When iTunes "Goes Away"...
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Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9729
Printed Date: 14 July 2025 at 7:18am
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Topic: When iTunes "Goes Away"...
Posted By: jebsib
Subject: When iTunes "Goes Away"...
Date Posted: 16 December 2021 at 9:04am
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A few years ago there was a huge media story on how Apple's seminal iTunes was going
to disappear, so those of us with massive mp3 libraries, be damned! As it turned out, nothing really changed and it was more of an Apple branding thing. However, any sharp collector and music historian will see the writing on the wall and realize - just as 45s, record players and cassingles were phased out - it is only a matter of time before we will no longer have a la carte track purchases. Obviously the music industry has moved onto streaming as the primary method of consuming music. And streaming is great - fast, affordable and convenient. However, as collectors who may have built up huge libraries of iTunes files, are any of you worried that one day your libraries will be unplayable / obsolete? Or that streaming does not offer you the same 'feeling of completion / ownership' that owning a library provides? I personally love the ability to add artwork, tinker with song metadata (add peak positions, etc), - all things that don't seem possible with streaming playlists and platforms. And how long do you give the current software before it is no longer available in a future update? |
Replies:
Posted By: thecdguy
Date Posted: 16 December 2021 at 10:43am
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As long as you don't update it, you can still use the one
you're using now, right? I haven't updated mine in years. ------------- Dan In Philly |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 16 December 2021 at 10:57am
I use mp3tag, no need for Itunes. Mp3tag does everything for ALAC, FLAC and mp3's that I need. If you don't want to do the work, streaming is your option. As long as Apple has a charging cord software will be available. Once they go all cloud that might be it. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
jebsib wrote:Posted By: torcan
Date Posted: 16 December 2021 at 1:40pm
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I've never used itunes but I've got all my files saved as
.wav . Whether your files are mp3 or wav, wouldn't they always be playable? On my windows laptop, I can play them either with Groove music or Windows Media Player. As long as the systems keep featuring that, wouldn't you always be safe? My main computer I used for music (and have also DJ'ed with a few times) recently began running into problems. I had no choice but to reset it back to factory standards and copy the .wav files back from my backup drive. They work fine. I have to download audacity again so I can edit newer files. Not too familiar with Apple yet, but I'm probably going to buy one in the new year and use that instead - as several people have told me they're more reliable. Are the Apples easy to figure out when it comes to playing music? |
Posted By: davidclark
Date Posted: 16 December 2021 at 8:15pm
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Interesting topic. I began using iTunes about 15 years ago (12 on a Mac), and
I've built 100s (over 1,000 for sure) playlists. THAT is what I would fear losing, as that is how I listen to my library. I will never use streaming. ------------- dc1 |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 16 December 2021 at 11:05pm
Absolutely agree. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: edtop40
Date Posted: 17 December 2021 at 4:48am
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I have all may files saved on an external hard drive in AAC
format...if they decide that AAC format is no longer valid, then I may be affected, otherwise, not... ------------- edtop40 |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 17 December 2021 at 6:33am
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I've never used I-tunes, nor do I have any plans to. My (digitized) collection resides on a NAS with several backups on external hard drives, it's a
combination of .wav, .flac & mp3...no proprietary formats that need a special player. Like others here, streaming doesn't particularly appeal to me. I don't own a "mobile device", and if I'm on/near a computer my own library is available. |
Posted By: 995wlol
Date Posted: 17 December 2021 at 7:26am
I believe since 2009, iTunes AAC files have been DRM- free, meaning they should be playable on any device that can decode AAC. Since AAC is considered a standard format, I'm personally not worried about being unable to play them during my lifetime (I currently use Media Monkey as my library and have no issues). |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 05 February 2022 at 3:41pm
