This just ain't Apples week.

[Mike Anderson]

Is the article really accurate? I haven't had any problem putting other music on my iPod.

As I understood it, the main objection people have is that music from the iTunes Store cannot be played on other devices -- not that the iPod can't play music from other sources.

So don't buy music from the iTunes Store. Even better, don't upgrade to iTunes 6, and just use jhymn to unlock your music.

[paul_pci]

Mark, I think maybe you're misinformed about iTunes, although my clarification will do llittle to win you over. The music store within iTunes is merely one, and not the only one, means of purchasing digital music online. For instance, a friend and I had a subscription to emusic.com and I downloaded a few cds and imported them into iTunes and then to my iPod. Therefore your analogies really don't hold up, especially the Barnes and Noble one. Apple in no way claims or configures that the consumer can only buy music from the iTunes music store or that music acquired elsewhere won't work on iTunes/iPod. That's just not true. For me personally, most of the music I have on my iPod comes from my CD collection and some music downloaded from various sources which will remain unnamed. I've never bought a song from the music store, but I have plenty of music acquired from non iTunes sources. Your BB analogy might be more fitting, but I just don't see the problem. iTunes is free. Yes, you must have it to transfer music to the iPod, but really, where is the harm. Again sychronization is not coercion. Apple is not making you buy anything, nor are they preventing you from acquiring music from any other source. Again, I think you're misinformed here. There's nothing that you can do with your Sandisk that iTunes cannot accomodate to any user. I have great control and customization with iTunes and thus my iPod.

Lastly, I don't think the iPod or any related accoutrement is the latest great thing in hi-fi. Give me some credit; I'm not that delusional.

[markw]

Mark, I think maybe you're misinformed about iTunes, although my clarification will do llittle to win you over. The music store within iTunes is merely one, and not the only one, means of purchasing digital music online. For instance, a friend and I had a subscription to emusic.com and I downloaded a few cds and imported them into iTunes and then to my iPod. Therefore your analogies really don't hold up, especially the Barnes and Noble one. Apple in no way claims or configures that the consumer can only buy music from the iTunes music store or that music acquired elsewhere won't work on iTunes/iPod. That's just not true. For me personally, most of the music I have on my iPod comes from my CD collection and some music downloaded from various sources which will remain unnamed. I've never bought a song from the music store, but I have plenty of music acquired from non iTunes sources. Your BB analogy might be more fitting, but I just don't see the problem. iTunes is free. Yes, you must have it to transfer music to the iPod, but really, where is the harm. Again sychronization is not coercion. Apple is not making you buy anything, nor are they preventing you from acquiring music from any other source. Again, I think you're misinformed here. There's nothing that you can do with your Sandisk that iTunes cannot accomodate to any user. I have great control and customization with iTunes and thus my iPod.

Lastly, I don't think the iPod or any related accoutrement is the latest great thing in hi-fi. Give me some credit; I'm not that delusional.

I realize now that you can load anything into an ipod. From what my second cousin says, the itunes interface "sweeps" your 'puter for all music, brings it into it's own file and then loads it into your ipod. This does lend itself to tha fact that music from any source can be input to an ipod.

My next questions would be:

1) Can anyone download music from Itunes onto their own computer without an Itunes interface?

2) Can it be done in WMA format?

3) Can it then loaded into a device other than an Ipod?

[Groundbeef]

To answer your question.

1. You can only d/l music from Itunes if you have Itunes installed on your computer.
2. Music will only be d/l in apple format, not WMA.
3. I don't think that you can put that music onto another MP3 player w/out converting it to wma or mp3. format. Although I am open for correction on that point.

There are 3rd party work around software solutions for pulling music off your Ipod w/out Itunes. This is so you can d/l your own music onto another computer YOU own

[paul_pci]

First two brief clarifications: iTunes is a software staging ground that has the Apple Music Store integrated into it. Secondly, as a staging ground, the music files exist independently of iTunes and thus you can do anything you want with them, including having drunken conversations if you so choose.

