Comments on: Why There’s No Stopping iTunes

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:46:00 +0000

I use Microsoft’s music services and I get all the music I want for a flat fee. I can listen to it on XBOX, PC, and my Nokia WP.

Do the math and my annual fee of $99.00 compared to .25 cent downloads is a bargain.

Microsoft’s app market place will certainly grab a big share of the “PIE” after the release later this year.

By: Miceblue

Miceblue — Wed, 02 May 2012 19:50:00 +0000

I’m sorry, but the music I have purchased from AmazonMP3 sound like crap compared to that of iTunes, from the same album mind you.

Of course I wouldn’t use either since I prefer CD’s as opposed to 256kbps lossy MP3 files. Both digital stores have a very limited selection of music that I like. FLAC is more widely used and able to be played on media players than ALAC, though Vertikar is correct that ALAC is now open source.

I don’t own any iDevices, so I don’t use iTunes. I prefer to keep my media files organized the way I like it and browse by directory in Foobar (Clementine when I’m using Mac OS X). This also makes it easy for drag-n-drop media devices too since I don’t need to open up a separate program to manage my library. On the other hand, I use the Audirvana media player for Mac OS X the most since it has superior audio quality to any of the aforementioned media players.

By: techtrendz

techtrendz — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:21:00 +0000

I should also mention this is commercial free high quality downloads.

By: techtrendz

techtrendz — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:19:00 +0000

I like Microsoft’s $9.99 pass to 15+ million songs - I have 250 gig of music on my drive and it wirelessly syncs to my phone and mp3 player, plays throught he cloud, and plays through my xbox. iTunes is laughable.

By: Marshall Taylor

Marshall Taylor — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:06:00 +0000

software is crap and i can get cheaper albums on Google play……….might be time to your head out of apples ass.. just saying

By: diggs

diggs — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:28:00 +0000

I’m confused… was this article about whether or not iTunes can be stopped (I presume meaning pushed aside by a competitor) or how iTunes is the best market because of the iPhone?

I use the Microsoft Zune market. Using one login I can access music, movies, and apps on my Zune player, Windows Phone 7 device, computer (desktop and laptop), and my Xbox… and will soon be able to access the same video/music market on a Windos 8 tablet. I can access this content at home or on the go; on my computer or on my HD TV (via Xbox); on my Zune or my phone. Not to mention, a $15 a month plan allows me to listen to as much music as I want and keep 10 songs each month forever. I don’t see how the iTunes store is better than this… that is unless, of course, you are an Apple person. In which case you would go with the store that fits your platform, I suppose.

By: PolitankZ

PolitankZ — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:50:00 +0000

…I think it was meant to be flame bait. Typical fanboy though, they forget that it’s only fanboys who ever heard of the Zume ;o))

By: Aharon Fajardo

Aharon Fajardo — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:49:00 +0000

What about Google Play? With its tight integration with your google account, which encompasses computers of any platform, Android phones, and Android tablets, I think that it is a more than worthy alternative to iTunes. In fact, I never bought tracks and albums from iTunes at all. I only used my Apple account to buy applications. To top it off, Google Play allows you to store your music and movies on it’s cloud based servers to save space on your phones and tablets. I would say that’s a pretty sweet deal.

By: guesttopostthisonce

guesttopostthisonce — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:50:00 +0000

The author is missing out on not using those free downloads. He would have discovered that Amazonmp3 is often much cheaper, easily imports into Itunes, and has a good cloud service. I hardly even look at the Itunes store anymore for music.

By: Ron Fisher

Ron Fisher — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:40:00 +0000

Google Play and Amazon both offers just as many options has iTunes. If you compare catalogs, iTunes might have some songs, movies, or apps that Google and Amazon don’t, but they all have all of the main stream content that really matter. It really comes down to what platform you use. If you own an android (more android than iOS out there, by the way), using Google Play for all of that media just makes more sense. Same with iOS and iTunes.

