iTunes, One Billion Suckers Served? 653
Thomas Hawk writes "Apple is out hyping their one billionth iTunes download today, but is building your music library in a format that could be obsolete in the future really the best strategy? Will the consumer once again have to someday replace their iTunes track just like they had to replace their LP, cassette, and CD only to get their music on their hot new non Apple mp3 phone of the future? "
you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2, Insightful)
you can burn all your itunes tracks to AIFF or MP3,
and then backup that as many times as you would
ever want... so what's the problem??
exactly! (Score:2)
Sweet lord, No! (Score:4, Insightful)
Doesn't work quite so well (Score:5, Informative)
Also, if you rip to WAV or CD, you lose all the meta-data for the track. So if you want to know the Artist, Title, and Album, you're going to have to re-enter that info on your own.
There's also no clean/easy way to export to MP3. Even if you jump through the hoops to do it, though, you're back to loss of quality.
I just went through the hell of exporting all my iTunes-purchased songs into Oggs so that I can play them on my Linux box, which has the nice sound system. That took quite a few burned CDs and I still haven't gotten the Oggs all retagged yet. Plus there's the quality issue, which while I've only noticed anything in a couple songs, that's still more quality issue than I would prefer.
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:4, Informative)
Re:works half as well... (Score:5, Informative)
> Converting to any other format is going to cause a loss of quality.
> Even if you go to WAV or CD Audio, if you ever want to rip it back
> into some compressed format, you're going to lose quality.
the quality you get from converting from aac > aiff will BE what you hear,
because the aac file has to decompress for you to hear it!! -- so it is not
less quality doing your aac backup to AIFF (and then you could convert
back to apple-lossless encoding if you want to save some space).
your second point, however, is correct -- you will lose quality
if you convert back from aiff TO some other lossless format,
due to dithering and artifacts.
in short:
i) lossy (aac) -> lossless (aiff) = no quality loss
ii) lossy (aac) -> lossless (aiff) -> lossy (mp3/ogg/whatever) = quality loss
Re:works half as well... (Score:2)
In general, different. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:In general, different. (Score:3, Interesting)
And while that's true to an extent, after removing information, certain artifacts will appear in the compressed version. Those artifacts are what will cause degradation in the next compression step.
For example, consider an lossy image format that compresses by clipping any colors bel
Re:works half as well... (Score:3, Insightful)
That blog's comments made me cringe (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember (when I had just discovered MP3s in 9th grade) re-encoding them to a higher bitrate. I thought I was clever, I mean, higher bitrate right?
Fark I was stupid & so is every n00btard who says "burn it and re-encode it."
I think part of the problem is that people now have something 'invested' in iTunes or their iPod and because of that, they'll defend it. Even if you give them proof they may have made a bad choice.
Remember folks, denial is the first step.
Then comes anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
I'm not saying iTunes is bad, but the people who have invested money/time/credibility into Apple will have a lot of trouble stepping back and looking at their decision objectively.
Re:That blog's comments made me cringe (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:works half as well... (Score:3, Informative)
If the putatively "lossless" encoder produces output that decodes to anything other than what the original input decodes to, then by definition it was not lossless.
(If the way I phrased that sounds odd, I wrote it to handle the MP3 -> FLAC "direct" encoding case. "Encodes to anything other than its input" isn't quite right in that case. I'm sure you can FLAC an MP3 file with the ri
Re:works half as well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:works half as well... (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, many audio equipment manufacturers used to consider their craft an art, in that their goal was to provide a beautiful sound, rather than a necessarily "perfectly accurate" sound. Using equipment designed with that intention adds to my enjoyment of listening as well.
Re:works half as well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:2)
Converting to CD audio ("AIFF") format is not going to lose anything. it's the conversion process back to MP3 (recompressing) that is going to cause quality loss. And if you are thinking future, do you really think we will be bothering to compress anything in the future? (do you really need to compress your 60mb AIFFs to 9mb MP3s to fit them on that 6TB mini CD?)
