iTunes
 

Anybody use it? How has your experience been? Any other download sources that are better? Had any trouble converting to mp3s?

I just started looking into it this week. I like the concept of buying single songs. When I was a kid you could still buy 45s - which you would do if you only liked one or two songs on an album. Some of the one-hit-wonders never had albums at all - just the 45.

Thinking about iTunes downloads as the new 45s makes me wonder if this might change the music industry. iTunes may be the thing that renews my interest in commercial music.

I love iTunes. I don't buy a lot of music from it, but I like that you have option to buy single songs if you want to. The only downfall is you can only listen to that song on the computer you bought it on and two other authorized PCs. I'm not sure if you can burn those tracks to a CD either.

I live in a dorm, as I run residence halls, and the sharing capabilities on itunes are great! I have so many libraries to choose from :).

Tip of the day: do a search for jhymn. I pay for all my music, but drm restrictions punish the good with the bad.

The only downfall is you can only listen to that song on the computer you bought it on and two other authorized PCs. I'm not sure if you can burn those tracks to a CD either.

Sure, you can burn them all to a CD. Endlessly.

And, if you play with it enough you'll quickly figure out how to get the songs to MP3 format that can be listened to anywhere. :)

I'm allergic to paying for music, and even more allergic to anything associated with the apple corporation. I don't think iTunes is for me...or iBooks, iMacs, iPods, etc.

Eh, I was gonna start a thread on it, but I recently picked up an Powerbook after a huge amount of debating and thought. I'm very, very pleased with it so far despite still having file management issues from still being "locked in to Windows-think" after so many years.

I guess if you have any respect for copyright law, my statement holds true. :p

I use it to burn my CDs and put them on my iPod. If I didn't have an iPod I wouldn't give it a second thought. The online music stores don't have a clue about classical music, and it's still much more cost effective to buy CDs (especially if they can be found used) and rip them--not to mention it gives more flexibility.

I love itunes because it makes it easier and faster to comply with copyright law than to violate it. If the record labels had been a bit smarter and done this in the very beginning, i think P2P and the like would have stayed a very small subculture instead of a dominant means of distribution.

It also collapses the argument about not enough money going to the artist. If I wrote a song and performed it and loaded it onto the the indie side of iTunes (through CD Baby or somewhere else), I'm making close to $.50 everytime someone grabs a tune. That starts to look alot like what any product manufacturer makes vs. retail cost.

We were thinking the same lines sm. I always felt justified at downloading songs because this was the media that I wanted and the record companies simply weren't answering my needs as a consumer.

Now they are getting closer, but I still demand uncontrolled high-bitrate mp3, which is only available at a few smaller sites (full disclosure, including my own project, the download store side of itsaboutmusic.com).

Forgot to add, I am a Rhapsody customer, instead of iTunes; because that's what makes sense for me personally. If you are doing most of your listening at a desktop computer with bandwidth, the streaming option is really good and affordable. The only downside is that you have to deal with Real which is one of the least consumer-friendly companies in existence.

Still fairly shitty 128kps AAC however. If they offered lossless I would use this a lot. I buy a fair bit of music these days from non-RIAA labels, I've bought a track or two off iTunes but why would I pay the same as a CD for lower quality and DRM lock-in? Anything RIAA however I either borrow the CD or download, I go to the gigs instead, far more of the money goes to the right place that way.

iTunes itself however is awesome. I've had an iPod for years now (got the first gen 20G just after it came out), it is not only a great music player (and the apple in-ear headphones rock) but makes a wonderful way of moving stuff around as well.

As a musician, I love iTunes. Now, I can download tunes legally. Before iTunes, I would not download tunes.

iTunes Thread Resurrection
 

Here's a list of my likes and dislikes of both the iTunes application and store.

Likes:

• It's easy to use.
• It's convenient.
• It's legal.

Dislikes:

• Store prices are to high.
• They'll only let you re-download your entire purchase history once, unlike Amazon. I've re-downloaded all 24 of my video purchases in my Unbox library @ Amazon 3 times without re-paying.
• The iTunes player takes a tad to long to load (even on my 1.8Ghz PC)

I've tried to use the store only once. I wanted to buy Elton John's "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" song off of his "Yellow Brick Road" CD.

I already owned his Greatest Hits on both vinyl and CD, and I had a live album as well on CD. None of those had this one particular song. I wanted it.

So I got an iTunes gift card for my birthday, and was thinking about what I wanted to buy, and remembered this one song. I figured 99 cents was a reasonable price to pay for it. So I tried to buy it, but it was the ONLY song on that CD that you weren't allowed to buy individually. Evey other song was offered for sale for 99 cents, but if you wanted that song, you had to buy the entire CD.

I was pissed, so I copied it from a friend's CD. Those fuckers can go to Hell. I tried to buy the song legally, but they wouldn't sell it to me. Screw them. This is coming from an old school CD buyer with several hundred CDs on his wall rack. I grew up paying for music. If they lose people like me, how is the music industry going to stay alive? I'll have no problem stealing all my music in the future whenever I can.