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Ask Slashdot: Best FLOSS iTunes Replacement In 2013?
First time accepted submitter cs80 writes "I've been looking high and low for a decent, open-source, cross-platform audio player that can import an existing iTunes library and sort my files based on their ID3 tags. Nightingale, with its iTunes-like interface, would have been the obvious answer, but its file organization feature was pulled for being too buggy. What open-source audio player did you migrate to after dumping iTunes?"
winamp always worked for me. So simple, so tiny...
It's annoying, and a bit weird, but it works and can play FLAC. It's also gotten better than it used to be, I don't worry nearly as much about losing all my playlists now. Which is good because there's not really a central "library" where you can just look at everything : (
Honestly though, I'm not sure there's such a thing as truly "good" music software. Just one you know how to use so you stick with it.
just give up, like the rest of us...
fuck your iTunes library. Set up mpd with a decent client like ncmpcpp. Light years ahead of Apple bloatware.
... is what I went to after ditching iTunes. In addition to getting the podcast(s) I subscribe to, it plays Grooveshark and Digitally Imported in the same playlists as my local files.
Model 551, Chambered in 6mm
Get rid of your babby duck syndrome and graduate to a real music player.
Screw importing your proprietary iTunes library file, just set up mpd by pointing it at your music library. Then, get a nice client like ncmpcpp. Congrats, you have a much more powerful music solution than Apple's bloatware.
I use mpd to stream music to my phone, and the client (mpdclient) is able to control mpd and do things like edit the playlist. Works awesome, and iTunes will never come close to this.
Download it before the llama dies.
I like Clementine, mostly because it seems to be the only music player in existence which displays the image embedded in a song's MP3 file. All the others I've tried insist on displaying the same single image (which they found in the first song they happened to scan) for every song in my entire playlist.
Also, If anyone knows of a music player for Android which can do the same, I'd love to hear of it.
They both have the same library management mechanisms, and come from the same place. There are a bunch of differences though.
Clementine is more old school and the development team seems to focus on online services (spotify, grooveshark and whatnot).
The playlist management is pretty basic though
Amarok is flashier and has much fewer online services, but is top notch for automatic playlists, both the automatic playlist generator and the dynamic mode are awesome.
There was a GSoC this year that brought to Amarok the ability to import and export libraries from a bunch of other media player (including iTunes).http://konradzemek.com
There's no official mac port though, because no Amarok developer uses a mac.
winamp always worked for me. So simple, so tiny...
So missed. :-(
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Wow. Replacing that is going to be a tall order.
Ubuntu 12.04 Overview: http://bryanquigley.com/reviews/12-04-music-player-review-my-top-choices
(also has a stuck on Windows section)
iTunes is sort of like a stubborn child...it will do everything else before the right thing...
I use iTunes of course ;)
One place iTunes still hasn't caught up to Winamp's late 90s releases..."playlist"
See, if you never used Winap by default it had two windows that listed your music files...one was a "library" which listed all your songs (in a file tree if you wanted IIRC). The other was you "playlist" which was...the songs you were playing in order.
You could of course save a cool playlist, and open it...all your saved "playlists" were also listed in the "library" window. You could have two "playlist" windows open at the same time...resizing each as needed...
I know iTunes tried w/ their little "up next" thing but it's 5 abstraction layers and 10 clicks too many...
Thank you Dave Raggett
quodlibet has excellent searching and tag editing
I've also been searching for a new music player.
Right now trying Exaile. It seems to work alright.
I only listen to music as background noise while I'm programming, however. I had it load the entire /Media/Music directory and play on random.
On Linux, I prefer Amarok. On Windows, Winamp.
I've never used iTunes. I just use folders and store everything by /Artist/Album. It's easy enough to right click the folder and select "play in VLC".
You seem to be asking for a player which will organize files. You don't have to choose one thing which does both.
In my experience, iTunes does just fine for organizing files into a directory structure. Also free (as in beer, not libre), Mediamonkey is pretty flexible.
For playback, have you looked at Subsonic? It's free (as in libre, not beer). Multi-platform client support, and a server architecture which lets you access your library from anywhere without having to carry it around. You just point it at the directory structure that your organizer creates. It will also do streaming transcoding.
The one thing that nothing seems to handle well are compilations - there's the dichotomy between "albums" as they are released vs. organizing based on artist, etc.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
You could probably go out and get a homeless person and just hand them all of your music. Just tell them to do whatever they want with it. It'll be a better interface, and at least someone will know where the hell all of your music is.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
This was the one and only serving a TB-size musiccollection well.