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason to be opposed to DRM isn't that it totally prevents you from doing things. It doesn't totally prevent it, it just gives you a worse selection of choices in terms of cost, ease, and quality. The real reason to be opposed to DRM is that it moves us further and further down the slippery slope to a world in which there is no commons, and it takes control of technology out of the hands of individuals and puts it in the hands of big corporations that buy a politician like I buy a quart of milk.
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:3, Funny)
I like your anology. One thought: when I buy a quart of milk I usually make sure that it isn't already bad.
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:2)
Higher quality?
I doubt it. 192 KHz PCM is not very popular these days.
Re:Doesn't work quite so well (Score:4, Informative)
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
Name a format that will never go obsolete! We make "progress" in going from records to 8-tracks to tapes to CDs to DVD-A to the next 7.1 surround-sound format, while going between AIFF to MP3 to OGG to AAC and back again. To which I impulsively say, "shut up, pick one that works, enjoy the music."
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, the physical media my data are on will go obsolete. That's the whole point: if DRM locks me down, I can't copy it over. Investing in a music collection only playable on one brand of equipment is a huge mistake. If it were anyone but Apple, it would be obvious to everybody.
No, the mp3 and ogg formats will not become obsolete in our lifetimes. Unlike 8 tracks and tapes, digital formats can store whatever your ears can hear and don't degrade when played
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
you only need to be able to burn one CD
-nB
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
Of course it's no problem for me because I REFUSE to purchase low-quality Digitally Restricted Music (That's REALLY what DRM stands for).
-S
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
-nB
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
You don't seem to understand how iTunes DRM works. You can burn a particular song onto an infinite number of CDs, there's no limit there. The only thing limited is how many times a particular playlist can be burned. but you can have a track in all the different playlists you desire.
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:5, Informative)
Got any proof of this, because iTunes 6 on my Mac says:
You can then create a new playlist with your iTunes Music Store songs on and burn again 7 more times....Maybe your getting confused with the play protected songs on 5 authorized computers at a time?
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:5, Interesting)
That's also easy to deal with. Backup your
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:4, Informative)
The only limit is to the number of times you can burn a single playlist (i.e. burning a copy of a CD for your friends with all the tracks in order). This is spelled out in the Terms of Service [apple.com].
Re:you can backup all your itunes purchases (Score:2)
You are buying the right to listen at a specific song/music, didn't you? So, when imposed a restriction on the number of copies you may want to do for your private and personal use for whatever reason, you are denied the right you just bought and gave money for.
Not very likely (Score:5, Insightful)
Surely that can only occur if the format can only be read by a non-open source application that is only available in binary format and where the hardware to run that program becomes unavailable. I suppose it could also happen if the media you use for your iTunes storage becomes obsolete and you don't remember to copy your music to another media format.
I think a billion downloads (and counting) will ensure that iTunes music will remain playable for a long time to come and will sound just as good then as it does now.
DRM makes it unusable (Score:2)
Re:Not very likely (Score:2)
The Moving Picture Experts Group has been around for a decade and a half, and most media players support their stuff religiously. AAC / MP4 is not going anywhere.
Re:Not very likely (Score:5, Interesting)
And despite the fact that people routinely say "everything gets cracked," there is evidence to contradict that. DRM is going to get "Good Enough" that for all practical purposes it will not be crackable.
Weakest link already been broken (Score:4, Interesting)
Whilst it's not wise to take anything for granted, it should be noted that the DRM that has not been cracked offers no new content over formats that have less protection (e.g. CDs, DVDs). With the weakest link in the chain broken, there's less incentive for people to try and crack the stronger links. Once (if?) the chain is whole again, I suspect we'll see an upsurge of people hunting for the next weak link.
Re:Not very likely (Score:3, Insightful)
When the wax cylinder went awasy, people had to buy the same music in a new format. When the 8-track went away, we had to buy the same music in a new format. When the LP went away, we had a choice of listening to degraded music on tape or buying the same music in a new format.
With iTunes, this is the first time we can buy music, and, if the hardware does not
Not only that (Score:5, Funny)
It's a class action suit waiting to happen.
Worst post ever (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Worst post ever (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Worst post ever (Score:2)
I totally agree with you. This guy is so full of himself that it gets in the way of objectively comparing and contrasting the benefits of iTMS and its proprietary format with regular mp3s without DRM.
