iTunes For Windows

[The Former DMiller]

iTunes for Windows was released today. For anyone who doesn't know iTunes is pretty much like WinAMP except it can play most audio formats, has a great GUI, and a bunch of cool features that are better you see for yourself than have me explain to you. It also has the iTunes Music Store which most of you probably know about. You don't have to use it at all, however. You could download all of your music from Kazaa and play it in iTunes if you wanted. Anyway, I just wanted to hear some open-minded opinions from anyone who gives it a try.

Info On iTunes

Download iTunes

[A Black Falcon]

I bet Winamp 2 is still better. :)

Winamp3 isn't too good, I think... it just doesn't match up to 2.

As for iTunes, I'd check it out if it worked in my OS1... but its XP/2000 only. Great idea, Apple!

And 20mb? What in the world? Winamp2 is 1mb... though mine is 30 because of 5mb of plugins and 25mb of skins i don't use.. :) Ok yeah... plugfins. Plugins make Winamp so versatile... it can play NES NSFs, SNES SMCs, etc. :)

[Laser Link]

I will definently check this out.

[alien space marine]

you know what pisses me off an old Metalica cd "enter sandman" costed me 25 bucks a few days ago!

Buying a pack of blank cds and just burning music from freinds seems to be more economically sensible.

Downloading the hole metalica album off itunes for 99cents a song is cheaper then buying it retail.

I thought the prices were slashed? I certainly havent noticed any difference.

Music cds shouldnt cost more then 7 bucks a pop on retail cause thats all their worth in my opinion. Alot of us who file traded on kazaa and napster before in the past was really out of protest.

I will tell you I am not buying a cd retail anymore.

[Fittisize]

If you bought it for $25.00, you're buying from the wrong place...CD prices in Canada have been slashed to about $12-$15 a pop now.

[Laser Link]

Buying a pack of blank cds and just burning music from freinds seems to be more economically sensible.

It is more econmoical. And so is driving away without paying for your gas.

[A Black Falcon]

Right, like those are so similar.

[The Former DMiller]

Seems like Gabe from PA is liking iTunes:

[A Black Falcon]

I use Winamp2... but instead of having one big playlist I have a lot of them, one for each cd/game/whatever. I like it that way, you see...

[Fittisize]

I got rid of KaZaa because it's starting to freaking suck...every song I'd download would fuck up ten seconds in. So I started using WinMX, which isn't much better but does the trick.

[The Former DMiller]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
I use Winamp2... but instead of having one big playlist I have a lot of them, one for each cd/game/whatever. I like it that way, you see...

Who said you can't do that in iTunes? I don't have much experience with WinAmp 2 since all of my friends still have 1, but iTunes organizes all of your music much better than the original WinAmp. It also has smart playlists that will automatically update when you add new music that qualifies to be in the playlist.

[Laser Link]

Okay ABF, if you want something that is more similar, I guess I'll say that stealing a cd is more economical than buying one. Although I think the point was made before, but you felt the need to object somehow, and couldn't find anything worthwhile to complain about, so you picked that instead.

[A Black Falcon]

Would iTunes accept .m3u playlists? I wouldn't want to have to do them over... though the discussion is academic, since I have ME and that app is 2000 or XP only.

And LL, I very highly doubt that I'd actually spend money on CDs, so I see nothing wrong with downloading stuff... especially since most of the stuff I have would be so hard to get in this country (videogame music cds, anime music cds...)... or is classical music.

[The Former DMiller]

iTunes does accept .m3u playlists from what I've been told. I've never had to do it so I can't say for sure.

And I can see why you wouldn't spend money on videogame and anime music CDs since you usually can't get them here, but why wouldn't you spend money on classical music? My last two music purchases were Chopin and Beethoven compositions and they cost me $5 each. Granted this was from iTunes, but I doubt they'd be much more expensive on CD.

[A Black Falcon]

Well for one we already own a bunch of classical cds... I said I don't buy music, but my parents do. :)

And for another... I just don't think that buying cds is worth the money. I'd far rather buy videogames, and some movies... better use of my money.

[Fittisize]

CD's are for sure worth the money...lots of artists now are including free DVD's when you buy their album, and most all CD's are 'enhanced', meaning you get extra stuff if you put it in your CD-ROM drive. And now that they are only like $12-$15 each in Canada...even more worth the cash.

[alien space marine]

I bought my cd in HMV in montreal , When they slashed prices I thought only certain labels did.Montreal is usually a pretty decent when it comes to prices so this was a surprise.

Any decrese in price are only temporary , Like I said 7 bucks should be the average price ,25 bucks the price for a fucking meal is outragous.That how it always has been 23 bucks plus tax that is the average for a popular cd were I have been in canada the cheapest is 16 bucks , The only time you see 12 bucks is for an older album or if you have some kind of sale.

I would much rather spend my money on a movie or game.
4 cds is 100 bucks! Shit nahaha!As for special bonus material? I dont want to have to pay for sothing I dont want when all I want is the songs.
So yah buy blank cds and burn music from your freinds its cheaper . How it doesnt relate to your analogue.

