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Originally posted by jettredmont
Now come on. You've seen the Bible-thumpers wailing in protest over Harry Potter. Do you think they'd let an Evil Computer with a "Hexium" gain influence over their weak-minded children?

And don't forget the stink over Apple's promoting of 'Darwin'.
 
Apple has the advantage:

THEY HAVE THE iPOD!

Apple is the clear winner. The iPod has name recognition. People own iPods. Lots of people. Infinitely more than the Dell player (since as I'm aware, has not been released yet).

People want to have a music library at their fingertips that they can play wherever they are. This is why people like car steroes! Wow, talk about an old technology!

Ultimately, it comes down to the player. Unless someone can come out with an extremely cheap, sexy music player, which Apple is the current winner in, Apple will remain the heavy-weight (or perhaps I should say "light-weight") champion.

a) AAC isn't playable in WMP
b) The iPod doesn't like WMA
c) People own iPods mainly because of mp3s

So, Apple has truly lucked out as every player is trying to find a new format. By getting the iPod out and about, the release of iTunes and the iTMS will be like GOLD.
 
Lets wait for the number

I would like to see the news in a week or two about how great or bad is this music store, for been comparable it must be about 9 times as the itunes (for the rest of the 95%),

I dont think apple feel presure to support Windows media format since is the competition and the ipod will always be the best of mp3 players

About standards I dont know why many people look at windows media as the best, long before I buy my first mac I have always feel quicktime was easier and with more features than the competition and you can use it for different kinds of presentations (in-demand, broadcast, etc.)

I love my ibook, I love my ipod, I love itunes, I cant wait any more to my powerbook 15 to arrive, well we mac users will always love and support the people we trust this is something no other computer brand have.

Any way apple sure la unch itunes for windows in october before others try to copy again
 
You have to remember that Microsoft wrote the DRM, so there is a good chance that it will be hacked eventually.

Just think of the RIAA's reaction when people can share their "protected" music with anyone they want!

Of course this would probably be bad for iTunes as well.

Just a thought :p
 
Has there been a firm release date yet? Will it be at the late October event?

We need a countdown!
 
Re: Competition is a good thing

Originally posted by Sol
If that is true then can Windows users should be able to play AAC files on their computers

NO they cannot. AFAIK.

We are talking about protected AAC, which is a propietary format and the only format iTMS provides, which is only compatible with one portable, Apple's, and they will have to wait until Apple releases iTunes for windows as sole software compatible with that format.

80 negatives votes against 15 postive ones on an initiative to give more choice to the people besides Apple's one, which clearly wants to block any third party to mess with its business.

That attittude reminds me of a word describing an attittude...
 
Re: Re: Music Match Downloads Announced

Originally posted by jettredmont
I may be wrong, but I see NO way to allow for relatively "unrestricted" usage using WMA without effectively skipping the DRM entirely.
And you know perfectly well that the labels won't allow it to happen.
 
I'm off to download and try the software right now. If I see ANY suspicious activity on my firewall or so much as a single pop-up from this software I'm done with the trial period. I've found more then a few "free" pieces of software have had strings attached in the way of spyware/adware.

[Update: Cute. Well first off before anything else it required a reboot after the software was installed. There are very few reasons to require a reboot now a day, The only reason is usually if you are dinking with the system and a music player shouldn't be doing this. Yes if I had a CD burner installed it might need its own drivers but I have no burner on this system and right now have no CD drive so it’s a moot point.
Secondly after a reboot the software came up and I scanned for the 3 songs I copied to my local HD. The software realized that the tags weren't up to date and suggested that I edit them. Going into the tag editor crashed the program. :( After closing the app and opening it again things "seem" (Note the "") normal. I might attribute this to Window blinds skinning. Some prog just do not like to be skinned.
I am somewhat amazed by the amount of bloat. MM like many other programs have TSR progs running in the background at startup allowing faster load times of the program. MM has 2 progs running mm_director and mm_tray. These 2 mini prog alone take up 7MB of RAM. Not a lot but considering I'm not even running MM at this point it’s a tad nuts. Upon opening the app it opens 2 more apps, mmjb.exe and mmdiag.exe bring the amount of used RAM to just a tad under 29MB. Now consider winamp at 5.7MB.
Besides that it seems like a decent player.
The coolest feature I've found so far is the ID tagging. Does iTunes have the ability to download tag info from just the file name? Because this is a KILLER APP reason for me to plunk down the cash for this app right now. I have literally thousands of MP3's that I've been going through and hand updating the tag info. If I can automate the process for 20 bucks I will. I'll play with this player over the next few day but I get the feeling I'm going to end up going back to Winamp.
As for the store experience and keeping in mind that I don't have a Mac yet so no "iTunes has that" bitching at me. I like the browsing by Era, and suggestions by what you already own. Its an interesting method. FYI it does ask your permission to scan your files on your system. I read someone was complaining about the default audio quality on the preview. Nit picking. The quality is OK, nothing fantastic and simply clicking the "Radio Quality" to CD it clears that problem up. This would be a very good feature for those on a dial up connection. All in all if Apple doesn't get their **** together soon iTunes for Windows could be dealt a large blow before its even released.
 
