iTunes: Don't leave home with them

[Asher]

You can use any Media Player in Windows as long as you've installed the WM9 codecs (which are free).

Plus if all ipods can be update via software to handle AAC files shouldn't other players be able to as well?

It wouldn't matter, as Apple's version of AAC has proprietary DRM.

[CivPatriot]

I'll conceed the point on only iPods working with music bought from the iTunes Music store.

And I also take back the point on the OS I misread something(still PC onlt thought, so both of the music systems don't directly compete, yet).
The one reason that i enjoy the music store is not having to worry about varying DRM amoung the labels, its the same all around.

Plus the nice thing about the itunes music store is that it is ridicously easy to remove the DRM(just burn them as an Mp3 cd or an audio CD and they are gone, free to work on any player, any system, any time, plus then you can share them amoung all the computers on your LAN. I'm not sure about how easiley it is to do that with buymusic.

[Asher]

Originally posted by CivPatriot
The one reason that i enjoy the music store is not having to worry about varying DRM amoung the labels, its the same all around.

It's not like it's a big deal, they're clearly marked at the top of every page for BuyMusic's stuff.

Plus the nice thing about the itunes music store is that it is ridicously easy to remove the DRM(just burn them as an Mp3 cd or an audio CD and they are gone, free to work on any player, any system, any time, plus then you can share them amoung all the computers on your LAN. I'm not sure about how easiley it is to do that with buymusic.

You could do that with WMA protected files, too. Or just run them through the de-DRM tools which strip DRMs from the files.

[CivPatriot]

The more i look at both, the more i see that they are virtually identical, except in price(which i will openly admit is one of Apple's weak points). You do have two different formats(AAC vs WMA), the difference in audio quality i'm too uneducated to argue about(or to really know about the quality of the two).

I suppose the difference comes down to which player you use(iPod vs every one else, and the iPod is the main player in this market) and if you like WMP(i never have liked its interface personally) or itunes(love it and most people i've known who've seen it or used it does too). There is one additional thing you must have in order to play AAC with itunes, Quicktime 6.2.

In the end, I hope that when the two stores go head to head, the winner will be the consumer. Apple's shown the way, others like buymusic are following, I hope to see prices drop as the two compete(along with the other new stores, but I think these will be the two that are going to fight it out).

one last question, how good are the download speeds off of buymusic? I know that off of the apple store they are extremly fast(as fast as my wifi will keep up).

[Asher]

I don't know about BuyMusic's download speeds, their website loads instantly for me so that's a good sign.

As for WMP -- you don't need to use WMP. It's just listed as a requirement because when you install WMP9, it installs the Windows Media 9 codecs on your system.

You can use any media player you want that uses DirectShow to play it (Winamp, foobar, etc).

[mrmitchell]

I'll bet the policy is sleazy industry-boss idea, not Apple idea.

Which is why Apple needs to go back to those "**** RIAA"-type actions like the rest of the computer world is doing, instead of being cowards and giving in.

[CivPatriot]

Asher,
thanks for letting me know about the players that you can use, in my haste, i guess overlooked it.

mrm,
apple is trying to hold their own against the record companies, this is the reason that several major artist(Foo Fighters, Metallica) have refuse to sign and use the system, because Apple is demanding that every one have the same rights(all artists get the same deal), and that's not sitting well with the artists and the companties. Honestly, i'm will not be surprised if the Music labels push apple for more restrictive DRM when they put iTunes Music store out for windows. Hopefully people like buymusic and Apple with hold their ground.

[Drake Tungsten]

I'll let you all know if this is true in a week or so.

[Boris Godunov]

You don't believe it when Apple explicitley says it?

[Panag]

[Buck Birdseed]

So why don't MP3 players support Ogg Vorbis? Much better than any competing standard.

[Asher]

Because until very recently, they required a floating-point unit decode, and every MP3 player on the market uses far-cheaper integer units.

Plus I don't think Ogg is better than either WMA9 or AAC, but it is really good.

[yavoon]

these things won't be that succesful because u have to goto the record companies through legal channels. and the record industry has a baseball bat up their ass about all of this.

[Drake Tungsten]

You don't believe it when Apple explicitley says it?

I don't believe it when Asher says it, no. I think he's seriously overstating the problem. If my files disappear when I get off the plane in Japan, I'll let you know.

[mrmitchell]

Originally posted by panag

Panag, you look sleepy. Do you need some coffee or anything? (Or, considering time zones in Belgium Israel, do you need to go to bed?)