MediaMonkey Standard

MediaMonkey Standard offers plenty of ways to enjoy your favorite tunes, but its default layout isn't very easy on the eyes. Luckily, you can customize that and just about every other inch of this powerful music player. That, combined with the built-in streaming radio and other nifty features, make it one of the best free media players on the market.

The program makes you click through a ton of pop-up windows -- including several administration permission windows -- while it's installing. The program, itself, is worth the wait for most music fans, though. It has neat features like tabbed playlists and party mode that make it easy to play your music, however you want. In addition to collecting music already on your computer, MediaMonkey Standard will search for music on any connected drives. It supports most streaming radio, as well. The program has an active community of coders and tinkerers behind it that have made lots of custom skins and tweaks you can add to the player. That's handy because the program, itself, looks a little bland. There is a gold version that unlocks more goodies, a fact you'll know with any usage of the player because it will constantly remind you that you can get it by paying or by completing special deals.

Don't be bothered by the program's mediocre layout -- it's housing one of the best media players we've tried and you can easily change the looks to suit your preferences.