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iTunes Disables MusicMatch

Posted by pudge on from the ow-my-spleen dept.

spooza writes "If you own an iPod and use it with MusicMatch on a Windows machine and then install iTunes, strange things happen: after the installation, MusicMatch is unable to communicate or even find the iPod anymore. Of course this might be a coincidence or bad programming on the Apple side, but since MusicMatch also introduced a pay-per-download service it seems not too farfetched to suspect that Apple simply took the opportunity to knock out an opponent. The funny thing is, Apple and MusicMatch cooperated before, because Apple wanted to have software that was able to work with iPod and thus not lose potential customers that want to buy an iPod but have only Windows." MusicMatch recommends deleting, then downloading and reinstalling, the MusicMatch software to reenable it.

8 of 582 comments (clear)

  1. Apple tells you this when you download iTunes by JasonUCF · · Score: 5, Informative

    They go through several lengthy notices when you move to download iTunes, and then to install it, that if you are already on Windows your MusicMatch software will no longer function.

    MusicMatch was a bandaid for Apple when they did not have a Windows software client.

    Game on.

  2. Thank god! by lambadomy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I had to use musicmatch for my ipod, and it was one of the worst pieces of software I've ever used. Musicmatch was kind enough to send me an e-mail alerting me that itunes would disable the musicmatch interaction with my ipod, unfortunately when I replied to the e-mail with "Thank god, your software is horrible" it didn't go to an actual person. Oh well.

  3. If I read this right... by terraformer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...then it only affects using MM to access the iPod and not totally disabling MM. Now MM sells music using WMA format which is incompatible with the iPod. There is no conspiracy here since the MM service is totally incompatible with the iPod and since disabling access to the iPod from within MM does nothing to lose the std mp3 files I am figuring this is just apple's way of simplifying the process of users "switching" (pun intended) to iTunes without having people utterly confused.

    This is classic Apple (as I type this from my 15" TiBook) and lets face it. Apple is used to controlling the environment it is in (why the hell freezing over joke was less of a joke than outsiders realize) and this only smacks of something any Apple user has known since they became an Apple user. That Apple takes care of the hard part and doesn't leave much control to the end user as a result. ie; It just works...

    FYI: I like that as much as I like the exact opposite with Linux, which I run on multilple machines so the above was not a dig.

    --
    Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
  4. Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    As the Apple Turns said it best:

    "And before you start lambasting Apple for pulling a stunt like this, c'mon... the people affected by this are Windows users-- they're used to this kind of treatment. Obviously they thrive on it, or they'd have ditched Microsoft years ago. Heck, crippling a competing product was probably the only way Apple could have gotten an ounce of respect from these folks in the first place. In fact, we think Apple probably missed a golden opportunity to win some serious admiration from the Windows community; instead of simply removing MusicMatch's ability to sync with the iPod, iTunes should also have deleted MusicMatch entirely, installed spyware, inexplicably disabled a random piece of system hardware, reformatted any writable volumes not containing iTunes itself, and then emailed itself to everyone in the user's Outlook address book. Oh, and it should have cost thirty bucks. More, with technical support."

  5. Workaround found by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you want to use xpod or musicmatch with the ipod, you just have to terminate (kill) the iTunesHelper.exe process. That will allow xpod and musicmatch, and most likely any other ipod software to work.

  6. Also breaks W2K Pro CD access after uninstall by MightyTribble · · Score: 5, Informative

    See this discussion over at Ars Technica for more details.

    Bottom line : iTunes or GEAR removes vital registry keys that prevent audio CDs from playing once you've uninstalled the software. I had to manually hack my registry to restore functionality.

    Bad Apple. No Cookie.

  7. Ephpod by hrath · · Score: 5, Informative

    I highly recommend using Ephpod (http://www.ephpod.com/) with an iPod under Windows. When my SO gave me my iPod as a present last year and I installed MusicMatch on my work laptop MM was dogslow and often didn't finish syncing with the iPod. The free alternative Ephpod is simple to use and has always worked perfectly for me.

    regards,

    Heiko

  8. MusicMatch and XPlay by botono9 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Users of XPlay (third-party iPod software) may be familiar with a similar problem. If you have XPlay installed and then install the MusicMatch which comes with your iPod (I prefer XPlay to MusicMatch for interfacing with my iPod, but love MusicMatch's tagging utilities) XPlay will no longer see the iPod at all.

    Nothing really suprising here. There is only one driver for the iPod on the machine and when you install software that uses accesses the driver it will register itself as the default application.