iTunes 4.5 Released

[MacManDan]

2. The group by comilations thing is really handy - but has anyone sussed a way of telling i-tunes what is and what is not a compilation? for example - i'd like to weed out all the artists on things like the *ministry of sound* dance type compilations thaat mean nothing to me, but perhaps keep in artists with, for example their *greatest hits* compilation.

I believe if you go to a song's info (where you can edit the ID3 tag) there is a checkbox with "Compilation". Simply uncheck that for the albums you don't want iTunes to consider a compilation (you can edit a whole album by selecting all of the songs in it and then editing the ID3 tags).

 

[svenr]

Will stick with 4.1

The new features are all nice to have but not really essential for me given MY everyday music listening habits. However, if the update means I can't use my burned CDs on other computers anymore, as some ppl here reported, and can't re-rip songs, then I will happily stick with the old iTunes forever - or until the forcibly shut me out.

(You guys really created AUDIO CDs? The kind I can play on a regular CD player and not just a CD-ROM with AAC files?)

 

[dontmatter]

gettunes no longer works. Man, I hope this is just a standard problem with the new version, and gettunes will just have to update. I fear apple wanted to cover their behinds and made this version of itunes gettunes and mytunes proof.

Also, thinking of apple being strategic in avoiding the labels wrath-New DRM. Almost sure this is playfair, etc. proof, but I never used those (or would) so it doesn't matter to me. But what I wonder is-if the new lisence stuff with the apple store has the whole retroactive change for CD burning and sharing, perhaps it also uses the new, harder to crack DRM? Would be a clever way of nipping that one in the bud.

 

[dontmatter]

(You guys really created AUDIO CDs? The kind I can play on a regular CD player and not just a CD-ROM with AAC files?)

You gotta be kidding me-why would you do a CD-ROM with AAC? Then, unless you bought some special player, you can't play on anything but a computer. If your doing that, why not just use itunes directly? So much better for managing music, and you can just put the stuff on your CD in a playlist. If you don't have the HD room, and external drive is not that expensive at all, and way better than having a pile of CD's around just waiting to get scratched or lost. Not to mention, the whole reason I burn CD's is so I can give them to my friends, and they can play them in cars, CD players, computers, etc.

 

[dontmatter]

There has been a bit of talk in this thread about how network sharing is disabled between 4.2 and 4.5. This is truly a shame. Someone (I forget who. I'm too lazy to sort through the whole thread to quote them) suggested that it has something to do with iTunes reorganizing or reformatting the library. Remember the status bar when you started 4.5 for the first time? Anyway, I think I might know why they did that. There was a neat little application called Leechster, which would listen over your network connection and when you played a shared song it would download it to your computer. With 4.5, leechster is unable to detect anything. The library was probably reorganized to close the loophole that leechster exploited, and the closing of the loophole would then be what causes the two versions of iTunes to not be able to share with each other.

Another program called gettunes did the same thing, and now doesn't work anymore, either. Let's watch both for updates, and hope apple hasn't closed this loophole

 

[coolsoldier]

It's a crippling in iTunes RIPPING, not burning. That means, of course, that any other program besides iTunes (i.e. Audion) can still play iTunes "protected" CDs, as well as rip them to other formats. This cannot be disabled as long as the CDs are playable in regular CD player.

Overall this is a pretty good update. With the increased comp. limit, I no longer need to un-DRM my files. HOWEVER, the crippling of QuickTime is annoying, since QuickTime applications can't use protected music anymore...my iDVD and iMovie background music will once again have to come from Acquisition. I can understand the need to close the iMovie/Toast loophole, but hopefully we'll see a version of iMovie and iDVD in the future that at least allows the use of purchased songs, even if it won't export them.

 

[BoMo]

HOWEVER, the crippling of QuickTime is annoying, since QuickTime applications can't use protected music anymore...my iDVD and iMovie background music will once again have to come from Acquisition. I can understand the need to close the iMovie/Toast loophole, but hopefully we'll see a version of iMovie and iDVD in the future that at least allows the use of purchased songs, even if it won't export them.

