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iTunes we hardly knew ye


PhonoBrainer

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1 hour ago, emeraldsoul said:

Where will the kids not go when they don't want to buy our mp3's?

 

 

Who are these kids you speak of, and whose mp3 are they buying?  I can't even get my Mother to listen to my music let alone my friends buying it. 

But since you asked, I will say that they will go to Djibouti, East Africa, to pound salt at Lake Assal.

 

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I never liked iTunes, and as soon as I could buy MP3s at Amazon and other places, I deleted iTunes. So R.I.P. iTunes, you've gons the way of Netscape, Real Audio, and so many other things that have made the Internet what it is today. Thanks for your service.

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I still haven't paid for an Mp3. I only buy physical media. 

If you're only holding a license for a song, such as iTunes, etc., then you can't pass it on. When you die, they delete your account. Same goes for digital book libraries.

Also, looking at album covers while you listen is awesome.

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18 hours ago, Resonant Serpent said:

Also, looking at album covers while you listen is awesome.

You still do that? Like sitting "Indian style" on the floor or in the middle of your bed w/ headphones on staring at the album art as the *whole* album plays, not just that one song? 

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18 hours ago, Resonant Serpent said:

I still haven't paid for an Mp3. I only buy physical media. 

If you're only holding a license for a song, such as iTunes, etc., then you can't pass it on. When you die, they delete your account. Same goes for digital book libraries.

Also, looking at album covers while you listen is awesome.

I only buy them for 2 reasons (1) a song I need to learn and don't want to buy the entire album or (2) something I want that can't be found on physical media anymore.

I'd much rather buy a CD and have it for keeps,

Insights and incites by Notes

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Bandcamp seems to make so much sense.  HQ downloads (WAV, FLAC and higher bit-rate MP3) plus providing a outlet for smaller artists to sell physical products.  I normally buy CD's but I also buy from Bandcamp. I understand the return to the artist is one of the best.

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When I was young I had over 2,000 records.  They took up a LOT of room!  After literally listening to my first CD I sold all my records and began collecting CD's (often 100 at a time to get killer discounts).  I don't even remember how many thousands of CD's I eventually ended up with.  They took up even more room!  I used to have four of those Sony CD jukeboxes for the 1,400 CD's I wanted to listen to the most (LOL!).  I had two 400's and two 300's.

Once iTunes (the jukebox app) came around, I began ripping the CD's to disk.  I had an external bay with four 250 GB hard drives in it (the largest I could find at the time), but it didn't take long to fill it using .WAV files and I still had thousands of CD's still to go.  I also bought iPods as they came out working my way from a 40 GB (now dead), to two 60 GB ones (I have one and I put a bunch of music on the other for my Mother), an 80 GB and, finally, a 160 GB.  I still use one of the 60's, the 80 GB and the 160 GB iPods all the time, however, I really needed to put a smaller format on them so I did a test.  Back in 2003, I played .mp3's of a few songs at various resolutions on a $4,000 stereo system.  128 kbps and 160 kbps sucked but, once I got to 192 kbps, I couldn't hear anything different as I went higher.  So I settled on 192 kbps for everything.  It took months to rip everything to disk (I converted the previously ripped wave files to .mp3 first).  iTunes basically became useless after about 30,000 songs so I switched to Media Monkey which was designed for large collections.  Then it took even more months to import almost 200,000 songs into it (I'm very OCD about all the organizing and tagging).  I can import between 1,000 and 1,500 tracks in an 8-hour period (between the actual importing and my fixing the tags which includes researching genres, subgenres, correct release years, song titles and special extras like identifying live, demo, bonus and special tracks, etc.).  I still have about 150,000 tracks still to import!

Oh, and when I lost almost everything back in the 2009 "Credit Crunch", I had to give all of the CD's away.  That sucked.  So I'm glad I had something on disk to listen to because music is almost always playing while I work (and when I'm not!).  Now, when I buy new stuff (which I'm still doing all the time - heh!), I either get it on Amazon or from Bandcamp.  I have NO idea how much I've spent on buying music over my lifetime, but I know I've spent well over $40,000 just on the CD's from back when I kept track! 🙂

Edited by craigb
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I have many hundreds of CDs, many hundreds of LPs, and hundreds of purchased downloads that I burn to more permanent media. I am a career musician, and music is a huge part of my life.

I have a digital Walkman that I play in the car, it has over 10,000 songs on it, culled from my collection, and it doesn't include the hundreds of symphonies that I also have (they are too long for car trips, I'd spend 40 driveway minutes waiting for one to finish).

I don't like Apple or anyone else having control of my files. Streaming is OK to listen to like radio to discover new things, but when I hear something I want, I'll buy it so that I can hear it when I want. I'll also save it in multiple formats so I can listen to it where I want as well.

I have no use for iTunes. I do hope that Apple has the foresight to allow you to be able to keep the music you bought and saved in iTunes. I can't see them doing it any other way, it would be bad business practices.

Insights and incites by Notes

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On 6/5/2019 at 8:31 PM, craigb said:

When I was young I had over 2,000 records.  They took up a LOT of room!  After literally listening to my first CD I sold all my records and began collecting CD's (often 100 at a time to get killer discounts).  I don't even remember how many thousands of CD's I eventually ended up with.  They took up even more room!  I used to have four of those Sony CD jukeboxes for the 1,400 CD's I wanted to listen to the most (LOL!).  I had two 400's and two 300's.

Once iTunes (the jukebox app) came around, I began ripping the CD's to disk.  I had an external bay with four 250 GB hard drives in it (the largest I could find at the time), but it didn't take long to fill it using .WAV files and I still had thousands of CD's still to go.  I also bought iPods as they came out working my way from a 40 GB (now dead), to two 60 GB ones (I have one and I put a bunch of music on the other for my Mother), an 80 GB and, finally, a 160 GB.  I still use one of the 60's, the 80 GB and the 160 GB iPods all the time, however, I really needed to put a smaller format on them so I did a test.  Back in 2003, I played .mp3's of a few songs at various resolutions on a $4,000 stereo system.  128 kbps and 160 kbps sucked but, once I got to 192 kbps, I couldn't hear anything different as I went higher.  So I settled on 192 kbps for everything.  It took months to rip everything to disk (I converted the previously ripped wave files to .mp3 first).  iTunes basically became useless after about 30,000 songs so I switched to Media Monkey which was designed for large collections.  Then it took even more months to import almost 200,000 songs into it (I'm very OCD about all the organizing and tagging).  I can import between 1,000 and 1,500 tracks in an 8-hour period (between the actual importing and my fixing the tags which includes researching genres, subgenres, correct release years, song titles and special extras like identifying live, demo, bonus and special tracks, etc.).  I still have about 150,000 tracks still to import!

Oh, and when I lost almost everything back in the 2009 "Credit Crunch", I had to give all of the CD's away.  That sucked.  So I'm glad I had something on disk to listen to because music is almost always playing while I work (and when I'm not!).  Now, when I buy new stuff (which I'm still doing all the time - heh!), I either get it on Amazon or from Bandcamp.  I have NO idea how much I've spent on buying music over my lifetime, but I know I've spent well over $40,000 just on the CD's from back when I kept track! 🙂

Whoa!

I imagine there are others in the world with more music, but that is one herculean endeavor!

 

Rock on!

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I have two "problems," one is I like a LOT of different styles/genres/types of music and the other is I definitely have a "completionist" mentality.  Note that I'm pretty happy with my "problems" though! 🙂

I still remember a member of another forum who ONLY listened to Southern Rock and couldn't understand how people could listen to anything else (yes, he got SLAMMED by the rest of the forum members - LOL!).  I literally can go into these modes where I'll listen to a single genre or subgenre for a few days then completely change to another. 

Before I started organizing my collection I spent quite a bit of time researching all of the so-called genres and subgenres out there so I could group things.  That turned out to be VERY eye-opening!  Besides the obvious fact that there are vast disagreements among people out there, I was literally shocked at how many labels there were!  HUNDREDS!  My first efforts actually didn't label anything but simply made groups of music that sounded good together.  I really liked this approach, but it was nearly impossible to find anything...  So, I ended up choosing a couple of dozen primary genres with at least a hundred subgenres.  An example for an artist might tag them as "Rock" but with "Classic," "Pop," "70's," and "Female Vocalist" as subgenres.  Once all my tracks are in and tagged I'll be able to make playlists for whatever I feel like.

Although I do have a few examples of types I don't care for (some bought out of curiosity, others to have something for friends that like a style), I've got a lot of those that I really like, but also quite a bit of those that I can appreciate the musicianship of.  I've found that the few I can't stand tend to only know a few words (usually expletives) or aren't what I consider musical (a lot of Rap and Pop, though most songs with Cookie Monster vocals completely turns me off too).

Edited by craigb
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7 minutes ago, craigb said:

I have two "problems," one is I like a LOT of different styles/genres/types of music and the other is I definitely have a "completionist" mentality.  Note that I'm pretty happy with my "problems" though! 🙂

I still remember a member of another forum who ONLY listened to Southern Rock and couldn't understand how people could listen to anything else ...snip...>

There are only two kinds of music (1) music that appeals to me and (2) music written for other ears.

I have everything from 3 chord blues to symphonies, including a continuum of rock from the 50s to present, many forms of jazz from big band to cool school to fusion, disco, salsa, reggae, soca, country, R&B, Tuvan throat singing, Bedouin, Klezmer, Brazilian, Cabo Verde, Afro Pop, Romani ("Gypsy" from India to Spain), and quite a few others.

If it speaks to me, I like it, if it doesn't, it's for someone else.

I also play many different genres of music. I find that playing different types of music. I can take from one genre and import to another and it might sound better - or not. If it doesn't I don't do it again.

It's all good.

Insights and incites by Notes

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2 hours ago, craigb said:

I have two "problems," one is I like a LOT of different styles/genres/types of music and the other is I definitely have a "completionist" mentality.  Note that I'm pretty happy with my "problems" though! 🙂

I still remember a member of another forum who ONLY listened to Southern Rock and couldn't understand how people could listen to anything else (yes, he got SLAMMED by the rest of the forum members - LOL!).  I literally can go into these modes where I'll listen to a single genre or subgenre for a few days then completely change to another. 

Before I started organizing my collection I spent quite a bit of time researching all of the so-called genres and subgenres out there so I could group things.  That turned out to be VERY eye-opening!  Besides the obvious fact that there are vast disagreements among people out there, I was literally shocked at how many labels there were!  HUNDREDS!  My first efforts actually didn't label anything but simply made groups of music that sounded good together.  I really liked this approach, but it was nearly impossible to find anything...  So, I ended up choosing a couple of dozen primary genres with at least a hundred subgenres.  An example for an artist might tag them as "Rock" but with "Classic," "Pop," "70's," and "Female Vocalist" as subgenres.  Once all my tracks are in and tagged I'll be able to make playlists for whatever I feel like.

Although I do have a few examples of types I don't care for (some bought out of curiosity, others to have something for friends that like a style), I've got a lot of those that I really like, but also quite a bit of those that I can appreciate the musicianship of.  I've found that the few I can't stand tend to only know a few words (usually expletives) or aren't what I consider musical (a lot of Rap and Pop, though most songs with Cookie Monster vocals completely turns me off too).

have you completed the tree?1759073958_rocktree.jpg.1e7158937499b32edfb6981f4f630728.jpg

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