I don’t like iTunes, and generally prefer to manage my music manually in explorer, and use winamp to play songs/albums. I know of alternatives like SharePod which allow you to manage music on your iPhone or iPod, but you still need to use iTunes for things like backing up etc..

The way I get around this is fairly simple, I still do everything in iTunes but manage my music manually. Firstly, I use a great free app called mp3tag to make sure that the music has the correct id3 tags, album art etc..

Then it’s just a case of putting the music I want on my iPhone into iTunes, and nothing else. First, set iTunes to sync all music with the iPhone, and then simply drag and drop folders or individual songs from explorer into iTunes and sync with the iPhone. To remove music, just delete it from iTunes and sync again.

I find this an easy way to make sure that I don’t have to use iTunes to actually listen to music or manage my collection, but I can keep my phone happy by using iTunes to sync music to it. It’s much easier than having all your music in iTunes and telling it to only sync certain artists/playlists.

I have some friends who either use the ‘selective sync’ option, or just use alternatives like SharePod or Media Monkey to copy music, but after I show them the simplicity of this method, they make the switch. Hopefully a couple of others will find this useful.

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