iTunes 'Genius'

[Sperge]

Apple haters go away please, this doesn't concern you.

Has anyone tried iTunes Genius at all? I decided to finally install it and it's come up with some pretty good playlists from my collection, I'm quite impressed.

But I'm a bit concerned about the fact that all the data goes to Apple and is linked to my store account (which of course has my card details).

Now I couldn't give a monkeys about Apple knowing about my musical tastes, even if they flog them off to third parties. I can live with it. But I'm more concerned about them knowing what mp3s may have come from, ahem, "other places". You see, I'm pretty sure that every mp3 has a digital signature and ones you have ripped from your own CDs will be unique while ones that have been shared won't be.

What do others think? Could this be used to grass people up to the RIAA?

[aura]

I really hope not but it wouldn't surprise me if they tried something sneaky like that, so just incase I will never use it! I wish sometimes that I didn't have a Mac, i tunes is such a piece of shit.

[Sperge]

I really hope not but it wouldn't surprise me if they tried something sneaky like that, so just incase I will never use it! I wish sometimes that I didn't have a Mac, i tunes is such a piece of shit.

I'm actually not finding iTunes so bad, despite all the horror stories I've been told.I don't like the way it buggers up your music folder, admittedly, but I got round that by putting the iTunes folder on my secondary hard drive.

I'm not actually using a Mac at home (yet). I use them at a lot of places I do sub-editing shifts at (some use Macs, some use PCs)and I'm planning on getting a Mac laptop (for DJing more than anything else).

[aura]

I really hope not but it wouldn't surprise me if they tried something sneaky like that, so just incase I will never use it! I wish sometimes that I didn't have a Mac, i tunes is such a piece of shit.

I'm actually not finding iTunes so bad, despite all the horror stories I've been told.I don't like the way it buggers up your music folder, admittedly, but I got round that by putting the iTunes folder on my secondary hard drive.

I'm not actually using a Mac at home (yet). I use them at a lot of places I do sub-editing shifts at (some use Macs, some use PCs)and I'm planning on getting a Mac laptop (for DJing more than anything else).

Yeah, may have been a bit harsh. The thing that REALLY annoys me is that it has a habit of re-arranging the track order of some albums and all the approved ways of correcting this don't always work!

[ThE99THReDBallooN]

Apple haters go away please, this doesn't concern you.

Has anyone tried iTunes Genius at all? I decided to finally install it and it's come up with some pretty good playlists from my collection, I'm quite impressed.

But I'm a bit concerned about the fact that all the data goes to Apple and is linked to my store account (which of course has my card details).

Now I couldn't give a monkeys about Apple knowing about my musical tastes, even if they flog them off to third parties. I can live with it. But I'm more concerned about them knowing what mp3s may have come from, ahem, "other places". You see, I'm pretty sure that every mp3 has a digital signature and ones you have ripped from your own CDs will be unique while ones that have been shared won't be.

What do others think? Could this be used to grass people up to the RIAA?

yeah i liked the look of that aswell but this is the reason i didnt install it.
no idea wether its true or not though

[Magma]

Apple haters go away please, this doesn't concern you.

Has anyone tried iTunes Genius at all? I decided to finally install it and it's come up with some pretty good playlists from my collection, I'm quite impressed.

But I'm a bit concerned about the fact that all the data goes to Apple and is linked to my store account (which of course has my card details).

Now I couldn't give a monkeys about Apple knowing about my musical tastes, even if they flog them off to third parties. I can live with it. But I'm more concerned about them knowing what mp3s may have come from, ahem, "other places". You see, I'm pretty sure that every mp3 has a digital signature and ones you have ripped from your own CDs will be unique while ones that have been shared won't be.

What do others think? Could this be used to grass people up to the RIAA?

I've been thinking exactly the same thin and haven't switched it on. The majority of my record collection is legit, but that still leaves a fair bit of scope for a few that could feasibly land me in trouble. I'm leaving it alone....

[laurennoodles]

i've never thought of that actually. i've only used it twice i think and wasn't that impressed so haven't really bothered with it. i generally want to listen to one artist at a time or if i want a mix i make a playlist so yeah.
also how can anyone not like itunes?? fair i'm a bit biased (i only ever used a pc at school, i've used macs since i was 6) but i can't think of anything that i would complain about? i've used windows media player a few times at mates and it just seems shit lol

[Magma]

iTunes is nice on a Mac, but lots of us PC users get a bit frustrated with the Windows version... It used to be much worse and it made me stay away from iPods for ages... But I relented when the iPhone came out for free and it's actually fine now... Still prefer winamp (probably just familiarity... Creature of habit!), but it doesn't cripple your PC anymore.

[Sperge]

I'm trying to find out exactly what data it sends to Apple. From what I've gathered on unofficial Mac forums, it just takes the tags. If that's all they're doing, people are being unduly paranoid.

But I need to scour the geek forums to see if anyone has analysed exactly what is in those packets.

[baldmosher]

Isn't this just the same level of logic as Pandora and the same level of "spying" as Last.fm? As in not very much at all? And pretty pointless to my mind. Though I don't use iTunes and I don't use WinAmp any more as I prefer MediaMonkey.

[Sperge]

How about reading the full thread for a change before sticking your oar in?

The concerns people have had isn't about Apple knowing what people listen to, it's the fear that the data sent back may include info about which mp3s have been shared (mp3 files that have been widely shared on torrents will have the same digital 'signature'). Since an ITunes store account is linked to credit card details, it would make fabulous ammunition for the RIAA.

However, as far as I've been able to gather so far, all that is sent back is the ID3 tags. It's probably worth noting that a lot of stuff shared on Torrents has all kinds of stupid ego shit written in the Comment field, even giving the URL of the torrent site etc. it's probably a good idea to strip that crap out before submitting it to Genius...

[baldmosher]

I did read the full thread, you've summarised it nicely there.

Anyway, as I was saying, Last.fm.

[Magma]

I did read the full thread, you've summarised it nicely there.

Anyway, as I was saying, Last.fm.

Yeah, most likely it's similar to Last.fm or something, thing is that Last.fm doesn't have a strong a connection to a legal store, like iTunes. Since iTunes is able to keep track of copywritten (is that even a word?!) files, it could be possible for it to report on ones that are either not copywritten or that share some sort of serial number with a file that's known to have been shared out.

Anyway, things like Last.fm mean that the only advantage this gives you is being able to easily get the music onto your iPod, I suppose?

Last.fm's brilliant.

[baldmosher]

Last.fm's brilliant.

So is MediaMonkey and the latest version will synch with your iPod AND scrobble to Last.fm if you install the Last.fm WinAmp plugin.

I stand by my opinion that if iTunes disappeared tomorrow, nobody would really care that much.

[ThE99THReDBallooN]

anyone used the new visualizer on itunes 8?
pretty damn funky

[Magma]

Last.fm's brilliant.

So is MediaMonkey and the latest version will synch with your iPod AND scrobble to Last.fm if you install the Last.fm WinAmp plugin.

I stand by my opinion that if iTunes disappeared tomorrow, nobody would really care that much.

Quite right.

Media Monkey looks tasty... might give it a shot...

[fletcher]

Oops, it turned into another apple hating thread

[ThE99THReDBallooN]

ohhh this does look nice, cheers for the heads up

[Sperge]

Oops, it turned into another apple hating thread

Whoa, check out the 1337 d00d!!!111!!!11

That MediaMonkey looks good, actually. I'm not a fanboi.

[pesh]

i'm coming to despise apple, yet i love the computers they make

[imitationleather]

I'd been resisting upgrading my version of iTunes (mainly because I expected it to just add on lots of features I didn't want, like the ability to buy games and stuff like that), but this thread pushed me over.

I think this Genius thing is a really nice feature, if a bit too clever for its own good. I've selected a few tracks with it and it's made some pretty decent playlists. What I think is really good about it is how it reminds you of stuff you'd forgotten you had in your library. I'd got caught in a bit of a rut of just listening to the same few albums over and over, so this thingy should help me get out of that.

I was an ardent WinAmp user for years and years and vowed I'd never use iTunes, but when I got my new laptop last year I finally had a machine that could run it without slowing down to a halt. Now I don't think I could really be bothered to change to anything else. It does exactly what I want it to and I don't really use the lossless formats that it can't handle. One big problem I had with WinAmp was that it became a bit too difficult to browse your music once you had several thousand mp3s. It was perfect for me back in the days when it took half an hour to download a track and so I had barely any music on my PC, but not now. MediaMonkey does look nice, but I'm too set in my iTunes ways.