Quick little review of iTunes for windows

edited October 2003 in Science & Tech
So I decided today that I was going to give iTunes a shot. Finally, Windows users get a good pay per download service, or so I thought.

Lets start off with the interface. From the start you'll no doubt notice that iTunes is made by Apple. The familiar look of a Mac layout is used here. iTunes is a Music player and downloader all in one. So I took a look at the playlist editor first. I found it quite easy to import all my existing files into the iTunes playlist. At first I ran into a snag for sorting the list, but i realized that that option was built into the playlist and not the menu bar. Apple also added a quick find option, which is just another same for a search box. As you type in the box, iTunes starts narrowing down the songs in your playlist to match the song in the box, a nice feature.

Moving on to the purchasing, I found that was really simple to do as well. A dollar for a song seemed reasonable to me. The program logs into the store and you can search for songs just like with Kazaa or other p2p programs. The difference is that the quality of the songs is guaranteed to be good quality and that you wont download any of RIAA's fake songs. The speed of the download was incredibly high as well, the song was downloaded within a minute. It seemed that finally a way to buy individual songs was coming out strongly. Then I hit a snag.

iTunes does not, repeat, does NOT download in mp3 format. The file format your receive is m4p. What exactly does this mean? M4p seems to be the newest encoding to break out into music. The quality and file size are similar to mp3. For example : I downloaded Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional. The file size was 3.2mb and had a bit rate of 128kbps. However, unlike mp3, m4p is encrypted. The only player it will play in is iTunes. I hear you saying "so i'll convert it to mp3. Not yet you won't, believe me I've tried. The protection on the song keeps it from being converted by current software, very clever RIAA...

What does this do? It forces you to use Apple's software to listen to your legally purchased digital songs. Frankly, the players quality isn't as good as some other software I've used. And if you are trying to back up your files on say a linux box, you won't be able to listen to them untill you get a Mac or Windows system with iTunes on it, big drawback in my opinion. However, this does effectively keep you from sharing songs with other people, very clever indeed.

Advantages:
1.) Legally obtain music over the net
2.) Great download speed
3.) Great Quality

Disadvantages:
1.) Newer file format forces you to use iTunes
2.) It's got that Mac feel (yuck!!!)

Total Overall Score 4/5
The file format, although perfectly understandable, is just a little too protective. I woulda liked to play my songs in Foobar2000
:rolleyes:

Comments

  • edited October 2003
    M4P has nothing to do with the RIAA...it is the audio format for Mpeg4 movies and is advantageous because a 128kbit AAC(what it's called on a mac) sounds the same as a 192kbit mp3. and it CAN play on other players that support mp4
  • edited October 2003
    If you ever download/buy legit WMAs you will get a similar thing.. They usually only play in WMP after downloading the license..
  • edited October 2003
    i stand corrected :bows:

    I have yet to find something besides iTunes that will play these songs though...
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited October 2003
    since iTunes includes a burn audio cd's option, couldn't you just burn your DL'd tracks to a cd, even an RW, and then re rip them from the cd in whatever format you wanted?
  • edited October 2003
    i came up with that theory too, i'm testing it as we speak

    yes, yes you can do it. i lost some quality in the ripping though :(

  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Still dont like iTunes. Useless features (to me) and proprietory technology.

    NS
  • Ken-MastersKen-Masters In your backyard!!!
    edited October 2003
    Originally posted by rapture
    If you ever download/buy legit WMAs you will get a similar thing.. They usually only play in WMP after downloading the license..

    My NEC 3G phone is also a portable music player in one,
    and only support MP4 or AAC files. Its got nothing to do with the RAA its all about files size to quality ratio.

    Of course my iPod plays it, My sisters Motorola Phones also support both Mp3 and Mp4/AAC formats. The format is fairly new and it will just take some time for other players to adopt AAC or MP4.


    On another note, i can easily convert my AAC/MP4 files to WAV or AIFF which leads to no restictions via iTunes, but loss of quality. If you have Quicktime Pro, you can rip it with better acracy.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Or you could just use a better, and actually completely licence free codec like OGG.

    NS
  • edited October 2003
    Ogg is the reason I uninstalled iTunes... Online stores will never use it though, you cant control its use as easily as other formats.
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