Originally posted by Dippo
You have to remember that Microsoft wrote the DRM, so there is a good chance that it will be hacked eventually.

Just think of the RIAA's reaction when people can share their "protected" music with anyone they want!

Of course this would probably be bad for iTunes as well.

Just a thought :p


FYI. Someone already broke the DRM5 encryption that was in their MS Reader E-Books. I think that was summer/fall of 02.

And honestly just because its a MS product doesn't mean its going to be hacked faster then anyone else's product. Look at DVD encryption? They originally said that was hack proof. Look at Sony's encrypted CD's. That was foiled with, of all things, a black magic marker. If Apple makes headway with iTunes for Windows I can bet you it will be cracked within a year or two. Its never a matter of if...but of when.
 
160k

Can anyone confirm that MusicMatch uses 160k WMA? I'm reluctant to try because I'm not interested in MusicMatch's player. But 160k WMA downloads might change my mind.

I hope there is a WMA codec upgrade for the iPod. If there isn't, I'll have to look at the Toshiba coming out. AAC is too limited, it's basically iPod/Quicktime and nothing else. I want a small keychain player for times I don't want to lug around the iPod and they're WMA/MP3, so all my iTunes purchases are worthless unless I re-encode from CD.

In addition, I think I'm going to buy myself a PocketPC phone this Christmas and if I can get a good number of MP3 or WMAs on it I can be with one DLDevice most of the time which is something I'm really shooting for.

I don't think there's really much competition between AAC and WMA. It's really not that close IMO. I hope Apple decides to entrench the iPod and the best player period, and not use it to try and push AAC, I don't think they can win. But the iPod can win the best player race.
 
so apparently

music match is not only going against apple's music store, it's also up against dell's music store.

considering apple and dell would be a big reason why people use music match in the first place, this will more likely than not be a big problem in the future.

if people have to download or (heaven forbid) pay for the app (assuming ipod and dell won't include a competitor software on their product), music match might find themselves less likely to draw people to their product.
 
Re: Re: Competition is a good thing

Originally posted by elmimmo
80 negatives votes against 15 postive ones on an initiative to give more choice to the people besides Apple's one, which clearly wants to block any third party to mess with its business.

What business is that? Last time I checked, Apple wasn't in the Windows music store business.

Nobody wants to "block any third parties to mess with its business". Right now, the iTMS only works with Macs, and the others only work with Windows. So they aren't really in competition. The negetive ratings are because what fundamentally has kept the Windows music stores from taking off is the super-restrictive DRM. Now that is gone. If Apple already had a Windows iTunes I would have no qualms. It would all be a level playing field. But Apple doesn't. So now all the PC knockoffs have a headstart at the customers. The formats are different and the media players can't play each other's files. So people aren't likely to use more than one service. It would either be a hassle launching different apps, or a waste of money rebuying tracks at different stores.

Apple is set to lose its chance at the online music biz on the PC side and the only reason that business really exists is because of Apple pioneering the non-subscription, liberal usage base.