By: Six34sigma

Six34sigma — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:39:00 +0000

When I tried to export the music from iTunes to my Nook color, everything that was not purchased from Apple directly went over. Anything that I paid for an downloaded directly from Apple did not export. Point being if I pay for and download from Apple the way I can use the music is restricted. If I can run iTunes in another device, yes I can move my library but if I cannot run iTunes ….

Thats what I said Amazon integrates easily with iTunes. The author seems to be implying that this was not the case.

By: RobertPerez1

RobertPerez1 — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:04:00 +0000

Dude, my kids have my iTunes music on their Nintendo 3DS’s. It’ll play anywhere.

By: RobertPerez1

RobertPerez1 — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:02:00 +0000

You’re right on the money with this one. I tried to avoid using iTunes for years but eventually the ease of it all drew me in. I like how it is integrated into other 3rd party apps like Soundhound, you can be shopping in the mall with your wife, here a song playing on the overhead speaker you’ve NEVER heard before, and POW twenty seconds later it’s part of your personal collection. Now with Apple allowing unlimited downloads you never have to worry about backing up your purchases.

By: Ankit

Ankit — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:28:00 +0000

iTunes is Just Perfect..! it has Everything a Good MediaPlayer Needs, Infact Much More! :D AppleForever <3

By: Vertikar

Vertikar — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:35:00 +0000

I fail to see an issue. All my iTunes music is DRM free and I can play all my iTunes music on multiple devices without an issue (ALAC, AAC, AACplus etc..). ALAC is open sourced now and most of the other formats you can play in Windows Media Player, Android, VLC and other players.

By: ArrowSmith

ArrowSmith — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:06:00 +0000

Exactly, if the rest of iOS was like iTunes the iPhone would never have gotten off the ground. Frankly 1 Infinite Loop should be ashamed of this app.

By: ArrowSmith

ArrowSmith — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:05:00 +0000

iTunes is useful like one of those huge station wagons. It gets you from point A to B but at the end of the trip you are relieved to be out of that thing.

By: ArrowSmith

ArrowSmith — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:04:00 +0000

iTunes is a horrific, bloated piece of crapware. It gets the job done in terms of getting your content, but the experience gives me a massive clusterfrud of a headache. By contrast, Microsoft’s Zune client is a real pleasure to navigate. Maybe Apple should hire Microsoft to re-design their stale UI.

By: MarkC77

MarkC77 — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:46:00 +0000

iTunes is the worst piece of software I’ve ever had the misfortune to use.
The author says its great because its the most comprehensive all in one solution, well I’d say I’m perfectly happy using a couple of different apps instead.

By: BlazeEagle

BlazeEagle — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:48:00 +0000

Malarkey!

By: Dmaheu14

Dmaheu14 — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Like it or hate it iTunes rescued the music industry from rampant piracy.

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:23:00 +0000

Wait for windows 8. The “Zune” read:Windows Marketplace will be on Windows 8 for desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, xbox, etc. Their numbers will crush itunes like a bug just based on the number of connected devices alone. Just like iTunes does now cause of the iPhone/iPad

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:23:00 +0000

make that 2 people :)

By: AmiRami

AmiRami — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:21:00 +0000

“They’ll say that I’m an Apple apologist or someone that doesn’t want to admit that there are other services out there that might actually be better than those from Apple”

You are an Apple apologist and someone that doesn’t want to admit that there are other services out there that are actually better than those from Apple.

In all seriousness though, there is a reason iTunes numbers are so high. the iPhone and iPad. iTunes itself sucks. I haven’t found anything on iTunes that I can’t find on Zune for example. the only difference is one service is on the most popular phone and tablet in the world and the other is on a failed platform that has all but died out.

No to mention the iTunes software BLOWS. it crashes every single day. Its design is fundamentally flawed to the point where I work with an entire room of IT professionals that scratch their headfs everytime they open it.

