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iTunes for Windows - Go for it all

MorganX

MorganX

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2003
853
0
Midwest
If Apple gets iTunes over to Windows in time to be meaningful, I think they should go for it all. Become the standard music management software for all digital players.

Supply and SDK to everyone with hardware for a modest cost or free if they promote the Music Store in their packaging, let them provide the iTunes plug-in for their player. Support MP3 and AAC.

Something along those lines anyway. Go for the win man...
 
I think that they should go all out, too. I wonder if and how much iTunes would be for windows. the music store would probably have more record-breaking sales!
 
true.
without a release of the itms for windows in the coming months, there is no hope for it, as otherwise musicmatch, real, and so on, will have people using their service. let people switch is far more difficult than let them start using a service...
 
? should definatly go for the windows platform because they would be screwed if they didn't. mac users can only buy so much music!
 
I hope that iTunes for Windows soon releases.. Every single day it is late means millions of dollars that does not go into Apple's pocket!..
 
Originally posted by MacFan25
I think that they should go all out, too. I wonder if and how much iTunes would be for windows. the music store would probably have more record-breaking sales!
Click to expand...

i'd assume iTunes for windows would be free. it's a win-win situation for apple if it is. heavy absorption=heavy usage. the cost of developing for windows should be easily offset by a good percentage of users in the wintell world.

i'm wondering how far back wintunes would work. win98? 2K? don't make it XP only. that would be dumb. And have a build ready for longhorn.
 
Personally I don't think I'd go near iTunes for windows and given the opinion held by a *lot* of PC users about Apple stuff (hint: about the same as what most of you think of PC kit, just less obsessive about it) I suspect a lot of them wouldn't either - why?

Mainly because theres a lot of good players out there already (Winamp, Sonique, Musicmatch) that are already free, and most of them have a very low processor overhead, unlike iTunes and a lot of PC users are all about the performace.

Yes its a nice enough program but its *very* restrictive in my opinion although its library system is very good (although I'd argue that Musicmatch's is better).

I must admit I personally don't like Musicmatch either, but its fantastic for dealing with large music collections, especially with sorting out ID3 tags.

PC users are used to more complex programs, the flipside of which is they are used to a lot more choice in how things are done and I don't think they'll appreciate the simplicity of iTunes as a result - I certainly don't like it much on my mac.
 
Originally posted by Chimaera
Mainly because theres a lot of good players out there already (Winamp, Sonique, Musicmatch) that are already free, and most of them have a very low processor overhead, unlike iTunes and a lot of PC users are all about the performace.

Yes its a nice enough program but its *very* restrictive in my opinion although its library system is very good (although I'd argue that Musicmatch's is better).

I must admit I personally don't like Musicmatch either, but its fantastic for dealing with large music collections, especially with sorting out ID3 tags.

PC users are used to more complex programs
Click to expand...

Media player is free too and hasn't stopped the apps you mentioned. iTunes is more than a player. There's is nothing like it on the PC. I thought WMP9 was good until I got an iMac to go with my iPod.

I do agree about Apple's reputation in PC software. Quicktime didn't do much for user confidence, but neither did Windows ME. I think iTunes would be a smash on the PC if it supported more than just the iPod.

The CD burning would be simpler and easier to use than WMP9. The build in CD burning in Windows is kludgy, if fast and effective. iTunes for Windows would change how PC software is designed. There's a reason MS is working on longhorn and working with hardware developers to change how they design PCs. They know Apple has the right style and plan, just poor execution and the wrong business model.

BTW, Musicmatch IMO has to be the worst program ever. It's a disgrace Apple partnered the iPod with this. Talk about beauty and the beast.
 
Originally posted by MorganX

.....The CD burning would be simpler and easier to use than WMP9. The build in CD burning in Windows is kludgy, if fast and effective. iTunes for Windows would change how PC software is designed...
Click to expand...

That's a point..... How many external CD burners does iTunes support at this moment? And I wonder how many CD burners iTunes for Windows will support. :(
I hope Apple doesn't fall in the big PC-hole: HARDWARE SUPPORT.
 
My guess would be that iTunes for Windows would have reduced functionality. A way to download from the iTMS, create playlists, edit ID3 tags, and send files to the iPod. There are more than enough competent burning programs for Windows (Nero) as it is. Nice way to avoid the pitfall of supporting 1256 different cd-rw drives.
 
Originally posted by yzedf
My guess would be that iTunes for Windows would have reduced functionality. A way to download from the iTMS, create playlists, edit ID3 tags, and send files to the iPod. There are more than enough competent burning programs for Windows (Nero) as it is. Nice way to avoid the pitfall of supporting 1256 different cd-rw drives.
Click to expand...

I don't think they'd have to do as much as you think on the PC platform. Microsoft has already done that work in the OS and APIs no? They would have to support 1256 different portable mp3 players though.
 
if they were to go for windows, which i think they will, they would make it just like the mac version. they wouldn't skimp on any features.
 
Originally posted by MorganX
Media player is free too and hasn't stopped the apps you mentioned. iTunes is more than a player. There's is nothing like it on the PC. I thought WMP9 was good until I got an iMac to go with my iPod.

I do agree about Apple's reputation in PC software. Quicktime didn't do much for user confidence, but neither did Windows ME. I think iTunes would be a smash on the PC if it supported more than just the iPod.

The CD burning would be simpler and easier to use than WMP9. The build in CD burning in Windows is kludgy, if fast and effective. iTunes for Windows would change how PC software is designed. There's a reason MS is working on longhorn and working with hardware developers to change how they design PCs. They know Apple has the right style and plan, just poor execution and the wrong business model.

BTW, Musicmatch IMO has to be the worst program ever. It's a disgrace Apple partnered the iPod with this. Talk about beauty and the beast.
Click to expand...