1.Gas is a necessity

2. people are already willing to travel miles just to save money on gas.

3.If you could just burn and copy gasoline like music cds I am pretty sure alot of people would do it yourself inlcuded as Gasoline prices are outragous and there is no sensible reason for gas companies to gouge prices and the economic issues are greatly exaderated and I have met gas station owners who keep there prices low and still say they make alot of profit and the ones who gouge prices are doing it cause they can.

[Fittisize]

What the hell, gas prices are fine. 70 cents a litre isn't bad....in Europe it's like, 9 bucks a litre.

[alien space marine]

There was a point this summer that it was at 90 cents a litre in newbrunswick that was close to a buck, I may add that gas prices fluctuate pending were you live even in canada.

I now live in Quebec now and the prices are not all that different but somtimes when I traveled back and forth it would be 80cents in newbrunskwick and then 73 cents in quebec.
But regardless if you could get anything cheaper and still the same qaulity you would do it.

As for europe yah I would very cheesed for such a high price.

[A Black Falcon]

Gas in Europe costs so much because they tax it extremely heavily... as opposed to the US where the taxes are quite low. Not sure about Canada... more than it is here, though, I bet.

[geoboy]

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.

[Dark Jaguar]

I've never ceased to wonder how someone can say that the fact that they can't get something unless they steal it somehow justifies stealing it...

[A Black Falcon]

And I can't understand how it doesn't.

[Dark Jaguar]

...

So with that logic, if you can't get a car by any way except stealing, it's fine?

Sorry, but when I hear someone say something like "But I WANT it" or "But I can't get it unless I steal it!", it makes my head hurt. Don't they realize they sound like 5 year olds?

[A Black Falcon]

I see a big difference between those things... a car is both feasable to get if I had the money... most of the things you refer to are either unavailable, only available used (which doesn't give any money to the company that made the game so its really not that important...)... or are only available in other markets and would be quite hard and expensive to get here. Or several of the above. I see a difference there...

[Dark Jaguar]

Then make that a limited edition car that's no longer for sale.

*bangs head on wall*

Whatever, WHY is not being able to get it any other way an excuse to steal it?! Just GO WITHOUT.

[A Black Falcon]

If its not hurting anyone... and most of what I'm talking about definitely is not hurting anyone.

Its your loss, though... now if it was something available in stores we were talking about it'd be very different. But its not! And remember, buying stuff like used games or ebay or something doesn't go to the company so its not like they're profiting off it... so does it matter nearly as much? No...

[OB1]

Or what about games that are no longer available for sale? Are you saying that Joe Public should be condemned for getting a ROM of Kid Icarus even though there's no way for him to buy it from Nintendo and enjoy their great game? Or what abour Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn? Sega doesn't sell that game anymore so there are only two ways to play it: buy it on ebay for $200 (which would put a total of $0.00 into Sega's pockets) or get a pirated copy (which would also put a total of $0.00 into Sega's pockets). I would love it if Sega were to release a Panzer Dragoon compilation disc for one of the current systems but that's probably not going to happen anytime soon. So what am I supposed to do? Just forget about ever playing the game? Then all of the hard work Sega put into the game will only be appreciated by a few people, especially if they never re-release it. That would be very sad. I'd be more than happy to buy the game from Sega, even if it means getting a pirated copy and then sending some money to Sega themselves.

[A Black Falcon]

You're supposed to just wish you had them and be sad that you didn't get htemb ack when they were affordable or that you don't have hundreds to spend on them on E-Bay even though none of the means of getting them will send a penny to any of the people who made the game.

Sounds pretty dumb to me.

[Undertow]

iTunes dosn't have squat for music. More than half of my searches have come empty handed.

[The Former DMiller]

Originally posted by Undertow
iTunes dosn't have squat for music. More than half of my searches have come empty handed.

Maybe you don't have squat for musical taste. ;)

Anyway, out of curiosity what bands did you try searching for. Admittedly, ITMS doesn't have the best selection, but it's much better than the other music stores that are already out.

[Undertow]

Radiohead, Tool, and a half dozen more publically established bands like that. I don't remember the rest too well because I just woke up a half an hour ago, but I know I did about that many searches. Pearl Jam's 'I Got Id' wasn't even found. I found a Perfect Circle, though, but they didn't have their new album.

[The Former DMiller]

Those are reasonable complaints I guess. Although there are still 80 Pearl Jam albums if you count all of the concert albums the store has. Legal music downloading is still in its infancy so it will take a long time before it replaces CDs. Most of the stuff I have looked for is there, but some bands that I like such as the Beatles and Led Zeppelin aren't available. The Grateful Dead were recently added, though, so I have hope for some of those older holdout bands now.

[alien space marine]

There is always napster 2.0 , Its legal now and will probaily have a huge selection and possibily the biggest for a legal download site.

You pay 10 bucks a month but you can download all you want.

In regards to video game piracy, I have never once bought or acquired a Pirated game , Alot of the people I know who pirate games do buy games the right way from the companies they like out of support.

What I have noticed is more companies are requiring people to have the cd in the computer in order to play,I guess to many installed spawns on their freinds computer and of course they never buy the game themselves.Blizzard use to offer Spawn copy installation on starcraft but they stoped it since warcraft III has been released.