By: Johnnie

Johnnie — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:44:00 +0000

I dunno… Itunes has been having the same bloat issues that we all used to complain about Windows for. TBH, I never use it for video always using other products like netflix. For MP3′s, I tunes really annoys me due to the lack of flexibility in ways to transfer music to my devicies. My music library is STILL a giant mess after I made an attempt to transfer it into itunes…. multiple copies of the same song, weird naming glitches, my Ebooks in particular were ruined by the transfer. I’ve spent hours and hours slowly straightening my library out, and still have so much work to do that there’s no end in sight. (and I don’t even have the massive libraries some have of pirated content… mine was all Kosher) Also really frustrated by some DRM issues where I can’t play some things on certain devices.

While I agree that there’s no other “one stop shop” that has anything like as much data, if you broaden the field to allow one to do different companies for different products, one can do a lot better. I’m not going to call you a fanboy :) but I’m also not going to be able to agree that there’s no stopping Itunes. They’ve got a lot of room for improvement.

By: mjw149

mjw149 — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0000

I do use Amazon a lot. Their videos play on my devices, their music is much, much cheaper, and it’s WAY easier to find content. Itunes never has good sales.

Itunes has podcasts, but they don’t really handle it well, either. Why do I have to actually download them on an always-connected PC? Why does it unsubscribe me from FREE content?

Itunes store is a offline-only piggish slug.

I use itunes for playing music, nowadays, I buy most everything on Amazon.

By: hurpandurpan

hurpandurpan — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:18:00 +0000

iTunes sucks bawls if you are interested in less mainstream music. I listen to electronic music and junodownload, beatport and trackitdown (to name a few) are all far better than iTunes. They’re at least naming the songs correctly, they have the full versions (not the fucking radio edits), giving me the option to buy them in WAV and by buying from them I know I actually support the label and producer.

By: Joshua Olds

Joshua Olds — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:41:00 +0000

And if that doesn’t make you a windows fan boy than I don’t know what else does. I never comment on these kind of discussion boards because I think 90% of the comments are pointless fan wars. I will add this though, a large percent of hatred towards companies like Apple is incredibly easily explained. People always hate the ‘top dog’ …It’s that simple. People, a few years ago everyone used to hate Windows the same way. Do you remember the kind of shit they got into with some of their operating systems? I remember countless times my family making fun of Windows and it’s products. I would be willing to bet you anything that if a company like Samsung or even Windows took over the spot light from Apple that eventually the cycle would begin anew. It works like this.
1) Company X puts forward a revolutionary product or two
2) Consumer market becomes attracted to said product/s
3) Company X gains momentum and estabilishes itself in the spot light
4) Consumer market begins to find flaws with Company X which is always in the spot light
5) Company X eventually loses momentum and consumer market and Company B takes over and begins the cycle again.

I buy devices that suite me and my personality and needs. I’m happy with what ever works for me and I don’t like it when dick heads like some of the people commenting here start attacking me over my choice. My advice, forget the flame wars, forget the image, forget what the blogs say do your own research figure out what best suits who you are as a person and spend your money on it. Last but not least don’t go and start attacking other people because they are different to you.

Rant over, you can go back to bitching at each other now.

By: Ian Wardell

Ian Wardell — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:11:00 +0000

the new google play music section gives you cloud for 20,000 songs for free . i put all 6700 of my itunes songs(most from *ehem* places) and only 9 didnt copy due to my own issues withthem. all my songs i stream to my devices over unlimlited data via ATT “4g” . i even enjoy downloading 10 free songs a week + the songs per day from google for free. google music manager also auto updates and syncs mu google and itunes audio + playlists . therefor google just bested apple!

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:21:00 +0000

i don’t fully agree with the article, but no you didn’t do anything here but show how dumb you are.

By: JulianRivas

JulianRivas — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:41:00 +0000

Be honest to yourself, google’s music service sucks…

By: Brock Bailey

Brock Bailey — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:02:00 +0000

How bout that. Somebody else that uses Zune.