And all this happens after Apple supposedly has been delayed because they couldn't get the record labels to agree to the same DRM standards for the PC they did for the Mac side originally. People were mad at the record labels, blaming their greed for the lack of an iTMS for Windows. We all thought iTunes for Windows was done but unreleased because of these issues. But now, the record labels have "suddenly" dropped the restrictions for MusicMatch AND BuyMusic.com. I doubt they would object to Apple's terms now. They did it to make it clear it was Apple's inability to get iTunes for Windows done that was the real reason we haven't seen it yet. Otherwise it would be out NOW.
 
Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Well first off before anything else it required a reboot after the software was installed. There are very few reasons to require a reboot now a day, The only reason is usually if you are dinking with the system and a music player shouldn't be doing this. Yes if I had a CD burner installed it might need its own drivers but I have no burner on this system and right now have no CD drive so it’s a moot point.

It still has to install files in case you hook up an external USB burner at some point like I do. Also, MusicMatch interfaces with the audio hardware without goig through the system. If I change my output source from the built in audio on my Dell to the USB audio device, I have to relaunch Jukebox to get it to see the change. Not so with other apps.

I am somewhat amazed by the amount of bloat. MM like many other programs have TSR progs running in the background at startup allowing faster load times of the program. MM has 2 progs running mm_director and mm_tray. These 2 mini prog alone take up 7MB of RAM. Not a lot but considering I'm not even running MM at this point it’s a tad nuts. Upon opening the app it opens 2 more apps, mmjb.exe and mmdiag.exe bring the amount of used RAM to just a tad under 29MB. Now consider winamp at 5.7MB.

mm_tray is the system tray icon thingamajig. You aren't required to run it, and I don't. I don't have the director thing running in my processes (I'm not running the current store-compatable version of MMJB, though). But I do have the mmdiag running. I think that a diagonstic/bug reporting system like Windows has for itself. Also, take into account MMJB has CD burning built in, something Winamp does not. So I have 19megs for MusicMatch and 3megs for the diagnostic (if that's what it is).

As for the store experience and keeping in mind that I don't have a Mac yet so no "iTunes has that" bitching at me. I like the browsing by Era, and suggestions by what you already own. Its an interesting method. FYI it does ask your permission to scan your files on your system. I read someone was complaining about the default audio quality on the preview. Nit picking. The quality is OK, nothing fantastic and simply clicking the "Radio Quality" to CD it clears that problem up. This would be a very good feature for those on a dial up connection. All in all if Apple doesn't get their **** together soon iTunes for Windows could be dealt a large blow before its even released.

I'd like to try the store, but I'm running MMJB version 7.5. They charge for each full version number and there's no upgrade path unless you pay double for a lifetime licence. I only bought the one time Plus licence ($20) and don't want to spend another twenty to try the store. If I try to upgrade the software it will take away my Plus registration and so far the store's the only reason I want to upgrade from 7.5. When I registered originally I figured iTunes from Windows would come out and I'd start using it since navigation was better.
 
Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Well first off before anything else it required a reboot after the software was installed. There are very few reasons to require a reboot now a day
Actually, it says that it does .. but it works just fine without one.
The coolest feature I've found so far is the ID tagging. Does iTunes have the ability to download tag info from just the file name? Because this is a KILLER APP reason for me to plunk down the cash for this app right now. I have literally thousands of MP3's that I've been going through and hand updating the tag info. If I can automate the process for 20 bucks I will.
Good catch.

One other thing that I noticed is that its very good at prompting you to actually download (and pay) for music. Being able to buy and save the currently playing radio track, for example, is a great piece of integration that Apple could do well to add into iTunes, where the radio doesn't seem to have much to do with the rest of it.

While its similar to iTunes in many ways, there are enough 2nd-mover features added that I don't think dismissing the client as a copy is really fair. Although, I've had it complain about script errors a couple of times too, which iTunes has yet to do...

-Richard
 
So, here's my worry with all of this:

MusicMatch uses WMA. I'm guessing that will basically be true for all music stores released from here on out besides the Apple iTunes music store. People here have argued that:

iPod is the most popular MP3 player, therefore, people won't download WMA files.

Hrm. To me, this could just as easily go the other way -- the iPod can be seen as a niche toy that only supports a proprietary format. (which, of course, isn't true -- WMA is the proprietary format, not AAC) If online music downloading becomes more popular and common through the us of these services, unless EVERYONE uses iTunes music store, people will be upset they can't play their songs on their iPod.. and I'm guessing they'll blame Apple for not supporting WMA, not the other way around.