You can stream to different speakers, laptops, mobile phones in parallel.
It's really good as DLNA server and you can have him on Linux, Mac, Windows, NAS, BSD.
http://www.mysqueezebox.com/download
I'm not sure on the FLOSS status, there are a lot parts from this development on sourceforge and github.
And yes, it's running local as your server without any ties to Logitech.
Give version 7.7 up to 7.8 a try, higher ones are crippled.
A couple of months ago, I switched to AIMP. I hate iTunes like sin itself. Never liked anything about it. If I didn't have to use it to put files onto my wife's iPad, I wouldn't allow it anywhere in my house. I can't believe that in 2013 she can only use an iPad properly with one computer.
AIMP even works with most Winamp plug-ins, has a clean interface and light footprint. The skin I'm using has some nice meters, a proper equalizer and everything I'd want in a player.
I'd still be using Winamp, but I'm pissed that it's going away, so I just decided to uninstall it once and for all.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Try iTunes on OS X.
It's much harder, better, faster and stronger that the Windows version.
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
I vote you go with Nightingale, and fix the file organization feature. IT's clear from your FLOSS requirement that you are a fan of Open Source, so send patches: that's what you do with Open Source.
If you don't want to do that because you're not a coder, then you might as well just with a closed source product, since it's not like you'll be looking at the code.
I need a player that will convert PCM files to DSD and send them via DoP to an outboard DAC that converts DSD files, only.
On Linux, that means HQPlayer. It's expensive. The interface seems designed by someone who thinks about everything in a way that would never occur to me. But it does the job for now.
When there's an add-on for MPD that will do PCM-to-DSD for all files, I'll migrate to that.
If you're on Windows and have the same need as me and also need bit-perfect output via USB to your outboard DAC, your choices are JRiver and foobar.
Actually, I've been using iTunes to manage my mostly-pirated 250GB MP3 collection. I just don't want to run software that contains code for monetizing me when I don't want to be. Even Amarok tries to push you into using proprietary streaming services, which is the music player version of Ubuntu' including Amazon in the Dash View- and don't get me started on Miro. So much hidden bundleware and added "services".
I use MusicBee on my media server. It is not open source, but it is free and maintained by 1 guy. The function that made me decide to use MusicBee is that I can define an "album" with more rules than just the music file's album tag. I have it set to differentiate between file types, so that the MP3 version and FLAC version of an album are treated as 2 different albums. It's got fully customizable library organization as well, with the familiar iTunes-like interface. I know it doesn't fit exactly into what the OP wanted, but I have been very pleased with it, so I thought it deserved a mention. http://getmusicbee.com/
For Linux users, is there any way to replace the iTunes functionality to get music and photos onto an iDevice, and have it properly recognise the library? .ogg), forget it.
I only use Linux, but have an iPad3. I have mediocre photo functionality[1] via a jailbreak, but am still stuck with only one folder and no sub-folders. As for getting music on there (especially
[1] http://www.richardneill.org/stotbig#ipad
The only reason anyone should ever used iTunes is if they are forced to (they own an iPod or iPhone)
Owning an iDevice isn't the only thing that forces one to use iTunes. A lot of recording artists sell their music on iTunes but not Google or Amazon. Good luck finding, say, "Bück dich" by Rammstein; all you get on Amazon MP3 (U.S.) or Google Play Music (U.S.) are cover versions.
iTunes is nothing but the backend of my Apple TV these days. I can't remember the last time I played something directly on the computer. I just wish the AppleTV interface had a fast scroll option. When your library has 17,000+ tracks in it, it takes forever to scroll through it to the bottom.
Why reinvent the wheel? If something already exists that has the functionality you want, there's not much point in adding that functionality to a different program that functions under the same basic idea unless you like the first program better for other reasons as well. That's like saying oh, I like using firefox, but I want it to run in 64-bit, and instead of doing a little bit of research and finding waterfox, I'm going to do a whole bunch of work to make firefox maybe, hopefully run really buggy in 64-bit. There's a difference between expecting to get everything on a platter and not wanting to remake things that already exist.
Beware of Miro. Even though they're an open-source project, their default installer comes bundled with various 'revenue-enhancing' toolbars. The main app seems designed to drive revenue to Miro, too.
