Apple to Launch iTunes for Windows

An anonymous reader writes "According to this AppleInsider.com article published earlier this morning, Apple has planned an event for next Thursday to formally introduce their iTunes player and online music store for the Windows platform."

Comments

Moving on Other's Turf

[chadlnx]

I'm very happy to see Apple taking an aggressive step towards the Windows consumer base. Many of these users are "stuck", so to say, to this platform and will appreciate this move. Both systems interoperating will also be a benefit for hardcore apple users who are stuck with windoze during work. I'm really rooting for Apple on this one. They will come to market before Microsoft. This will be interesting to see how Microsoft users react to someone actually coming forward (first, no less) with a product of Apple standards.

The wait

[chia_monkey]

Great...now we have to wait a whole week just to see what is released. iTunes sounds good, but what else do they have up their sleeve?

The bigger wait though is maybe a month or so...to see just how well it does. iTunes Music Store was a wild success the first day, the time to their milestone song sales, and so forth. All done on machines that command a mere 5% of the market share. So...what happens when the other 95% gets to play?

Creative Nomad compatibility?

[Sean80]

I don't suppose iTunes would be compatible with anything but the iPod? Yeah, my fiancee has one, and they're small and cool and all, but goddamn if they're not expensive. So, I went out and bought myself a Creative Nomad. Does anybody know if there'll be any way to get iTunes songs onto it?

I hope its better than Quicktime

[bogie]

Quicktime isn't exactly the best performing multimedia app going on Windows. Its a bit slow and files that play perfectly on low end Macs can play like crap on fairly high-end PC's.

I also hope it themeable because by default the color it pretty ugly. I don't know that much about ITunes, but one thing I do know is that unless it obeys XP themes or like I said is themeable, its going to stick out like a sore thumb.

Either way I still look forward to trying it out when I get a chance and also of course trying out the Music store.

btw how are they handling the whole DRM thing?

Re:I fear this is too late

[cK-Gunslinger]

True, but some people do prefer quality over quantity. Like Apple or not, iTunes was a rather well-designed, well-planned, and well-implemented venture. The copy-cat Windows clones, to date, have had loads of shortcomings and problems, and were generally met with ho-hum enthusiasm.

Now, whether this was due to the quality of the service, or the general differences between Apple and PC users remains to be seen.

Features I'd like to see

[SpiffyMarc]

It will be interesting to see if Apple integrates a little of their Rendevous technology into iTunes for Windows, and allows people who have Mac/Win32 hybrid LANs at home share protected (or, just any) music between their Mac iTunes libraries and their PC iTunes libraries.

Anybody know?

Finally, a good media player for Windows

[Sutekh-Acolyte]

I've tried a lot of media player programs for Windows: WinAmp2, WinAmp3, Real, RealOne, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch Jukebox, and for iPod use, MMJ, Ephpod, XPlay.

I'll be blunt here and say: They all fuckin' suck compared to iTunes. The short period where I had an iBook was a wonderful one, as I also had an iPod. iTunes is nearly flawless, besides the fact that (I think) it only works with iPods and no other portable music players.

The current non-iTunes media players for Windows have horrible support for iPods. Ephpod, a program designed to be used with the iPods, is a buggy one. And it's the only decent one I've found for Windows.

Why don't any others support playlists without requiring you to have a copy of the song for every playlist it is in?

Forgive me if this is wrong, but my experience has been that when I use a non-iTunes media player program that supports portable players, when I go to create a playlist and transfer it over to the player (iPod, at least), the program copies the files in that playlist over even if they already exist on the player (the exact same file). I've only been able to avoid this using Ephpod, but I've had lots of problems with this program.

I hope iTunes: Windows will mirror iTunes: Mac (the store too, but I'm referring to the program mainly).

There are other reasons for my dislike of all those other media player programs... slowness, bugginess, cool features done completely wrong, terrible media library issues.... the list goes on.

Re:Market share...

[johny_qst]

I have some faith that Apple's iTunes store for Windows will attain a fairly significant portion of the available market share for online downloads of music. My problem with all of the current and proposed offerings is the complete and utter lack of any music worth listening to. I enjoy at most 4 bands on major labels and for all of their releases I am not going to an online distribution mechanism as I really want to get my grubby hands on the artwork in the liner notes. Until the music industry gets the idea that everything sounding the same since the early 90's isn't going to advance the industry then they aren't getting my money. I will continue to support those artists that actually make music that I consider worth my time and money. Until iTunes (et al) really has a wealth of independent artists and labels on offer, I will peruse but not buy.

Re:What about Linux

[iJed]

Surely, it cannot be that difficult to port from OSX (BSD-based) to Linux.

It would in fact be more difficult to port iTunes to Linux than Windows. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. QuickTime already exists on Windows and this handles the AAC playback and DRM.
2. iTunes is written to the Carbon API set. Carbon is a modernised version of the original Mac API and so is neither available on Linux or Windows. iTunes is not a Cocoa application so could not be ported to something like GNUstep easily.

Re:Why not?

[Laur]

It's not crippled the way I see it. I can burn as many copies as I want to CDs, play it on my laptop, my husband's G4, and my iPod. I own the song for as long as the file exists, as I paid to own those bits.

WRONG. You get to listen the music you "purchased" for as long as Apple lets you. Every time you upgrade to a new computer you will have to re-authenticate your purchases with Apple servers. While it is possible to burn to a CD and re-encode, it is lossy and forbidden by the Terms of Service. Also, if Apple ever gets out of the music selling biz you could lose all rights to "your" music. I suggest you read the ITMS Terms of Service a bit more closely:

c. You agree that your purchase of Products constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to use such Products solely in accordance with the Usage Rules, and that any other use of the Products may constitute a copyright infringement. The security technology is an inseparable part of the Products. The Usage Rules shall govern your rights with respect to the Products, in addition to any other terms or rules that may have been established between you and another party. Apple reserves the right to modify the Usage Rules at any time.

d. You acknowledge that some aspects of the Service, Products, and administering of the Usage Rules entails the ongoing involvement of Apple. Accordingly, in the event that Apple changes any part of the Service or discontinues the Service, which Apple may do at its election, you acknowledge that you may no longer be able to use Products to the same extent as prior to such change or discontinuation, and that Apple shall have no liability to you in such case.

(Emphasis added by me.)