New iTMS features ***CONFIRMED***

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 90
    kirklandkirkland Posts: 594member
    This is great. Absolutely great. WMA support (no matter how it's handled) means my brother can now switch to iTunes. I assume the songs will be playable via an iPod as well?



    They FINALLY added links in my playlists to the artists so that I can jump to their pages in the store.



    They dropped the number of duplicate burns. Oh well. But they upped the machines to five! Yea! Now my iBook is back to playing my music, and I'll have a machine activation free as a fall back! Good times.



    And as for the addition of QuickTime movie trailers... I bet they are making money on the back end, by selling the studios placement in the number one online music store. A way to recoup costs against the low-margin songs, no doubt.



    And I've been chafing for a wish list since iTunes 4.0.



    God, I sound like such a little fanboy in this post!
  • Reply 22 of 90
    futuremacfuturemac Posts: 242member
    i love it!

    now wheres my 4g ipod?
  • Reply 23 of 90
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kirkland

    They dropped the number of duplicate burns. Oh well. But they upped the machines to five! Yea! Now my iBook is back to playing my music, and I'll have a machine activation free as a fall back! Good times.



    ---



    And I've been chafing for a wish list since iTunes 4.0.




    AFAIK, you can just recreate a new playlist with the exact same songs and burn away, so this move is just lip-service to a bunch of suits who don't know what they're agreeing to.



    They're probably thinking 10->7 is a bigger loss than 3->5 is a gain for iTMS users.



    As for wishlists, I still want to be able to publish a wishlist and have other people buy the music for me (which would be made available for download at my leisure).
  • Reply 24 of 90
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kirkland

    This is great. Absolutely great. WMA support (no matter how it's handled) means my brother can now switch to iTunes. I assume the songs will be playable via an iPod as well?



    Yes, because it does not *play* WMA... it *IMPORTS* WMA. It converts it to AAC or MP3, your choice.



    This does not mean WMA on iPod.



    From the iTunes Hot Tips web page:



    Converting WMA Files



    In iTunes for Windows, you can convert your unprotected WMA files to AAC files (or whatever file format is chosen in the Importing pane of iTunes Preferences) without changing the original WMA file. Simply drag the WMA files into your library in iTunes and iTunes does the grunt work, converting them for you. Windows Media Player 9 or later must be installed to convert unprotected WMA files. Protected WMA files cannot be converted.
  • Reply 25 of 90
    kirklandkirkland Posts: 594member
    Well, I hope that transcoding doesn't screw up the sound quality too much. But still, it's good. It's a path to iTunes for people who four hours ago didn't have a reasonable one.
  • Reply 26 of 90
    snofsnof Posts: 98member
    The WMA support consists of iTunes converting a WMA file to your default import format when you add it to your library. So iPod support for WMA looks less likely. Of course this is a lossy import, but oh well, I don't have any WMA files anyway.



    Library sharing is incompatible with older versions of iTunes, probably some changes to try to block people from ripping songs from each other's libraries.



    I'm liking Party Shuffle a lot, it's something I've been wanting for quite a while.



    Haven't tried the lossless encoding yet, sounds like a nice feature to me though.
  • Reply 27 of 90
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Snof



    Haven't tried the lossless encoding yet, sounds like a nice feature to me though.




    Your files will generally be between 500 and 1000 kbps with the lossless codec. CD-A is about 1400 kbps.
  • Reply 28 of 90
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Akumulator

    I want some serious testing of the apple lossless encoder before I reencode my music library. I haven't even filled my 15 gig iPod yet... I'm in no hurry.



    It's pretty hard to mess up lossless encoding since when you test it you just compress then uncompress it and it should be bit for bit identical. Totally different ballgame from lossy psychoacoustic encoders. It's just like zip tuned for audio.



    Where you *can* go wrong is not having fast/effecient encode and decode and not achieving good compression. Altivec should take care of the encoding speed.



    I want to know how I can transcode all my FLAC files to this new format. Anyone?
  • Reply 29 of 90
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by stupider...likeafox

    It's pretty hard to mess up lossless encoding since when you test it you just compress then uncompress it and it should be bit for bit identical. Totally different ballgame from lossy psychoacoustic encoders. It's just like zip tuned for audio.



