Apple Releases Major iTunes Update

shunnicutt writes "Apple has released iTunes 4.5 (and iPod software 2.2 and QuickTime 6.5.1) and relaxed some iTunes Music Store restrictions: now tracks you purchased can be authorized to play on up to five other computers, instead of three. However, they reduced the number of times you can burn a playlist to an audio CD from ten to seven. Another new feature is iMix, which allows you to publish playlists on iTMS, including comments on each track. The iTMS also offers a weekly free single for download." crazney adds "This release also changes their network sharing protocol in a way that breaks the open source iTunes sharing applications that have been released (based on my work on iTunes 4.2's DRM)." kefoo writes "Among the new features is Apple Lossless Encoding, which claims to compress losslessly to half the size of uncompressed CD quality audio." Hm, and I was about to re-rip all my CDs at 320 kbps MP3 ... Update: 04/28 14:56 GMT by P : I just tested, and I can listen to previously de-DRM'd AAC files from playfair, but I cannot use either playfair or FairTunes any longer. The former "Couldn't get DRM key for user," and the latter produces a blank file.

Comments

Update shows iTMS needs more selection

[radicalskeptic]

One cool feature mentioned in 4.5 is "iMix", which publishes your playlists to the iTMS for all to see. So out of curiosity, I tried to publish my "top 25 most played" playlist. Out of the 25 songs on the list, only seven were available at iTMS.

Sure, one could argue that I have eclectic taste in music, but on the other hand, they are missing some pretty big names: Radiohead, Frank Zappa, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Chick Corea...

On an unrelated note, I wonder if iTMS is going to start offering lossless files. That would be cool.

Re:Update shows iTMS needs more selection

[ncmusic]

You also have to remember maybe some bands don't want to be on iTunes. In the case of Radiohead I believe that they only wanted their albums sold as a whole and not individual tracks, because that's how they see their albums.

Re:Update shows iTMS needs more selection

[amichalo]

According to Apple's press release today, Their library is the largest in the world - 700,000 songs.

One must remember that artists can choose not to distribute their music this way. Notables are easy to recall - Dave Matthews Band, Metallica, Radiohead, The Beatles, etc.

This is temporary. In a few years, no artist will keep their music from this medium, though they may not distribute through the big 5 either. The same press release shows Apple has 450 indy labels represented with iTMS!

Apple Lossless encoding

[amichalo]

Some initial, unofficial reports are coming in that a 4mb AAC translates to about 30mb Apple Lossless.

My personal iTunes wish list

[Dark Paladin]

And maybe this is available in other MP3 players - but this is my list after setting up some new Smart Lists this morning:

1. Nested lists: so I could have one list that says "if genre = rock", then a sublist that just has "if My Rating is > 3" or "if year published is 2" and the other "if My Rating is > 3" (which I use to differentiate between "Background work music" and "Driving kick ass music".

2. Copy playlists: Another major issue with the above is that if I have 2 playlists that are 90% the same, I'd like to set the first one up, then just copy the list logic into a new one and only edit the 1 or 2 differences.

3. iSync iTunes I have a laptop, and so does my wife. Right now, all of our music sits on a Master hard drive on a Powermac, then synced to my iPod, which when I'm at work I plug into my laptop and place on "manual" (so it doesn't copy the laptop music files). This works out, but it's not what I'd like.

What I'd like is to go home, sit with my laptop and have it say "Oh, I see Playlists X, Y, and Z on your main computer have updated, and I've updated these MP3 tracks ratings/tags/etc. Let me sync up."

Then I could select the lists I want on my laptop from the main machine and only those files would be copied to my box. Since, if I buy music from the iTunes Music Store I can play it on 5 separate machines, it would be nice to have an "auto-sync" kind of system.

I think that's about it for now. I like the option of a new lossless recording (if I ever get my computer tied into a good sound system I can use it - I think there's some new devices that can stream from your Mac to from about $200 that might be worth a look).

It makes sense to go up to 5 auth. systems

[Rude Turnip]

A couple weeks ago there was a discussion on /. about iTMS. One of the points I made is that I haven't used iTunes in a while because I have 4 computers at home and it was a hassle to keep authorizing/deauthorizing them because you were limited to three authorized systems. Another point was made that Apple should expand the number of authorized computers to 5 because their OS X "family plan" lets you install OS X on up to 5 computers...therefore they should be consistent.

As for reducing the playlist burn amount from 10 to 7, I don't think anyone will notice. Although CDRs are dirt cheap, they are pretty wasteful for the small amount of music they hold. Flash and HD music players are the way to go.

Good work, Apple! Next step: Get the songs I buy on iTMS to work with TiVo's Home Media Option.

Re:iTunes 4.5 is a screen hog

[grahams]

I have always been a Pager/Workspace fan, but a few months ago, after the release of Panther, I decided that I would give Expose a real fair shot as a replacement for the Pager. I uninstalled Codetek VirtualDesktop and forced myself to use Expose for two weeks, and at the end of that time I was going to "declare a victor".

After about a week of Expose, however, I decided that it was terribly better than the Pager solution and decided to never go back... Now I just wish I had some Expose equivalent on the other platforms I use...

Yay for WMA conversion

[CdBee]

At the time iTunes for Windows was launched, I went to the suggestions page at apple.com and suggested a WMA importer for iTunes, and suggested on /. that others do the same, as a malrge number of users have ripped all their music to WMA and therefore couldn't play it in iTunes.

I am glad Apple were listening - it's really pleasing to see a major company release a tool which will reduce the number of Windows Media files in existence in the world.

Re:This whole limit of computers...

[squiggleslash]

I've done iTMS AAC ->CD PCM -> 128kbps unemcumbered AAC conversions in the past and there was no noticable sound degradation. Now, iTMS AAC ->CD PCM -> 128-192kbps unemcumbered MP3 conversions did show obvious artifacts, so obviously a lot of this depends on the format you want to convert to, but it does make sense. MP3 will throw away a different part of the content than AAC would, so in an AAC to AAC conversion, the second AAC is throwing very little away (because it's already gotten rid of in the original pass.)

Apple lossless

[Josh Coalson]

If someone will host a clip in apple lossless format, preferably a one second sine wave, un-DRMed, along with the original input (WAV or AIFF) and the stream parameters (bps, sample rate, #channels, exact length in time or #samples) I can take a look to see if it's FLAC or FLAC-like inside (I developed FLAC).

Josh

Re:I hear the cheers of Apple Fanboys now!

[cbiffle]

Don't be silly! If you wanted FLAC and Vorbis playback, 16 hours of battery life, and gapless or crossfaded playback, you'd just buy a Rio Karma.

(Seriously.)

CD-Text?

[nvrrobx]

Does iTunes 4.5 support CD Text? I have yet to understand why iTunes hasn't had this support! Just about every burner on the planet supports it. Even factory car stereos support it now.