I am at work so I can't test it myself, but I thought that was covered by the new Quicktime update. In fact, isn't that what the alert says when you launch iTunes 4.5 the first time, that you will need to update QT in order to use protected music in iMovie and iDVD?

 

[68k_575]

Do people still sit to listen to music? And how prepared are you to devote time to just listening to music, to the exclusion of everything else? If people won't do this anymore, then the higher bit-rate and lossless codecs are indeed irrelevant.... there's probably even a codec so lossy you couldn't tell Britney from Shostakovich.

+1

I'm 15, and I'm the ONLY person I know who actually just sits and listens to music without doing anything else - so you're right, this is definately dying out. Most people use their collection for background music while gaming or web surfing, and when you're blowing up all your friends in Q3 deathmatch you don't really care about the subtleties in music. This is part of why downloading's so big - quality is not on people's lists of "reasons to buy CDs". Believe it or not, there are some people who can't tell the difference between a 96 K MP3 and a CD. Telling them about superior sound quality, etc. isn't going to get to them, because being able to tell the difference between MP3 and the CD is a skill that not many people have except for musicians/audiophiles.

 

[coolsoldier]

I am at work so I can't test it myself, but I thought that was covered by the new Quicktime update. In fact, isn't that what the alert says when you launch iTunes 4.5 the first time, that you will need to update QT in order to use protected music in iMovie and iDVD?

I don't know what it says, since I downloaded QT and iTunes together. However, I went into iMovie and tried putting a purchased song behind a simple photo montage -- the preview of the song plays just fine, but when I try to play back the movie, it's silent.

 

[feakbeak]

COM Interface for Windows

In the Help file that ships with the Windows version of iTunes 4.5 the "What's New" page lists the following:

* Script iTunes for Windows
iTunes for Windows now has a COM interface so you can script it to perform common tasks automatically.

I would like to write some scripts but I cannot find any documentation on Apple's sites or within the help. I just want to know what languages are supported (JScript, VBScript, VB, C++, etc.) and what the object model looks like so I can give it a whirl.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[7on]

I've found burning to CD then trying to boot into OS9 with the CD still in freezes the boot process. The Computer monitors don't even come on. I held down the power button and restarted again holding down the option key. It was only then could I eject the CD and continue booting. THought this might be helpful to people.

Anyhoo, I also found that the CD rips fine in OS9's iTunes as normal so it's just a minor inconvenience. De-DRMing is still alive

 

[jbembe]

love the new 'group compilations when browsing' feature. I'm a big fan of compilations and have 300+ artists in my itunes library, but only about 150 albums, so previously the 'artists' column in the browser was littered with hundreds of artists that I only have one song by, but now thay are all under 'compilations'

woo. I'm really hoping this is included with the ipod update, that would be ace

Darn it if I'm not going to have to go back and relabel all of my compilations with the correct artist information now (I have artists annotated with the song name and artist is the compilation title now...)

 

[realityisterror]

I just ctrl clicked a song in my library and it says "Play Next in Party Shuffle" and "Add to Party Shuffle". Works fine for me.

but i feel i should be scrolling through my music, choose this, choose that, and add it to the queue... i know you can do it the above way, but it can be time consuming...


reality

 

[singletrack]

Ok, well, I've been waiting for the "little arrow" next to each title, artist and track, but wow, I'm not sure I get what the point of is to having it link to the music store. Why would I buy a song from the store, and then have a link always there that I can press to, what, go back to the store and remember the day I bought it?

You think there'll be a hack to get the default action of that arrow to be to link to the same artist (or album, etc..) in your own library? After all, that's what I'd use it for... some song comes up and I'd think "Perfect, I'll listen to this band for a while..."

The iMix thing is rather groovy.

If you click on the arrow next to the artist it searches the store for that artist.

Hold down the option/alt key and it searches your local library. I'd prefer the default to search locally first but that's mostly because the store doesn't work in the UK.

 

[blybug]

It's a crippling in iTunes RIPPING, not burning. That means, of course, that any other program besides iTunes (i.e. Audion) can still play iTunes "protected" CDs, as well as rip them to other formats. This cannot be disabled as long as the CDs are playable in regular CD player.

