Slowly and quietly, off of most people's radars, the top two programs for cataloging mp3 files are soon to disappear off the web completely. I'm talking about MP3Rat (from Kaylon Technologies, makers of the fabulous PowerMarks; also dying and the best in it's class by far) and Mp3 Collector (Collectorz.com). I've discussed both these programs at length in other threads here, but it's very sad to see these best in class (nobody comes close) programs about to die. In the case of MP3Rat, it's already dead as it's sister program PowerMarks. In MP3 Collector's case, it's still around, but hasn't really been updated in ages (besides very minor things) and, at least to me, it seems to be on its way out also. As it stands, I think it is by far the least popular of the Collectorz.com suite anyway, which doesn't help motivate the authors to work on it vs their other programs.
Part of the problem, and these continue to be my nemesis, is the bundling of the cataloging features with the music players (jukeboxes). Sure it's handy to have it all in one location, but the universal truth remains, "Jack of all trades, master of none." None of these programs are quite as nice as MP3Rat or MP3 Collector. It's just the fact that they are stand-alone, and the others are integrated in their favorite player. But for us who are very picky about features, its a compromise we aren't willing to deal with. That's why I have a separate music player, a separate encoding/decoding converter, a separate cataloger (two actually), and so forth.
It's very sad. It reminds me of when KeyNote went down (is marek still around here?). KeyNote was like a pioneer.
