KVR Audio

_oswald · Post by **_oswald** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:57 pm

I've used iTunes once. And only once.

When Depeche Mode came out with 'Playing the Angel', they had a deal where you could pre-order the album to jump on a ticket to a show and also get a B-Side of the album. I hopped on that like a fox in heat.

And then four months later, I reformatted my PC. When I realized my songs were gone and iTunes wouldn't let me re-download them, I wrote them an email.

I have to... re-buy the album?

I'm never doing business with them again, ever.

AllenPOPO · Post by **AllenPOPO** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:58 pm

farlukar wrote:
AllenPOPO wrote:wish i could use (...) amaroK, but there is mp3 playback monopoly on mac.
patience...

ooh cheers farlukar i didnt know they were trying to port

yeah I think a few misunderstood me there, i dont think they have a monopoly on "music" in general and i think its cool to use itunes (in fact i show my parents how to use it for their ipods) but i think the monopoly is on the mac platform. can someone name me another mp3 playback software for the mac? one that doesnt care about itunes store and doesnt rearrange my music until i dig in the prefs and turn it off?

THATS what i meant. if you dont know about linux or AmaroK you should go look at its feature list. great archiving featrues, smart playlists, last.fm integration, themes......lyrics, it will grab info for artist from wikipedia, it will grab album art from amazon/google... you name it! all this for free, all this without itunes. cant wait for KDE4 to be ported now because AmaroK im comin home baby!

farlukar · Post by **farlukar** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:09 pm

AllenPOPO wrote: AmaroK

In my not so humble opinion - it's almost as bloated and just as annoying as itunes

mayan · Post by **mayan** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:16 pm

I haven't read the whole thread...sorry if I'm repeating someone else BUT..,Amazon.com is now doing the download thing...I've found that they are generally cheaper, of the same quality and without the iTunes restrictions. Granted, there may not be the same amount to download...they have offerings that iTunes doesn't and vice verse, but they've become my go to when I want to download because of the cheaper price and non-restrictive policy.

Gospel · Post by **Gospel** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:18 pm

I gotta jump in here in defense of iTunes.

i have been an apple user my whole computing life i started with an apple 2C back in the day. now i love my apple products and use them all the time. i currently have a G5 and and a old 30 Gig ipod video. now let me say i am not an apple nationalist and i disagree with a lot of what Steve jobs does.

the thing about apple that non-users might not get is that the integration is really an integral part of the apple experience. forget "certified to work with windows" apple stuff just does work. now as well as making my own music. i am a avid (rabid?) music listener, from the time i wake up to the time my playlist ends after i fall asleep i have music playing. most of the time that music is coming out of my ipod which is hooked up to a sweet little 2.1 speaker system. (i hardly ever listen to music through headphones, i get enough of that while tracking, thank you very much) so i have had my ipod for two years and it has played twelve hours a day for two years which is great and my place is free of those annoying silver stacks-even better
i like hard copies of stuff when something is important to me or if i am buying vinyl but it usually ends up in my iTunes library and the hard copy goes on the shelf. oh and if someone got on here and said they lost all their tracks or software because they didn't back stuff up you would be all over them so BACK UP YR STUFF!

now yes iTunes wants to be default player on your system but when it works so well for me why would i want anything else? iTunes plays AIFFs, AIFCs, Wavs, and MP3s. However to call it an MP3 player is an insult as it plays much higher quality wavs and AIFFs (not to mention videos, pictures, games, etc...)

as a musician apples complete integration is so convenient for me. i can record, bounce, and pre-master in logic, import the track into itunes, put it on my ipod without it ever hitting a cd. i can listen to it on my main system and then take it into my car which has an HK drive and play which feeds directly into me deck (No FM transmission here). can other systems boast that? (really, i don't know)

About DRM, if you don't like that crap talk to the RIAA, apple has nothing to do with that. AND 1. Steve Jobs has come out against it publicly in a written statement no less. 2. Now iTunes is selling iTunes plus songs with no DRM at no extra charge (they used to be an extra 50 cents but they now are 99 cents like protected songs)

Lastly ANY damn song or music format you want can, be put in iTunes. if you can burn it to disk do it, put the disk back in to your computer and rip it into iTunes, there sorted! (ps this is a hack to get around DRM as well, burn any drm'd track to disk and re-import it, bye bye drm.)-word, gospel

farlukar · Post by **farlukar** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:26 pm

Gospel wrote:About DRM, if you don't like that crap talk to the RIAA, apple has nothing to do with that.

