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iTunes for Windows is Coming

Originally posted by jamilecrire
If you want to know the funny thing about my posting is my first job out of college was at Arthur Andersen and so far it was the best job I've had (worst freaking pay ever). The people were very intelligent, the job was interesting and the clients were very nice (usually).

I felt bad for them because I worked in Business Consulting (Computer Related), CRM (Computer Risk Management) and did Audits with the accountants. I have a degree in Finance and MIS and I speak 3 languages (English, Spanish, French). I'm considering getting a Masters in Economics (or just another undergrad in Econ) for fun. That will have to wait another couple of years though.

The funny thing is I love programming, I just hate working on programs. I'm a tinkerer, I like learning how to do things, the mundane task of building boring applications is only worthwhile because it allows me to blow insane amounts of cash on the toys my wife wants (I'm guilty as well). Plus I'll be retired by the time I'm 35. Well not retired but no longer in need of cash to maintain a very comfortable standard of living. I guess when I thought the stock market was overpriced in 1997 I was right (as far as I know only Warren E Buffett and myself thought this, j/k).

Oh well back to work (100-120hrs/week). My only breaks are college football in the fall and world cup soccer (qualifying too) which is the reason I'll be speaking 4 languages before too long (Germany 2006).

Sorry for rant, this is my form of bar (a la Cheers).
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oh man, and i thought i worked hard (when i have work) 🙁 damn im already 34 and practically unemployed, know nothing about the stock market, speak one language, dont have a wife, havent received a BA in ANYTHING......ok now im depressed. i wish i had a beer. oh well, i have a meeting tomorrow. wish me luck.

edit: apples all over the news. they just had a nice segment on the new service, they even went into the apple store. they put a positive spin on the whole subject. Fox 11. 😀 i wish i had a beer.
 
Re: Better be soon

Originally posted by pudrik

Apple better get off their butts and get this out by the end of the summer, not the end of the year, or their system will be copied (although probably not well). Like we saw with the iPod, TiBook, etc., it doesn't take long for the PC world to come up with cheap knock-offs of Apple designs, and those were hardware. Rhapsody need only eliminate their subscription service and team up with MS to implement a DRM solution similar to Apple's, and the opportunity is lost.
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This worried me too, pre-release - but I think that it is probably unlikely now. The reason is that the record companies are treating this as a bit of an experiment - but also are treating it seriously and with a positive attitude. They are likely to 'wait and see' what happens with the service...one time that the small Mac user base will work to Apple's advantage. By the time the record companies give the green light for full steam ahead, Apple's service should have a huge market advantage.

Also, although I personally think AOL are pretty evil - rumors of an iTunes (or 'tunes based music software) client for them are exciting. It's certainly no rumor that AOL and Real are starting to head their separate ways. Real is posting losses too....(and their software is real ****e).
a.
 
Re: Re: Better be soon

Originally posted by mim
Also, although I personally think AOL are pretty evil - rumors of an iTunes (or 'tunes based music software) client for them are exciting.
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I'd have to agree with this. Although it pains me to think I might be supporting something that AOL does (they still owe me $200 from several years ago - long story), the idea of instantly adding a few million users doesn't sound too bad. Especially since the majority of the AOL users that I know have no idea what they're using until it doesn't work anymore. When they ask "how can I get that neat music player thing again when I don't renew my AOL" - you can point them in the proper direction.

People sign up for AOL because they have friends that tell them it's easy (sounds like why I push macs). And if you've set foot outside of your house lately you've noticed they're cd distribution tactic - COMPLETE MARKET SATURATION. Want a free sign up disc? I challenge you to go out shopping for a day anywhere in any city and NOT see a "free 1200 hours" cd glaring at you.

Now for devil's advocate - as I said before, there can't be ANY bugs in the system, or the windows folks will rip it to shreds QUICKLY. And, well, how to say it nicely, AOL isn't exactly bug-free. Maybe Apple can help that situation before handing over code for their music distribution software.
 
Why is everyone so worried?

I don't believe everyone should be worried about Apple making all their cool products available for the PC just because iTunes is coming over. Look at it this way:

1) PC users will get a good dose of how nice Apple software will be. All my experiences with WMP are that it sucks **g d***** ***s. My girl has XP and has never gotten WMP to work well on her machine either.

Having a full version of iTunes for Windows is necessary, because you don't want just client software, you want to give them the ability to enjoy Apple's good music management software, just to say "Yeah...nice, isn't it...boy, we've got some more stuff like this, but...it's for that fruity platform. Too bad."

