Winyl

Sometimes it seems like there are nearly as many audio players as there are people who like to listen to music, but few of them are really anything to get excited about. Winyl, however, is different. Although most of its features are fairly typical, it has an attractive interface that sets it apart from much of the competition.

Using Winyl is easy. We simply navigated to the folder full of songs that we wanted to use as our library, and Winyl displayed them in a tree hierarchy by artist, album, year, and genre. Winyl also gives users access to a wide variety of Internet radio stations, and users can create custom playlists or let the program create smart lists based on the most recently played, most frequently played, and top-rated songs. The program's interface is sleek and uncluttered, and we especially liked the optional pop-up window that displays each song's title and artist when it first comes on. Users can choose from six high-quality skins, including one that looks quite a bit like iTunes, and a mini mode reduces the interface to a small, unobtrusive rectangle. The program also displays album cover art when available and has an equalizer interface for users who like more control. There's no Help file, but anyone who's ever used a media player before should be able to figure it out. Overall, we found Winyl to be versatile and attractive, and we think it's a great choice for anyone who needs a nice-looking audio player.

Winyl comes as a ZIP file. It installs and uninstalls without issues.