Well I still have to thank everyone here, because I avoided it for the first year because of comments on this and other sites.
I didn't jump on board at first. I'm not sure when I realized that iTunes Match could save me nearly hundreds of dollars per year but when it did that was it. I just hope it's popular enough that they don't get rid of it. I'd even be willing to pay more for it, up to about $100 per year, with the current capacity limited, is when I'd then just decide to buy a higher capacity device (and sell that higher capacity device a year later).
I suspect Silver Shadow got caught out because when you first turn on iTunes Match on an iOS device, it removes all your local media and replaces it with what you have in iTunes Match. Maybe he didn't realise that you can then re-download everything if you so wish and still use iTunes Match.
I do the same as you - keep my playlist of favourite tracks downloaded and the rest in the cloud.
Perhaps. It is annoying that it's not intelligent enough to figure out which tracks to keep or even ask you if you wish to ditch the local tracks.
A couple times I've gotten some glitches with iTM. A couple times double tracks showed up. This requirs killing iTM and then signing back in and re-downloading my popular playlists. And every now and then if I'm playing an album where I have some local and some cloud tracks it will skip over the cloud tracks (which is not how I have my iTM settings). That requires killing and restarting the Music app. Neither one a big deal but it would be nice not to have those issues at all.
My biggest complaint with the Music app is that I can't delete tracks from it. I can delete the local track but I can't delete the iTM track listing from the server. I have to give it One Star and then when I'm back at my Mac find it in iTunes under my One Star playlist (which I have specifically for this) then Option-click on the track, scroll to the poorly named Show In Playlist » Music — which is the main library as you can't delete a track from a Playlist — and then Option-click again, choose delete, and then delete from iCloud when the window appears. The traditional "PC" is no longer our digital hub but they haven't caught up with that. This is something else I think they need to have a portal for on iCloud.com
I was confused between iTunes Radio and iTunes Match. What I meant to say originally, if I hadn't, is why don't they use all the "Genius Data" that's constantly syncing between my devices to improve the song selection in iTunes Radio.
Also, using iTunes Match only works so long as you have some type of connection. Any type of connection. Thinking it's a great way to free up space on a device is not probably what it's meant for. I learned that the first time I used air travel after thinking the service was great. After that I disabled it on my devices, upgraded a few times and ran into the same problem while on a train. Now iTunes Match is I'd disabled on everything except my "media mini" which has everything media based I own on it anyway.
Maybe it's great for some, but it got me twice while traveling for extended periods with absolutely NO media. Also, I have a ton of songs that are not matched that I imported from my CD's. So personally I couldn't say that I could listen to ALL of my songs using the service.
I still have the service. It just renewed on me last month I believe, but I don't use it for much. Luckily the cost is negligible.
If it works for you then great! )
You should have prepared better for your trip, by storing some of your music locally and turning match off.
I didn't jump on board at first. I'm not sure when I realized that iTunes Match could save me nearly hundreds of dollars per year but when it did that was it. I just hope it's popular enough that they don't get rid of it. I'd even be willing to pay more for it, up to about $100 per year, with the current capacity limited, is when I'd then just decide to buy a higher capacity device (and sell that higher capacity device a year later).
Different philosophies my friend. I divide the purchase cost of a product by hour many hours I use it. At the moment my iPad Air 128G cellular should be somewhere around .50 per hour, and I plan on skipping the next one. It will be pennies before I upgrade.
Maybe it's just how I make it seem better to myself, but I can afford it and i usually try to do the math for things I use the most before a large purchase. Based on the history of my iPad 1 and 3, the math works out pretty good.
To each their own I suppose.
I'm actually most impressed by how well the battery can hold a charge even after being charged at least once a day for two years straight, and the people I sold my iPad 1 and 3 are still using them happily.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me though. It probably means more to me than you think.
You should have prepared better for your trip, by storing some of your music locally and turning match off.
That was my first and last try with using the beta on my main device (I know your not supposed to, but how do you find the bugs if your not using it all the time?). After you install a new beta it wipes all your setting and storage, so yea it was my own stupidity. I knew what I did the second I realized I didn't have any songs "oh shit I just installed the new beta" doesn't make you feel any better when you know your away from any connection, or a speedy and reliable connection for a few weeks or a month.
I suspect Silver Shadow got caught out because when you first turn on iTunes Match on an iOS device, it removes all your local media and replaces it with what you have in iTunes Match. Maybe he didn't realise that you can then re-download everything if you so wish and still use iTunes Match.
I do the same as you - keep my playlist of favourite tracks downloaded and the rest in the cloud.
Perhaps. It is annoying that it's not intelligent enough to figure out which tracks to keep or even ask you if you wish to ditch the local tracks.
A couple times I've gotten some glitches with iTM. A couple times double tracks showed up. This requirs killing iTM and then signing back in and re-downloading my popular playlists. And every now and then if I'm playing an album where I have some local and some cloud tracks it will skip over the cloud tracks (which is not how I have my iTM settings). That requires killing and restarting the Music app. Neither one a big deal but it would be nice not to have those issues at all.
My biggest complaint with the Music app is that I can't delete tracks from it. I can delete the local track but I can't delete the iTM track listing from the server. I have to give it One Star and then when I'm back at my Mac find it in iTunes under my One Star playlist (which I have specifically for this) then Option-click on the track, scroll to the poorly named Show In Playlist » Music — which is the main library as you can't delete a track from a Playlist — and then Option-click again, choose delete, and then delete from iCloud when the window appears. The traditional "PC" is no longer our digital hub but they haven't caught up with that. This is something else I think they need to have a portal for on iCloud.com
All good points. Is deleting tracks really so important, though? That's what playlists are for, after all. It would be nice to get some more of the Mac functionality ported over to iOS. It would be awesome for them to introduce a kind of iTunes Match for video. I don't think they should do it the same way as music because uploading video would take forever. However, I would love it that any video you own on DVD that existed in the iTunes Store could be counted as owned and played from the cloud. That way - WHAM! - one could free up hundreds of Gigs on the Mac.
That was my first and last try with using the beta on my main device (I know your not supposed to, but how do you find the bugs if your not using it all the time?). After you install a new beta it wipes all your setting and storage, so yea it was my own stupidity. I knew what I did the second I realized I didn't have any songs "oh shit I just installed the new beta" doesn't make you feel any better when you know your away from any connection, or a speedy and reliable connection for a few weeks or a month.
I call that a hard lesson learned.
1) I usually install the betas on my production devices. My data is backed up so it's not a huge deal to me if something goes terribly wrong, but thankfully it hasn't. Anecdotally I'd say Apple has been increasingly making their first betas more stable, which is in contrast to more and more people coming on this site every year to say their initial non-beta releases are just bug-filled betas they've pushed out without testing.
2) I seem to recall years ago that to install the initial beta you had no choice but to wipe the device (aka: do a Restore from iTunes) but at let the last couple years (probably more) I've just done the Update and kept all my settings, apps, saved data on the device as it updated the OS.
Do you mean tracks bought from iTunes? Can you not delete them permanently or hide them? I can see how that's annoying if you can't.
Tracks I originally uploaded via a CD and now sync using iTM. I'll come across them and realize I never want to listen to it because it's some intro track or just a song I dislike but I can't delete it on my iPhone, which is the only device I ever use to listen to music, hence my saving with One Star and eventually going through the rigamarole to delete it.
1) I usually install the betas on my production devices. My data is backed up so it's not a huge deal to me if something goes terribly wrong, but thankfully it hasn't. Anecdotally I'd say Apple has been increasingly making their first betas more stable, which is in contrast to more and more people coming on this site every year to say their initial non-beta releases are just bug-filled betas they've pushed out without testing.
