cwerdna said:
CDs? I don't know when I last bought one.
SBCLeaf said:
I like my music collection stored in a way that can't be remotely wiped, modified, or edited by Apple/Amazon.
Of music that I own, I still have CDs that have been ripped. The resulting .mp3 are on my PC and synced to my iPods (don't use those much any more) and iPhone 8. If any other music is in a digital file format, most of it is stored locally on my machine and not DRMed, some of it synced. I can't recall very much of anything in terms of digital music I bought is only in the cloud.
cwerdna said:
As for naming in peculiar way, that's a problem. That's why if one cares, iTunes takes care of this for you, You can make playlists for an album to play in any order you want. And, IIRC, from iPods and iPhones, you can select to play a given album from an artist (I almost never do this). No need to rename files, do goofy stuff or be at the mercy of a car stereo's UI or conventions.
SBCLeaf said:
iTunes is the worst software I've ever had to use in almost 40 years of using PCs. It is not allowed on any computer I use. Any encoding or tagging software can do a better job naming and organizing music files. The objection is having to futz with all that stupidity in the first place.
I do not own Apple hardware as for me it is overpriced given its limitations.
I will agree iTunes had devolved into a stagnant, not particularly great app w/too much stuff thrown into it. Apple finally axed it on the Mac w/a replacement, kinda. I wouldn't know as I don't use the Mac replacement.
I used to be very anti-Apple and had a similar attitude as you about iTunes. I thought "why so complicated?" Ages ago, I redeemed TiVo reward points for a click-wheel 20 gig IPod (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_Classic#4th_generation) and began using iTunes. I saw the light. It was easy to rip CDs which were all tagged for me + put in proper directories for me w/o any work. The computer was the source of truth and satellite devices (e.g. iPods) would sync to them. Was easy to make/edit playlists, smart playlists, rate songs on either side and it would just sync and work! No need to worry about directories, how to organize .mp3 files on disk, naming them, etc.
Don't like a song? Easy to search for it and delete it. When I next sync, it'll be gone from my iPod. Rip a new CD? When I sync, it'll be added. Buy a song for 99 cents? Easy peasy and it'll be added. Make edits to playlist on my PC or create a new one? One next sync, it'll be synced automatically. This was at least 20x better than what I had to deal with before.
What was that song I liked that I didn't get a chance to give a 4 or 5 star rating from my iPod? Was easy to sync and look at my smart playlist to see what I listened to recently and rate it. IIRC, there was a default smart playlist of My Top Rated which dynamically updated with all songs you rated 4+ stars. I made another SPL for 3+ stars and others for stuff like My 3+ star songs not heard in the last 30 days, so I could rotate thru my music. I made SPLs like, Artist = ____ or Artist = _____ and so on so that I would always have a dynamically updated playlist of songs from those artists.
When Apple added podcast support, that got me into the world of podcasts. I could just easily subscribe to a few and sync when I hooked up my iPod. No need to do a whole bunch of work to listen to podcasts on the go.
For music, playlist and smart playlist management, it is still ok, just stagnant and the UI takes a bit of getting used to. Yes, I'm well aware it has been
heavily criticized by PC and Mac users for years. I'm guessing some of it comes from people who never really learned it or got used to it.
SBCLeaf said:
I think you're just used to the limitations of Apple software/hardware.
Maybe so.
As for Apple hardware, yes, there's the "Apple tax". The laptops and "Pro" Macs are too expensive. For several years, the Mac Mini was WAY outdated and overpriced. It was unbelievable that Apple could get away with that. Their trash can Mac Pro eventually became WAY oudated and WAY overpriced.
I don't own a Mac. I do work on iOS stuff for a living now (go figure) and have had a Mac laptop from work since 2013. I also worked on Mac software for about 4 years at a different company, However, I'm a PC guy and it'd be pretty unlikely for me to switch to only a Mac.
i also intentionally carry an Android phone for work (for over 7 years) but I have no music on it whatsoever. I've never even launched Android Auto once in my Bolt. Don't care. Not my primary phone and likely will never be. I use CarPlay w/my Bolt.