Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's Take on iTunes for Windows
Skruffy writes "The Register has an amusing article about Microsoft's reaction to the launch of Apple's iTunes software on Windows. It seems that Microsoft is very keen to warn its users of the dangers of using a service that would restrict them from accessing music from other sources... Oh the irony."
Oh the irony.
Irony:
1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.
Dishonest, but not ironic.
You're misunderstanding Microsoft's claim. They're saying that by using iTunes to rip CDs [to AAC] or the Apple Music Store [to purchase AAC files] you are limiting your ability to use those files [since they not only contain DRM, but cannot be played in some software or on some MP3 portable devices].
The logical fallacy is that iTunes can of course play AAC [negating the concern about playing the files on your computer], and that iTunes is actually a sales-device for the iPod which of course can play AAC.
What's more ironic, and is being stated by several people already, is that all of Microsoft's efforts at distributing music [i.e. as partners with music distributing sites] involve the use of WMA format and DRM. Those files, of course, are no more useable than AAC, not to mention the particular point that WMA is not compatible with the iPod.
What it comes down to is this: there is a true dividing line between the Apple music scene [i.e. AAC/iPod/iTunes] and the Microsoft music scene [i.e. WMA/Napster 2.0/Media Player], and Microsoft isn't happy that the Apple side is beating them.
That said, I'm still using windows...just also using iTunes with my iPod, and purchasing AAC music.
"Stumble before you crawl"
But Ripped AAC don't contain DRM, only downloaded AAC from the Apple music store..., and Itunes can Rip MP3 as well...
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Well, according to the Napster web site Napster 2 is currently still in beta testing anyway. That bug should have been fixed before the software went to Beta, but hopefully it'll get caught (or have already been caught), before the release of the "finished product" on the 29th.
Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
Huh? iTunes is not limited to Apple Music downloads, it also plays mp3s, audio CDs, and pretty much anything other un-DRMed audio you have. The iPod has always played mp3s. What's Apple supposed to do, preemptively invent DRM solutions that profit other companies and put those into iTunes? And iTunes does allow you to burn to an audio CD. MS WMP would do no different than Apple here.
Granted, Apple Music downloads are useless to anyone without iTunes (on Windows or Mac) or an iPod. Until I can play them in linux, they're useless to me. And don't tell me to burn everything to a CD and then rip it. Apple Music is also useless if you want to listen on a non-apple portable. Once again, Apple has chosen to support "everyone" by offering a choice of proprietary systems, rather than a single open system. "Windows or Mac" is just as bad as "Mac only" or "Windows only".
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
I can't believe no one looked this up yet. Anyway, this link goes to the Microsoft "Q&A about iTunes" that the Register article refers to.
Why do I h8 apple?
Easy Cd creator 4.x
that have directcd installed
as far as I can tell.
All you have to do as far as I can
tell is uninstall directcd before installing
itunes which most people dont use anyway
To the iTunes Music Store? There is no subscription fee. The only risk you run is that you need to keep iTunes installed on your computer in order to play pruchased music. Or, you could buy an iPod. Or, you could burn and then re-rip the music, which of course carries a quality penalty unless you rip to a lossless format.
If Apple hits the 10 million mark by Christmas I will be impressed...
I think I heard that Unca Steve and company have stated that their goal is 100 million songs sold by the end of this year. Considering that they sold 13 million to approximately 5% of the market (Apple users), and have since sold 1 million in the first 3.5 days of iTMS for Windows and Mac, that's pretty impressive. I don't know if 100 million is gonna happen, but hey, everybody needs to aspire to something.
Windows is going the way of phlogiston...
Actually it's by the end of the first year of iTMS's existence, so by late April of next year. I suspect that Pepsi promotion is going to help pad Apple's numbers if it looks like they're going to be a little short. ;)
-sam
I was just here, where did I go?
Absolutely. I've downloaded AAC files, burned them to CD to play in my car, and ripped the CDs to mp3s to play on winamp at work. Works like a charm. All told, iTunes is a lot more flexible than the microsoft software.
The purchased iTMS files can be burned to CD as a standard CD audio file. They cannot be automatically converted to MP3, you can however rip the CD you burned to mp3 format if you wish. Some quality will be lost of course, however (I'm not an audiophile mind you) I've found the music to be quite acceptable even after it has been ripped from CD.