2) I seem to recall years ago that to install the initial beta you had no choice but to wipe the device (aka: do a Restore from iTunes) but at let the last couple years (probably more) I've just done the Update and kept all my settings, apps, saved data on the device as it updated the OS.
1). My data is incredibly backed up to multiple hard drives. I have a ton of media and I no longer use a cable subscription so I have an incredible redundancy system. I don't mind repeat watching or listening to something and itunes is awesome for this using a "least played" or "played long ago" playlist. I'm just happy it works for every type of media. I think they could use more metadata for movies though. That wasn't the problem. It was twice getting caught with no media because the beta came out the Tay before I left and even after the first time not checking everything the second time.
2). Ya caught me. The last time I was involved with betas was a couple of years ago. Burn me one, shame on you, burn me twice.... It's good to hear they've gotten better with the releases.
I'd like to see you stats on the most who don't use it.
As for your second statement, you do realize that there may be more than one developer behind certain apps.
I agree, but how many behind each app? We could figure this out. There's a limit to how many can work under your developer lisence. 8 to 1 is possible, but I seriously doubly that every developer has eight people working under their license. I also doubt that there's enough large developers out there to cover the difference of 8 million. That's a staggering number.
I'm just saying that I laugh my ass off every time they tout their developer numbers. That's all. Doesn't mean I'm right. I'd like to see the actual statistics though.
I'd like to see you stats on the most who don't use it.
As for your second statement, you do realize that there may be more than one developer behind certain apps.
I agree, but how many behind each app? We could figure this out. There's a limit to how many can work under your developer lisence. 8 to 1 is possible, but I seriously doubly that every developer has eight people working under their license. I also doubt that there's enough large developers out there to cover the difference of 8 million. That's a staggering number.
I'm just saying that I laugh my ass off every time they tout their developer numbers. That's all. Doesn't mean I'm right. I'd like to see the actual statistics though.
I'm told that developers have a propensity for pizza, so maybe there are lots of large developers out there. ????
There are 9 million developers and 1.2 million apps, so on average there are 7.5 developers per app. Whilst some apps might have fewer, some apps will have many more. Some of those games must have dozens, if not over a hundred, developers, I would have thought.
- So iTunes match is useless TO YOU, so it can be defined as "useless", right? You have the highest capacity iPhone and iPad? Good for you. The vast majority of iOS users do not. And even the ones that might not care to fill their entire storage with music. Or, you know, they appreciate the ability to stream from any of their devices. Try to look beyond your own nose, and have a bit more humility than declaring something YOU don't personally use s "useless".
- "So you're saying it takes exactly 9 developers to make an app?" Do you have reading comprehension issues? Did I say that? No, I did not. It might take 1 person to develop an app. or 5. Or 30. Or 50. It depends on the app. There are some extremely high quality apps out there with high production values that took large art teams to create. Then to "prove" me wrong you point to a damn flashlight app? Is the appstore composed only of flashlight apps? Are you thick? Stop erecting idiotic straw-men, I don't even think you know what you're arguing anymore.
-"Most people, I would say eight out of nine, were signing up for developer accounts to try the newest betas. Do you seriously disagree?" Do I seriously disagree with a number you pulled straight out of your ass? Yeah, I just might.
I'm sorry, but you're either being purposeful obtuse, or you're seriously ignorant and confused. The fact that you define the appstore as a repository of flashlight apps is pretty sad, not to mention intellectually dishonest. A spit in the face to the developers who have spent tens of thousands of hours developing high quality apps. Also, stop trying to dictate what you believe is mainstream You're clearly disconnected from that and have no clue.
I'm well aware of the fact that it may take more than one person to develop an app, and I've scored quite high on comprehension in the past. Not that it matters, but seeing as you put it out there, do you think that a person who is only involved with the artwork on an app needs to have a developer license. If your talking about large teams then no doubt most of the team which has little to do with the code actually needs to be part of the developer license.
