Do you use iTunes? - Page 3

I used naim for 5+ years, but switched to pork within the last year or so. I liked naim, but it gave me compatibility issues with screen and terminal emulation, so I had to find an alternative.

Never had a problem with gnome term, os x terminal, or PuTTy. Naim automatically added rpi_dan, or something like that, to your address book, I deleted him right away, had a conversation with him once several years ago, he had just gotten a job at Red Hat last I heard.

Naim has gotten me into problems though, a couple of times I would paste into the window and the carriage returns and tabs from my cut/paste buffer would start messaging one line to each person on my contact list.

I don't have a server anymore and I no longer work at a job that firewalls AIM traffic, so I have little opportunity to use naim. Now I primarily use libgaim software, mostly Adium these days.

I use Itunes maybe 5-10% of the time.

Chief reason? Time... It often takes less time and is more direct to search for and DL a song from itunes than to locate a torrent that may or may not contain what you want, could be low quality or "bait", etc.

Itunes will provide a legal, high quality copy that is easy to find.

Bittorrent may take a little longer, often you need to DL the entire album, there are no "seeders" and the quality may be sketchy but it is free...


What is your time worth? In most cases the pirate copy is worth a little extra time. Sometimes, you are in a hurry or what you want is not available...

The itunes software is horrible, not to mention that there's no chance in hell that they'll get me to spend money on anything other than a full-quality recording. That means it needs to come on CD, or they need to start offering downloads in lossless. Even then, I still wouldn't use it because I don't like Apple. And did I say the itunes software is horrible? Not to mention the DRM limitations placed upon your music...

It's the control panel, no you can't. Not without editing the registry at least.

I use Rhapsody To Go

I know the whole notion of downloading music over the Internet has been hashed over by minds more rigorous than mine, but at least have the decency to be honest: you're promoting theft. If you ain't shelling out money for it (and if it's got a price tag), you're stealing.

I use iTunes for listening to music on both my Mac and Windows computers, and use an iPod with my Mac. I don't and can't use the iTunes music store because of logistical problems; Apple doesn't allow for the registration of overseas addresses even if the person registering is using a US credit card linked to a US bank. The reason this sucks incredibly badly is that my brother invariably asks for iTunes gift certificates for Christmas and his birthday. Apple's inability to get with the program here means they're missing out on hundreds of dollars of business every year from just one customer, but fuck 'em.

Indeed.

Lets get this clear from the get-go, I use iTunes religiously. However, I use BitTorrent to get full albums and sometimes discographies of artists. I only pay for songs on iTunes that I cannot find on BitTorrent, like exclusive singles, digital b-sides, live/acoustic versions of songs. I would like to point out however that when you pay nearly a buck per song on iTunes, you own that song through the digital rights management software that is encoded in the song (fancy term that has a set of limitations on the song purchased, for example, my brother who uses a different iTunes account must know the password of my account if he wants to play music I bought) If you use a service like Napster and pay $9.99 a month, download 100+ songs, and then pull the plug, you lose ownership of all of those songs unless you burned them on a CD and then rip them off the CD again (this is true for napster and sony's music store, i'm not sure about emusic). I don't believe iTunes' market share would drop considerably if Apple opened up the iPod to other music services however. Of course, if they did, Apple would have to develop a firmware update to all 5 generations of the iPod to allow different files with different DRMs to play. Isn't music complicated?

Dont get me started on Itunes! I downloaded that piece of filth when I first got my Ipod, before I knew 3rd party clones existed.

The first thing I noticed was that the software was bloated and a resource hog. I can't tolerate a GUI that feels sluggish...

I also hate how it tries to load your entire music collection into the window, creating long load times, and further bogging down the memory on my PC. I have probably 100,000 songs, so you can imagine the rediculousness.

The worst part came, though, when I found Itunes has modified many of my mp3 file tags without ever prompting me. It put them in some weird format that didnt make sense. Over the years of building my music collection, I had probably invested 20-50 hours organizing and tagging my files, and Itune obliterated my work in minutes!

Never again will I install shitty Apple software on my computers...

No. Music is not complicated. However, the infected filth that Apple peddles on their iTunes store is complicated. I hope in 10-15 years we all look back to this time period and think, "Wow, DRM was really stupid. I can't believe people used that crap." Unfortunately, I don't think that scenario is likely.

Deep down inside, I like to believe that Apple, Napster, all the Mfg's out there supporing HDMI, Microsoft, Tivo, etc., are supporting various forms of DRM and restrictive technology only to appease the RIAA, MPAA, and broadcasting/media companies. If it weren't for these incredibly large, wealthy, and powerful organizations driving these inane formats and technologies through litigation, legislation, or threats only to cover their ass in the world of ever changing content delivery mechanisms, then the Apple's and Tivo's of the world could do as they please and ultimately give more control to the end user. Instead we have DRM. Basically, we have done away with the "survival of the fittest" mentality of this market, and instead we have the lawyer up mentality to buy the biggest safety net you can find to resist change and maintain status quo.

We could do so much better with the current technologies we have today in regard to interoperability, mobility, efficiency and overall convergence, but instead we have to suffer through ridiculous format wars and conversions and quality loss and productivity loss. Ugh.

Don't know about it not happenning. For one, in several European markets (including the lucrative German market) there have been major pushes to remove DRM from iTunes and even competing shops. Plus a number of major labels are getting more open to the idea of DRM-less MP3s.