Download of the day: MusicBee

If you’re still sticking with Windows’ default media player for your music, we think you might like MusicBee instead. It aims to be the ultimate music player and organizer, and it’s packed with goodies including a completely customisable interface, audio upmixing to surround sound, automatic track tagging and support for a huge collection of plugins (including many WinAmp ones, which is great news for digital music fans of a certain vintage).

Why you need it

Windows’ own music app is OK, but it doesn’t have even a fraction of the features MusicBee delivers. It supports playlists and podcasts, mobile devices including Android phones, Groove Music (the service formerly known as Xbox Music), Last.fm integration, CD ripping - you get the idea.

Despite all of this it doesn’t suffer from software bloat like certain other music programs rhyming with 'buytunes'; even running a whole bunch of skins and add-ons, MusicBee usually keeps itself under 70MB of memory, usually a whole lot less.

It’s rare to find a program so welcoming for beginners and so powerful for power users, but MusicBee is that rare thing. It’s free, but the developer will happily accept donations from grateful music fans.

Review and where to download: MusicBee

Download of the Day is our pick of the best free software around – whether it's useful, fun, or just plain silly. If you have any recommendations, please send them to downloads@techradar.com.

Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall (Twitter) has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR.