RTP-area local music and culture

[Chris Welbon <ctw AT neophi.com>]

On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 11:59 AM, <chapelhillguitarist AT hotmail.com>  
wrote:

> So to sum up, Bill Gates is a genius who made BILLIONS off of morons
> who have no clue that they are morons.

...said the guy with a Hotmail account.

> I keep my digital media library organized using the tools provided
> with the OS.  Either Linux or Windoze or Mac allow you to create and
> name folders.  What is so hard about that?  I don't need an online
> store keeping tabs of what I like to listen to in exchange for help in
> organizing my digital media library.  Not a good trade... unless of
> course you are a willing consumer.

You're misunderstanding (and certainly misrepresenting) how different  
iTunes the software is from iTunes the online music store.  iTunes the  
store knows *nothing* about what I'm listening to in iTunes the app  
(gigabytes upon gigabytes of 44KHz AIF files I imported myself from  
CDs).  That "feature" can be turned off with with a single click (and  
after Apple got raked over the privacy coals when the MiniStore was  
introduced, is no longer enabled by default).  So if you have an  
online store keeping tabs on what you like to listen to, you goofed.   
Not Apple.  Same goes for using iTunes the app to import music with  
"inferior" codecs and crappy bitrates.

I find iTunes the application to be a much quicker way for me to add  
to, organize, classify and access my collection.  It copies stuff from  
the CDs I buy nearly instantaneously (uncompressed, remember?) so I  
can put the CD away.  Rooting through 1200+ (I just checked) folders  
containing 20K+ subfolders and songs on the filesystem to find an  
album isn't my idea of a good time.  It's not that it's "hard", per  
se, it's just that it's comparatively a pain.  I spend enough time  
unavoidably doing that as it is.  YMMV.

Relatedly, I never have understood the complaints about iTunes and  
iPod lock-in.  Yes, buying music from the iTunes *store* locks you  
into Apple SW and devices. But there are so many online distribution  
channels and business models (Amazon, eMusic, physical CDs, Eastern  
European pirate sites) that this is really only a "problem" for the  
lazy, unimaginative or uninformed.  And it means people can get  
whatever player they want and not be locked to a particular vendor or  
format.  Even if they have the temerity to consider an iPod to be a  
reasonable mix of features, usability and cost.

Fandango