Sounds like just another rant from someone who doesn't like the fact that Apple succeeded in something.
Re:Worst post ever (Score:2)
Sounds like you guys are a bunch of zealots with sand in their panties because somebody said something bad about their favorite consumer brand.
Re:Worst post ever (Score:5, Funny)
Stop your rant. Save your breath. You'll need to rest up for the dupe.
Re:Worst post ever (Score:2)
Slashdot. Dupes from dopes. Stuff that matters to someone, we think.
Re:Worst post ever (Score:2)
Re:Worst post ever - In other news (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Worst post ever - In other news (Score:3, Insightful)
You mispelt '/cluelesslymissingthepoint'.
HTH.
Durability (Score:3, Interesting)
Pimp my blog (Score:5, Insightful)
Blogger admits he has never used service. Does not address the fact that you CAN covert to another format if you wish.
Is iTunes perfect? No. But I have purchased 20x more music than what I would have otherwise.
And even if iTunes shut down tomorrow, I would lose 0% of my music.
Only thing I wish is that it would serve up a higher bit rate....
Is this article baiting? (Score:5, Insightful)
In this throwaway society of ours I really think that for most people the idea that something they buy might not always be around forever is OK. Hell, I guess we could start talking about other things too, cars, cameras, hot water heaters, etc...
Re:Is this article baiting? (Score:3, Interesting)
It was the record companies that insisted on Apple providing DRM on the ITMS. It is the integration of ITMS, the iPod and iTunes that made Apple successful. If the RIAA would allow Apple to drop the DRM today, the number of iPods sold would not diminish, but likely increase since then other music services would be accessible to the millions of ipod owners. Apple makes most of its money on ipods,
Re:Is this article baiting? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple went through hoops to add DRM to the files - it was a requirement from the **AAs - whereas N64 vs Gamecube was just a fact of progressing technology. AAC (MPEG-4) being incompatible with MP3 (MPEG-2, Layer 3) because of technological advancements would be a more apt comparison to N64 vs GC here.
I was going to bring up how, with DRM, we'd need to repurchase the same damn songs on new media, but in fact that's just the way it's always have been, even without DRM. Media, regardless of it being books, music, movies, games, etc, is consumed and will always come out in new forms, just like any other case of consumption. (However, DRM and crummy quality is most likely the labels' way of making sure they can continue to resell you the same stuff tomorrow, despite how they could actually do something that we could conceivably play, no problem, on a computer in 100 years.)
At the end of the day, DRM sucks, and we all know this. However, I'm also confident that Apple's one of the vendors least tied to DRM, because Apple only offers 'buying', and not 'subscribing', which literally hinges on DRM - otherwise you could just keep the music, like with 'buying'! Apple's simultaneously the most and least likely to speak up against DRM: most because they use DRM, hate it and could say "all these sales we racked up for you? we could make them stop coming unless you offer DRM-less music"; but also least, because they know the labels would just make up a new store and Apple would lose profits itself (and it actually does make a slim profit on the store).
Re:Is this article baiting? (Score:2)
That said, I haven't bought anything from iTMS since Hymn stopped working on iTunes 6.
Welcome... (Score:2)
And, since I seem to recall that copyright law allows you to convert any digital media you purchase from one format to another, this will be a perfectly legal activity, regardless of how much DRM the software writer has to break through to do it.
Re:Welcome... (Score:2)
Um, oh yeah...
Re:Welcome... (Score:4, Insightful)
Then you haven't looked at copyright law since the mid-1990s. Prior to the DMCA, US law worked as you remember. But post-DMCA, the mere act of decrypting your own files or any other way to circumvent a content access control is illegal. You have the right to copy, but not to break the DRM to do it.
The analogy I give my students is that when a friend has your CD you have the right to get it back. You do not, however, have the right to break into his house to get it. The analogy is imperfect, since the DMCA bans you from breaking into your own house, so to speak. But you get the point: No bypassing copy protection ever, for any reason, without explicit consent from the content provider. Oh, and it also turns out that simply downloading the tools to break DRM ("trafficking" in the law's terms) is also a felony, even if you never actually crack the DRM.
