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How iTunes Is Changing on PC

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Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#161

Post by crazygringo »

Liquix wrote: post #143
breathen wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. This was (and is) also a blatant form of consumerism. I honestly don't see any difference in the negative effects on this outside of going through apple rather than my local FYE.

? no it wasn't. it was taking a beautiful, timeless, intrinsically valuable thing (music) and building a business around it. the idea was that if iTunes is the best way to tag, collect, burn, and listen to music, people would naturally adopt it and then go spend money in the store. this lies in contrast to modern apps' desire to provide an endless library of content within the app or paid service. drives up engagemen…

I don't know what you mean.

Content in Apple Music is still best in class.

And music lovers spend less money with a monthly streaming subscription, than they used to spend purchasing tracks or albums. I don't know about you, but I certainly spent more than $10.99 a month back when I was buying CD's. And it's even cheaper now in relative terms if you factor in inflation.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#162

Post by dehrmann »

incanus77 wrote: post #138

The phrase “everything you needed to be entertained” is indicative of the biggest problem that I see with Apple today: a focus on consumerism and passive consumption. Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. It’s a very subtle difference, but it speaks to the attitude that Apple projects today. When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mention…

Lenovo's jab at this was their slogan "for those who do."

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#163

Post by recursive »

asystole wrote: post #28
nailer wrote: post #3

I recently tried Apple Music and then gave up because it didn’t support podcasts and the podcast apps that exist in the Apple ecosystem aren’t as good as Spotify

IMO podcasts have nothing to do with music, and the fact that people expect one app to do both is entirely Spotify's fault!

They're both audio. I'd expect an audio player app to be able to play audio. Music and podcasts are both audio.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#164

Post by freeplay »

bee_rider wrote: post #90
karaterobot wrote: post #83

Has iTunes on Windows ever been good? I think I tried it in 2003-4, and it was garbage then, so I uninstalled it. In the intervening 20 years, I've never heard anyone say "it's good now!", so I never re-installed it. I assumed that if you were a dedicated Windows user, you just wouldn't use iTunes, and if you weren't a dedicated Windows user but loved your iPhone, you'd do what Apple wanted you to do in the first pla…

I’m dedicated to Linux but I like my iPhone. iPhones are more-or-less standalone devices nowadays. They can backup straight to iCloud. The only thing I’d need to borrow a Mac for, as far as I know, is a factory-reset. I last used iTunes on windows in like 2010 or so, I think. It was pretty awful. Although, it did have a neat feature, you could share your library over the lan, so it was neat to listen to other people’…

If the phone is functional (as in you can access the Settings app), you can factory reset from the phone, as well. You can also remote wipe from Find My if need be.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#165

Post by crazygringo »

incanus77 wrote: post #138

The phrase “everything you needed to be entertained” is indicative of the biggest problem that I see with Apple today: a focus on consumerism and passive consumption. Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. It’s a very subtle difference, but it speaks to the attitude that Apple projects today. When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mention…

> iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form.

I get much more enjoyment out of experiencing new music through radio functionality in Apple Music or Spotify than wasting time "collecting". It expands my horizons rather than limiting myself to what I already know I like.

There's nothing passive about recommendations. I hear a new song I like, I go to research the artist, I start a new radio station based on them, find other artists I didn't know before... it's far more active and stimulating than just listening to the tracks I already know on repeat.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#166

Post by biggestfan »

guspillk wrote: post #7

I'm still waiting for a new Amarok...

Assuming you mean the pre-2.0 Amarok, you might be interested in Strawberry: https://www.strawberrymusicplayer.org/

It's a a fork of a fork of the old Amarok, supporting more features and modern support while retaining the original UI.

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#167

Post by M4v3R »

karaterobot wrote: post #83

Has iTunes on Windows ever been good? I think I tried it in 2003-4, and it was garbage then, so I uninstalled it. In the intervening 20 years, I've never heard anyone say "it's good now!", so I never re-installed it. I assumed that if you were a dedicated Windows user, you just wouldn't use iTunes, and if you weren't a dedicated Windows user but loved your iPhone, you'd do what Apple wanted you to do in the first pla…

I have a friend who never used a Mac nor an iPhone, but he owned an iPod and so installed iTunes years ago and used it to manage his entire music library, and continues to do so to this day. I'm sure he's probably an outlier but Windows iTunes users do exist :)

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#169

Post by sgu999 »

incanus77 wrote: post #138

The phrase “everything you needed to be entertained” is indicative of the biggest problem that I see with Apple today: a focus on consumerism and passive consumption. Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. It’s a very subtle difference, but it speaks to the attitude that Apple projects today. When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mention…

> When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mentioned, versus how sleek and desirable the technology is?

Probably around a decade ago, at least. The low hanging fruits of digitalisation have been gone for a while now. I can't really think of anything they've released since for which it was immediately obvious what "problem" was solved. So it requires different arguments to convince us to buy their stuff...

Re: How iTunes Is Changing on PC

#170

Post by incanus77 »

recursive wrote: post #158
incanus77 wrote: post #138

The phrase “everything you needed to be entertained” is indicative of the biggest problem that I see with Apple today: a focus on consumerism and passive consumption. Twenty years ago, iTunes’ emphasis was on collecting, experiencing, and enjoying an art form. It’s a very subtle difference, but it speaks to the attitude that Apple projects today. When was the last time the intersection with the humanities was mention…

And a presumption that if I want anything other than what they're giving me, it's me that's wrong. Just like they did with the headphone jacks.

I’m not sure I’ve ever understood this take.

I think Apple has always been like this (one-button mouse, B&W display, proprietary keyboard plug, dropping the floppy, adopting USB, adopting FireWire, making the original iPod only function as a FireWire hard drive on Windows, etc.) But, like any product maker, the choice of whether you buy it or not is up to you. If you don’t like the whole package, find another option?

To put it another way, if, for whatever reason, someone made a delicious food item that was perfect for me in every way — mind-blowing taste, exceptional packaging, incredible mouthfeel, truly a cut above any other food — except that it gave me the extreme shits, I wouldn’t keep eating it and complain about it all the time. I would simply not buy it anymore. I don’t think, as a complete package, it’s for me — despite the fact that everyone has the right to food to nourish them.

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