I think the best way to manage your music: Zune. I’m not saying that is has the best music store, it does not. However, if you already have an extensive collection of media, you must give Zune a try. It will change the way that you enjoy your music.

Zune is an immersive music experience. When you fire up the main screen you are shown a three column interface: an artist list, albums displayed with cover art, and the current track listing.

Zune invites you to order all the columns as you wish. The first (artists) column can be done in alphabetical order forward or backward. Albums can be displayed by date added to the library (my favorite), in alphabetical order in both directions, by release year, and by artist (alphabetical artist listing), and the third column can be sorted by song first name, user rating, and by original album track listing. Need more options? I did not think so. Certainly, all three columns are fully scalable.

In case you select and start playing music, Zune shows off its pretty. The Zune now playing screen is one of the best interfaces ever created for music. It works in one of two ways, depending on how popular the artist is that you are playing. In case a track is playing you can either select to head to the now playing screen, or wait and have Zune do it for you. In case you load the screen displays an image of the album art in your library. All the square images are randomly sized, making some albums large, and others quite small. They all revolve, creating (slowly) a fresh screen.

Especially if you are running Zune alone on an external monitor, the effect is immersive. Zune has some great shots of Tool, if you wish. Zune is designed to make music glamorous. The cycle of colors. Text hovers and skates over the images, displaying how many times that song has been played across Zune in total. People will walk past your desk, stop, just wondering what software is running.

Zune has the best folder management, the best genre management, quick search, and also a strong social aspect. When you use the Zune, you can register for a Zune tag. Add as a friend. It is like a Last.fm for iTunes users, but integrated. Zune also has a badge system not unlike what Foursquare uses (Zune there first, I think), to track how much you listen to a particular artist.

As a final note, Zune is fast. On all of my very capable computers, Zune is leaps and bounds faster than iTunes. I’m nearing some 10,000 tracks, so my library is not as massive as some friends that I have, but in Zune there is never a lag second. iTunes has lag buckets and a 2 minute start cycle.