I use iTunes, and I hate it, really want to switch to something better. The biggest reason I haven't yet was podcasts, it has such a large library in its store and it's very easy to subscribe and listen to. I figure there must be equally easier options out there, on top of also actually allowing me to customize things.

What player do you use to listen to music and podcasts?

While the library of padcasts on the iTunes store is rather extensive -as well as rather incompatible with other applications- you might have some luck with Banshee, it has multiple extensions for online media sources, such as Miro Guide, Last.fm, and Amazon MP3 Store.

You can also import your library from iTunes, though I don't know how well it works.

... I just use it for music, and for various reasons I haven't imported my whole library (of several thousand tracks) yet since switching to Linux a year or two ago, so I just have a few albums. I used iTunes heavily until a couple years ago, and had started getting annoyed at it bugging out too often with a large library (I got the application in order to help me manage the library -and to handle the iPod- not mess the library up every few weeks).

I wish that VLC had a better Media Library..

Don't know what podcasts are. For music I use MusicBee, great simple little product.

Podcasts are radio shows through the internet. They are as varied as actual radio shows are.

For example, I listen both to the Parapod, which is two UK comedians, one very sceptical and another quite trusting, not to say gullible, discussing paranormal incidents and urban legends; and to Welcome to Nightvale, which is a comedy/horror podcast in the format of a small town radio news show with a lovecraftian bent.

I was reading up on players to go with and I heard MusicBee was one of the best, and that it even has a good selection of shows in its podcast directory, I just wasn't sure if it would have all the ones I listen to.

Where I read this it also said I could add podcast feeds myself. Does anyone know how to do this? I never had to before so I don't know, but this could help with transferring my podcast library.

Here you go: http://musicbee.wikia.com/wiki/Importing_Podcasts_from_iTunes

Have you looked at Clementine? Haven't really used it myself but It definitely has podcast support and i think you can even import iTunes-podcasts.

Thanks. I might just go with MusicBee then, I'll just wait and see if another player gets any votes first before going through with it.

JRiver Media Center is a great Music player. I can't live without it. Only software I buy pre-beta without question.

It does support podcast but never really use that feature, so can't comment to much on it.

They have an active forum for support.

For local music, I exclusively use Foobar 2000. I listen to mostly video game music.

For podcasts, I just load up Google Play Music. But I rarely listen to podcasts.

For music on the go, I use Droidsound-E, but that's probably a problem if you're an iOS user.

Clementine all the way.

For musics I use:
http://www.foobar2000.org/screenshots
Can't help you with podcast players.
Because the podcasts I listen to are available in YouTube, so I simply go there.

I started using MusicBee, it took a while to get everything the way I liked it, but I got there and was able to import all my podcasts, thanks to everyone who posted!

I use foobar2000 regularly, (but not these days apparently because I'm not on Windows and it's not available via Porteus's USM package/module manager). That's for PC.

On Android, I use Poweramp for MP3 and Podcast Addict for podcasts.