For a mp3 player, the installation seems kind of hefty. At nearly 300 items, with stuff thrown around that you may not need, and no option to not install stuff, this install is kind of weird. The first thing I did after the install was skim through my System Folder, and see what I didn't need. I suggest you do the same.

The first time you launch MusicMatch Jukebox, it will ask you if you want it to search through your hard drive, and place all mp3 files into the music library. If you allow it to do this, not only will it take forever, but it will also add every file with "mp3" in it's name. For instance, I have a lot of alias to my mp3's for games and such, and it picks up all of those aliases. I'm sure there is a better way.

After that, it's pretty much clear sailing. Just double click on the title you want to play, it will be added to the play list, and play automatically when needed, just like a real jukebox. The audio seemed clear enough, with no pops, crackling, or skips. In fact, this could be just perfect for a party. Impress your friends with a Mac jukebox.

One thing about music, nobody plays it the same way. With that in mind, MusicMatch has added a ton of settings for playing, recording, skins, etc. But unfortunately, there is no equalizer. Not even simple Bass and Treble controls. This is a bug no no in the music world. If it would have had that, Jukebox may have been my new default mp3 player.

But, not only is Jukebox a decent player, it is also a very good mp3 recorder. With the very easy to you interface, recording of songs from your CDs is a breeze. Pop in the CD, select the song or songs you want to record, and hit record. It then simple puts them inside the music folder of the Jukebox folder. I haven't seen a better mp3 reorder yet.

One more wonderful feature that some mp3 players are incorporating, but many fail to do it well, if the editing of ID3 tags. The tags hold the information such as song title, artist, album, etc. I suggest that as soon as you rip a mp3, you edit it ID3 tag so you know what you've recorded. Also, if you have mp3's laying around with incorrect, or incomplete ID3 tags, this is the program to edit them with.

But how could we talk about mp3's without talking about downloading from the internet. This is one of the main marketing techniques MusicMatch uses. Unfortunately, to find music, you have to go through an external website, which is very hard to navigate, and even harder to find the music you are looking for. I do not think this feature should be touted so heavily, when anyone with a browser can do the same thing.

One final feature that (from what I have seen) is unique to the Mac mp3 player market is the showing of album cover. If this was properly placed in the ID3 tags, a small picture of the album will show up in the upper left hand corner. While this isn't a particularly useful feature, at least it gives it a bit of uniqueness.

MusicMatch Jukebox did drop out on me once. It didn't give any error, and upon relaunch, it was as good as new. I haven't a clue what went wrong, so maybe it was just one of those things.

This program will stick on my hard drive for mainly one thing, the mp3 recording feature. Other than that, many of the free players can do as much, and sometimes more than MusicMatch Jukebox. I think MusicMatch is trying to create the end-all to multiple mp3 utilities. While this is a good idea, they haven't yet implemented it as well as it could be.

Pros	Cons
Clear audio Wonderfully easy recording of mp3's Easy to edit ID3 tags Allows for downloading music off the Internet Quite a few setting for playing, recording, skins, etc Works just like a real jukebox	Always wants to connect to the Internet Bulky install No equalizer Hitting the wrong buttons can really mess up some things Thinks everything with "mp3" in it's name is a mp3 No real 'download music from the Internet' feature
7/10 stars