I hope you find a FLOSS solution then. I didn't know iTunes was good for anything than a walled garden. I didn't realize you could bring in MP3s outside the ones you bought. You know there's probably a market for a FLOSS itune clone in a way now you bring it to my attention. Make it friendly for general MP3s, but be more transparent to get lesser known artists on the track to being paid and discovered. It is hard for a new artist to get discovered now, but if there was an official place to go to promote yourself outside of youtube. If you combine monetization(selling tracks+shared ads) with promotion, all the artist should technically have to do is make music and stick it onto this place. Finally you'd want a way to do something to find people who are fans of the same artists as you, so you can find music you might like, but haven't discovered yet.
Finally if you want to get really into it... Second Life is dated. If someone would just make a P2P version without worrying about countering hacks, you could make dance halls. Allow people to invent their own dances, and even sell their own dances and you take a cut. Allow people to make mesh objects, dance hall, avatars, particle effects, etc. Allow them to make those on their own, import and sell(where you take a small cut), and there you have a place where people could play their own music they downloaded off your service to people visiting their dance hall. Of course they'd need to hack it to play someone else's music, and your position would be you're against that. But the music people upload to your service would specifically license to be able to be played to small and large audiences.
God spoke to me
Because it holds the key to millions of people's music that they paid for?
I know its stupid, but people buy music on iTunes, so they don't have another way to access(and organize) their music without this question being answered.
Now, if you had bothered to read the question, you'd have noticed the asker is trying to get away from iTunes, but you don't care about that you just want to sound superior so why not go into the woods and yell at some small animals if its so fuckin important?
The whole thing about big music programs like iTunes is that you don't have to care about where the files are actually kept and in which folders, your player just gives you sortable data that you can display and manipulate however you want. Personally I always go with Artist -> Albums Sorted By Date, but some people like genres and whatever and use playlists a lot. But it doesn't matter, you just throw your various folders of music in one big folder and point your player of choice at it and it goes and identifies and creates a database of all the music. Programs tend to call this a "Library", perhaps you've heard of this concept?
At that point you can use Amaork, Clementine, Tomahawk, whatever. Doesn't matter, any of them will trawl through the folder(s) you tell them to and give you a library listing that cares not one bit about how messy or not the actual files and folders are.
Why do you care about your music program sorting your files into nice ID3-based folders if your interface to them is completely agnostic towards the file structure? And if you do, then just write a quick bash script or something and install a non-Library based player like Audacious if you like interacting with your music collection in a folder-and-file way.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
and then you can download the best iTunes Replacement in 2014.
I hope you find a FLOSS solution then. I didn't know iTunes was good for anything than a walled garden. I didn't realize you could bring in MP3s outside the ones you bought. You know there's probably a market for a FLOSS itune clone in a way now you bring it to my attention.
Not only that, but if you pay $50 Apple will give you a free 256kbps MPEG-4 copy of all your pirated music, assuming they have a copy of that song in the store.
Also, for music it's not a walled garden, Apple doesn't have DRM on any of the music in their store. It's all industry standard m4a files.
Video content from the store has DRM but not audio. You can also import video content from elsewhere, as long as it's in a supported format (not sure about windows, but on OS X you can install third party codec plugins into iTunes).
Because it holds the key to millions of people's music that they paid for?
The iTunes Music Store hasn't sold a song with DRM since April of 2009. Anyone who ever bought any song, that was DRM'd off the iTunes store is able to download a free DRM-free replacement anytime by logging in to their iTunes account...so long as that music is still currently for sale on the iTunes store. Heck, that replacement copy will even be upgraded to 256kbps quality too! If the music is still not for sale on the iTunes store, then anyone can use the good-old-fashioned burn and re-rip method to remove the DRM.
Artists, when they are lucky, make enough to pay for tour expenses when they tour. I'm talking about your average indie band, not the superstar acts. Touring and merch was never a sustainable source of income, and that's leaving aside the personal factors like trying to start a family when on the road 250 days a year. I know that's an inconvenient truth to your fantasy narrative that buying a record = selling out to The Man, but it's the truth. When record sales were strong, sure there was corruption just like any industry, but successful indie artists could make enough to continue making music. They could afford to spend a bit more on the record production, going to a real studio and using top equipment. Now everything is on the cheap and most records today sound like shit. And that all comes down to cheapskates like you who think you're sticking it to the RIAA, when you're only sticking it to the artists you supposedly support.
The best thing since iTunes ...
Aqualung is a player that will import and sort by tag, but the interface is a bit non-standard.
