Ecoute for Mac

Sometimes you don't want all the bloated hassle that goes with iTunes. You just want to enjoy your music. That's where Ecoute comes in, as a lightweight application which allows you to access your music, including all its glorious cover art, without the need to even touch iTunes. Ecoute works via a small, expandable interface that allows you to expand and browse your entire music library and even podcasts, movies, and TV shows.

As with iTunes, you can search for music and even integrate your Last.fm account with Ecoute. What I really liked is the instant way it catalogs your music - you're ready to go as soon as it's installed. One small problem, however, is that long track names aren't displayed properly. It does support Growl alerts though, so you can see exactly what's playing. The play controls pop up as soon as you float the mouse over the cover art, which displays as soon as Ecoute starts playing.

Ecoute is an excellent, lightweight alternative to the increasingly bloated issues that you may have been having with iTunes.