Damn sure Apple has something to do with it, it's called "vendor lock-in".

Gospel wrote:AND 1. Steve Jobs has come out against it publicly in a written statement no less. 2. Now iTunes is selling iTunes plus songs with no DRM at no extra charge (they used to be an extra 50 cents but they now are 99 cents like protected songs)

... due to a bazillion customer complaints.

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:33 pm

iTunes, yeah, I was hardly considering using this service once one of my fav bands released an albums as a download there. But then I figured out that I'd need to install their software + quicktime before I would be able to shop. No way. I'm not installing shit, and no quicktime again for any money. I will rather pay 5 times the price to get the CD shipped from the US.

Beardedone · Post by **Beardedone** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:35 pm

Jeesh Gospel! Talk about a fanboy!

loomchild · Post by **loomchild** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:57 pm

You don't need Itunes to transfer music to and from the Ipod. Many programs like Sharepod, Winamp, Mediamonkey etc... will let you do that pretty easily. The only thing you require Itunes for with the Ipod is to upgrade its firmware.

Lagrange · Post by **Lagrange** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:03 pm

Interesting.. What about the Itunes store?

L

Beardedone · Post by **Beardedone** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:08 pm

Interesting.. What about the Itunes store?

I hate it. There's hardly anything worth buying and there's no way to set personal musical preferences to avoid viewing the latest commercial pop releases. Yuck!

AllenPOPO · Post by **AllenPOPO** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:29 pm

farlukar wrote:
AllenPOPO wrote: AmaroK
In my not so humble opinion - it's almost as bloated and just as annoying as itunes

heheheee i hear ya

in linux i use "exaile" which is like a gnome equivalent that takes much less resources than AmaroK...but i'll take what i can get for mac...

as a matter of fact, i think i may look into coding a *simple, unobtrusive un assuming* mp3 player for mac...seeing as i dont need itunes store, or its ripping, or its video ( or any of its other "bloat") features.

this is the best way to rip on a mac...free even

max ripping software

this coupled with a simple mp3/digital music playback engine, and i can say goodbye to itunes as anyone who likes control will want to after a while imho. ESPECIALLY coming from pc background. Why would iTUNES play video? isnt that what quicktime (and of course pro quicktime costs even for people who buy mac hardware...sheesh) is for? doesnt matter i like vlc better than QT anyway...and its free as well....

enjoy renting movies from the itunes store!

loomchild: if you can rockbox your iPOD you dont even need itunes at all.....but apple assumes your gonna need itunes which is bullshit. what if i dont *like* iTUNES but i have a macBook? was i suppose to take that into consideration at purchase time? how would i know if i never used mac or itunes on windows? i love this laptop's design, and a lot of mac apps, but iTUNEs, and safari are shite imo, sorry.

at least i can replace safari with firefox....

inticarvajal · Post by **inticarvajal** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:33 pm

Here in Germany I can download a
free song with 4 caps of coca cola
bottles. In the Usa there is a similar
offer with Rhapsody

haydxn · Post by **haydxn** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:20 pm

Gospel wrote: now yes iTunes wants to be default player on your system but when it works so well for me why would i want anything else? iTunes plays AIFFs, AIFCs, Wavs, and MP3s. However to call it an MP3 player is an insult as it plays much higher quality wavs and AIFFs (not to mention videos, pictures, games, etc...)

but if you want to play a .wma in itunes, it has to be converted first. it's nice that it offers to do it for you, but it really shouldn't have to do that. that's just stupid.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:23 pm

If you think iTunes is cool and you feel like you're in an elite club, you still don't know what else is out there.

Check out Rhapsody. Its what I have. its like iTunes, except its 10x cooler and costs 10x less.

I see now why Itunes is so popular!