iTunes vs Quod Libet
When comparing iTunes vs Quod Libet, the Slant community recommends Quod Libet for most people. In the question“What are the best audio players for Windows?” Quod Libet is ranked 19th while iTunes is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose Quod Libet is:
Quod Libet gives the user the necessary tools to edit and organize their library from within the app. There is support for tags as well to help you quickly find the music to fit your mood. To help you sort through large libraries, you can use the filters which help filter by genera or other search perimeters.
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Pros
Pro Can create a playlist based on rules
There is a feature included in iTunes called Smart Playlists that allows the user to create playlists based on criteria such as BPM, Genre, Artist, Album, Plays, Rating, etc.
Pro Can automatically create playlists based on a chosen song
There is a feature called Genius included in iTunes that allows the user to select a song and create a playlist based on that song. It will analyze the music library and choose songs similar in tone to the one chosen.
Pro Syncs across devices
Synchronization of playback information, podcast subscriptions, and settings is possible in iTunes. It can also automatically download purchases made on other devices.
Pro Airplay support
Streaming audio to all Airplay enabled devices within WiFi range is permitted by iTunes. It's also possible to select more than one device to play a song at the same time.
Pro Can auto-import CDs
The user can set up iTunes in such a way that media (from CDs) can be automatically imported once a CD is inserted. This also comes with customizable import settings (bitrate, codec). Additionally, iTunes can automatically fetch track names from the Internet.
Pro Built-in parental controls
iTunes parental controls can be used to deny access to certain parts of iTunes such as podcasts, internet radio, store, or shared libraries, as well as restricting access to media that has a certain rating or warnings.
Pro Can autopull information about songs
Track names and album artwork can be automatically obtained by iTunes.
Pro Sleek interface
The interface of iTunes presents a flat, clean design with playback controls at the top-left, search at the top-right, and a row of ways to categorize available media beneath that. It can also be minimized to take up much less space. The minimized interface is called the Mini Player and it can be set to display on top of all other windows. It's possible to show iTunes on top of all other windows when playing movies as well.
Pro iTunes store has a huge selection of media
The iTunes store offers a huge catalog of videos, songs, and podcasts.
Pro Advanced podcast management
Pro iCloud integration
Pro Internet radio
A music streaming service called Radio is available in iTunes. It creates stations based on chosen genres, songs, or artists and requires Apple ID for access.
Pro Ability to add RSS feeds
The ability to add RSS feeds in iTunes keeps the user informed of the latest web content.
Pro Great for organizing and editing large collections
Quod Libet gives the user the necessary tools to edit and organize their library from within the app. There is support for tags as well to help you quickly find the music to fit your mood. To help you sort through large libraries, you can use the filters which help filter by genera or other search perimeters.
Pro Lots of plugins available
Quod Libet offers many plugins including Last FM sync, lyrics support, and iOS sync.
Pro Powerful search syntax
Quod Libet has powerful search syntax options, which are very useful for creating smartlists or querying a big music collection.
Pro Easy to use
Despite very good library management capability, Quod Libet is easy to use. The base music player doesn't have too many features, making it a breeze to use. However, if you want to go deeper you can install plugins. These plugins can sometimes add complexity, but it's up to you what you do or don't want.
Pro Integrates with IoT / home audio
Sonos, Squeezebox, ...
Pro Built-in Soundcloud support
Pro Folder view
Quod Libet has multiple viewing modes, including Folder (File System) hierarchy view. The only other program to have a good folder view would be Sayonara.
Pro Customizable looks
There are a few controls that allow the user to change how the player looks.
Pro Fast & Small
Fully functional and takes up little space on the hard drive.
Cons

Con Heavyweight
With each update, iTunes appears to get bigger and bigger, though adding little more value, especially for the user who just wants to listen to and organize music.
Con Unfortunately required to fully manage iPods
Con Buggy iTunes app
Immediately after the worldwide launch of Apple Music, a new version of iTunes was released (12.2). Many users have reported issues with this release, such as music lists getting mixed up, music having wrong metadata, etc.
Con Duplicates media files
Con Album organization can be fragmented
Songs purchased from the same album at different times will be added as separate albums.
Con Authorization limit
Con (not) customizable
If you get a player, you want to make it yours. QL has a lot of stuff preconfigured, which you can't make as you want it. So base is great, but never makes it to be come yours.
Con Doesn't support playlist files
Con The GUI could have more eye-candy
There aren't any icons within the GUI, just text. This makes it feel more like a library management tool than an audio player. A little polish would go a long way here.
Con Rhythmbox clone
Can't find many differences with Rhythmbox.
Con GTK app
It will need a bit more of resources in a non qt environment.
Con Plugins could be better integrated
Lyrics are not downloaded automatically in Quod Libet, while simply viewing lyrics could be made a lot more accessible. There is also little information pulled from last.fm - scrubbing works, as well as there being no artist info or suggestions for similar artists.
Con Uses quite a bit of memory
Quod Libet can use up to 130 MB.