1.) Apple offers access through their website to the Music Store. As I have iTunes, when I clicked on that link, it opened my program, so for now I can't testify what happens with that link on computers w/o iTunes installed. It may prompt you to download iTunes, don't know.

2.) Apple is not a format; mp3 is a format, WMA is a format, etc. My understanding is that music via the Music Store is in mp3 and however convoluted it might be, iTunes does support various formats including WMA and mp3 files should be able to be converted to that format.

3.) Again, the music files have an independent existence to iTunes (it's just a program for organizing and ripping/burning). Therefore, if you have files mp3 or otherwise that you have organized and collected/downloaded using iTunes and another player supports that format, then yes, of course you can put those files onto that player. It's just a matter of locating those files in their respective folders. Again, I think you are misinformed because there's nothing arbitrarily restricted by iTunes. What I love about the interface with iPod is that I can first organize my exact playlists in iTunes and do a quick transfer to the iPod and it's a mirror image on the player. I know exactly where all the music is and how the playlists are organized.

[Mike Anderson]

2.) Apple is not a format; mp3 is a format, WMA is a format, etc. My understanding is that music via the Music Store is in mp3 and however convoluted it might be, iTunes does support various formats including WMA and mp3 files should be able to be converted to that format.

My understanding is that the music you download from the iTunes Music Store is not mp3, it's another format altogether.

My only gripe with the iTunes music player software is that it doesn't play FLAC. However, it's free, and if you don't like it you can download something identical like Winamp.

As others are pointing out, some people here are confused about the difference between the iTunes music player software and the iTunes Music Store.

There is a legitimate gripe about music from the iTunes Music Store having DRM, and therefore being unable to play on alternate systems. One response is that you can always buy your music elsewhere if you don't like this arrangement.

Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who purchased large amounts of music from the iTunes Music Store who didn't understand how their use of it was limited. Thinking it was no different than having music from a CD or non-DRM mp3s, they went on to purchase other music-playing gear, and now they can't play their iTunes Store-supplied music on it.

Apple is partly to blame for this because they do not make it bloody clear to the average person how the music is limited in that fashion.

[anamorphic96]

That article is dead wrong in that you can only use iPods with the iTunes music store. I have roughly 500 songs downloaded from emusic.com as well as Limewire and some other services. All someone has to do is convert them to MP3 if they are not already this way. Or if they want. Convert them to AAC. The only slight drawback is the iPod does not support WMA.

Apples biggest and #1 problem is the battery life issues.

[paul_pci]

My understanding is that the music you download from the iTunes Music Store is not mp3, it's another format altogether.

My only gripe with the iTunes music player software is that it doesn't play FLAC. However, it's free, and if you don't like it you can download something identical like Winamp.

As others are pointing out, some people here are confused about the difference between the iTunes music player software and the iTunes Music Store.

There is a legitimate gripe about music from the iTunes Music Store having DRM, and therefore being unable to play on alternate systems. One response is that you can always buy your music elsewhere if you don't like this arrangement.

Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who purchased large amounts of music from the iTunes Music Store who didn't understand how their use of it was limited. Thinking it was no different than having music from a CD or non-DRM mp3s, they went on to purchase other music-playing gear, and now they can't play their iTunes Store-supplied music on it.

Apple is partly to blame for this because they do not make it bloody clear to the average person how the music is limited in that fashion.

The gripe here about downloading music from the music store may be correct, as I have yet to do so, and it makes sense from an industry point of view: how else could Apple convince the greedy, short sighted recording industry to let them sell mounds of digital music online, but to restrict the use and duplicating of it? But, at the end of the day, Apple's Music store is not the only game in town, nor is it the only source for music, digitally or otherwise. I thinik people like to hate ITunes/iPod simply because they're popular (it's popular to hate something that's popular) and not because there's a legitimate grievence there.