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Apple Officially Splits iTunes for Windows Into Apple Music, TV, and Devices Apps

I removed iTunes from my Windows PC as I really have no use for it.
No one is saying if it will no longer be available or I'm missing that information.
I refuse to download second-rate apps from the Windows Store.
I guess the people at Apple don't use optical drives anymore or trans-code CDs.
iTunes was great for that and nothing else to me.
The Apple TV app is not available for my tablets on the Google Play Store.
 
And much like is the case on Apple devices, they're probably all still ****.
Slix said:
I’d like to see how they did the Devices app, because holy cow syncing iPods and iPhones from the Finder in macOS is way worse than iTunes ever was.
Click to expand...
Wait... your Apple devices actually sync?!?
 
  • Haha
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AlmightyKang said:
I use windows on a very regular basis:
  1. Problems with File Explorer on windows 11. Lag, bugs.
  2. Right click menu inconsistency between windows 10 and 11
  3. Licensing hell on Office 365 resulting in signing into multiple accounts. My daughter's entire desktop PC got hosed the other day by an MDM policy inherited from an O365 mandatory sign in to view a document. Default option is to sign into everything with that and if you accidentally click it, you're screwed.
  4. Very broken updates that hose machines. We got an update roll out that bricked 200 people's machines by dropping the bitlocker key.
  5. Forcing Copilot at you.
  6. Upselling and advertising forced at you all the time in Edge and Windows itself.
  7. Crapware bundled with it such as the sidebar, bing search.
  8. Invasive telemetry you can't opt out of.
  9. Impossible to use a machine without signing into it.
  10. Utterly inferior built in apps, particularly photos. That's just the worst thing in the world.
  11. New outlook doesn't work offline at all like the old one does and everyone just had that shoved down their throats on the normal channel.
  12. WSL2 VMs occasionally go crazy and blow out 4 cores of your CPU when no processes are running unless you wsl --shutdown the whole damn thing which means you have to start what you are doing again several times a day.
  13. My god have you tried having a laptop which has 200% scaling (I have a very top end Dell Precision 7670 with OLED display) and plug it into a 4K display that uses 150% scaling. Half the apps collapse into a heap.
  14. Absolutely no way of sync'ing contacts to Android via outlook in any possible way unless you pay for O365 business.
  15. OneDrive data loss after sync problems (regular issue).
  16. The fact it can empty a 90Wh battery in 2h with an i7-12850HX CPU not doing anything.
I could go on for ages but I'm out of breath.

The input methodology is much better though. That's about it.
Click to expand...
If you're not using apps from microsoft, get debian or fedora. They are more safe and total stabile. I run them for months without restart with no problem (debian is better, fedora easier).
 
Fine that Apple does this, but nor iTunes nor the Apple Music app lets you add music to shared playlistst... how long do we have to wait for this support?
 
DarthDon said:
If you're not using apps from microsoft, get debian or fedora. They are more safe and total stabile. I run them for months without restart with no problem (debian is better, fedora easier).
Click to expand...

I have 800 debian boxes. Yeah. But not on the desktop.
 
AlmightyKang said:
I use windows on a very regular basis:
  1. Problems with File Explorer on windows 11. Lag, bugs.
  2. Right click menu inconsistency between windows 10 and 11
  3. Licensing hell on Office 365 resulting in signing into multiple accounts. My daughter's entire desktop PC got hosed the other day by an MDM policy inherited from an O365 mandatory sign in to view a document. Default option is to sign into everything with that and if you accidentally click it, you're screwed.
  4. Very broken updates that hose machines. We got an update roll out that bricked 200 people's machines by dropping the bitlocker key.
  5. Forcing Copilot at you.
  6. Upselling and advertising forced at you all the time in Edge and Windows itself.
  7. Crapware bundled with it such as the sidebar, bing search.
  8. Invasive telemetry you can't opt out of.
  9. Impossible to use a machine without signing into it.
  10. Utterly inferior built in apps, particularly photos. That's just the worst thing in the world.
  11. New outlook doesn't work offline at all like the old one does and everyone just had that shoved down their throats on the normal channel.
  12. WSL2 VMs occasionally go crazy and blow out 4 cores of your CPU when no processes are running unless you wsl --shutdown the whole damn thing which means you have to start what you are doing again several times a day.
  13. My god have you tried having a laptop which has 200% scaling (I have a very top end Dell Precision 7670 with OLED display) and plug it into a 4K display that uses 150% scaling. Half the apps collapse into a heap.
  14. Absolutely no way of sync'ing contacts to Android via outlook in any possible way unless you pay for O365 business.
  15. OneDrive data loss after sync problems (regular issue).
  16. The fact it can empty a 90Wh battery in 2h with an i7-12850HX CPU not doing anything.
I could go on for ages but I'm out of breath.

The input methodology is much better though. That's about it.
Click to expand...

Once I found Outlook Express installed on production machines that were in use at a television station. These machines were used for their broadcasts, so pretty important machines. Outlook Express was known to be a network high security risk back then. Instead of removing it, or even install a slimmed and clean Windows OS, the IT department installed individual "smart" firewalls on each network port in the patch room. The logic??? Everyone with a brain would have removed the cause, but they wanted to fight the symptoms indefinitely (causing additional problems)

The problem with Microsoft and its related industry... the quality of their software must be intentionally bad. Otherwise a whole industry that now exists around Windows would be out of work: Software support, helpdesks, additional infrastructure for backup, power companies. Efficiency is bad for profit.
 
clayj said:
I'll be sticking with iTunes for now.
Click to expand...
I'm relying on iTunes's ability to easily re-classify media files as podcasts – because I have a large-ish collection of radio comedy and similar stuff that mostly comes from all sorts of places that aren't podcasts, but still works best if treated like a podcast (remembering the playback position, showing which episodes have been listened/partially listened/unlistened, etc.).

With iTunes it's a simple matter of changing the media types of those files to "Podcast" and I'm done. Otherwise, I'd have to set up some sort of fake local podcast feed in order to get those episodes into some alternative podcasts client app (which usually isn't set up for manual importing of files), and that is definitely less fun.

Also the app I'm using to sync my iTunes library over to my Android phone relies on iTunes's scripting interface. First of all, that particular app sadly definitely won't be getting any further updates, and even hypothetically if – does the new Apple Music windows app even support any kind of programmatic library access at all?

So I certainly won't be switching away from iTunes for the foreseeable future, either. The million dollar question is – how long will iTunes store access keep working for old iTunes?
 
How do I make it download all my songs to lossless? I already have Lossless enabled, but it still only show AAC 256k 44.1
 
Is there a way to install this without the Microsoft Store? We're using LTSC at work and don't have the option of the MS store.
 
Bluninja said:
How do I make it download all my songs to lossless? I already have Lossless enabled, but it still only show AAC 256k 44.1
Click to expand...
You can’t/it won’t.
Apple Music lossless is streaming only
Use Qobuz instead for purchasing and downloading lossless files. Of course, Apple software will not play nicely with FLAC either.

The best solution is to procure your lossless music elsewhere in FLAC, convert a 2nd copy to ALAC for use with iTunes or whatever they feel like calling it this week, and never delete your FLAC original as backup. Enjoy storing and managing two seperate music libraries. This is the Apple way. It just works?
 
