iTunes Sucks
Earlier today, I was thinking really hard about this question: Why do people still use iTunes? To me, personally it just doesn’t seem all that great. I tried it out when I first got my iPod a few years back, it was okay at best. Sure, it did everything I needed it to such as: transfer music to the iPod, make sure new songs I added to my library transferred over, and kept my iPod updated. After a few weeks I stumbled onto a media player called WinAmp, and it seemed to do so much more for me. It’s interface wasn’t clunky and slow, it had plugins to improve the built-in functionality, and it even had customizable themes. When Compared to iTunes this was the media player that I had been waiting my entire life for. What is it with people and iTunes?

So Why Do People Still Use iTunes?

“It has a pretty interface, good functionality, and it makes me think I’m on an Apple computer!”
That’s cool, except the user interface isn’t that great. You can’t change anything about it. No customization of anything. The core functionality is lackluster. When buying music from the store you can only receive it in Apple’s default AAC format. Why do you need to do this when your iPod can play all sorts of audio formats in the first place? Syncing is terrible. If you want to be on an Apple computer go ahead and spend the $1800 it costs to buy one. I won’t complain, I like Apple, just not iTunes, or the price tags on their computers.

“Well, you can buy songs! Over 6 million songs to choose from!
Okay, I can buy songs that I can only play a certain amount of times on certain computers and audio devices before they become unplayable due to Apple’s DRM. I can buy DRM-free songs from Amazon at 256 kbps, rather than Apple’s lowly 128 kbps AAC DRM-restricted songs. I also don’t have to keep track of how many times I burned it, or how many times I listened to it with someone else in the room, because if he hears it more than 3 times he has to buy it.

“Hmm.. you can also rent and buy movies! They only cost $3.99 to rent! And $9.99 to buy!”
I can rent and buy videos too! Too bad the video rentals only last 24 hours, and allows me to watch them on the computer, or my iPod screen. That sounds like a great idea, let’s spend $3.99 to watch a movie on my iPod for only 24 hours. We also get a 640×480 pixel image, which is amazing quality when you watch it on your 2-inch iPod screen. Why aren’t the movies in HD? Oh wait, they are in HD if you buy AppleTV for only $229. With Netflix, or Blockbuster online I can watch my movies in HD, and I get to keep them as long as I want, rent as many as I want for as little as $9.99/month. So for about 2.5 iTunes movies I can get unlimited rentals, keep them as long I want, and watch them in my preferred HD quality.

“Oh and there’s also TV shows! You have a billion seasons to choose from! And they’re really cheap too! Only $1.99 each episode!”
TV shows are fun to watch, but why should I pay $1.99 for an episode, when millions of episodes are available online via bit torrent, and online streaming video sites for free. You still have to download the show on iTunes so it’s not like it’s any faster. Watching TV shows with bit torrent, or streaming video sites is just as legal as using iTunes. Some streaming websites have the episodes in HD for streaming too, well with iTunes you can only watch them in regular quality.

iTunes doesn’t really sound all that great does it? That’s the point, it’s not that great. DRM-restricted music, bad syncing and user interface, easy way to throw your money down the drain with limited purchases that you can get for a much better deal (or free) are an example of qualities of a piece of software that has been hyped up too much by fan boys.

Do yourself a favor and explore better media player options like WinAmp, VLC Player, Windows Media Player Classic, and even the regular Windows Media Player.