I'm not being obtuse but perfectly clear. Even if it takes thousands of hours, (which it doesn't) to make an app, most people involved in the project just plain do not need a license.
Just to be clear, are you saying that everyone working under a particular developer needs to have their own separate license? I'm curious...
I'm told that developers have a propensity for pizza, so maybe there are lots of large developers out there. ????
There are 9 million developers and 1.2 million apps, so on average there are 7.5 developers per app. Whilst some apps might have fewer, some apps will have many more. Some of those games must have dozens, if not over a hundred, developers, I would have thought.
I agree some apps may have large, even quite large teams behind them. Even so, only one developer license is needed. The person testing and submitting the code. If a developer is feeling generous he can add others to his/her license. As stated above, someone who's working on artwork should just be making the artwork and going home. Why would you pay extra for them to be included on the license. It does cost more for a developer to add people to his/her license. A smart developer wouldn't grant every single person a queue on their license. Are you saying the accountants should have a license key also?
Edit: who can complain about pizza! :smokey:
I'm kind of amazed that folks here make this thought seem like blasphemy even when this same site that reported on people signing up for developer accounts and selling sub-license keys. Not aimed toward you my friend, but if you're going to live within the Apple Bubble, use all the info you garnered from the Apple Bubble.
No. Not at all. Can you tell me why any more than one developer account is needed? Also, Apple has CLEARLY stated that it's 9 million Developers and not developer keys. They're not the same. I can add as many people as I want to my license (for a price) , but it's still only one developer account.
As an aside, I do remember them getting up on stage and telling everyone who watched that it only took two hours to re-compile their code for a 64bit processor., and that only one person did it. To which I'll vouch for, it's not terribly difficult.
I'm not sure why the notion that super large teams are needed, or that every single person on the team needs to have a separate developers license.
It's not a huge deal but there are tracks I'll never listen to so I'd like to streamline my library by completely removing them.
Like all your Christmas music for example, nothing like a Christmas carol popping up in the middle of May.
Good example. Here's a solution: how many tracks do you rate three stars? Not many, I'd imagine. So if you rate all your Christmas tracks as three stars, you can set up your playlists to avoid all three star tracks except for at Advent and Christmas.
I have no idea what these people are blathering about.
I'll be the first to criticize when Apple screws up.
But this isn't one of those cases.
iTunes Radio kicks Spotify's and Pandora's asses. It's a MUCH MUCH better service.
iTunes has a cleaner interface, it's easier to use, and it auto-picks bands I don't hate as long as I set a good starting point. No, I'm afraid they're going to make a horrible mess of it with this stupid Beats acquisition, but at least for now iTunes Radio wipes the floor with every other streaming service.
iTunes Radio cannot be compared to Spotify, because Spotify offers a different service. As for Pandora? iTunes Radio is cleaner, and that's it. Pandora offers more options for their stations, they offer song lyrics, etc.
I don't deny that iTunes Radio is a decent service, and the ad-free service with iTunes Match is certainly a really great deal (I have iTunes Match). Yet I'd still take an ad-supported Pandora over ad-free iTunes Radio.
I don't know what you're "blathering about" regarding the "stupid Beats acquisition."
I absolutely loathe Spotify as a company, and YET they have a better streaming service (NOT software. Their software is crap, but their music service is great) than anyone else I've used (and I've used everyone out there besides Deezer).
Like all your Christmas music for example, nothing like a Christmas carol popping up in the middle of May.
I don't have any Christmas music. I'm not exactly a festive person. I'm not a Jehovah Witness but I do like that they don't celebrate holidays or birthdays.
Comments
I didn't jump on board at first. I'm not sure when I realized that iTunes Match could save me nearly hundreds of dollars per year but when it did that was it. I just hope it's popular enough that they don't get rid of it. I'd even be willing to pay more for it, up to about $100 per year, with the current capacity limited, is when I'd then just decide to buy a higher capacity device (and sell that higher capacity device a year later).
Perhaps. It is annoying that it's not intelligent enough to figure out which tracks to keep or even ask you if you wish to ditch the local tracks.
A couple times I've gotten some glitches with iTM. A couple times double tracks showed up. This requirs killing iTM and then signing back in and re-downloading my popular playlists. And every now and then if I'm playing an album where I have some local and some cloud tracks it will skip over the cloud tracks (which is not how I have my iTM settings). That requires killing and restarting the Music app. Neither one a big deal but it would be nice not to have those issues at all.
My biggest complaint with the Music app is that I can't delete tracks from it. I can delete the local track but I can't delete the iTM track listing from the server. I have to give it One Star and then when I'm back at my Mac find it in iTunes under my One Star playlist (which I have specifically for this) then Option-click on the track, scroll to the poorly named Show In Playlist » Music — which is the main library as you can't delete a track from a Playlist — and then Option-click again, choose delete, and then delete from iCloud when the window appears. The traditional "PC" is no longer our digital hub but they haven't caught up with that. This is something else I think they need to have a portal for on iCloud.com
True, my mistake.
I was confused between iTunes Radio and iTunes Match. What I meant to say originally, if I hadn't, is why don't they use all the "Genius Data" that's constantly syncing between my devices to improve the song selection in iTunes Radio.
Also, using iTunes Match only works so long as you have some type of connection. Any type of connection. Thinking it's a great way to free up space on a device is not probably what it's meant for. I learned that the first time I used air travel after thinking the service was great. After that I disabled it on my devices, upgraded a few times and ran into the same problem while on a train. Now iTunes Match is I'd disabled on everything except my "media mini" which has everything media based I own on it anyway.
Maybe it's great for some, but it got me twice while traveling for extended periods with absolutely NO media. Also, I have a ton of songs that are not matched that I imported from my CD's. So personally I couldn't say that I could listen to ALL of my songs using the service.
I still have the service. It just renewed on me last month I believe, but I don't use it for much. Luckily the cost is negligible.
If it works for you then great!
You should have prepared better for your trip, by storing some of your music locally and turning match off.
Different philosophies my friend. I divide the purchase cost of a product by hour many hours I use it. At the moment my iPad Air 128G cellular should be somewhere around .50 per hour, and I plan on skipping the next one. It will be pennies before I upgrade.
Maybe it's just how I make it seem better to myself, but I can afford it and i usually try to do the math for things I use the most before a large purchase. Based on the history of my iPad 1 and 3, the math works out pretty good.
To each their own I suppose.
I'm actually most impressed by how well the battery can hold a charge even after being charged at least once a day for two years straight, and the people I sold my iPad 1 and 3 are still using them happily.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me though. It probably means more to me than you think.
That was my first and last try with using the beta on my main device (I know your not supposed to, but how do you find the bugs if your not using it all the time?). After you install a new beta it wipes all your setting and storage, so yea it was my own stupidity. I knew what I did the second I realized I didn't have any songs "oh shit I just installed the new beta" doesn't make you feel any better when you know your away from any connection, or a speedy and reliable connection for a few weeks or a month.
I call that a hard lesson learned.
I suspect Silver Shadow got caught out because when you first turn on iTunes Match on an iOS device, it removes all your local media and replaces it with what you have in iTunes Match. Maybe he didn't realise that you can then re-download everything if you so wish and still use iTunes Match.
I do the same as you - keep my playlist of favourite tracks downloaded and the rest in the cloud.
Perhaps. It is annoying that it's not intelligent enough to figure out which tracks to keep or even ask you if you wish to ditch the local tracks.
