Everplay – Keep Music Playing Forever Without iTunes
As a designer/developer, I constantly have many applications opened at the same time, like Photoshop, Safari or/and Firefox, Coda, iTunes, Mail etc, and when nearly all memory are consumed, my machine performs slower. At this point of time I will have to close iTunes and other applications. iTunes is one of those apps that I will close first as it is very memory consuming, by closing it it means I don’t have music playing in the background (which I absolutely hate!).
Wouldn’t it be great if you can still have your iTunes music playing without having iTunes opened?
Here’s when Everplay comes in!
Everplay
Everplay is a new lightweight standalone music player that plays your iTunes library without having to open iTunes to keep the music playing. From the makers of Coverstream, Snarb – Everplay shares almost the same UI with some slight color differences. The difference between Coverstream and Eveplay is that Coverstream is iTunes controller, it does need iTunes to be opened for it to be useful.
User Interface
Everplay spots a gorgeous Coverflow style UI, lets you browse albums, launch in fullscreen, use keyboard shortcuts for various music controls, integrates with last.fm and Apple Remote!
Browse Albums & Playlists Too
Not only can you browse albums using the default Coverflow UI, quickly select a playlist to play by clicking the button at the top right.
Queue Songs
Don’t like the default order in which your music is playing? Queue songs instead! Just navigate to any albums, right click on any song and select “Queue Song”. Your songs will be added to a list accessible via the menu bar where you can even drag to arrange the list!
Keyboard Shortcuts
For keyboard shortcuts lovers, there is a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for you to customize, eg. play/pause, stop, next/previous, find music, increase/decrease volume etc. Very handy.
Last.fm
Not sure how many of you are last.fm users, but if you are you’ll love the ease of scrobbling on last.fm.
Conclusion
Overall, the unique selling point of Everplay is that it plays iTunes music independent of iTunes. This is a huge plus for people who need the system memory for other more useful things.
Pricing
Everplay cost $19.95, you’ll get free updates for life. If you previously purchased Coverstream, you’re entitled to a 50% discount of $9.95 ($10 savings).
I’m still evaluating the app and comparing this with Ecoute, another awesome standalone iTunes music player too. You can read about Ecoute on Macstories.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Anyone know the difference between this and Ecoute? I just purchased Ecoute and love it – super lightweight!
Still, the same problem with all of these in OS X is that the “play” button on your Mac keyboard opens iTunes, so it’s
… a royal pain in the ass. Sorry, hit submit too early!!
Not much of a difference though. I have both Ecoute and Everplay, but Ecoute lets me hide the dock icon which I don’t need!