So missed. :-(
Software whose installers are downloaded to local storage, run locally, and have no dependencies on web services, is never missed. It just works.
that doesn't do as I described at all....it just changes the main windown list of songs...unless I'm double clicking my playlist the wrong 'source' column somehow
Thank you Dave Raggett
Does Quod Libet support two panes side-by-side like this, a la iTunes? [List: Music library/Playlists/Smart Playlists] [Contents of item selected on the left]
It's $25, not $50.
I tested many, then went for Guayadeque http://sourceforge.net/projects/guayadeque/ and never looked back
OP here. It looks like you have it. Its search is lovely, its interface is iTunes-esque, it imports iTunes libraries, it organizes files.
It also just crashed on me during import, but I'm going to give it a go. Thank you!
I'm going for Clementine because it's bothered me the least. It still has some key features lacking. The smart playlists do not allow the inclusion of a song into another playlist as a criterion. If you sort by a column, no other columns will be sorted; sort by artists and album and track will be random. However, from what I've looked at in the source code, some modest changes to the commands it's sending to its SQL backend should be the answer.
Why that's not top priority on their buglist over some damn nyancat visualizer, I'll never know, but it's still one of the best in the mix.
I stuck with the now sadly discontinued songbird.
So missed. :-(
Software whose installers are downloaded to local storage, run locally, and have no dependencies on web services, is never missed. It just works.
Given that the nonsense it is replying to is marked +3 insightful, I think this one deserves some mod points too. Are there seriously people who just up and deleted winamp off their machines because AOL told them to?
He was asking for cross platform, so unless apple brings it out for Android and Linux, which happen to be on most of my daily use devices, it's not an option. Apple supports OSX, IOS and Windows with their application, which is not enough in my opinion.
Also, Apple has an annoying urge to block your IOS device from linking up to more than just a few other devices without wanting to erase your music library from your device. That doesn't make it very cross platform in my opinion.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Thanks for asking the question, I've been using VLC for a while, but it ain't great. Will try clementine
I tried that, but every time I got music from another source, it was arranged differently, making searching, indexing and even playing hard.
If you'd have a player that would 1) Figure out the actual name of the album, the year it was released, give me a nice big picture of the cover so I could recognize that without having to read all the info, find the name and sequence of all the tracks 2)play gapless 3) rearrange my music in such a way that other players would be able to use that 4) able to export to mp3 VBR, since I like to use FLAC for home use but my car stereo can't play that. 5) do playlists where I could add and alter without disturbing what I'm playing right now
iTunes does a few of these quite well, but not all. Mainly, it doesn't run on my phone or my daily use computer, so it doesn't qualify at all for my usage
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Apple won't let you sync your media library to more than one computer at the time. If you try, it insists on erasing your media on the iPad and demotes the other computer to not being linked any more.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
You need an external DA converter that uses DSD to convert to analog, but that can accept PCM. The advantage of DSD (if any, purists sometimes come up with insane things) would be in the DA conversion part, not in the digital stream.
Don't start the mumbo jumbo about "synchronized clocks" and PCM vs DSD since the only clock you want to synchronize to is the one used during recording and that's in the past. Just get a good and stable clock in your DA converter and you're set.
Have you tried audio pebbles? If you stuff them in your ears, everything sounds much better.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Is this because the cow got stuck or something?
What happened to the Cat and Fiddle? Or is that just the name of the pub on the way to St. Ives?
Works great. Searchable. Allows any hierarchy. Downside is a file can/should only exist in one folder, you could migate this using multiple playlists.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
and by "free" replacement you mean $.35 a song right?
No, by "free" he the OP means "free as in beer".
The DRM still exists, it's just more subtle - they imbed your personal account info into the tracks you buy, so if you die and bequeath your music collection to your kids, they'll lose your entire music collection at best, and go to jail at worst - or possibly pay an exorbitant fine.
Apple's claims of 'no drm' are bullshit, but most people seem to have bought into it (much like Google's 'do no evil' and look where that's gotten us). This blinkered acceptance comes part and parcel with the creeping surveillance society, apparently.
You seem to not understand what DRM is.
Tagging a file with your Apple ID is not DRM. What Apple is doing there is discouraging you from sharing your music with the entire internet, but not discouraging you from sharing it with your immediate friends and family.
An iTunes file tagged with your Apple ID will play back on any music player capable of reading AAC files.
If you die then your entire music collection isn't lost. It's just there on your hard drive. I wasn't aware that your hard drive got deleted when you die.
Your kids certainly won't be sent to jail or fined for listening to it.
Man, the Apple haters get crazier every passing day.
Where iTunes still has a dramatic advantage is the integration of it's online store and access to buying (*gasp* yes, paying for music) tracks.
