Product Reviews

Musicmatch Jukebox bills itself as 'the world's first and best jukebox software program' and a look at the reviews of the PC version certainly backs this up. So when the Mac version became available recently, we were keen to put it to the test - but what a disappointment.

After installing the application, everything starts off well enough. A Welcome dialog box asks you if you want to search your hard disk for MP3 files. Choosing 'no' is met with the information that you can carry out this search at any time by dropping your hard disk icon onto the MusicMatch icon or onto an open Library window. So far, so good. Problem number one occurs when you choose 'yes'. Jukebox will only search your startup disk, so if you don't store your MP3s there, it's pretty

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useless. If you do store your MP3s on your main disk and you have a lot of them, you're in for a long wait: likewise, if you drop another volume with more than a handful of MP3s onto the application. We tried cataloguing a couple of hundred tracks but gave up in frustration after what felt like an eternity, and then discovered that the only way to abort the process was to restart the Mac.

OK, we thought, so it has difficulty handling lots of files, let's find out what it does well. Jukebox's other main function is as an encoder. In theory, you can stick an audio CD in your Mac, set your encoding preferences, and hit the record button. Great, except that it didn't work. Online help didn't help at all, so we called technical support and eventually found that the answer was to 'Auto Arrange' the application components before recording.

Adding to the frustration of features that don't work properly, is the interface - it makes QuickTime Player look like a work of genius. Not only is it un-Mac like, it's inconsistent and unintuitive and the windows lack any proper borders. Dragging and dropping, for example, works in some areas but not others.

There are positive aspects to MusicMatch Jukebox for the Mac, but, frankly, they pale into insignificance compared to its deficiencies. Check out MacMP3 or Sound Jam MP instead.