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Jobs talks iTunes, says no changes required

updated 05:00 pm EST, Tue December 16, 2003

Jobs: no plans to change

Steve Jobs said he has the iTunes Music Store to address upcoming competitive stores from Wal-Mart, Sony, and Microsoft, according to the USA Today. 'We're going to continue on our winning strategy'...Nor does Jobs plan to let iTunes customers use portable digital music players made by other companies. Today, customers can download songs to nearly any PC but need Apple's iPod if they want a portable player. "Our strategy is to support the No. 1 MP3 player in the market," Jobs says. iPod has 50% market share, researcher NPD Group says. Jobs also said that half of iTunes sales are entire albums, not individual songs."

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12/16, 05:37pm | report spam | close Reply |
Profits in the Pod, baby.

Making a lot of money in online music is hard. Making money with iPods is a lot easier. This is wise strategy.

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12/16, 06:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
Shoe on other foot.

Microsoft has bought companies that developed for Mac and shelved their good work, et al (connectix).

IE one of the most widely used browsers does not have a version 6.0 for Mac allowing us to natively log into VPN's at Universities that only support WINDOWS.

So, why should Apple (Jobs) port to other MP3 players?
Make the public wake up and use the best. iPod!

Hail iPod.
Hail i...oh never mind.

;O)

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12/16, 06:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
conversion

there already is software to convert the format to .mp3, so it is not needed! (iPod)

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12/16, 06:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
.aac encoding

http://www.winamp.com/player/free.php

rip using aac, go from mp3 to acc, go from .aac to MP3.

Free
WinAmp 5

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12/16, 07:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
Why not use iTunes?

iTunes is free, can rip mp3 to AAC and vice versa, and can convert a lot of other formats as well. iTunes can sync up to the iPod too, and WinAmp can't.

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12/16, 08:10pm | report spam | close Reply |
itunes and rio

itunes supports the rio last i tried it. wtf?

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12/16, 08:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
TTF

Rio doesn't support AAC. So, you have to jump through at least one hoop to get purchased somgs playing the Rio player.

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12/16, 08:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
CD quality songs

Until the iTMS offers real 'cd quality' (or better) songs, I won't be purchasing any songs.

If I buy music on a CD and encode it myself as ACC or MP3, I can produce a song that sounds much better, and transparent to the original CD (256kbit), than iTMS provides.

Songs purchased from iTMS are lower quality than music sourced from CDs. While the whole experience of buying songs with iTMS is better, at the end of the day I am buying music, and I want it to sound good.

I'd like to see higher quality songs offered, 192kbit or 256kbit AAC files would do the trick. 256kbit MP3s at least are usually considered archive quality.

Until that happens, I�m not sure that iTMS would replace CDs as quickly as it could.

(Feedback to Apple has been submitted)

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12/16, 09:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: CD quality songs

Oh, please...I'll bet $1000 that in a blind test you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 128 AAC and 256.

And the iTMS is such a runaway success, I don't see Apple shaking in their shoes over nose-in-the-air audio snobs threatening to take their ball and go home.

Poser.

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12/16, 10:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
Why not...

Music videos for iTunes to promote Quicktime, or iPods with built in digicams to support iPhoto?

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12/17, 12:18am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: CD quality songs

> Oh, please...I'll bet $1000 that in a blind test you
> wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 128
> AAC and 256.

People used to say the same thing about 128kbit MP3s.
I have previewed iTMS songs. Some are quite clearly compressed sounding with the typical artefacts from mp3/acc encoding. Magnified many times when playing through a standard home Hi-Fi setup. You could probably get away with iPod headphones...

> And the iTMS is such a runaway success, I don't see
> Apple shaking in their shoes over nose-in-the-air
> audio snobs threatening to take their ball and go
> home.

nose-in-the-air audio snobs? Or true lovers of music? We are talking about standard audio CDs here, not some high-end audiophile stuff. A standard audio CD.
Why do you think SACD and DVD-Audio exist? Obviously there is room for improvement over standard audio CDs. Apple boast about encoding from studio masters, yet the songs they produce turn out lower quality than a CD. Great use of masters there� if anything they should have made the iTMS songs higher than CD quality, that way everyone would be happy, except for the people that think music should be free, but no one really cares about those people.

For online downloads to phase out CDs, two things have to happen. 1) The experience of buying and obtaining the music must be good � this has been met 100% with iTMS. 2) the audio quality has to be better, or at least the same as what is currently available � I don�t feel this has been met yet.

> Poser.

