What's wrong with the iPod?

[unixronin]

What's wrong with the iPod?

Here's one opinion, and he makes a lot of good points.  Frankly, I'm with him -- yeah, so Apple even gives away free music on iTunes.com .... so what?  If I've got to install iTunes to be able to get it and can then only play it through iTunes, I don't want it.  I'd rather buy the CD and make my own MP3 that I can play however, wherever and whenever I want, than get the song for free and accept the restrictions that come with it.

Comments

[mrfy.livejournal.com]

I disagree with him on a number of points. It is possible to use an iPod without ever buying anything from the iTunes Music Store. It's also possible to use iTunes and music from the store without owning an iPod. I think a lot of people get confused about this.

There are now a number of 3rd party utilities to move music on and off the iPod, without using iTunes. I'm sure Apple frowns on this, but people have found ways around it.

He is also disappointed about the restrictions placed on music you get from the store. Unfortunately, Apple had to compromise with the music industry to get what they have now (music you buy from them has the DRM bits added, so you're restricted to storing it on 3 computers maximum). I think that's a decent limit.

I've also found the AAC format to be quite nice, as it is better quality at 128k than MP3 is at 192k. If you rip cds into AAC, the DRM isn't part of the files. DRM is only added on songs that you get from the iTunes store. Almost all of the music in my iTunes library and on my iPod are from digitizing cds that I own into the AAC format. There are no restrictions on the use of those files. (Except of course that you'd need a player that could handle the AAC format.) I've bought only one album from the iTunes store.

The iPod is certainly not perfect, in fact mine sometimes doesn't respond to button presses. It does do what I want, that is, store a good chunk of my music library and play music while I'm on the go.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I didn't think he was saying that you can't use iTunes without an iPod, or that you can't use an iPod without buying your music through the iTunes store.

AAC may be better at 128K than MP3 at 192K ... but I don't use flat-bitrate MP3s anyway. I record at 64-320K VBR, and I get bigger files for it, but they sound (on computer speakers, at least, and not cheap ones at that) indistinguishable to my ear from the original CD.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I meant to add "...while still taking ten times less space than the raw CDDA."