MusicTuner for Windows

MusicTuner from GINtech's latest release shifts the focus from file sharing to a cloud-based personal music library that automaticly synchronizes with your portable devices. It still searches for and finds tunes, ringtones, and videos, many of which are freely available, though the user is responsible for what they do with the links MusicTuner's search engine finds, and the EULA specifies you'll only share playlists, not files. But with so many music lovers joining online streaming services, a playlist is often all you need to share your favorite songs with your favorite folks. Of course, MusicTuner searches and plays your own files, too, either stored locally on your PC or in MusicTuner's online storage space. While the MusicTuner software, online storage space, and sync service are free, registration is required. You can also buy more space for more tunes, if you need it. Version 8 is an entirely new release of MusicTuner that is compatible with Windows 8. Unfortunately, all the bugs haven't been worked out yet.

Setting up MusicTuner includes choosing a main folder for downloads. Since the program syncs to the folder, make it a destination you won't want to change later. With a white font on a black background, MusicTuner has the music player look, and indeed the bottom panel of the interface is a music player with basic controls. Tabs are labeled Music Search, Local, Downloads, Sync Manager, Top Charts, and Settings. We entered a band's name and pressed Search. The Music Search displayed results in an attractive list view with tabs for MP3, Ringtones, and Videos. We could create and save playlists of our tunes in the Local tab and play our own files. But simply accessing the program's settings requires registering, and that's where we ran into trouble: We were unable to register, despite numerous attempts. A check of MusicTuner's update log shows multiple bug fixes; perhaps they missed a few.

Had we been able to access MusicTuner's settings, let alone its online features, we might have been able to offer an opinion. Actually, we can: Skip it. Better music apps that avoid troublesome file-sharing and registration issues await you.