Letters to the Editor
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iTunes practically, but not technically, joined to the iPod/iPhone.
A lot of bashing has been going on based on Farhad saying that iTunes tracks cannot be played on players other than iPods and iPhones. Complaints revolve around the fact you can burn a cd and rip that to mp3s or you can use software to capture the audio stream to mp3s. Of course all these can be done with Windows Media DRM as well.
These claims of iTunes compatibility with non-Apple players are kindof like saying your word-processing documents are compatible with MS Word if you print them out, scan them back in and the use OCR to convert the image data back to text in Word. Could you do it, of course. Would you do it, probably not.
Really, how many iTunes customers have burned their iTunes collection to CD and ripped back to mp3 at something like double the file sizes? Even with DRM-free mp3s, I would probably try to convert them to a format with a more efficient compression scheme, which using iTunes would be AAC - and I'm back to using iPods and iPhones only. And how many iTunes customers are customers because they bought an iPod rather than the other way around?
If you are not actively trying to defeat the DRM, iTunes makes it painful to use a non-Apple audio player. The Windows Media Audio format is compatible with a wide range of players (the el-cheapo $20 players can't handle DRM or VBR or lossless wma files, but most reasonably priced players and the pocket pcs can handle those options), but not Apple hardware (without burning to CD, DRM stripping, etc.).
In the end it's driven by your hardware. If you have an iPod or iPhone iTunes is the most viable and pain-free option. If you have almost any other device, a service that uses wma is going to be more convenient.
Ideally, manufacturers would include both FairPlay and WMDRM capability and stores could offer downloads with either DRM scheme. Since MS has licensed WMDRM playback to many manufacturers, software developers, and music services I assume that Apple does not want to licence FairPlay to other manufacturers or obtain a license for WMDRM capability for the iPod/iPhone/iTunes architecture. This would be consistent with their approach to the PC market - hardware and OS only by Apple, no licensing to others.
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AAC->CD->MP3 vs direct MP3s
Hmmm ... You want to slam Apple for letting users convert CD audio to MP3 but you want to praise Amazon for offering MP3 files.
The point is that all the tracks that Amazon offers are downloaded directly as mp3s, whereas iTunes tracks with DRM are downloaded as AAC, then you have to burn them to CD (which involves converting them to WAV if I'm not mistaken) and then rip them back to mp3s. There are a couple extra steps there. Now multiply that effort by all the tracks in your library that you purchased from iTunes and it makes more sense to just use an iPod instead of trying to use another player. Therefore using Amazon (or for that matter any non-iTunes store) makes it practical to use non-Apple hardware players.
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don't steal Dvorak's shtick
by trolling for hits. It is nice that there's a real competitor to the iTMS, and that it currently offers unencumbered tracks for less. But you're engaging in hyperbole to suggest that "Amazon runs circles around iTunes" when you yourself say that iTunes has many more songs and Jobs wants to move away from DRM. Especially when those lower prices and DRM free songs on Amazon are likely moves by the record labels to put pressure on Apple - and why are they putting pressure on Apple? Because they want to raise prices, not lower them.
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Are you all nuts, dear folks? We are living in music-heaven by now, metaphorically speaking.
Does anyone remember good old days when you bought a vinyl disk and already by playing it just once you necessarily damaged the thing irreparably, because some kind of little nail (!) went intently through that funny little groove?
Or when you made a record of your own on a clunky big tape recorder machine and where quite lucky if in the end the hissing noise was just not so loud as to completely spoil the music?
And now you get the finest and latest music from wherever you happen to stay at the moment and in better quality than wasn't even faintly imaginable when I was a child - which is 30 years ago, I admit it - and you get it for fairly little money and you can whithout any ado and without any loss in quality make a number of copies no normal person will ever, ever need under any even faintly normal circumstances.
Hello? Anyone else finding it just a little bit ridiculous how anyone can complain about the current state of things with iTunes and iPods in the way some fine people do?
Of course, it sounds just fine to get even more than you get today.
Why not ask Apple to see to it that if you would like to experience a good rock band live after hearing their new song on your iPod they just send you a couple of tickets to a gig in your neighborhood for free? After all, you've already paid for the song! Almost one buck!
But hey - if what you've got is already just about fantastic, why not be just content for a moment, pause a little and say to yourself: Hasn't technology and clever thinking by Steve Jobs done all of us quite good so far?
In other words: When you're doing very, very fine indeed, it does not make much sense to keep complaining about practically nothing. Does anyone actually know anyone with more than two oder three computers (of their own, that is) to disseminate their music to?
Really, folks, some of you need to focus a bit more on things that do matter instead of fighting battles over nothing. All in the world can not be for free, and that is good news, in my personal belief.
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Better for classical
I love Apple, but for a classical fan one of the annoying things about the iTunes store is that they will make a section from a larger work available only if you buy the whole album. If an album has, say, two Beethoven symphonies and I only want one, I have to buy the whole thing. Not that it's a ton of money, but it it's manipulative and limits my freedom of choice.
I've only checked a few Amazon selections out (damned if they weren't already recommended for me) and they don't seem to be playing the same game.
Score one for Amazon. That alone could make it a better complement to eMusic.