Plus, another problem nobody has mentioned is: what can you use AAC with on a PC *besides* iTunes and QuickTime? Folks, if you're offered music stores that allow downloading of music that will work seamlessly in your home movies or your slideshows and even in your pro audio apps, vs. a format (AAC) that *only* plays in one particular MP3 player, you will clearly pick the first one. It's just common sense.

Basically, here's what Apple is offering to PC people: A cool MP3 app called iTunes and the ability to download music that will play within that app, burn to CDs, and work on the iPod. It will only work on the iPod, not any other MP3 players, and it will play on your computer, but only in Apple's own app. So, while some people may like iTunes, there are a lot of people who still want to use their favorite MP3 program, and the fact that iTMS only uses AAC may be enough for people to steer clear of it entirely on the PC side.

I don't think we'll be seeing 9 times the sales when Apple releases iTMS for Windows, unless they've got something clever up their sleeves... I'm just worried we'll see the downfall in popularity of the iPod and the downfall in popularity of AAC. But I'd love to be proved wrong.

Here's to hoping iTMS for Windows is taking a long time to be released because they've got something new in "store" for us... (haha, sorry, I couldn't resist)
 
Close but no banana

There is some massively twitchy things about the UI. The forward and back buttons that allow you to move back a page. I've had some funky experiences with it. Example. I did a search for Fast and the Furious. I have the first CD but want to get the music from the second one. I do a search. Click on the album. The site basically tells me they don't have it yet. This in and of itself I don't like. MM has albums listed that they don't even have yet. (Another example is Underworld.) Only after you click on them do you find this out. Massive waste of time and more likely then not to piss someone off. Why even include it if you don't have it?!?!
The problem starts when you go back. First off you have to double click back because of how it displays titles/tracks it doesn't have yet. It quickly renders the top half of the page that displays the title and then renders the bottom half that doesn't display anything. This has the effect of making the back button think it's rendered 2 pages and I suppose it has.

Also you can't go back to the results from your search. It clears that out. And even better it occasionally resets the dropdown field that allows you to select Artist, album, track back to artist even though your previous selection was Album. Even when it doesn't reset itself and stays on album when you click search again it acts like the selection was artist and returns results sorted by artist. Apparently the search bar is also part of the internal web interface. I'm not a fan of this. IMHO the search bar should be outside the web interface and the results should be web based. I suppose it makes the UI easier to upgrade in the future but its still somewhat a sketchy method of doing it.
Speed. I have broadband. I've browsed the site occasionally between 12AM CST today and 11PM CST today. The speed is relatively the same: Somewhat slow for previews. Maybe 5-10 seconds? And page renderings. Heh. Also a good 5-10 seconds. I suppose they could be getting slapped around with new users. What really sucks is that there is no throbber. No method of seeing that its attempting to render the page. So I end up sitting there wondering if the its doing its thing or not. All in all it’s a good first attempt. There IS some cleanup that needs to be done. Its not perfect but from comments I've read from the various boards neither is iTunes. Playing with a friend iBook and iTMS I think the interface between the player and the store is a bit more consistent then MM. The MMS has the definite feel of a rushed product. I think there is going to be some major tweaking to the site and the UI before the end of the year. Honestly I did expect this. I've never been all that impressed with MM. Their software has always been slow, clunky, and a PITA to use. This version of the MM player is a major upgrade. Thank god they got rid of the damn metallic skin and went with this toned down version. I think for the time being I'll use MM as my main player. The question I have is should I shell out 20 when I know iTunes for Windows is coming out. As I mentioned before I like the super tagging utility that comes with this software. Unfortunately in typical Apple style we don't have a clue when and what is going to be released for windows. No features no nothing. So I may just go ahead and grab the plus version.

PS- Another thing I noted.
*FREE CD-quality radio available for a limited time.
get it while you can folks. I wonder how much they are going to charge per month for this service?
 