[A Black Falcon]

I don't pirate current or easily/retail available PC games... that would be wrong. I only would download a PC game if I knew I couldn't get it new, or at all (see: abandonware)...

[OB1]

As you can clearly see, DJ has abandoned this thread because she knows that her stance is highly flawed. And then of course she'll come here and say something along the lines of "It's POINTLESS to debate this matter with you people because you don't know how to debate!", which for some reason she thinks is the greatest way out of an argument and just oh so clever.

[Dark Lord Neo]

Originally posted by alien space marine
you know what pisses me off an old Metalica cd "enter sandman" costed me 25 bucks a few days ago!

Buying a pack of blank cds and just burning music from freinds seems to be more economically sensible.

Downloading the hole metalica album off itunes for 99cents a song is cheaper then buying it retail.

I thought the prices were slashed? I certainly havent noticed any difference.

Music cds shouldnt cost more then 7 bucks a pop on retail cause thats all their worth in my opinion. Alot of us who file traded on kazaa and napster before in the past was really out of protest.

I will tell you I am not buying a cd retail anymore.

I hope you're talking about the Black Album and not the enter sandman single.
Anyways I bought it at HMV in Edmonton last month for about $15.
What I did notice was one of the imports was about $25, so are you sure you didn't buy an import?
THat said music retailers are usually the worst for prices, you can usually get better deals at Futureshop, Best Buy, Zellers or Wal-mart

[Dark Lord Neo]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
As for iTunes, I'd check it out if it worked in my OS1... but its XP/2000 only. Great idea, Apple!

Maybe you should try downloading the mac version for your mac, not the windows version

[Dark Lord Neo]

Originally posted by Dark Lord Neo
Maybe you should try downloading the mac version for your mac, not the windows version

I didn't relize you ment that you couldn't download it for an older version of mac than os x

[OB1]

Why are you replying to yourself?

[Fittisize]

Legal music downloading is still in its infancy so it will take a long time before it replaces CDs.

You think it will replace CD's? I don't think so.

[Undertow]

I'd imagine it can if devices such as the ipod became cheaper and more widespread. It makes sense, but you never know.

[A Black Falcon]

And why in the world does he think I have a Mac? I would think it is clear that what I meant was that the stupid thing won't run in Win95/98/Me... and I have Me.

[The Former DMiller]

Originally posted by alien space marine
There is always napster 2.0 , Its legal now and will probaily have a huge selection and possibily the biggest for a legal download site.

You pay 10 bucks a month but you can download all you want.

In regards to video game piracy, I have never once bought or acquired a Pirated game , Alot of the people I know who pirate games do buy games the right way from the companies they like out of support.

What I have noticed is more companies are requiring people to have the cd in the computer in order to play,I guess to many installed spawns on their freinds computer and of course they never buy the game themselves.Blizzard use to offer Spawn copy installation on starcraft but they stoped it since warcraft III has been released.

Napster will have a bigger library when it is launched. It is supposed to have 500,000 songs while Apple has 400,000. Close to 50,000 of Napster's songs aren't downloadable unless you subscribe, however. I am not going to pay a subscription to download music, especially music that is in wma format. Not only can't I play it on my iPod, but I have to use the crappy Windows Media Player to listen to it on my computer. I wish Microsoft didn't have such a deathgrip on the industry because pretty much every music site is using wma format.

[Undertow]

Couldn't you just change the file extension to mp3?

[Dark Lord Neo]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
And why in the world does he think I have a Mac? I would think it is clear that what I meant was that the stupid thing won't run in Win95/98/Me... and I have Me.

Because when you said my OS1 I assumed you meant OS1 not OS

[The Former DMiller]

Originally posted by Undertow
Couldn't you just change the file extension to mp3?

No because WMP doesn't let you do that unless you buy an upgrade for it.

And I do think that downloading music will eventually replace CDs. It is a long way off, however. It is more convienient to download music off the internet. You listen to a preview of a song or an album and if you like it you click and you own the music. Instant gratification. You can put the music on a CD and play it on your stereo, you can play it on your computer, or you can listen to it on your MP3 player. I also think movies are going to go this way eventually as well, but that is a really long way off since broadband really needs to take hold before it happens.

[The Former DMiller]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
And why in the world does he think I have a Mac? I would think it is clear that what I meant was that the stupid thing won't run in Win95/98/Me... and I have Me.

I'm sorry you have ME. I think there's a support group out there for people in your position. :)

[A Black Falcon]

People Whose Computers Crash Constantly Anonymous? :)

the Worst OS in the last Decade Club?

...etc...

And you can download movies already. Just find the right filesharing service and place to go (hub-based ones are good) and download.

It just might take several days to a few weeks depending on how long you leave it on and how fast a connection you get... :D

[Undertow]

Originally posted by DMiller
No because WMP doesn't let you do that unless you buy an upgrade for it.

That'll do it.

I'm sorry you have ME. I think there's a support group out there for people in your position.

All he has to do is get off ME and he'll be all set.