22nd October 2003, 7:58 PM
Oh, how I have longed for iTunes! I was pretty close to getting a Mac because of it. Guess I don't need to now. :D
I'm keeping a promise I made to myself: I promised I would buy most every song I illegally aquired. Not only to compensate the artists and help Apple succeed, but also to say a big "F-you" to the record industry for thinking p2p networks don't help promote the sales of music. They're especially bastards when it comes to internet radio.
Anywho, I like to compare iTunes to MusicMatch Jukebox more than Winamp. iTunes and MMJB have many similarities, except for the fact that iTunes is undoubtedly superior.
1. You don't have to pay to unlock "features" such as full speed ripping, encoding, and burning.
2. iTunes offers the only non-commercial AAC Codec (sounds much much better than MP3)
3. The MusicMatch music purchasing site sucks, the songs are encoded in WMA format (which means you can't listen to them on the iPod :(), and there is more restrictive copy protection on the songs.
4. I'm sure there are many more I can come up with later. :)
I currently still prefer using Winamp for listening, though that may change, especially if there isn't an AAC decoder plug-in for it anytime soon. One thing that REALLY bugs the hell out of me with Winamp is the shuffle. I have over a thousand songs, yet it manages to keep playing the same old songs. iTunes keeps track of the last songs played and how many times it's been played which means iTunes does an excellent job making sure all songs are played equally. You can also rate your songs (which I believe puts it higher on the replay queue).
Oh, and YES you can import m3u playlists! Go to File->Import and change the "file type" dialogue to m3u, select your playlist and BAM! Instant imported Winamp playlists.
I'm keeping a promise I made to myself: I promised I would buy most every song I illegally aquired. Not only to compensate the artists and help Apple succeed, but also to say a big "F-you" to the record industry for thinking p2p networks don't help promote the sales of music. They're especially bastards when it comes to internet radio.
Anywho, I like to compare iTunes to MusicMatch Jukebox more than Winamp. iTunes and MMJB have many similarities, except for the fact that iTunes is undoubtedly superior.
1. You don't have to pay to unlock "features" such as full speed ripping, encoding, and burning.
2. iTunes offers the only non-commercial AAC Codec (sounds much much better than MP3)
3. The MusicMatch music purchasing site sucks, the songs are encoded in WMA format (which means you can't listen to them on the iPod :(), and there is more restrictive copy protection on the songs.
4. I'm sure there are many more I can come up with later. :)
I currently still prefer using Winamp for listening, though that may change, especially if there isn't an AAC decoder plug-in for it anytime soon. One thing that REALLY bugs the hell out of me with Winamp is the shuffle. I have over a thousand songs, yet it manages to keep playing the same old songs. iTunes keeps track of the last songs played and how many times it's been played which means iTunes does an excellent job making sure all songs are played equally. You can also rate your songs (which I believe puts it higher on the replay queue).
Oh, and YES you can import m3u playlists! Go to File->Import and change the "file type" dialogue to m3u, select your playlist and BAM! Instant imported Winamp playlists.