By: secretmanofagent

secretmanofagent — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:20:00 +0000

Not sure what you’re talking about, iTunes uses a standard AAC file. Amazon also has the Amazon MP3 Downloader for Macs which dumps the songs right into iTunes, no fuss at all for iPods or iPhones.

By: iMowLawns4Cheap

iMowLawns4Cheap — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:08:00 +0000

I have both iTunes and Zune. I use Zune Marketplace the most because I have a Windows Phone, a PC and an Xbox. I also have the Zune pass so I get to listen to as much music I want on any of my three devices. When ai want to watch a movies I just rent it on Zune through my Xbox and watch it in HD. Unfortunately we cannot stream or download movies to our phones yet. Windows Phone 8 should take care of that. I do agree iTunes is the best and while I do have an iPhone 4S, it is not my daily driver. Hardly ever use it now.

By: Dale Sundstrom

Dale Sundstrom — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Each store has it’s own advantages.

For those who are already invested in Apple’s iOS ecosystem–like the author of this article–iTunes will often be best. But…

Amazon often has the lowest prices, and we should all be thankful for their pioneering of DRM-free music.

Google uses a higher bit rate (320 kbps), has larger album art, the best free cloud options, and is of course usually best for Android users.

By: Adam Skowera

Adam Skowera — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:34:00 +0000

I can’t speak for iPhone since they started iCloud, but it always struck me as a horrible end to end experience. It was no better at finding music than Amazon, it was often more expensive and when I bought on Amazon it was automatically on my phone, while my iPod and iPhone friends had to plug the damn thing into their computer with “wires,” I mean what was this, 1999.

By: Vvk

Vvk — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:16:00 +0000

So masses like ITunes ergo it is better?
Apart from the logical fallacy, how about the pain of dealing with Itunes on Windows?
If you are on android I see no reason to stuck to Apple on the contrary it makes sense to seitch ti Maxon or Google

By: Matti

Matti — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:42:00 +0000

For someone like me who uses Linux & BSD, iTunes is defective by design, and the main reason why I couldn’t get an iPhone even if I wanted to. I don’t care how good/bad iTunes is on an iPhone, if there’s no client for my desktop OS that allows me to transfer my files to the phone, it’s pointless (not that I’d use iTunes on my comp anyway). Apple go on and on about the post iOS5 iDevices being “PC-Free”, but you can’t exactly achieve that until you’ve actually transferred all your files to the device first.

By: Spike

Spike — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:27:00 +0000

First sentence doesn’t make any sense from a logical standpoint. Skimmed the rest and it seems like loosely-related faboy rhetoric, with no particular order.

You write sucky, and your opinions hold no merit.

By: $32622578

$32622578 — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:08:00 +0000

Getting sucked into iTunes…it’s like passing a driving test and getting a driving license that only lets you drive one brand of car. OK if that’s the brand you want anyway but what if you fancy something else in the future? Especially since they only really offer on model?

I use Netflix (on and off), Lovefilm, Sky Go, high street shops, TV catchup websites, CD ripping, DVD ripping and several other ways of acquiring music and video. As such I find a big NAS the only solution. I transfer anything I need on the iPad via iTunes (or HDvideo player since the iPad can’t play AVIs), drag and drop to my phone and play anything on the PC from a file explorer or web streamed. I couldn’t possibly lock myself into iTunes as that would not work very well for the phone. I might change to an Android tablet at some point in the future (not good enough yet!)…iTunes wouldn’t work with that either. I might change my phone back to an iPhone, I might not. I want to be able to choose. By only using iTunes I’m almost choosing my phones and tablets for the forseeable future which I’m not willing to do, especially since Apply don’t offer any choice in their range. I like a replaceable battery in my phone and I find 3.5 inches too small…since that means an iPhone’s out unfortunately so is iTunes. iTunes is NOT an all encompassing do it all solution; it doesn’t work very well with most hardware so it’s not really do it all.