Love it or hate it,  iTunes is the software application most people use to manage their music and video collections when they have an iPod or iPhone. It also is pretty much a must have for Apple App store applications, Ring tones, and a number of other iPod management functions. A book like “iPod and iTunes Digital Field Guide” could help you get the most out of iTunes.

I use iTunes almost exclusively to manage my iPhone and a few iPods, even though I know there are alternatives. That said, it is not perfect, and grows more bloated with each release.

There are alternatives though, some free, and some not.

Donald Bell of CNET wrote an article on “Best iPod-compatible iTunes alternatives” , covering the free ones. Wikipedia also has a “Comparison of iPod managers“, which also covers non-free ones.

Here is a sampling of the ones I’ve used, not necessarily with an iPod/iPhone:

Media Monkey – A powerful program, not as easy to use as iTunes. I currently use it to manage some of my non-iPod MP3 Players. The only other problem is that when you least expect it, a feature (like ripping a CD to MP3) is only available in the registered (Shareware) version.

SharePod – An interesting program, meant to be run from an iPod itself when the iPod is connected to a Windows PC as an external USB drive. I used it some time ago on an iPod Mini.

Winamp – This one has been around for years. I’ve never used it with an MP3 Player, but have used it to play MP3s and listen to SHOUTCast stations on a PC.