After the initial installation but before you first get to the interface, MediaMonkey gives you an information window letting you know that it is ready to search your hard drives for any media files. This window also mentions it's 'Gold' edition of MediaMonkey (payware), which adds minor features I've found I'll never use. The standard edition, reviewed here, has everything I need for free!
If you prefer not to have the program scan your drives, closing the window gives you a directory tree for choosing which drives and directories get searched. Closing that down, you're given the standard 'Tips' window which gives you advice, keyboard shortcuts and info on how to use special features of the program. I went through about thirty different tips before I lost count! All very useful! I strongly suggest going through each one to get a good initial sense and feel of what MediaMonkey is capable of performing.

The installed interface consists of multiple windows containing different types of information. There is a tree view containing categories and classifications for your music files. There is an area for cd cover art to be inserted and shown and a player is displayed at the bottom along with it's playlist. Almost everything showing is configurable and adjustable including the categories, window size, and whether or not a window gets displayed in the first place. Here's a pic of the opening interface directly after MediaMonkey is installed:


The interface for the initial installation is quite plain however, once filled with music listings and playing a tune, the display brightens up. Here's a pic of my setup with some of the music I have stored. From here, we'll go to just some of the great features of this program:


The directory tree to the left gives you the location of your file collection and a listing of categories. The music is sorted into these categories based on the information contained in  each songs tag. The categories are available right from the directory tree or you can use one of the small icons showing in the tool bar directly above the tree view. This allows instant access to the areas rather than scanning manually with your mouse. Each separate icon throughout the whole program gives you a tool tip complete with keyboard shortcut. Nice for helping those that utilize the keyboard more than the mouse.

The listing on the right gives you all of the file information in a glance. The category bar above the list is completely configurable, allowing you to drag and drop each column location and right clicking on the bar allows you to choose which categories are displayed. Below your file listings are the built in player and playlist windows. You have a choice between using the player with MediaMonkey, or you can set the option for the program to utilize Winamp if you have it installed. The category bar for the playlist is also configurable like the file listings bar and you can also right click to choose from 26 (!) different categories!

Along the top of this whole thing is a nice collection of icons to allow you to utilize many of the great features of MediaMonkey. Each toolbar can be arraigned along the top or removed all together from the 'Toolbars' menu item under View.

As for features, MediaMonkey is rich! The program will manage more than 50,000 files on your system, which certainly takes care of my collection! Categories are numerous and consist of titles such as Artist, Title, Year, Genre, rating, classification etc. As mentioned above, it comes with a built in player with the usual settings necessary to make adjustment to your sound. It includes adaption for input and output plugins which can give you even more features such as fade in/out, visualizations, auto DJing, volume leveling (works great!), 10 level equalizer complete with presets, track shuffling, continuous playback, and more! If you minimize the full window with one of the two extra window adjustment icons at the top right, your full screen will shrink to just the 'now playing' list with controls for pause, stop, forward/back track etc. It stays on top too if you want and utilizes transparency in Win XP/2000. Here's a pic of the minimized player showing:


If your busy doing work on the computer while listening to your favorite tunes, a balloon pops up in the taskbar letting you know what's playing. A nice added feature! Here's a pic of the balloon:


Right clicking on just about any window in the program gives you a complete menu with various choices of action. At the bottom of each is 'properties' which gives you a tabbed editor for your music's information tag. The areas within the tabs allow you to get as detailed as you wish as far as song information goes including lyrics, tempo, it's classification, album art, frequency and much more. Here's a couple of pics of the tabbed tag editor:



Clicking on the icons to the right of the 'basic' window  allow you to automatically tag your files using Amazon! This will enter the basic information as well as cover art. Here's a pic of the window when inquiring Amazon for your tag:


Some of the other great features that MediaMonkey contains are the built in CD audio CD/DVD data burner complete with level volume control. The standard edition supports burning up to 4x speed and can even erase CDRW disks. MediaMonkey also supports audio conversion, CD ripping supporting MP3, OGG, WMA, and FLAC.
It also contains an auto-DJ and Party mode for those who enjoy entertaining, support for many winamp plugins, report and statistic generation, track volume leveling, plays net radio (!), and much, much more!