So this is impressively stand-up… I bought an SD copy of Killing Eve on the iTunes store for $2, just to see if I’d like it. It’s pretty good, and I might like to watch it all.

One of the reasons I like using iTunes for this sort of series checking is that I can pull a Complete My Season, putting the price of individual episodes towards buying a discounted whole season later, if I want. It encourages trying before you buy, which, ultimately, encourages buying.

But what if I want HD? Turns out Complete My Season has me covered. That $1.99 I spent on an SD episode unexpectedly can also be applied to an HD season purchase! The HD was originally $19.99, now $18 after a $1.99 purchase. SD was $13.99, now $12.

I mean, I guess that makes some sense. You can download the SD version when you buy the HD package, so the SD:HD::SD purchase::HD purchase syllogism works, but it’s still impressive to see.

Anyhow, kudos to Apple on that one.

Labels: business, iTunes

From mjtsai.com:

I’m not quite sure whether iTunes LP was a bad idea or simply one that neither Apple (aside from Steve Jobs?) nor the music producers actually had much interest in. 

I think this signals less "whether iTunes LP was a bad idea" (though the skeuomorphism Jobs loved is slowly dying our from the `OSes) than "someone's paying attention to scaling down iTunes". I think they're slowly moving towards killing music sales, no matter what Sellers at AWT thinks. ;^D

I tried to think of why this is happening now, and believe it falls in with a general deprecation of non-Apple Music (qua the streaming service) features in iTunes. