Topic: Apple Shutting Down iTunes Music Downloads

[MN Dave]

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/04/06/apple-shutting-itunes-music-downloads/

[Gurn Blanston]

I thought they made billions off that. Or is it all just streaming now?  I don't know, I'm a CDtard who just quietly goes about buying CD's and taking the stress off my Internet provider. 

[MN Dave]

I thought they made billions off that. Or is it all just streaming now?  I don't know, I'm a CDtard who just quietly goes about buying CD's and taking the stress off my Internet provider. 

Streaming is taking over, I guess. That's how I listen to Apple these days; ten bucks a month and I can listen to pretty much anything I want.

[BasilValentine]

I find this trend vile and obnoxious. I don't want a relationship with Apple. I want to buy music, not install a parasitic middleman between me and the outside world. I encountered the same situation with Avid/Sibelius notation software. Sell me the fucking software update and get the hell out of my life. I don't want a subscription contract with yearly renewals. Aaaarghh!

[MN Dave]

You can quit Apple Music at any time. It's a monthly subscription.

[San Antone]

I haven't downloaded from iTunes in years.  For a brief period a few years ago I tried Apple Music but did not continue.  It makes sense for them to retire iTunes.

I am happy with Amazon Music Unlimited.  While I stream plenty of music, I still purchase CDs and downloads. For me, access to the largest selection of music is more important than any of the, what I consider, tangential issues related to collecting CDs, including audio quality.

[bwv 1080]

But amazon just this month stopped allowing users to rip and upload CDs.  Existing uploads are grandfathered.  I uploaded my CD collection a few years ago and thinking about moving my collection somewhere else on the cloud

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I find this trend vile and obnoxious. I don't want a relationship with Apple. I want to buy music, not install a parasitic middleman between me and the outside world. I encountered the same situation with Avid/Sibelius notation software. Sell me the fucking software update and get the hell out of my life. I don't want a subscription contract with yearly renewals. Aaaarghh!

You will be crushed like a bug under the unfathomable weight of Apple's (Google's, Amazon's, Di$ney's, Facebook's, Adobe's etc.) massive corporate jack boot. Everything is moving toward the subscription model--all the better to control you and surveill your every single move. As one of many examples, many photographers are hugely unhappy with Adobe's decision to move not only Photoshop, but also Lightroom, to Creative Cloud subscription and no longer offer them as stand-alone software (contradicting their earlier stated position on the latter). I will likely dump everything Adobe after Lightroom is no longer functional, along with Windows in favor of a Linux/Darktable work-around.

At least with software, there are free-ware alternatives in some cases. With music, movies, and the like, there are often few (legal) alternatives. We are huge fans of Tony Bourdain's shows, and have recently had to bite the bullet and buy the most recent seasons of Parts Unknown from Amazon video, since apparently no DVDs will be made from these. Realistically, there are advantages to this--IF Amazon does not get cute and pull them whenever they jolly-well feel like it (What they did with Orwell's 1984 being a prime example!). The downside is of course that you are at the mercy of Amazon and your ISP, who have wormed their way into yet another aspect of your life and privacy.

While it is still legal, it seems that the only alternative to unlimited corporate power over my listening is to continue to do what I've always done--BUY the discs (LPs and CDs) and digitize them and curate them myself. More work than most are willing to do, but worth it for me. I would not be surprised if the day is coming when ownership of books and discs will be outlawed, and you will be required to turn yours in--you terrorist.

The day when some d-bag Pharma Bro scumbag   hard-working, job-creating entrepreneur copyrights some of your genes then declares you in violation of copyright for continuing to live is likely also coming. Pay up or die slave!

[Spineur]

Never bought an Apple product, never ever logged on their itune server.  Same with facebook.  Living without Amazon or Google would be more difficult, but possible.  There are plenty of vendors for music.   There are also other search engines, not as good as google for the time being.

GAFA can be avoided.  They are not a concern for me.

[torut]

I don't use streaming services, and I rarely use iTunes store. I usually purchase download from google play, emusic, bandcamp, amazon and directly from labels (hyperion, Smithsoian Folkways, etc.) But it's unfortunate that the choice becomes narrower. Digital releases from some labels (e.g. Glass's OM records) are only available at iTunes store.

[Baron Scarpia]

I have purchased, maybe half-dozen albums from iTunes, and a few individual tracks. It is no problem for me to hold on to copies of those audio files on my hard disc. I have my pop and jazz music collection ripped from CDs into iTunes. It certainly would be a pain if iTunes went away and I would have to migrate to another media server. Again, not a make-or-break. My classical stuff is all stored as FLAC files.

However, it may be a big deal for artists, since the revenue they get from streaming is a pittance compared with what they used to get from CD sales and get from downloads. The business model has shifted to one in which people pay a lot less for music and the tech companies get the lions share of revenues. That's not a good development.

We have copyright laws that were written in the age of physical media. I wonder if it is time to re-think them in terms of the streaming paradigm. Well, in the US it seems like the chance of anything meaningful coming from the government is nil.

[San Antone]

But amazon just this month stopped allowing users to rip and upload CDs.  Existing uploads are grandfathered.  I uploaded my CD collection a few years ago and thinking about moving my collection somewhere else on the cloud

I know; but I had already removed all my songs from the storage.  I did not like how they tagged and treated the albums, and continue to use iTunes for my home music library.  Having streaming capability of both purchased and Amazon albums is enough when I'm not at home.