I haven't touched Windows Mediaplayer since (I think) version 7 (maybe 6) - when it became a major bloaty mess. All the other PC users I know are the same (not counting my wife, who loves the WMP tooty theme - because it's 'cute' :rolleyes: Although from memory the playlist features and so on of WMP are *awful* by comparison and takes up a huge processor overhead when running - I prefer to use a number of small fast tools depnding on what media I'm trying to use - WinAMP for music playback, ZoomPlayer for MPEG and BSPlayer for DiVX :)

I fail to see what iTunes offers that isn't already available (aside from the music store, of course - but as is Apple's habit us non-Americans are getting screwed on features - again). As for CD burning I find Windows to be every bit as annoying to burn CDs as I do OSX - the solution is easy - Toast on Mac, and a variety of tools depending on what I want to do for PC (Nero, Discjuggler, CloneCD, Fireburner and so on). And as for it changing how software is designed - not a chance, it would merely be one other pretty MP3 player amongst many, with this one being unskinnable (probably). I agree Musicmatch is a pain as a MP3 player, but its library and Tagging features blow any other MP3 player out of the water.

Oh, and Windows Me was a kludge - it was a rush job as Win2k couldn't quite pull of its big aim, that XP achieved - integrating the NT and 9x product lines.
 
Originally posted by MacsRgr8
That's a point..... How many external CD burners does iTunes support at this moment? And I wonder how many CD burners iTunes for Windows will support. :(
I hope Apple doesn't fall in the big PC-hole: HARDWARE SUPPORT.
Click to expand...

newer cd burners are failry generic, you don't need to install drivers for them at all, so presumably iTunes for Win32 wouldn't have a problem as it'd just pick up on the settings from the windows registry.

I'd pay up to £20 ($16) for the iTunes app itself, and i wouldn't like to pay any more than 65-70p (99c) for a track. I'd be very annoyed if iTMS in the UK were doing tracks at 99p instead of a straight conversion of the US prices!
 
Originally posted by Chimaera
...I prefer to use a number of small fast tools depnding on what media I'm trying to use - WinAMP for music playback, ZoomPlayer for MPEG and BSPlayer for DiVX :)...
Click to expand...

i use the same approach myself - Winamp (+ heaps of plugins) and ZoomPlayer for all my video files (inc. DivX + XviD), even DVD's.
 
I find Zoomplayer's DVD playback to be extremely crappy and laggy - on the few occaisions I watch a DVD on my computer I generally use WinDVD.
 
Originally posted by Chimaera
I find Zoomplayer's DVD playback to be extremely crappy and laggy - on the few occaisions I watch a DVD on my computer I generally use WinDVD.
Click to expand...

what version of zoom player do you have? v3 is out now, but that costs, i'm yet to play with it. I'm just using the latest version of v2. dvd playback is great on my machine - could be because i have a beast of a video card
 
Hope they treat it just like iTunes for Mac

I have a single Mac + several PCs + use PCs at the day job. I really like the Apple music store and have been buying stuff there. Currently I have to burn a CD and then rerip it to use on the various PCs under WMP. I'm hoping that when Apple releases iTunes I can just copy the files and authorize each of the PCs (up to the existing limit) with all the stuff I've bought from the store.

On the topic of various media players. I actually like WMP9. My only complaint is the color scheme. I have a hard time reading the white on black letters at the resolutions I run at the day job, 1600x1200 on a couple of cheap 17" monitors. Everywhere else it's fine. It seems to be fast for me with about 1200 songs on the work PC, sits at about 10% CPU utilization on a single 933 while playing and I don't think I've ever heard it skip or stutter. I've seen a few folks with almost religious passion about iTunes vs. WMP, but to tell you the truth they both work fine for me and I don't really see much of a difference in ease of use or performance while playing, ripping, or burning.

I also think as a few folks have brought up earlier, Apple will not have enable support for each burner like they do with the Mac version of iTunes. Under windows drivers take care of the hardware specific stuff. MS doesn't have to update Media Player when a new burner comes out. It just works, internal, external, IDE, USB, Firewire, it doesn't matter. As long as the OS supports the connection type, for example, USB under NT4.0 will probably not work.
 
Originally posted by mrjamin
newer cd burners are failry generic, you don't need to install drivers for them at all, so presumably iTunes for Win32 wouldn't have a problem as it'd just pick up on the settings from the windows registry.
Click to expand...

You'd think. I have a generic CD burner inside my tower and it works fine with Toast, but iTunes doesn't recognize it.

I find that to be unfortunate. - j
 
Originally posted by jayscheuerle
You'd think. I have a generic CD burner inside my tower and it works fine with Toast, but iTunes doesn't recognize it.

I find that to be unfortunate. - j
Click to expand...

could be an advantage of iTunes on windows. Doesn't toast have its own cdr/w db? With windows (xp atleast), I've never heard of a scenario where a burner doesn't work accorss a range of apps. Does your burner work when burning cdrs through the OS?
 
Originally posted by mrjamin
what version of zoom player do you have? v3 is out now, but that costs, i'm yet to play with it. I'm just using the latest version of v2. dvd playback is great on my machine - could be because i have a beast of a video card
Click to expand...

I recently upgraded to v3 BASIC (freeware version with DVD playback removed) and I don't think the videocard is the factor - I have a pretty smoking one myself :)
 
Originally posted by mrjamin
could be an advantage of iTunes on windows. Doesn't toast have its own cdr/w db? With windows (xp atleast), I've never heard of a scenario where a burner doesn't work accorss a range of apps. Does your burner work when burning cdrs through the OS?
Click to expand...

It used to...

One of the OSX updates broke it, but even when it did work through the OS, it didn't work in iTunes. The curse of using $60 burners from CompUSA I guess!
 
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