I've yet to find a better source of legit downloadable music, which for me, still makes iTunes the best choice out of all the choices mentioned thus far.
Some of us people value "it just works so I'll happily pay for it" over "it's free and it shows".
Does this still exist? I can't find the original site anymore.
Years back when I initially moved away from iTunes, I used Songbird. Songbird was built with the Mozilla engine and closely mimics the functionality of iTunes. Unfortunately, the application had a persistent memory leak which would make it useless if left running for a couple of days. I've tried Rythmbox and Amarok but was never happy with those either. My typical fallback is VLC, which many others have suggested. VLC doesn't offer a nice music player interface but it's really easy to use, plays everything, runs on anything and won't hijack your music library. These days, I'm using XBMC. My music, along with my movies and television programs, are managed and played using this application. I have XBMC installed on 4 PCs (3 Ubuntu, 1 Windows) and can also play directly from the Android app. XBMC integrates well with Last.FM and Headphones, an application used to search, download and sort music files. You can also use XBMC to stream upnp to other devices, like an xbox.
Back in the days I used Sonique, and also Winamp. Then I moved to Quintessential Media Player, and when I really started digging music and cared for audiophile quality, I switched to foobar2000. It was pretty flexible, had great plugins for audiophiles etc.
After switching to Linux I tried almost every player there is. Songbird, Exaile, Amarok, decibel, Aqualung, MPD... until I discovered Quod Libet. I even use it on my Windows work computer. It's got everything: good library, good tag support, regex search, it's not too slow, it has ReplayGain and gapless support, and with gstreamer backend one can achieve good filters should they need one - I do, for room compensation. For Windows only I'd still probably choose foobar2000, but for cross platform, Quod Libet.
I think the popularity of iTunes is a shame. I once tried to buy music from this artist I bumped into, but he said the only place to buy his music was iTunes. But I'm not touching that piece of crap, ever.
Minor quibble. FLOSS *is* copyright protected. The authors simply choose to allow everyone to copy freely. That's why we have licenses that specifically say this. But in no way does that change the existence of copyright, which comes into being at the birth of any sort of "document". It does not need to be registered or even stated anywhere. Under US law, the instant you create an original work, it's copyrighted, owned by you.
I use subsonic (subsonic.org). It's cross platform (linux, windows, mac, android, ios, anything with a web browser and flash) and supports auto podcast downloading. You can also use it for video. The only caveat is that it doesn't sync to an ipod. There are multiple desktop clients to choose from and I haven't seen one yet that will sync to an ipod. If you have an ipod touch you could use one of several different apps.
the ONLY reason to use itunes is that you own an iDevice or want to buy from the Apple store. If you are not doing that, why the hell are you using itunes?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
By the way, what's the legal status of extracting the audio tracks from the videos bands upload to YouTube and end up in our browsers caches?
More than likely a violation of YouTube's terms of service and therefore possibly a crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. (I'm not a lawyer; before you go into business or otherwise publicly act on this; talk to one.)
You could always just use iTunes, if you want something like iTunes.
Or you could switch to something that works, like MediaMonkey: http://www.mediamonkey.com/
Miro is an open source iTunes replacement that has been in development for years. Go to getmiro.com
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
n/t
Thank you Dave Raggett
At one point, one of the OSS iTunes replacements could actually properly handle an iTunes Library XML file, assuming you regex replaced the pathing appropriately, but at a certain point it became an unsupported feature. I think it was in early builds of Songbird with iTunes plugin.
Are there any OSS apps that play nice with a live iTunes Library file with playlists, count, rating, etc. support? I currently migrated my iTunes repo to my home NAS and repointed my Macs to it by option-starting iTunes. I'd like to be able to point an OSS app on Linux (or even Windows!) to that same NAS repo and have it Just Work Properly.
Any recommendations on something that actually works well and isn't some buggy pre-beta kludgefest?
You seem to not understand what DRM is.
DRM = Digital Rights Management. Apple is using digital watermarking to monitor and control how you use the digital data you purchased. This is the very definition of DRM.
You seem to not understand what DRM is.
Then we need to redefine what it is, since it seems to me you want your cake and to eat it too. There are no restrictions on what you can do with the files you get. There may be *consequences* if you share the file and it is discovered being shared on napster or some dodgy torrent site, but that is not in the definition of what "Digital Rights Management" means as a term.
Up to this point it has been a term that refers to software controls that require a key/authorisation to work.
But no, since we're bashing Apple here, move the goalposts! Anything to ensure they're the bad guy, eh?
