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[Music] The Downside to Downloading
Apr. 4th, 2012 06:51 pmI haven't used iTunes in about three or four years, I don't even remember what I last downloaded. The software says it was sometime in 2010.
I'd completely forgotten that someone gave me a few iTunes gift certificates a few years back, and I'd put them on my account just so I wouldn't forget. I've had the amount on there ever since, waiting to be downloaded.
Fastforwarding to today, I decided I'd cash the gift certificate out, burn my purchase onto cd, and get rid of the account.
Easier said than done:
1) Had to update my account settings because they're old. Had to type in my password to access it.
2) Account setting saved. Had to update my payment settings because they're old as well. Had to type in my password to access it.
3) Everything updated. Went to purchase the remastered version of The Beatles' Anthology that came out last year. Had to type in my password to verify I wanted to download.
4) Finally says it's about to download. I walk away and have dinner.
5) Come back after dinner (about 20 minutes later) and find that the download has stalled for no reason. Didn't have to type in password, had it retry.
At this moment I'm waiting for it to finish downloading.
So...other than that, why am I getting rid of iTunes?
--I have a stupidly large music collection, and every time I try to update the music library, it crashes on me.
--It doesn't accept certain formats like .wmv and certain others.
--I'm authorized to play these unique downloads on my PC and one other PC--I'm assuming they're referring to my old PC that I don't have anymore, because I don't have it set up on my laptop or Emm's. I assume (in an overly optimistic way) that if I downloaded the iTunes software to either of those and logged in, I could then play them.
--I'm authorized to copy these tracks to 5 different platforms, and only 5. Six is right out. This I have issues with, because all my old iTunes downloads from 2004 to 2010? I can't play them anymore because I don't have authorization.
--I'm authorized to burn these tracks a limited number of times too, before that gets locked down as well.
Look--I understand that this is to stop illegal copying, I get that. But when you're making mobility a big pain in the ass for non-Apple users, you're losing half your audience right there.
So yeah. Gonna download this here album, burn it to CD, move it to my external, and play it on my trusty Media Monkey, which can play pretty much any damn thing you put on it.
I'd completely forgotten that someone gave me a few iTunes gift certificates a few years back, and I'd put them on my account just so I wouldn't forget. I've had the amount on there ever since, waiting to be downloaded.
Fastforwarding to today, I decided I'd cash the gift certificate out, burn my purchase onto cd, and get rid of the account.
Easier said than done:
1) Had to update my account settings because they're old. Had to type in my password to access it.
2) Account setting saved. Had to update my payment settings because they're old as well. Had to type in my password to access it.
3) Everything updated. Went to purchase the remastered version of The Beatles' Anthology that came out last year. Had to type in my password to verify I wanted to download.
4) Finally says it's about to download. I walk away and have dinner.
5) Come back after dinner (about 20 minutes later) and find that the download has stalled for no reason. Didn't have to type in password, had it retry.
At this moment I'm waiting for it to finish downloading.
So...other than that, why am I getting rid of iTunes?
--I have a stupidly large music collection, and every time I try to update the music library, it crashes on me.
--It doesn't accept certain formats like .wmv and certain others.
--I'm authorized to play these unique downloads on my PC and one other PC--I'm assuming they're referring to my old PC that I don't have anymore, because I don't have it set up on my laptop or Emm's. I assume (in an overly optimistic way) that if I downloaded the iTunes software to either of those and logged in, I could then play them.
--I'm authorized to copy these tracks to 5 different platforms, and only 5. Six is right out. This I have issues with, because all my old iTunes downloads from 2004 to 2010? I can't play them anymore because I don't have authorization.
--I'm authorized to burn these tracks a limited number of times too, before that gets locked down as well.
Look--I understand that this is to stop illegal copying, I get that. But when you're making mobility a big pain in the ass for non-Apple users, you're losing half your audience right there.
So yeah. Gonna download this here album, burn it to CD, move it to my external, and play it on my trusty Media Monkey, which can play pretty much any damn thing you put on it.