You can keep your $1000, this time :)

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12/17, 12:38am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: higher quality

If I buy music on a CD and encode it myself as ACC or MP3, I can produce a song that sounds much better, and transparent to the original CD (256kbit), than iTMS provides.

How can it sound better than the original CD???

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12/17, 12:43am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: CD quality sounds

People used to say the same thing about 128kbit MP3s.
I have previewed iTMS songs. Some are quite clearly compressed sounding with the typical artefacts from mp3/acc encoding. Magnified many times when playing through a standard home Hi-Fi setup. You could probably get away with iPod headphones...

First off, the preview of the songs do not represent the quality of the actual song download. This has been reported since it first opened. You're basically comparing streaming previews over an internet connection to the original. Of course there are artifacts. Why not spend $1 and download a song and actually test that.

Oh, and most standard HiFi setups that people have, you won't notice the difference unless, perhaps, you're really quiet and listening intently. Now, if you get into a high-end system with quality speakers, separate components, sure. But otherwise, no.

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12/17, 02:00am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: higher quality

> How can it sound better than the original CD???

You misread.

He said better than iTMS provides

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12/17, 02:09am | report spam | close Reply |
re: cd quality sounds

Steve Jobs has said many times, the Previews are full quality. I reckon he/she has a point though, anyone with decent speakers will probably notice the difference. All in all, at least this thing is not 64kb WMA :O

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12/17, 08:57am | report spam | close Reply |
hmmm

[i] Microsoft has bought companies that developed for Mac and shelved their good work, et al (connectix).[/i]
Funny since VPC7 is well on its way, and its looking to be the biggest step foreward that piece of software has made in many years!

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12/17, 09:02am | report spam | close Reply |
128 vs 256

Of course there is a huge difference between 128 and 256 bps AAC. I would happily participate in the $1000 bet that you suggest. I hope Apple will step up to at least 160 at some stage when everyone gets hi-speed connections and server space is cheaper.
But the way I use my iPod (with earphones or connected to the car) I should say that 128 is ok and similar to 160 mbp mp3 rips. We should also give credit to Apple for going back to master recordings when they rip for ITMS.
And again, AAC is NOT Apple's proprietary format. Anybody can manufacture and sell AAC-compatible players.

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12/17, 10:33am | report spam | close Reply |
I beg to differ.

128 and 256 is like 128 colors v. 256 colors with a photo on the web. We are not talking audiophile quality in either.

If you want true sound, get some hi-end speakers and delivery system with a great set-up, but then again, you'll be playing vinyl which keeps the roubustness of the sound in tact, whereas any digital transfer loses precious bits of information when going to CD.

MP3 et al are there for those of us that want affordable good music to listen to in the car or on the train.

If you want the best, you will pay for it on VINYL and take it home then master your own digital copy.

It is all relative people.

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12/17, 10:37am | report spam | close Reply |
also...

Previous poster is right, not only is it an open format, its developed by the same organization as MP3

http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/aac.html

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12/17, 11:33am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Re: CD quality songs

"Oh, please...I'll bet $1000 that in a blind test you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 128 AAC and 256."

I'll take that Pepsi Challange any day you want. I could use an extra grand with Christmas and all.

But that's not the point. If high quality sound is important to you go to a store and buy an SACD or DVD-Audio. Don't come here and b**** that a lossy compression is too lossy for your taste. Listening to music through earbuds off an iPod on a bus going to work is hardly a critical enviroment.

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Jobs talks iTunes, says no changes required

updated 05:00 pm EST, Tue December 16, 2003

Jobs: no plans to change

Profits in the Pod, baby.

Shoe on other foot.

conversion

.aac encoding

Why not use iTunes?

itunes and rio

TTF

CD quality songs

Re: CD quality songs

Why not...

Re: CD quality songs

Re: higher quality

Re: CD quality sounds

Re: higher quality

re: cd quality sounds

hmmm

128 vs 256

I beg to differ.

also...

Re: Re: CD quality songs

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Jobs talks iTunes, says no changes required

updated 05:00 pm EST, Tue December 16, 2003

Jobs: no plans to change

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Profits in the Pod, baby.

Shoe on other foot.

conversion

.aac encoding

Why not use iTunes?

itunes and rio

TTF

CD quality songs

Re: CD quality songs

Why not...

Re: CD quality songs

Re: higher quality

Re: CD quality sounds

Re: higher quality

re: cd quality sounds

hmmm

128 vs 256

I beg to differ.

also...

Re: Re: CD quality songs

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