From the wiki article on DRM:
Apple Inc. has sold DRM-free music through its iTunes Store since April 2007 and has been labeling all music as "DRM-Free" since January 2009. The music still carries a digital watermark to identify the purchaser. Other works sold on iTunes such as e-books, movies, TV shows, audiobooks and apps continue to be protected by DRM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
Tagging a file with your Apple ID is not DRM.
DRM is Digital Rights Management. Tagging to identify the consumer is exactly one type of DRM.
Man, the Apple haters get crazier every passing day.
Ah yes, the obligatory insult from the paid shill in an attempt to marginalize other points of view. Ever thought of getting a real job and contributing to the community instead of being a parasite?
No argument so you call me a paid shill, and you forgot to log in.
Classic.
1/10.
I'd say eBay it, buy a Nexus 7/10, and explain it like this: "It's like buying an Xbox game for someone who has a Wii." Or if they're too old to know game consoles, they might be familiar with a past format war: "It's like buying a Beta tape for someone who has a VHS deck."
Amarok is a really robust solution which can organize files virtually by artist name or by actual directory structure. It lets you customize display (to show composer, etc) and save ratings which is awesome. It has lots of options for sorting.....
The conventional wisdom was that clementine forked from amarok, that amarok got too feature rich and complex. There's truth in that (and clementine works reliably), but amarok just has so many wonderful features. Plus, it is cross platform (although I don't think the Windows version works too well).
My main complaint with amarok is that it is a real memory hog and doesn't play well with Unity on Ubuntu 12.04. I recently upgraded to 8 gigs RAM and those problems mostly seem to have disappeared.
Finally, it's not cross-platform, but I really love Foobar 2000 on windows. It does a lot of things well, especially if you install the plugins. It's a decent-to-good CD ripper too (although dbpoweramp is the not open source gold standard).
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
Strangely, the interface that Apple designed for Windows-based systems is orders of magnitude stupider than the one they designed for MacOS. Its almost like they didn't like Microsoft or something. I'm sure its a coincidence.
Of course their interface for Linux is "use our crappy window manager or die", so I guess I shouldn't complain.
I'm a bit late in replying to it, but has anyone banshee yet? http://banshee.fm/about/
Why again? get "the last ripper" and keep those last FM tracks forever and ever and ever.
http://code.google.com/p/thelastripper/
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Up to this point it has been a term that refers to software controls that require a key/authorisation to work.
Eh, no. Cinavia is also DRM and is just an audio watermark; yes, it changes (== degrades, but to which point is a whole other discussion) the audio stream. Certain devices manufactured after a certain date are mandated to *check for this watermark* and upon discovery do something (e.g. mute the audio after x amount of minutes).
DRM != Usage Restrictions. DRM is often used to enforce usage restrictions, but it does not need to. FairPlay restricted usage, the current system iTMS uses does not. But it is still DRM since the sole purpose is to enforce copyrights.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
Good luck trying to use WinAmp in a few Windows Updates.
"Programmable Obsolescence" : does it make rings a bell somewhere?
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
quodlibet
Um. Why is the phrase "Windows Updates" anywhere on a page discussing a FLOSS alternative to a piece of software? Why would you use FLOSS software on Windows? All the benefits gone....
Sadly, a Libertarian cannot force his views on another, and freedom cannot spread as does the cancer known as religion.
Did WinAmp ever have anything to do with AOL? It must have been after I got (and later stopped using) the single-file executable on a floppy. When was it - some time before the millennium? Must have been, because that was around when I got rid of my music collection.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
If you're going to bold the word "rights" there, then can we make a pact here on slashdot to never call it "Digital Restrictions Management" again?
As seen in this thread, the term "DRM" seems to mean "whatever makes Apple/Sony/Microsoft/hated-company-du-jour the bad guy".
I picked a pretty generic place to cite the definition (wikipedia) - that supports my position, but apparently that's not enough. I guess all the wikipedia contributors are in Apple's pocket or something.
I see your point.
But there are still professional niches where you just can't stay away from Microsoft - they still have a lockout on some areas.
FLOSS programs for Windows allows these guys to use FLOSS.
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
I'm one of these guys, by the way.
Our clients insists on using Windows Servers, even when a lot of our software is still in Java... Goes figure it out... =P
I keep my sanity using CYGWIN as my command line shell. It save my sorry arse more than once.
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Not sure if it satisfies all of your requirements, but I've loved using DoubleTwist on my Mac and Galaxy S, and my friends love it on Windows and on their iPhones.