It's a brave new world, folks.
Re:Welcome... (Score:2)
Uh-huh. And you've heard of the DMCA, right? Breaking the DRM is illegal, regardless of whether you think your cause is noble or not.
-S
Re:Welcome... (Score:2)
Hymn? (Score:3)
Re:Hymn? (Score:3)
It's a dollar. Or twenty. Or two hundred. So? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's a dollar. Or twenty. Or two hundred. So? (Score:2)
Re:It's a dollar. Or twenty. Or two hundred. So? (Score:2)
Re:It's a dollar. Or twenty. Or two hundred. So? (Score:2)
Oh, come on. You know exactly who I'm talking about. The world is full of people making far sillier (and short-termed) use of way more money than most people will ever spend on iTunes. Never mind that TFA is full of crap in the first place (MP3's, which you can produce directly from what you purchase at iTunes, are not going to be portable to other players, formats, or uses? BS!), the point is that if you're going to rant about people
Replace what? (Score:2)
No format is "obsolete" as long as you have a device to use it on, or have an adapter... or in the case of digital music files, have a converter. You know, like the converter that's built into iTunes, the one that turns AAC files into MP3 files?
Lame. (Score:5, Insightful)
I stopped reading right there. It's kind of hard to criticize a service without actually ever using it.
Re:Lame. (Score:3)
Not Lame (Score:2, Insightful)
Screw that. Even if a new service pops up, if it has an
Slashdot, One Billion Suckers Sent to a Blog? (Score:2)
Heh... I guess more purpose is served by that than by me bitching about it, so I'll shut up now.
Obsolete? (Score:2)
2) Rip
3) ???
4) Profit
Re:Obsolete? (Score:2, Insightful)
No thanks. That's a non-solution.
-S
Re: (Score:2)
The poster answers his own question (Score:2)
What, so you mean, we all expected Apple to break the cycle from the dawn of the gramophone? Music quality will continue to get better, music portability will continue to get better, yada yada yada. No-one forced people to upgrade their music libraries from cassettes to CDs, they did it because they wante
Re:The poster answers his own question (Score:2)
OK, maybe I'm missing a few formats, but there haven't been that many
* wax cylinders
* LPs
* 8-Track
* Cassette
* CD
* MP3
* DRM AAC
And in the future:
* DRM AAC V2
Of these, only wax cylinders and 8-track are dead. Cassette is on its last leg, and LP will probably never really die. You can still play all of
How is apple's DRM "terrible?" (Score:5, Insightful)
The blog rant that is linked to complains that apple's DRM is "terrible." I simply don't understand the argument. The DRM is as lax as possible while still keeping the music industry from having a fit. Sure there are limits to how many times you can burn a playlist, but if you change the list by only one song you the counter resets. How many times have you burned more than a couple copies of the exact same playlist anyway? Perhaps the sound isn't exactly the same as a CD, but it is good enough that it really doesn't matter on most sound systems. What the blogger really misses is the fact that itunes gives you what you can't get at the CD shop. The ability to buy just one song off of a CD. If an artist makes one good song and the rest crap, you only pay
Since you can burn your ACC files and then rip them to mp3 if you want, there is no danger of not being able to play your music in the future like the blogger claims. Yes you have to pay for the songs, yes there are some restrictions to prevent piracy, but itunes is still a great thing. It should be something that slashdot readers support, it gives us cheap music and DRM that has plenty of flexibility.
Re:How is apple's DRM "terrible?" (Score:3)
So one of either two things happens. Either Apple licenses their stuff to a lot of people
Re:How is apple's DRM "terrible?" (Score:2)
The DRM is exactly what the Music Industry specified.
Yeah, that's why the "w
Re:How is apple's DRM "terrible?" (Score:4, Insightful)
(A) It's not trivial compared to dealing with music files. Let's see you do this with 100s of songs and see how long it takes.
(B) It sucks. Have you tried it? The quality is horrible. RIAA/DRM tracks (iTMS) are intentionally low enough bit rate to make this an unattractive option.