A couple times I've gotten some glitches with iTM. A couple times double tracks showed up. This requirs killing iTM and then signing back in and re-downloading my popular playlists. And every now and then if I'm playing an album where I have some local and some cloud tracks it will skip over the cloud tracks (which is not how I have my iTM settings). That requires killing and restarting the Music app. Neither one a big deal but it would be nice not to have those issues at all.
My biggest complaint with the Music app is that I can't delete tracks from it. I can delete the local track but I can't delete the iTM track listing from the server. I have to give it One Star and then when I'm back at my Mac find it in iTunes under my One Star playlist (which I have specifically for this) then Option-click on the track, scroll to the poorly named Show In Playlist » Music — which is the main library as you can't delete a track from a Playlist — and then Option-click again, choose delete, and then delete from iCloud when the window appears. The traditional "PC" is no longer our digital hub but they haven't caught up with that. This is something else I think they need to have a portal for on iCloud.com
All good points. Is deleting tracks really so important, though? That's what playlists are for, after all. It would be nice to get some more of the Mac functionality ported over to iOS. It would be awesome for them to introduce a kind of iTunes Match for video. I don't think they should do it the same way as music because uploading video would take forever. However, I would love it that any video you own on DVD that existed in the iTunes Store could be counted as owned and played from the cloud. That way - WHAM! - one could free up hundreds of Gigs on the Mac.
1) I usually install the betas on my production devices. My data is backed up so it's not a huge deal to me if something goes terribly wrong, but thankfully it hasn't. Anecdotally I'd say Apple has been increasingly making their first betas more stable, which is in contrast to more and more people coming on this site every year to say their initial non-beta releases are just bug-filled betas they've pushed out without testing.
2) I seem to recall years ago that to install the initial beta you had no choice but to wipe the device (aka: do a Restore from iTunes) but at let the last couple years (probably more) I've just done the Update and kept all my settings, apps, saved data on the device as it updated the OS.
It's not a huge deal but there are tracks I'll never listen to so I'd like to streamline my library by completely removing them.
All good points. Is deleting tracks really so important, though?
It's not a huge deal but there are tracks I'll never listen to so I'd like to streamline my library by completely removing them.
Do you mean tracks bought from iTunes? Can you not delete them permanently or hide them? I can see how that's annoying if you can't.
Tracks I originally uploaded via a CD and now sync using iTM. I'll come across them and realize I never want to listen to it because it's some intro track or just a song I dislike but I can't delete it on my iPhone, which is the only device I ever use to listen to music, hence my saving with One Star and eventually going through the rigamarole to delete it.
1). My data is incredibly backed up to multiple hard drives. I have a ton of media and I no longer use a cable subscription so I have an incredible redundancy system. I don't mind repeat watching or listening to something and itunes is awesome for this using a "least played" or "played long ago" playlist. I'm just happy it works for every type of media. I think they could use more metadata for movies though. That wasn't the problem. It was twice getting caught with no media because the beta came out the Tay before I left and even after the first time not checking everything the second time.
2). Ya caught me. The last time I was involved with betas was a couple of years ago. Burn me one, shame on you, burn me twice.... It's good to hear they've gotten better with the releases.
I agree, but how many behind each app? We could figure this out. There's a limit to how many can work under your developer lisence. 8 to 1 is possible, but I seriously doubly that every developer has eight people working under their license. I also doubt that there's enough large developers out there to cover the difference of 8 million. That's a staggering number.
I'm just saying that I laugh my ass off every time they tout their developer numbers. That's all. Doesn't mean I'm right. I'd like to see the actual statistics though.
I'd like to see you stats on the most who don't use it.
As for your second statement, you do realize that there may be more than one developer behind certain apps.
I agree, but how many behind each app? We could figure this out. There's a limit to how many can work under your developer lisence. 8 to 1 is possible, but I seriously doubly that every developer has eight people working under their license. I also doubt that there's enough large developers out there to cover the difference of 8 million. That's a staggering number.
I'm just saying that I laugh my ass off every time they tout their developer numbers. That's all. Doesn't mean I'm right. I'd like to see the actual statistics though.