    Where you *can* go wrong is not having fast/effecient encode and decode and not achieving good compression. Altivec should take care of the encoding speed.



    I want to know how I can transcode all my FLAC files to this new format. Anyone?




    So is the file size dramatically smaller? I understand lossless... I don't pay all that much attention to quality because my current songs sound fine... I only listen to my iPod through my car stereo and with all the road noise it's not really an issue....... it's more about how many more songs can I potentially fit on my iPod.
  • Reply 30 of 90
    /\ldie/\ldie Posts: 70member
    havent seen anyone mention this... is the apple itunes site messed up for anyone else in safari (osx) and internet explorer (win)??
  • Reply 31 of 90
    As was posted above 500 - 1000kbps is standard for lossless depending on the source material. Compared with 128kbps for AAC, lossless on the iPod doesn't make much sense. It will probably kill your battery life too.



    And /\\ldie, I'm seeing problems with the apple.com/itunes site on Safari too. The right hand column doesn't seem to be being styled correctly.
  • Reply 32 of 90
    akumulatorakumulator Posts: 1,111member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by stupider...likeafox

    As was posted above 500 - 1000kbps is standard for lossless depending on the source material. Compared with 128kbps for AAC, lossless on the iPod doesn't make much sense. It will probably kill your battery life too.



    Oops... missed that post. Thanks, I guess I won't be reencoding anytime soon (ever).
  • Reply 33 of 90
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    http://www.apple.com/education/itunesoncampus/ this looks new too.
    Quote:

    Provide your students with the best legal solution to manage, acquire, and listen to music by participating in the iTunes on Campus program. This program provides an institutional site license for iTunes and materials you can use for student communications. The program is easy-to-administer and is free.



  • Reply 34 of 90
    Quote:

    Originally posted by neutrino23

    The lossless encoder sounds great. I'm going to have to re-rip my CDs.



    edit: Question though: Is there an accompanying update for iPod to enable it to play these? Was this slipped into the last iPod revision? Will this play on earlier versions of iPods?




    Go to the iPod page and there is a link for the update.
  • Reply 35 of 90
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    So I'm still confused on some things:



    What's so special about this party playlist thing? Can anybody explain what is so different about it?



    Seriously, I feel like I'm in a fog now that I've updated. I know something changed but I'm also wondering what the hell just happened.



  • Reply 36 of 90
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    Now that WMA file conversion can be done automatically in iTunes the complaint that the iPod is a "closed system" is moot. It will be interesting to see what the Tech press says about this. Also what Rob Glaser will now say that Soviet Apple is no longer. Also, this iTunes/iTMS upgrade probably means European rollout is nearer. SJ may comment on this during the Conference Call.
  • Reply 37 of 90
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    Not sure if any of iTunes for Win prior to this made the change, but maximize actually maximizes the window now.



    Ctrl-M switches to the mini player.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by MacsRGood4U

    Now that WMA file conversion can be done automatically in iTunes the complaint that the iPod is a "closed system" is moot.



    Not quite... you'll still hear people begging for support of purchased WMA tracks. Now it'll be "Apple please license etc. and allow them to play"
  • Reply 38 of 90
    gabidgabid Posts: 477member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by MacsRGood4U

    Also, this iTunes/iTMS upgrade probably means European rollout is nearer. SJ may comment on this during the Conference Call.



    Hope so, since there's not going to be any iTunes Europe, Canada or Japan today; if you read the iTunes anniversary press release, you'll see that the U.S. billing address requirement is still firmly in place.
  • Reply 39 of 90
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    Right. WMA files that are unprotected and only on Pee Cees.
  • Reply 40 of 90
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    Quote:

    Hope so, since there's not going to be any iTunes Europe, Canada or Japan today; if you read the iTunes anniversary press release, you'll see that the U.S. billing address requirement is still firmly in place.



    I suggested "nearer" not immediately. It will happen this summer no doubt.
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