Re: Close but no banana

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
I did a search for Fast and the Furious. I have the first CD but want to get the music from the second one. I do a search. Click on the album. The site basically tells me they don't have it yet. This in and of itself I don't like. MM has albums listed that they don't even have yet. (Another example is Underworld.) Only after you click on them do you find this out. Massive waste of time and more likely then not to piss someone off. Why even include it if you don't have it?!?!

Because then they have the appearance of having more music than they really have. When they have 500,000 songs by the end of the year like they claim, who's going to go try to download all of them to make sure it's true.

I bet if you email them asking how big a percentage of their catalog is not available, you'll get the same response I got when I emailed BuyMusic asking for the names of a few artists with songs for 79 cents. They gave me instructions how to search for an artist by name.

I've never been all that impressed with MM. Their software has always been slow, clunky, and a PITA to use. This version of the MM player is a major upgrade. Thank god they got rid of the damn metallic skin and went with this toned down version.

Haha. That was the main reason I used Winamp on my mom's PC years ago. The metalic skin on MusicMatch was so butt-ugly I couldn't stand it.
 
Ummm this sucks.

Ugh. That's annoying at heck. I was listening to an alternative music station and heard something I liked. I clicked on add to wish list. A few minutes ago I decided to make an initial test purchase to see how well the process goes. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out that to get to my wish list I have to start up a radio station then in the track listing right click and select view wish list. Crappy logic there. I went to download White Wings and low and behold [see image below]
I can guarantee you this is going to piss off A LOT of people. I know I am. I was expecting something that I added to my wishlist to be available for D/Ling. Sorry but this music store sucks. If I can't guarantee that what I add to my wishlist or what comes back from a search is actually available what's the point other then wasting my time? :mad:
 

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Re: Ummm this sucks.

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
I can guarantee you this is going to piss off A LOT of people. I know I am. I was expecting something that I added to my wishlist to be available for D/Ling. Sorry but this music store sucks. If I can't guarantee that what I add to my wishlist or what comes back from a search is actually available what's the point other then wasting my time? :mad:

They're Windows users. Sadly, they're used to it.

But Apple will probably still win.
 
Originally posted by MacFan26
When the iTMS is released for Windows, will it be running through the Music Match software, or will there be a complete verision of iTunes for Windows users? (sorry if this has already been posted)
There will be a iTunes for Windows, IIRC.
 
Originally posted by tizza
This is the crazy thing about standards like mpeg4 (aac) when you have a big player like MS - they can come up with their own format and then, simply because of their size, more people will end up using their format rather than the latest standard!! Crazy!!
It's not because because of MS's size (even though that stems from it), but because when the MP4 consortium announced their licensing terms, MS decided that THEIR licensing terms should be almost NIL. It's called 'dumping' when Japanese carmakers do it to the US market, but it's called 'normal business practice' when MS does it...

Oh well.
 
Originally posted by NicoMan
It's not because because of MS's size (even though that stems from it), but because when the MP4 consortium announced their licensing terms, MS decided that THEIR licensing terms should be almost NIL. It's called 'dumping' when Japanese carmakers do it to the US market, but it's called 'normal business practice' when MS does it...

Oh well.

No. Dumping is having drastic price differences between the products originating country and the rest of the world or region. So, as an example, if Sony sells their PS2 for $500 American in Japan and then drops the price to $300 American here in the US that is what dumping is. (FYI Nintendo charged Sony with just that, Or maybe it was the reverse. Its been a while.) In the case of MS they are charging next to nothing across the board.
 
Music Match is a bloated disaster, and I'm not interested in buying *any* music that has DRM. I have 30 year old records, who wants to wager on how many DRM protected WMAs (or even AACs) are going to be around in that long? That combined with the recent studies that CDR media lasts only a couple of years in most cases and we're all getting screwed.

fraeone
 
Originally posted by SiliconAddict
No. Dumping is having drastic price differences between the products originating country and the rest of the world or region. So, as an example, if Sony sells their PS2 for $500 American in Japan and then drops the price to $300 American here in the US that is what dumping is. (FYI Nintendo charged Sony with just that, Or maybe it was the reverse. Its been a while.) In the case of MS they are charging next to nothing across the board.

I don't think anyone overseas would complain if Apple started dumping Macs :)
 
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