The French, for once, are on the right track. In the CNET Article - "Liberte, egalite, fraternite--and a more open iTunes?" the French are taking the lead in opening up iTunes. One item should be clarified, the iPod will play various audio file formats. The iPod just will not let you sync with multiple computers. There is a way to “fix” this... read on.
Ths legislative hoopla is superfluous if you are computer capable. As of today, you can simply go download a copy of Tune Transfer from (http://www.valusoft.com/products/tunetransfer.html). I gave this to my brother for Christmas. He wrote me and said it was the most useful gift he has gotten in a long time. This simple and inexpensive XP and Mac compatible applet allows you to take your iPod and plug into any other system running iTunes without risking data loss.
The Disappearing Library - If you have ever tried to connect your iPod to another one your own computers, and you have been using the Sync features between iTunes and iPod, you may have had the nasty experience of losing your entire library. Granted, if you had read the splash screen announcements you might not have proceeded, but who would really imagine a clear and present danger for deleting your entire media library? Heaven forbid you afterwards plugged into the original workstation and accidentally told the sync routine to sync the other way around and thus delete your local library as well.
This begs a question. If the music you have purchased is in fact so valuable as to warrant all these software and usage limitations, should we not as consumers have recourse to have our assets restored to us when they are deleted? As it is, unless you are a very good computer user, have loads of extra storage space, and lots of time on your hands, the back up routines for iTunes are just not present. You have do it manually. Your average computer user has no clue of how to do this, much less that it even needs to be done!
The implementation of DRM in the iTunes-iPods model is much more stringent than the law calls for. The current model prevents the various instances of legal fair use. For example, if you have a Windows XP box and a Mac (because you need to use the XP Internet Explorer for the list of sites that do not work on any browser that exists on Mac or Linux) or just need more than one computer for other reasons then you will have at least two places where you need to store your files. If you own the media, you can, in theory, use your files on up to five separate workstations so long as you own them yourself. You could just share your music folder or park it on a server and share to yourself among your various computers. However, the iTunes library files will overwrite each other or not work at all. There is a way to edit the plist file, but that only works on a Mac in a Mac environment.
The only way to share files among you OWN computers is to stream them over the network between instances of iTunes hogging bandwidth, CPU cycles, and forcing you to have more than one computer turned on. Meanwhile this facet of the model allows anyone on your network to listen to your library and never pay for the use. I am surprised the greedy media goons have not stifled this feature.
So why even use iTunes at all?
1. If you want to use an iPod, you have NO CHOICE.
2. The other media players and devices in the market have just been either ignored by the market, or the products have significant shortcomings. Please read the other blog related to this topic ( http://conviviagroup.blogspot.com/2006/03/ipod-product-on-shaky-ground.html)
3. Personally, I use iTunes as follows, thought I do not own nor plan to ever buy ( out of general principal) an iPod. Yes, I am that stubborn. I use iTunes to stream audio to my home stereo system via Airport Express’ streaming audio feature. The out of the box feature only allows you to broadcast from iTunes (XP & Mac) to the Airport. There is no other significant or affordable offering in the market that performs this task. I am surprised that Linksys/Cisco did not add this two years ago!
Other related components to make this effort really useful:
- Airfoil (ONLY Exists on a Mac), (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/) broadcasts any sound on your Mac to an Airport Express base station.
- Audio Hijack allow you to record audio from any source that plays over the system speakers, a song from Rattle and Hum DVD or a Real Audio file of This American Planet.
- Salling Clicker (http://www.salling.com/) allows you to control iTunes, iPhoto, PowerPoint etc using a Bluetooth connection on your cellphone.
The net result is that I can control my 5700 file music library from my cell phone, stream it over my WiFi network to my wired home audio system. I can then listen to the entire music library using only my Nokia 6600 cellphone as a remote. Sweet.
Now then, if you want to access your entire library and have a centrally accessible repository, follow these steps.
If you have more than one computer in use, you can consolidate your library as follows.
(THIS IS A KLUDGE so be careful.)
1- Delete your local Library file (NOT your SONG FILES) out of your iTunes directories for each of the computers that you want to participate.
2- Move all the song/media files to one centrally accessible folder location on your network. You “could” use a copy of iTunes to automatically reorganize the folder hierarchy on the remote folder, but this is just being way too retentive. Have fun.
3- Open iTunes/preferences
a- uncheck keep iTunes folder organized
b- uncheck copy to Itunes Folder when adding to library.
c- map your iTunes path to your computers LOCAL iTunes directory, or any other local directory. Just do NOT map it to where you store your media. This is KEY.
4- Build the local Library file by selecting (MAC) “Add to Library (XP) “Add Folder to Library”
5- Be sure there are no Library files in or near the shared folder where you now store your media. This will get read by the first iTunes instance, and prevent subsequent iTunes on other systems from seeing the files are present.
There are issues with all of this. So beware and be careful.
When adding NEW songs to your central storage location, you will have to manually drag them over from the place where you ripped them to. Manually.
Once you have done this, you will to go around to EACH and EVERY workstation, delete the local library file, and Redo item#4 above which takes a couple of hours per workstation. In essence, you will have to rebuild the Library whenever you add to the library. If you are going to use one workstation MOST of the time, do all of your importing and ripping on that system, then once in a while go around to the other systems and rebuild the library database when it is convenient.
That we have to go through such tribulation when all of this should be handled seamlessly and automatically speaks to just how broken iTunes really is and how Apple has intentionally made a an otherwise promising product far less useful and revolutionary that it could have been. Not only that, it forces a user to circumvent the DRM features just to legally access their own media. It forces a user to behave unethically. Meanwhile, it allows for sharing via streaming of your library to users who do NOT own your media, which seems counter to DRM legislation.
Just your usual complicated mess in the brave, new digital world!
Enjoy your new ability to control iTunes!!
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