I, too, have used iTunes to create HUNDREDS of playlists. And that's how I mostly listen to music (except when I'm listening to CD-Rs). Like you, I also fear losing all those playlist when iTunes is no longer available. My understanding from speaking with Apple is that newer iPhones don't have iTunes but Apple Music installed instead and that if I bought a newer iPhone, my iTunes playlists may not transfer to the Apple Music system on the new iPhone. For that reason, I'd never want to buy a new iphone. I'd likely lose all my playlists. It would take many, many months to create those playlists from scratch. And it doesn't sound like you can buy a new iPhone with Apple Music and put iTunes in there, in place of Apple Music, so I think I'd be really screwed if I lost all my playlists. Does anyone know if what this Apple employee told me is the truth? |
Posted By: davidclark
Date Posted: 05 February 2022 at 7:39pm
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I just bought an iPhone 13 mini, and fear not, EdisonLite, the Music app on
the iPhone will accept iTunes-created playlists. Now, I say that with a grain of salt, as in 2021, I moved to Big Sur on a new iMac, which no longer has iTunes, however it has the "Music" app, which is iTunes' replacement. I can state with almost certainty that iTunes and the Music app on an iPhone still "talk to each other" in terms of playlists. <edit for further clarity> Actually, it is not the Big Sur Music app that you use to "sync" playlists to your iPhone, rather the Finder app (which obviously "accesses" the playlists you've created in Music app). ------------- dc1 |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 05 February 2022 at 9:19pm
I can do everything that I did in Itunes in mp3tag including artwork, metadata. The only thing I use Itunes for is loading my phone up with music. Otherwise thanks to Ron (crapfromthepast) and his lesson on even generating html lists using mp3tag I have found Itunes to just be loading software, nothing more. If someone knows an interface for windows that replaces Itunes to load an Iphone, I would probably switch! ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 05 February 2022 at 9:23pm
It will be a cold day before Spotify or Apple Music get my hard earned money. As Hykker did I went digital about 10 years ago and never looked back. If I need digital source that I cant download I buy the cd, rip it and give it to others who want the physical CD. Of course backup, backup, backup your digital collection. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 05 February 2022 at 10:29pm
OK, I think I understand what you're saying. But this forum seems like a good place to take a poll since we all want to preserve what we've collected... Who here has upgraded from an old iPhone (and had made playlists in iTunes on that phone) to a newer iPhone that didn't come with iTunes - did you check to see if all the playlists you created transferred properly over to the "Apple Music" app or the "Music" app or whatever they call it? No missing playlists? or songs in the wrong order, or songs missing from the playlists? I'm guessing there are some people here who have iphones and upgraded in the years since iTunes wasn't a "thing" on their phone anymore. |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 06 February 2022 at 9:07pm
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I have an Iphone 12 512GB, I have Itunes in Windows 64GB and all my playlists are fine. I create new ones and have no issues. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: ChicagoBill
Date Posted: 06 February 2022 at 10:33pm
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Eeeeek! 34% of my collection is vinyl, 63% of it is on Compact Disc and CD-R's, 2% on cassettes and open reel, the remaining 1% is
on my hard-drive that I'm currently working on before I burn it to a CD-R. The only thing I fear is a house fire!! -Bill. |
Posted By: jebsib
Date Posted: 07 February 2022 at 6:33am
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Yeah, my new (-ish) iPhone "Music" app plays all my iTunes playlists.
However, I can't imagine that this will be the case within 5 years (!) On another note, sign me up for the ANTI Spotify / Apple Music stream team: Let's say you made a carefully curated playlist of every #1 song ever. Suddenly it would have gaps wherever a Neil Young song appears (or any other song / artist that might be taken down for whatever unforeseen reason) ... that would never happen when you own your own songs! |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 07 February 2022 at 6:34am
I generally don't use my phone for playing music playlists, but I can say that m3u playlists (the ones created in iTunes) can and do transfer without any issues using my MacBook. The process for doing it is a little different on the new OSX, but I've synced playlists to my phone without any problems. The new app is simply called "Music" (not "Apple Music," which is a streaming service). Windows still uses the iTunes app, and I would assume everything works fine there, too, going from iTunes to "Music" (iPhone), but I have not tried it. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 07 February 2022 at 6:40am
You might be right, but keep in mind that an iTunes playlist (m3u) is just a text document that tells the program which file you want it to play and where that file is stored on the device. In fact, you can open an m3u playlist in Windows Notepad (or any text editor) and see all the information contained in it. There's nothing fancy about those playlist files at all. If you wanted to, you could create one in Notepad, save it with an m3u extension, and iTunes (Music) would read it. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |