why do people dislike itunes? - Page 4

DRM

It wasn't when I quit using it. No reason to go back.

I think that's a pretty ignorant response. Plenty of people here have pretty fantastic computer rigs (take a look), so it the itunes slowness goes way beyond that. I switched from itunes to foobar a while back and don't regret it at all. It wasn't only the load-up time that was faster, but just the overall feel of it too. Also, if there is another program that takes up less memory/cpu usage, wouldn't that be considers a positive reason to switch away from itunes, instead of "maybe I should get a brand new computer so I can run itunes quickly!"


I think for some people (at least for me), it's not the idea of "if you don't want to purchase anything, don't click on any of the links duh", it's more "why do I have a music program that is telling me to buy stuff?", or "why do I have a music player with all these features I do not need, or already have another program for?". All I want my music player to do is play music, plain and simple. Video player? I've got Media Player Classic. The itunes store? I've got record stores and the internet. I also have the internet to give me better reviews on albums of interest, and people I communicate with that make recommendation for me. Apps are useless to me cause I don't have an ipod.
It's also nice to not need quicktime on my computer (for some reason it's not the greatest program to have on a window's computer).

Also, I never did like making up playlists or anything. I like how foobar monitors your music folders and updates your player with any new files you put into it (I never really put anything into the itunes folder when I used it so I am not sure if itunes already has this feature. Probably does). And for some reason, itunes use to not be able to find the library files it needs to show your music on itunes (I think it needs to locate a file or something, I forgot), and I had to find it and readd my music back onto itunes. I can't remember the exact problem, but I remember being frustrated at itunes because it wouldn't show any of my music. Sure foobar was a little frustrating at the beginning when I made the switch, but after figuring out how I wanted foobar to be set up, I've never had a problem since. I also enjoy playing my .flac without needed additional components.

That isn't to say itunes is completely useless. It does a nice job with arranging music, and was nice that you could stream music off of someone else's itunes if they are on the same network (one of the main reasons I used it when I lived in university residence). If you are someone that needs more than just a music player, then itunes is probably up your alley. If I just want to listen to music, I'll stick with foobar.

Everyone that likes I tunes (if you have a ipod and have to go through it I guess your screwed) try foobar or mediamonkey for a week, you'll see.

iTunes internet database for tags also don't work unless you've ripped music yourself or have bought it from the iTunes store. foobar has no such issue.

ding ding ding ding!

I like Mac's but don't like iTunes
Because i love drag and drop a lot more, simple as that

* Slow
* Loads ram-resident module in background even when not being used and even if you don't use an iPod (I hate bloat and inefficiency and dislike 98% of portable audio devices on sale today, iPods included)
* Can't do FLAC or Ogg Vorbis (both royalty-free for Apple to implement and essential for me to even consider it)
* Proprietary database with machine limitations
* One-way transfers - to the(ir) device only - unless you're into hacks to let you transfer songs from your iPod to a PC, too. Lock-down is unpretty. A bit unfair to bring up their devices, but you have to mention their devices when you mention iTunes; they interface with it.
* No ability to rip in FLAC or Ogg Vorbis and generally far less scope for customisability
* I generally hate software with 'kitchen sink' syndrome - doing too many things you don't need and/or not doing the things you want it to do efficiently. When I want to play music, I want it to load up fast and react quickly to all my wishes and not take up huge screen real-estate to do it well. When I want to convert files, I want that done quickly and easily. Etc. It's simply a question of what type of user you are.
* iTunes is not really the type of program you can have sitting as a small square on your desktop and pull up quickly when working with many other programs open, at least not as quickly as I'd like


There's lots of bloated software out there, so the blame can't just go to iTunes (Adobe Reader, anyone?), but those are my priorities in a player/ripper. It's fairly easy to use, even though I found some basics extremely frustrating and illogical the last time I used it (probably because I'm more of a 'tinkerer')

OK...I'm willing to give this a shot. I have a MacBook Pro. All my music files are on an external hard drive. If I get one of these other programs, is it going to find my files and just work? Or will I have to drag and drop my folder? More complicated than that?

Which one is recommended for Mac?

FWIW, being able to break the data down and search many fields is important to me. Album art is not.

P

foobar is exactly what you're describing iTunes is not. That sentence doesn't really make any sense.

fenixdown110,
I use foobar2000

iTunes is really easy to get into, but the tinkerer logic demands more. And iTunes didn't provide it, so I think the last sentence makes perfect sense (if that's what you were referring to in my post). I looked for a menu item for ripping CDs, from memory... one of the first things I did. I guess a normal person wouldn't go specifically looking for that.


It was totally illogical on that level but made perfect sense once I simply put a CD in! And then when I put it in, it didn't really give me enough choices, frankly. It "did its thing" with minimal intervention, which is fine for those wanting that. I wanted more control without having to find out exactly what it's doing 'in the background'... where it's storing things, how it's ripping them.

All that said, foobar2000 has its own idiocy, but ultimately it gives me all I want at the end of the day (or more of the important stuff, less of the fluff).

There are other examples but it's late

Funny - I have a paid copy of MediaMonkey that I used for about 2 years. Have a paid copy of Jriver MediaCenter that I used also for about 2 years. I have tried foobar on many occassions over the past 5 years (really want to like this app but it has too many road blocks for me). I have used FLAC as my media format for over 5 years now, but recently converted it ALL to ALAC and use iTunes now.

Why because I got tired of trying to make all those other programs work! Yes iTunes has limits but if you have an iphone or ipod touch you pretty much have to really F@#$@ arround to get it to halfway work with those other programs.

iTunes music management is pretty nice, The smart playlists are decent but not near as powerful as Jriver's. I prefer MediaMonkeys playback queue but have gotten use to using iTunes DJ as a decent replacement. MediaMonkey and Foobar both do NOT handle videos and well why run 2 apps for this purpose?

I do not use iTunes music store, I rip all my music. I use dbpoweramp for ripping and wrote a small C# console app that dbpoweramp calls during the ripping to add the new rip music to my iTunes library and even create a playlist for me of the music ripped for that day ( I usually buy batches of CDs and like to listen to them together). So with that managing the music is damn simple and writing the little sync program was very easy since iTunes has a very well documented API.

Only thing I wish iTunes could do was transcode ALAC files to AAC when syncing to a portable device. Yes I know the other apps do this but the other apps have many other issues syncing with an iphone or ipod touch. Maybe Songbird will be an option soon, I believe they are actually going the route of using iTunes API which would be more reliable than the hacked approach other apps are using.

Different needs, different preferences, different audio players...