I'd be tempted with the new apps if they took care of podcasts, but since they don't and I use iTunes for podcasts and everything still works in iTunes for Windows I'll just stick with one app that does it all fine for me (I've never had issues with iTunes for Windows, just my experience). Several less things to have to go to the Windows Store for.
jimimac71 said:
I removed iTunes from my Windows PC as I really have no use for it.
No one is saying if it will no longer be available or I'm missing that information.
...
Click to expand...
It's not being stated, however iTunes is still being relied on for podcasts etc.. Not to mention all of the original functionality still works (music, video etc.) the new apps are obviously the beginning of a transition out of iTunes, but until they take of podcasts (and one other thing, forget which) guessing iTunes on Windows is here to stay (for the time being).
 
i just subbed to AM again now Apple has decided to make a proper Windows app.

holy **** this sounds so much better than Spotify. Spotify sounds so quiet and muddy in comparison. I'm listening on PC and have turned off equalizer settings on my speakers and made sure any settings on the software are the same to give a fair comparison.

big difference! my spotify is paid until december but i think i'll just pay for AM and use Spotify as a back up (not that i need a back up music service lol) until it runs out.

Part of me is saying just to use Spotify for the rest of the year but this is a MUSIC service. Apple Music sounds much better so I am happy to change over for better quality. I don't think I can go back now.
 
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lanceuppercut47 said:
Is there a way to install this without the Microsoft Store? We're using LTSC at work and don't have the option of the MS store.
Click to expand...
Nope not as far as I know.

They should offer a download outside of the MS store. Maybe in the future. But for me personally I don't mind using the MS store.
 
Razorpit said:
Came here to say the same thing. I don’t know if I’m getting older or what, but back in the day I rarely needed to look anything up to use Apple/Mac software and applications. Now I have to constantly look stuff up on the internet to find where the heck {insert common action/feature here} is.

All this stuff doesn’t seem as intuitive as it use to be. Is it just me?
Click to expand...
It's not just you. I feel like software usability has just been slowly degrading over the last decade. This goes beyond apple too. I think it's largely driven by companies constantly trying to convince you to buy by introducing new features constantly where not many new features are really needed in a lot of places. That and the focus is getting to be more on trying to push you to services instead of just having a solid/good UI. Too much change for the sake of change just to satisfy the people who have to have something new constantly.
 
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krspkbl said:
i just subbed to AM again now Apple has decided to make a proper Windows app.

holy **** this sounds so much better than Spotify. Spotify sounds so quiet and muddy in comparison. I'm listening on PC and have turned off equalizer settings on my speakers and made sure any settings on the software are the same to give a fair comparison.
Click to expand...
I agree it sounds good. It sounds better than the old iTunes and now there is no reason to have Tidal if AM is streaming in 16/44 lossless. There are a lot of changes here that are going to impact the other music services.
 
HVDynamo said:
It's not just you. I feel like software usability has just been slowly degrading over the last decade. This goes beyond apple too. I think it's largely driven by companies constantly trying to convince you to buy by introducing new features constantly where not many new features are really needed in a lot of places. That and the focus is getting to be more on trying to push you to services instead of just having a solid/good UI. Too much change for the sake of change just to satisfy the people who have to have something new constantly.
Click to expand...
This is so true. I recently gave numbers a try instead of excel and was shocked by how simple it was to use. They weren't adding just for the sake of adding. Same with pages. Very nice!
 
Mother Nature said:
Probably because it wasn't as feature-rich as it is today?
Click to expand...
What “features“ have been added to music though? iTunes had WAY more features because it was the one-stop shop for all media, and yet it’s easier to use than all these separate apps.
 
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Does installing the Music App on Windows make the overall performance of Windows feel more sluggish? What I mean is I have Music open but using the internet or my investing app is also becoming really slow as well. I have tried the Music app for a few days and man it is so slow and nearly unresponsive. Also, the status bar is gone and I don't know how to get it back. For a program that was in Beta for over a year, this is kind of sad.
 
sjsharksfan12 said:
Does installing the Music App on Windows make the overall performance of Windows feel more sluggish? What I mean is I have Music open but using the internet or my investing app is also becoming really slow as well. I have tried the Music app for a few days and man it is so slow and nearly unresponsive. Also, the status bar is gone and I don't know how to get it back. For a program that was in Beta for over a year, this is kind of sad.
Click to expand...
Didn't for me, but I have a decent laptop...?
 
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