Zune

Although Microsoft has discontinued the Zune portable player in 2011, the Zune software still serves as a good media organizer and synchronization solution for Windows phones. The application grants easy access to your favorite music albums, videos and podcasts and it allows you to manage them in a comfortable and elegant manner. You can also access an online market place and download new music or podcasts.

Zune is offered free of charge and it is available for all modern Windows and Mac OS X platforms. Its hardware requirements are modest and it doesn't take long to install it. Although the application doesn't have any special requirements, a constant Internet connection and a Zune online account are recommended.

When launched, the application greets you with a modern and sleek user interface. It uses the Windows 8 Metro design, so you can expect to find sharp edges and options presented as tiles. The home screen displays new library contents, recently played items and other information, but you can switch to other sections, via navigation tabs, to manage your collections or browse through the marketplace.

The collections manager is divided into several sub-categories, for music, videos, pictures and podcasts. Songs from local folders are neatly organized on the application's interface, by artists, genres, albums and other criteria. You may create simple playlists and drag and drop an artist, album or song over a playlist to populate it. The same can be done on the home screen, where you may click and drag a tile over a playlist icon, in the lower left corner of the window, where you can also find options for synchronizing with a connected Windows phone and for ripping audio CDs. Besides regular playlists, auto-playlists can be created as well, which are automatically populated with songs that meet a series of user-defined criteria.

The marketplace section allows you to browse through an online store and purchase and download music and podcasts or download free ones. Downloaded items are sent to the collections section automatically, so you won't have any difficulties finding them. What's more, the application can automatically pick songs for you, based on your preferences.