Blazing-fast files addition
   So you just installed Winamp and you have a huge folder of music files that you'd like to add and start playing, how do you do that?

   Just hit the Insert key on your keyboard and browse through the dialog for your music folder (I told you there is another way to add files didn't I). Once located, click OK. Winamp will load all your music files in a split second! I have about 36 GB of music which I loaded up in exactly 1 second. Talk about saving time!

4. Trim your music collection
   When dealing with large music collection that builds over time, sometimes you want a quick way to permanently get rid of "bad" songs without jumping to and deleting the file manually.

   Here is where the beauty of Winamp shines. Much like Firefox, Winamp has a huge collection of add-ons (aka plug-ins) to add or customize it's functionality. One of them is called Deleter. When installed, it adds an icon to the tray bar. One click on the icon and the songs currently being played gets deleted and moved to recycle bin and the next one starts. Sweet, isn't?

5. Rate as you listen
   We talked about global keyboard shortcuts. One thing you can do with them is assign 5 keyboard shortcuts that correspond to rating songs on a scale from 1 to 5.

   As you're grooving to your music, if one of the songs sounds really catchy, just press the keybaord combination for rating the song, say like WinKey + 5 = 5/5 rating. The beauty of this is that you can do it while you're working on any other application.

   Later on, you can use your rating to transfer those awesome songs to, say, your MP3 player. To do that, bring up Winamp's Music Library window (Alt+L). Under Local Media on the left, click on Top Rated play list. This is a Winamp generated list of songs you rated previously 3 or above. You can play this list by clicking the Play button under the list. Alternatively, you can right click on Top Rated on the left and select Send To > Your MP3 Player (it would be listed if it's plugged in).

And many, many more!

I've listed above 5 features that make Winamp stand from the crowd in terms of productively enabling common usage scenarios. However, there are many more features waiting for you to discover and fall in love with!

Go ahead and download it today and starting fiddling with some features like the awesome built-in equalizer or the feature-rich integrated Media Library. Take your time and you'd be thankful later on for the time and effort it saves you on the long run.

If you've been using Winamp for a while though, what's the single best feature that you can't live without in Winamp? Let's try and expand the list above with YOUR experiences.