2) OMG, the profits. Look, you can argue selection all you want, but for day one it's good, and I think we can all agree the service is largely awesome. It has huge hype for a product with such a small customer pool. Great reviews. And the PC users are jealous. We're gonna see a huge cash cow come with this. More profits for Apple =

3) Smaller margins being needed for the hardware. The more money Apple makes on non-CPU revenue, the less they need to charge for their CPUs. The way I see it, this service is going to be the catalyst by which Apple is allowed to maybe...sell their hardware at a loss? And still make a profit corporate-wide?

Three magic words: saturate the market. 😀

And as most of us have figured out, this is a self-perpetuating process. The smaller the R&D:Manufacturing costs ratio is, the less they have to charge for their hardware. It's an outward spiral. This is why PC companies can charge so little, they have almost no R&D expenses.

Here's hoping. Hoping like Pooh, man...😱*hope* *hope* *hope*
 
Re: What is Al Gore doing at Apple?

Originally posted by onemilkid
It's pretty obvious:

Inventing new AlGore-ythems!!!
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You know...that's pretty funny for a German 😉

Maybe it's Al-Gor-Rhythms. He not only invented the internet, but also the iTunes engine and the server side scripts for the music service.

Du bist mein kleines zuckerstucken! (pardon my spelling).

a!
 
New Icons

I saw that there were mixed feelings about the new green itunes icon. I changed the color on the icons and hopefully will be posted on http://www.xicons.com very soon! Check there over the next day or 3! There are 14 different colors of musical notes in all!

itunes.jpg
 
Sorry, man, I'm not a SpyMac member, and the picture is telling me that it's for SpyMac members only.

Personally I have no interest in being a member of a site that seems to have such a high percentage of ignorant ***holes in their forums, but that's just my personal opinion. Not to say there aren't good people there, but, man, I just can't stand reading their threads. I would spend way too much time responding to people's b******t.
 
I just bought a new 15 GB iPod and downloaded musicmatch for the first time (I have always used winamp). This software is terrible! No, I do not want to upgrade to the plus version or buy any other upgrades! I click on shoutcast links and musicmatch tries to play it but ultimately fails. I'm going to stick with my pc until the 970s come out, so I would really love a windows version of iTunes. Is anyone making an iPod plugin for winamp3?
 
Re: Better be soon

Originally posted by pudrik

Apple better get off their butts and get this out by the end of the summer, not the end of the year, or their system will be copied (although probably not well). Like we saw with the iPod, TiBook, etc., it doesn't take long for the PC world to come up with cheap knock-offs of Apple designs, and those were hardware. Rhapsody need only eliminate their subscription service and team up with MS to implement a DRM solution similar to Apple's, and the opportunity is lost.
Click to expand...
Alternatively they could realise who pays their bills and make it work for international mac users first rather than US windows users who don't give a damn.
 
Originally posted by AndrewMT
I just bought a new 15 GB iPod and downloaded musicmatch for the first time (I have always used winamp). This software is terrible! No, I do not want to upgrade to the plus version or buy any other upgrades! I click on shoutcast links and musicmatch tries to play it but ultimately fails. I'm going to stick with my pc until the 970s come out, so I would really love a windows version of iTunes. Is anyone making an iPod plugin for winamp3?
Click to expand...

You need Ephpod (www.ephpod.com). It's far from perfect, but it's very usable, fast, and actually works unlike Music Match.

<edit: oh...and free>
 
Re: Re: Better be soon

Originally posted by caveman_uk
Alternatively they could realise who pays their bills and make it work for international mac users first rather than US windows users who don't give a damn.
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Hey, I'm in the US and I am totally feeling you on this. I feel really bad for you guys. But according to Apple it is not their fault, it is with the reord companies.

Remember that the Big 5 still have control over how the music is distributed. If they don't want it done in Europe yet for whatever (control) reason then Apple can't release to Europe. And I don't think it's because they don't want to.

Not that I think Sherlock not working in Europe is anyone's fault but Apple's for not reaching deals with the content providers (and publishers) necessary -- they've certainly had enough time. I just don't think it's the same case here.

From the tone of things I don't think it will stay this way for long. I just really look at this first offering as testing the waters to see if the service is meeting the control standards the record companies want. But I could be wrong.
 
hoax

That job posting is a hoax.

First of all there 😀 grammer is incorrect, "Must be possess..."? Come on, No HR department would let that get posted, especially not apple.

Secondly, apple has this little site thing called http://jobs.apple.com where basically they have an endless number of programmers and the like sending them resumes everyday. They have no need to post it on Monster.com


Just my thoughts on the matter though, however I do think Apple would be stupid if they didn't expand the Apple Music store, and thus iTunes, to Windows. The music industry and most importantly Apple could make a killing with it. I'm also sure the music industry only signed the deal with Apple on the basis that they expand it to the Windows Platform as well. 🙂 😉
 
Re: hoax

Originally posted by w3source
That job posting is a hoax.

First of all there 😀 grammer is incorrect, "Must be possess..."? Come on, No HR department would let that get posted, especially not apple.

Secondly, apple has this little site thing called http://jobs.apple.com where basically they have an endless number of programmers and the like sending them resumes everyday. They have no need to post it on Monster.com
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The Monster.com one (if one exists) might be fake - but the one on the link you posted (jobs.apple.com) is real. (It also does not contain the gramitcal error mentioned - maybe they fixed it?)
 
For those who think this is a bad idea, it all comes down to economics. Macs make under 10% of personal computers. That means like it or not over 90% of computers run windows. Mac users might make it possible for Apple to break even on this music store, but to make any real money, you're going to need the windows crowd. It might not be preferred that that windows get things like iTunes, the iTunes music store, and the iPod, but Apple is a business and is therefore out to make money. The more money Apple makes, the more cool inovations they can get into OSX (they can start by making universal joystick drivers). It's not like they're porting all of OSX over to Windows anyway. iTunes is required to port over to Windows, the rest of the iApps Windows is not getting.
 
I have to say that I'm baffled as to why anyone would give this a negative rating.....

Do people think that Apple will make money on:-

(a) Only ~ 5% market share or so, of which,

(b) Not everyone will upgrade to iTunes4, and,

(c) Of those who do, not everyone will actually buy music.....

They NEED as many Windows users as possible.

And, a lot of Win people are gonna look at iTunes and think - 'well, this app is pretty cool. WOnder what else this company makes. Hmmm......iMovie.....iPhoto. Those are cool, but I have to buy a Mac to use them,'

And some will.
 
The music files will still be AAC format. Does this mean that only Quicktime will open them even on the windows side?
 
Re: Re: Better be soon

Originally posted by caveman_uk
Alternatively they could realise who pays their bills and make it work for international mac users first rather than US windows users who don't give a damn.
Click to expand...

The issue is not technical. It has something to do with the licensing agreement with the record companies. Can't remember if I read that in one of the articles or Steve said it in the presentation.
 
Apple really should release a version of iTunes for the PC just to show people a glimplse of the Apple Magic. I have been using MP3's on my PC for almost five years and I had to stop simply because I finally got fed up with the software outhere. Some of it is really good in concept, but it either could not handle 3000 files well, or it crahsed all the time, or was a big resource hog.

The best solution I came up with was connecting my iBook to my PC and using iTunes over a wireless network to play music. This worked really well and I had no problems at all. Well than the girlfriend moved in and kind of took the iBook over, so I am back to just using my PC.

So please release a version of iTunes to show the windows people how easy computing can be. I was able to snatch the iBook for a short period of time and check out the iTunes Music Store. I was just blown away by how easy and seemless it was. It felt like I was just browsing my libaray, not searching though an online music database.

You do not need to switch over any of the other iApps. Switch iTunes over because it shows the windows world what apple can do, but much more importantly it is the only iApp at the moment that will mean reoccuring income. Apple will give you iTunes but they make their money on downloades.
 
Originally posted by kcmac
The music files will still be AAC format. Does this mean that only Quicktime will open them even on the windows side?
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Or any other AAC reader, of which there are probably few at the moment, but the number should exponentially grow soon.
 
Re: What will the skin be like ?

Originally posted by Maxx Power
Anyone thought of what the skin maybe like for iTunes for windows ? Just a thought.
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Apple can keep their iApp brushed metallic look and just put the XP widgets on it. They'd be hip to stick to the look and feel of XP, show the PC folks how a proper XP application should look. Do it up right... - j
 
Re: The real hook...

Originally posted by jayscheuerle
Will it be a free download?
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Doubt it. Apple doesn't do much for the world outside of macs for free, save for quicktime, just because it's a standard.
 
Re: Re: The real hook...

Originally posted by Mudbug
Doubt it. Apple doesn't do much for the world outside of macs for free, save for quicktime, just because it's a standard.
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I'm not sure. The lure is not the mp3 player. They're a dime a dozen. The lure is access to the music service, which I'm guessing Apple is making some kind of cut on.

If music is the crack, then Apple will give the pipe away for free... - j
 
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