Re:How is apple's DRM not "terrible?" (Score:4, Insightful)
And burning a sucky 128 mbps file, ripping it, and recompressing it makes a SUCKIER sounding file.
So no, this isn't viable workaround to rid the file of the DRM.
The SOLUTION is to refuse to buy DRM'd files in the first place. If everyone would friggin' wise up and do just that, Digitally Restricted Media (DRM) would be history. But they've convinced the world that a little DRM is OK and your comments show that you've bought right into that too. It's just a little DRM now. And then a little more and a little more and a little more until 20 years from now, you'll look back on your comment and wonder how on earth transporting media that you purchased to another format or another player was so easy and FREE those 20 years ago.
But 20 years from now you won't be buying music with any expectations at all of being able to move it from one device to another without paying more. You'll be licensing it and maybe it will be inexpensive to play that album in your car, but it'll cost you a few more cents. Play it at work... a few more cents.
But that'll all feel fine and dandy because you never noticed the rights you once had creeping away. And Apple's oh-so-friendly DRM is step one.
-S
Re:How is apple's DRM "terrible?" (Score:3)
because the Music Industry wants that to be possible. Riiiight.
Everything about iTunes Music Store is completely 100% approved by the RIAA.
If you don't understand that, there's something that's seriously not working correctly in your brain. Sorry. It shows just the lack of very basic, fundemental conceptions of society's legal frameworks.
"awful DRM" ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Got something better[1]? If so, don't just bitch...do it!
[1] Something that meets the needs of both the user/consumer and the creator/owner.
I am not a sucker. (Score:2)
No, I don't download MP3s, and I don't have a big CD collection. I mostly listen to SomaFM [somafm.com]'s stations, and the news FM station. No nee
Yeah? Well.. (Score:2)
Since a lot of Apple's "strategy" (Score:2)
Sure, you can "rip mix burn" and put your tracks on a CD, but let's be realistic: the bulk of iTunes users (particularly those with an already-larg
So, um, which format can't become obsolete? (Score:2)
Off the top of my head, I've only been able to think of wax cylinders, vinyl, reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, CD, miniDisc, DVD-audio, then various digital formats stored on hard disks, flash memory, or whatever.
Every single thing I listed suffers from degradation over time. Most of ones toward the start of the list have already suffered from reduced availability of playback equipment.
So...
Just wait until they change the DRM (Score:2)
Sucker!
My Backup Strategy (Score:2)
I'm not a good enough coder to write my own AAC codecs, should that format no longer be supported on comtemporary computers, but I can keep that Studer running until the heat death of the universe.
Plan B involves hexadecimal, a chisel, and a shitload of stone tablets. I've heard
Re:My Backup Strategy (Score:2)
Ah, I have spotted the flaw in your security system. You should have had Chuck *N*orris train your ninjas.
Ninjas trained by Morris just arch their backs, howl and make their tails all bushy. And they run under the couch if you squirt them with a Super Soaker.
as opposed to, say, subscription services (Score:2)
So.. we have someone ranting that AAC and FairPlay might become obsolete at some unspecified time in the future. That makes perfect sense if we ignore the facts that:
Meanwhile, we have competing services that run on a subscription model, where everything I've paid for disappears:
No format is immune. (Score:3, Interesting)
Mod points question (Score:2)
rip the CDs into crystal clear mp3s? (Score:2)
Then put the crystal clear polystyrene CD case and the crystal clear polycarbonate disk onto my tower of old dusty CDs?
Plastic sucks.
Digits rule.
How on Earth is Zonk still.... (Score:2)
Let's start:
There are a dozen reasons people developed the MP3 format. For the same reason pkzip was created. Remember? I do - when a 1 gig hard drive was just incredibly large.
So what, zonk, were you born in 2006? Don't remember floppy disks?
How DARE people create casette tapes when cd's would outdate them. How dare people create CD's. Seriously.... why on gods green earth was this even posted?
This guy is looking down on ME for buying iTunes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and about the author's brilliant scheme of buying CDs and returning them the next day - if I wanted to get music while screwing the artist out of any money, I would just download the song for free.
Re:No. (Score:2)
Of course (Score:3, Informative)