I would like to see the selection before downloading the app, but when I have briefly gone to the site, I could see no way to browse without installing i-tunes.
iTunes plays, rips and burns MP3s as well as AAC. AAC is employed for the DRM, making possible distribution deals with the major labels. The iPod plays both MP3s and AACs.
Microsoft is disconcerted because Apple is not using WMA.
And you don't necessarily need to recompress to a lossy format. For instance, AAC -> WAV -> Ogg FLAC would retain as much quality as you purchased. The Apple DRM is essentially non-existent.
It appears the only real problem with the service is that you can't buy a higher-quality song that would be better for ripping to your own lossy format (or that Apple doesn't simply supply Vorbis/MP3 in the first place). But this is a problem of quality, not DRM.
Apple has just put out a help document for musicians looking to sell songs through the iTMS: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=931 91
iTunes needs to see a "CDROM loaded in a CDROM drive," meaning you can't just open up an ISO file in iTunes. If Alcohol 120% lets you create a virtual CDROM drive that iTunes will recognize as just another hardware drive, then you should be good to go.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Those things have been in Winamp since forever. I'm sitting here right now staring at the library manager, it has a three-pane view of artist-album-track, and a search field. I use it all of the time, in fact I don't have a single playlist file anywhere. I used iTunes a lot when my Mac was working, and I still think Winamp is a lot handier, it can be collapsed to take up very little screen space yet still expanded and/or controlled with just a few keystrokes.
...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crotch panel.
The biggest problem Apple has at the moment is still one of a limited audience. They have yet to open the iTMS to an international audience. Canadians, especially, are really feeling as if they're left out in the cold, and may go to other services (if they haven't already).
The US is a much bigger market than any other single country. Canada has 1/10 the number of computers as the US. Market size wil likely be a factor driving the order in which deals are negotiated.
number of computers by country
- AudioCoding
- AAC input plugin for XMMS
It should also be noted that AAC is part of MPEG 4, so it could be said that AAC is ro MPEG 4 what MP3 is to MPEG 1.Jumpstart the tartan drive.
iTunes restricts what you can do with what you buy
Can we please get our terminology straight so people like me at least have a chance of understanding the arguments?
iTunes is a program used for listening to and organizing music on a computer.
The iTunes Music Store or iTMS is a service which sells music in an standards compliant format (AAC) wrapped up with a proprietary (FairPlay) DRM scheme.
Thus iTunes does not restrict anything and can be used with several different audio formats and transcode between many of them. The iTMS sells music with some restrictions that are easily worked-around.
...by using iTunes to rip CDs [to AAC] or the Apple Music Store [to purchase AAC files] you are limiting your ability to use those files [since they not only contain DRM, but cannot be played in some software or on some MP3 portable devices].
...all of Microsoft's efforts at distributing music [i.e. as partners with music distributing sites] involve the use of WMA format and DRM. Those files, of course, are no more useable than AAC...
Not to beat a dead horse here, but some are bound to mis-understand this. It sounds as if you're saying "if you rip your own CDs using iTunes the resulting files are a) DRM'd and b) unplayable in anything but an iPod. That is, of course, wrong on both counts. Nothing's preventing you from ripping your CDs as MP3s. Nothing's preventing you from putting those files on anything that will play them. The files are in no way copy protected.
Even if you for reasons of efficiency choose to rip the files from your CD collection as AAC (.m4a I think) they aren't "protected" or "restricted" in any way. The problem you'd run into is one of practicality: neither your car stereo manufacturer nor your portable mp3 player manufacturer have licensed MPEG4 technology for their devices and thus cannot play the files. At present, the only external device capable of doing so is Apple's iPod. In principle, nothing's stopping any one from licensing this technology from the mpeg group. That is, in fact, what they want I'm sure. One supposes that if the iTMS remains a leader in legit music downloads other players will jump on board to be able to play the format.
I'm betting they're considerably less usable. All of the previous models used to do legal music downloads have resulted in severely restricted files which are often a) rented, not sold b) literallly unplayable in any player besides the designated one c) unburnable or burnable in a very limited way, sometimes even requiring an extra fee. I think there has been one lonely exception to that rule and in that case the service was pimping independent "never heard of 'em" artists who were much more afraid of obscurity than of piracy.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?