Do you use iTunes?

[Augustus Medici]

If yes, why o why??

For the life of me, I cannot understand iTunes' popularity. The concept of paying $0.99 for an mp3 is just bizarre, regardless of the cheap price. Apple could charge a farthing/mp3, and I would still refuse to pay. I know I'm treading on thin ice by indirectly promoting piracy, but to me, it's essentially the same as taping songs off the radio like my mom used to do before the age of CD's.

So if you're an iTunes user, please enlighten me. Don't you realize you can get music for free using a thousand other sources? I don't really buy the argument that P2P file-sharing programs are dangerous because of viruses. I have friends that have been downloading music for years now (some with over 10,000 mp3s!) and have yet to hear of anybody having their computer go belly-up. Besides, there are still so many people that use P2P and share music, I would think natural selection would weed out the malicious files fairly quickly. Add to that the ubiquity of anti-virus software, and I think P2P is just as safe as any other public program.

Oh, and I don't actually like music that much and have not downloaded music in over three years. I'm so boring, in fact, that I've been listening to the same homemade Sopranos soundtrack in my car for several months now. I must be one of the few twenty-somethings left that doesn't own an iPod and actually scoffs at it. Thus, I like to think I'm an unbiased observer of this digital music phenomenon.

 

[Bandwagonesque]

I use iTunes only for ripping and putting stuff on the iPod. Just because I use iTunes, doesn't mean I'm shelling out for songs also. I buy my music on CD... because paying $0.99 for an digital version of a song is like paying for an imaginary pizza that somehow tastes good, and manages to fill you up; but it arrives at your doorstep without a box, and a bite taken out of each slice.

 

[matadorpoeta]

i use itunes to put my CD music into the computer. from there i make my own mix CDs.

i've bought a couple of songs from apple because it's legal and i'm a law abiding citizen.

 

[whodini]

I use iTunes all the time. I'd say 80% of the time my music comes from bittorrent or friends while the other 19% from new/used cd's off Amazon. There are very few actual cds I still own because frankly they make a hell of a clutter. The ones I do have are autographed, come from a cd/dvd set, or have some ridiculous artwork. The remaining 1% are iTunes store purchases from gift certificates for rare b-sides or ep's.

 

[zeni]

^^^ what he said. iTunes is easy, clean interface, iPod, and no one's making you buy music with it. My music comes from CDs, soulseek, dc++ and Ares.

 

[dusty]

I deleted iTunes once I saw that it puts a Quicktime icon in the control panel.

 

[tiecollector]

You are confusing iTunes with the iTunes Store, you don't have to buy any songs, you can rip or import your own music. The way iTunes organizes songs is far superior to any other program I have used. I used to use winamp because it looked cool but once I used iTunes, there was no going back, even back in my windoze daze.

I actually had to end up buying a TV series off the iTunes store becaues my directv+dvr POS messed up when they re-aired the entire season. Was nice because there were no commercials.

 

[Tck13]

Originally Posted by Augustus Medici

If yes, why o why??
For the life of me, I cannot understand iTunes' popularity. The concept of paying $0.99 for an mp3 is just bizarre, regardless of the cheap price. Apple could charge a farthing/mp3, and I would still refuse to pay.

I download CD quality tunes from iTunes if I want the best quality. Then, I put the songs on a CD and convert the song on my computer to MP3. (If I really care that much)

So if you're an iTunes user, please enlighten me. Don't you realize you can get music for free using a thousand other sources?

Selection? Easy to use?

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by dusty

I deleted iTunes once I saw that it puts a Quicktime icon in the control panel.

You are kidding right? You can simply remove the damn icon...

Anyways, I use iTunes because I own 2 iPods (4G 20 gig and a 1st 1 gig gen shuffle)...I don't particularly like the program very much, but it's rather simple to use and user friendly, so that a plus.

Jon.

 

[Augustus Medici]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Yes, I meant the iTunes Store. I didn't even know there was a separate iTunes program, which shows you how far behind the curve I am. I guess it's appropriate that I use Winamp as well.

Is it true that Apple products will only play iTunes music?

 

[lawyerdad]

You're actually confusing several issues. As others have pointed out and you've acknowledged, there's a difference between using itunes as an interface for your ipod and buying songs from the itunes store. I rarely buy things from the itunes store unless someone gives me a gift certificate or my daughter has fallen in love with a particular song that I don't otherwise have easy legal access to.
As far as paying for legal downloads vs. illegally pirating stuff, everyone can make their own call on that. I think there are differences between what you're apparently doing and your mom taping stuff off the radio. And I'm not sure which provision of the Bill of Rights provides that "If Mom Did It It's OK". I'm sure you're mom's a nice lady, but most of her don't use her as our benchmark of morality. But that debate has been beaten to death too many times in too many fora for me to have any interest in engaging in it here. Suffice it to say that whatever your own view on it, many people choose to pay for things they might otherwise be able to get for free because paying for them is the legal thing to do and helps to ensure that the artists who created the work get the compensation they're entitled to.

 

[WSW]

Unfortunately, if you have an iPod, you have to use iTunes. There's no other way to easily manage your playlists and songfiles on your iPod. It's not really that bad if you are looking for a simple way to listen to your music.

 

[skalogre]

Never use iTunes. I use Mediamonkey for the majority of the things I do with my Toshiba S60. As far as purchasing, I bought one track years ago because it was only available there. eMusic is much more diverse, anyway

 

[tiecollector]

Originally Posted by WSW

Unfortunately, if you have an iPod, you have to use iTunes. There's no other way to easily manage your playlists and songfiles on your iPod. It's not really that bad if you are looking for a simple way to listen to your music.
There are clones too, in Linux it is called rhythmbox IIRC. Since the iTunes and iPod interfaces are organized the same, it would be kind of weird using something like winamp. Not sure how you would do it easily otherwise. Just looked at mediamonkey, looks like a good player too, though similar to iTunes from the screenshots it seems. Is this cross-platform?

 

[javyn]

Not just no, but HELL NO, I won't put anything made by Apple on a Windows computer.

Don't read into this that I'm saying Macs suck or anything...I'm sure their crap works quite well on their own hardware. But Apple software on a Windows OS is usually (always) a bloated mess. That's the great thing about Windows though, there are MANY alternatives, and many of them free.