I'm told that developers have a propensity for pizza, so maybe there are lots of large developers out there. ????
There are 9 million developers and 1.2 million apps, so on average there are 7.5 developers per app. Whilst some apps might have fewer, some apps will have many more. Some of those games must have dozens, if not over a hundred, developers, I would have thought.
I'm well aware of the fact that it may take more than one person to develop an app, and I've scored quite high on comprehension in the past. Not that it matters, but seeing as you put it out there, do you think that a person who is only involved with the artwork on an app needs to have a developer license. If your talking about large teams then no doubt most of the team which has little to do with the code actually needs to be part of the developer license.
I'm not being obtuse but perfectly clear. Even if it takes thousands of hours, (which it doesn't) to make an app, most people involved in the project just plain do not need a license.
Just to be clear, are you saying that everyone working under a particular developer needs to have their own separate license? I'm curious...
I agree some apps may have large, even quite large teams behind them. Even so, only one developer license is needed. The person testing and submitting the code. If a developer is feeling generous he can add others to his/her license. As stated above, someone who's working on artwork should just be making the artwork and going home. Why would you pay extra for them to be included on the license. It does cost more for a developer to add people to his/her license. A smart developer wouldn't grant every single person a queue on their license. Are you saying the accountants should have a license key also?
Edit: who can complain about pizza! :smokey:
I'm kind of amazed that folks here make this thought seem like blasphemy even when this same site that reported on people signing up for developer accounts and selling sub-license keys. Not aimed toward you my friend, but if you're going to live within the Apple Bubble, use all the info you garnered from the Apple Bubble.
No. Not at all. Can you tell me why any more than one developer account is needed? Also, Apple has CLEARLY stated that it's 9 million Developers and not developer keys. They're not the same. I can add as many people as I want to my license (for a price) , but it's still only one developer account.
As an aside, I do remember them getting up on stage and telling everyone who watched that it only took two hours to re-compile their code for a 64bit processor., and that only one person did it. To which I'll vouch for, it's not terribly difficult.
I'm not sure why the notion that super large teams are needed, or that every single person on the team needs to have a separate developers license.
It's not a huge deal but there are tracks I'll never listen to so I'd like to streamline my library by completely removing them.
Like all your Christmas music for example, nothing like a Christmas carol popping up in the middle of May.
Good example. Here's a solution: how many tracks do you rate three stars? Not many, I'd imagine. So if you rate all your Christmas tracks as three stars, you can set up your playlists to avoid all three star tracks except for at Advent and Christmas.
I have no idea what these people are blathering about.
I'll be the first to criticize when Apple screws up.
But this isn't one of those cases.
iTunes Radio kicks Spotify's and Pandora's asses. It's a MUCH MUCH better service.
iTunes has a cleaner interface, it's easier to use, and it auto-picks bands I don't hate as long as I set a good starting point. No, I'm afraid they're going to make a horrible mess of it with this stupid Beats acquisition, but at least for now iTunes Radio wipes the floor with every other streaming service.
iTunes Radio cannot be compared to Spotify, because Spotify offers a different service. As for Pandora? iTunes Radio is cleaner, and that's it. Pandora offers more options for their stations, they offer song lyrics, etc.
I don't deny that iTunes Radio is a decent service, and the ad-free service with iTunes Match is certainly a really great deal (I have iTunes Match). Yet I'd still take an ad-supported Pandora over ad-free iTunes Radio.
I don't know what you're "blathering about" regarding the "stupid Beats acquisition."
I absolutely loathe Spotify as a company, and YET they have a better streaming service (NOT software. Their software is crap, but their music service is great) than anyone else I've used (and I've used everyone out there besides Deezer).
I don't have any Christmas music. I'm not exactly a festive person. I'm not a Jehovah Witness but I do like that they don't celebrate holidays or birthdays.