I downloaded Audion to test out your theory, and discovered in the process that the CD I made was a data CD with the mp4s (oops). Now who set my iTunes preferences to that??

So I made another AUDIO CD and, well...it works. So you can still burn a CD then re-rip it back into iTunes to strip the DRM. But the other 3rd party programs like Toast and of course PlayFair et al have definitely been broken by iTunes 4.5, annoyingly, but as well they should be.

See you later, gotta go wipe this crow off my lips

 

[centauratlas]

Nothing seems to work shy looping your audio out to your audio in.

I think something like AudioHijack should work too. ;-)

 

[chabig]

but i feel i should be scrolling through my music, choose this, choose that, and add it to the queue.

That is how it works. Why do you think it doesn't?

Chris

 

[phreaker57x]

Does anyone know the keyboard shortcut to add a song to the Party shuffle?

There is no keyboard shortcut built into iTunes for this, but you can create your own by going to Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences and setting your own.

I wish Apple would include an official one though.

 

[bousozoku]

+1

I'm 15, and I'm the ONLY person I know who actually just sits and listens to music without doing anything else - so you're right, this is definately dying out. Most people use their collection for background music while gaming or web surfing, and when you're blowing up all your friends in Q3 deathmatch you don't really care about the subtleties in music. This is part of why downloading's so big - quality is not on people's lists of "reasons to buy CDs". Believe it or not, there are some people who can't tell the difference between a 96 K MP3 and a CD. Telling them about superior sound quality, etc. isn't going to get to them, because being able to tell the difference between MP3 and the CD is a skill that not many people have except for musicians/audiophiles.

It's hard for me to understand that but it's like the super-size option--quantity not quality. I haven't ripped my classical music simply because I was dissatisfied with the space AIFF takes and the quality compromises AAC and mp3 file formats made.

 

[macmatt]

Heh... brains are cool. I should get another one.

LOL Best quote ever

 

[NusuniAdmin]

ya....I have a thread about this currently open but how come quicktime and itunes both wont install via SU, i dled itunes and tried installing it with the pakcage file but installer locks up, just for the heck of it i tried opening another package i have and installer loaded that fine. Has anyone else had this happen?

OS 10.2.8

[EDIT: by the way SU locks up when it gets to the "expanding package" stage for both itunes and quicktime, and the regular installer app just locks up when it tried to load the itunes package]

 

[Reduaram]

What the ****?

I just installed the iTunes update on my PowerBook and after 2 hangs I have lost my iTunes library (It's a big one) and can't import it back into iTunes from my music folder. Any suggestions?

 

[j33pd0g]

Is anybody using a first generation iPod with iTunes 4.5? I assume it'll work but not using any of the new features. I just didn't want to get boned.

 

[JGowan]

Do the Math

So does this mean I should re-import all my stuff?

I suppose it depends on HOW BIG YOUR COLLECTION IS and YOUR IPOD CAPACITY. You didn't really say, so it's hard to give an answer.

By the way, "about half" is not even close... I ripped Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (AIFF files at about 760MB) and it ripped only down to about 560MB -- instead of the 380MB it should've been if Apple's claim of "half" was correct.

Now... (this is from memory so don't shoot the piano player)...

There is 76 minutes of songs so that's about 10MB for every unfettered minute (AIFF) and 7.36MB for Apple's new technology. Considering songs are normally about 4 minutes, an album of 10 songs would be about 400MB before ripping and about 295MB after.

By my estimations, if you had a 40GB IPOD, you could probably put about 135 CDs with the new encoding. (I might be wrong, but I'm using 1000MB = 1GB... should it be 1024MB = 1GB?)

Anyway...

I have about 950+ CDs so this is not an option for me. I would need quite a bit bigger ipod for this to be even a consideration

 

[blueflame]

What the hell!!!

I like this update overall, but what the hell is all this disney crap all over the place. That is really annoying. I dont want to be seeing ads all over the place. I came there to buy the music, i dont really care if disney has anything to do with it. The only benefot i can see is if they are going to release movies for sale.
Andreas