Erstwhile iTunes: Old libraries, Windows, and more

[wgscott]

Arse Technica has a good summary:

 

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/06/answers-to-some-of-your-itunes-questions-old-libraries-windows-and-more/

 

 

Quote

Old iTunes libraries and files

 

FURTHER READING

Apple will soon kill off iTunes and, with it, an entire era of music history

Apple Music in macOS Catalina will import users' existing music libraries from iTunes in their entirety, Apple says. That includes not just music purchased on iTunes, but rips from CDs, MP3s, and the like added from other sources.

 

Further, the existing feature that synced users' non-iTunes files to the cloud will continue to work, and of course, users will still be able to buy songs from Apple. Apple is not turning Apple Music into a streaming-only experience. For the most part, the end of iTunes seems to be an end in name only: key features will be retained in the Music app.

Syncing iPhones, iPads, and iPods

Apple already explained during the keynote that syncing with and managing your iOS devices from your Mac—which used to be an iTunes task—will now happen within Finder, Apple's file-management application. When you plug your iPhone, iPod, or iPad in, you'll see it in the sidebar for Finder just like you would any external drive or USB stick.

But when you click it, you won't just see a file system like you would with those accessories. Instead, you will be presented with an interface very similar to the one you're used to in iTunes, with many (if not all) of the same features. It's certainly a more natural place for this to happen, given that it more closely resembles the experience you have when you plug other devices in to your Mac.

 

[kirkmc]

Yep. It has amazed me to witness so many journalists frothing at the mouth and spouting "iTunes is dead." 

 

FWIW, this won't affect most iTunes users, because they're not making any changes to iTunes on Windows. 

[wgb113]

Hopefully it will still allow ripping of CDs and importing of needledrops for syncing and streaming with/to devices.

 

My concern comes from the fact that I don't believe Catalina will run on any Macs that contain optical drives.

[kirkmc]

Yes, you can rip. While it probably isn't compatible with any Mac with an internal optical drive, it runs fine with an external drive. 

[wgscott]

 Also of interest:  https://dougscripts.com/itunes/2019/06/first-thoughts-about-music-app/

 

 

[cambridgehank]

On 6/4/2019 at 12:41 PM, wgscott said:

 Also of interest:  https://dougscripts.com/itunes/2019/06/first-thoughts-about-music-app/

 

 

I was wondering why we had not heard from Doug.

[wgscott]

From Apple:  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210200

 

 

[kirkmc]

Yes, my thoughts on the Apple document, etc. 

 

https://www.kirkville.com/itunes-doesnt-look-so-dead-to-me/

[Ralf11]

I'm not worried about its death - I just hope they don't maim it, like they did to Finder

[kirkmc]

11 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I'm not worried about its death - I just hope they don't maim it, like they did to Finder

 

Ah, so now it's the Finder's turn to be called "bloated." 

[Ralf11]

please don't attempt to put words in my mouth

[wgscott]

The Finder and iTunes have/had a shared pre-OS X code base.  Finder was finally re-written in Cocoa from scratch.  I don't know if iTunes ever was.  I'm not sure if that was the "maiming" my distinguished colleague is referring to.

 

One thing I haven't heard anything about is whether Apple Music will do automatic sampling frequency matching, the way many of the third-party players do in order to maintain bit-perfect playback.  (I suspect they won't change their policy on this, since the policy is ultimately to make it "just work" for the normal user that doesn't care about such things, but it would be cool if they snuck in a hidden preference for geeks.)

[kirkmc]

There are no hidden geek preferences as far as I can tell. 

[Confused]

8 hours ago, wgscott said:

The Finder and iTunes have/had a shared pre-OS X code base.  Finder was finally re-written in Cocoa from scratch.  I don't know if iTunes ever was.  I'm not sure if that was the "maiming" my distinguished colleague is referring to.

 

One thing I haven't heard anything about is whether Apple Music will do automatic sampling frequency matching, the way many of the third-party players do in order to maintain bit-perfect playback.  (I suspect they won't change their policy on this, since the policy is ultimately to make it "just work" for the normal user that doesn't care about such things, but it would be cool if they snuck in a hidden preference for geeks.)

The Windows version of iTunes offers a WASAPI option, which I presume does indeed provide bit perfect playback?  It seams crazy to me that they would not provide similar for Apple Music.