iTunes 6.0 Sucks

I haven't upgraded to iTunes 6.0 because there is no way (other than burning to CD and re-ripping) to remove the new version of Apple's Fairplay DRM (talk about an oxymoron, there is nothing fair about limiting my ability to play my music anywhere I want).

For example, I cannot play music with Apple's Fairplay DRM on my audiorequest music servers.  That right there is a non-starter for me.

With iTunes 5 and before, you could simply run the JHymn application to remove the DRM and that worked fine for me.  But it seems that JHymn doesn't work on the new Fairplay DRM and nobody has figured out how to crack it yet.

I will not buy music that I cannot remove the DRM from.  And so I have not upgraded to iTunes 6 and I won't buy music that can only be purchased from iTunes 6.

So I am back to buying CDs.  Which sucks.  I hate the fucking music industry!!!

Comments

[Cem Sertoglu]

Is there still a way to download iTunes5?

[james governor]

use emusic. no DRM, they compensate the artists, and there is a ton of old crap there from the 80s and 90s that you forgot about but will make your life much better. they are fairly well served with the bloc parties and so on of this world. its a long tail collection. the day when they announced the entire 4AD back catalog was a great moment. plenty of other great stuff there.

[Pierre]

Considering your music tastes and particularly your attraction for the so-called Indie Pop Rock category (which I greatly share), why you don't give eMusic a try? http://www.emusic.com

Great catalog for my taste (just bought a very nice Stereolab Live album), very affordable monthly fee (less than 25c/song, beat that iTunes) and best of all, basic no-DRM MP3 format.

[hank williams]

Yeah, I am fairly sympathetic with the music industry on a number of issues, like the impact of the file sharing networks, but DRM has never made any sense to me.

Given that the primary way of selling has no protection, why put protection into downloads. Of course they argue that they are trying to put drm into cds, which is dumb, and impossible without making the cds more broadly unreadable.

What they refuse to accept is that the drm cat was out of the bag in the early 80's when they introduced fully unprotected cds, and not only can you not put the cat back in the bag, the cat is in another county by now.

At this point 20+ years later, its time to stop searching for and grieving over pussy. The frigin cat is gone and all they are doing is frustrating paying customers.

[shannon palmer]

don't forget sites like epitonic.com, insound.com, download.com and so on for all of the nice free music. And of course all of the amazing mp3 blogs that are cropping up. You probably already use these, but I just had to mention them because as far as I'm concerned, it's sites like that that make the internet such a lovely thing. I dream of a day that the music industry is wiped out completely. I may be deluding myself, but I have to hope for it anyway.

[David Niederman]

Fred-
You may also want to check out allofmp3.com. Very very cheap drm-free downloads in a variety of formats.
Cheers-

-David

[Jason Chervokas]

I continue to be amazed that Apple has such a great reputation among its consumers. This has always been one of the LEAST consumer friendly companies I have ever seen--roping consumers into proprietary hardware rather than allowing competition has always meant that Mac PCs have been more expensive per computing cycle than Wintel machines, the crap they pulled w/ the planned obsolescence on the iPods bordered on criminal, their insistence on across the board flat $1 pricing on iTunes means all the great back catalog languishes (other posters are right, emusic is great, particularly if, like me, you enjoy old time music). Apple makes great technology--their audio compression scheme is the best sounding out there--but if you're a consumer, they're your enemy not your friend.

I just bit the bullet and bought an MP3 player because I've been commuting by train again. But I bought a creative device specifically because I did not want to be forced to use iTunes.

[brian breslin]

i don't know how legal this is, but allofmp3.com sells un-DRM music. they are based in russia though.

[David B.]

I had been holding on to my iTunes version 4.7 for these very same reasons, but had to recently upgrade to 6.0 for my new Nano to work. I am angered that I was forced into this new version, too. So I share your sentiment – I’ve continued to purchase physical CDs for my music, which just seems backwards to me.

[Rob Poitras]

Why not buy a itunes track/cd then burn it to cd then import it as an mp3?

[Anona]

"iTunes 6.0 Sucks"

You really have to think through and identify what really sucks.

iTunes does NOT suck because it can play back non-DRM music just fine: so it's NOT the application that sucks.

Apple does NOT suck because they don't own the music/IP rights they are selling at iTMS.

Don't blame the music industry either because you support them by buying their legacy format CDs. What message are you really sending the music industry by buying CDs instead of downloading from iTMS?

[rahmin sarabi]

If you don't mind getting your music from a "less-than-legal" operation, try out www.allofmp3.com . This is a russian site that has a decent catalog, compresses the files at the bit-rate of your choice (including lossless), and charges on a per bandwidth basis. Cds typically end up costing around ~ $2.

enjoy.

[jackson]

Hmmmmm. So much I COULD say, but I know that you know how I see it.

Better, stronger, faster, more frustrating, less value...ect.

Liner Notes, Liner notes, my kingdom for Liner Notes!

[David Hambric]

I'll be honest with you, I like iTunes 6.0: I absolutely HATE the fact that Apple and the major record labels are allowed to decided which legal activites I can engage in and which equally legal activities I should be barred from.

I think the likelihood for an update to the JHymn application is remote since the guy is now on US soil and could face serious legal troubles if he does an update, if my understanding of the circs is correct. Unfortunately, as many (more each day) know, once you go 6.0 you'll never (be able) to go back (and strip out the DRM). But for what it is meant to do, 6.0 is a good program. We just need to convince the guy to sneek back home and send out an update!

[Tony Alva]

My CD's seem to work pretty well in my players without all this aggravation.

Serenity now, serenity now,...

[Gadge]

We still don't buy music from iTunes as there is only one option for bit rate. We use CD's @ a 256 bit rate. They just sound better.
Plus you can do what you want with them, trade them in when you're bored with the music. You can't do that with a download.

[Sam DeRenzis]

I've just begun purchasing music using iTunes 6.0, that's before I knew the DRM wasn't removable from the audio downloads. In all honesty there is only 1 thing I'm annoyed with, 1 thing that makes me upset with Apple. From what I gather the m4p format is simply far superior to that of mp3's so I'm willing to pay for the songs. Apple is stupid though because if there isn't anyway of saving the keys you need to authorize your playback then what happens if their servers suddenly fail, are hacked, or they go bankrupt!

I'd have 103 songs with encryption and no real way of playing them!

So that's the only actual issue I have with Apple. Their implementation of the authorization processing is simply flawed. Eventually the servers they have will fail or someone will delete the information on your account, then you're screwed!

Apple get a brain and find a better way around this problem, I'm willing to play my music using your iTunes, QuickTime apps but I don't want to worry when you go out of business or loose your servers!

[Uiop]

I agree.
Plus there are plenty of free tools to manage your iPod without iTunes.
Check this out http://ipodmanagers.blogspot.com/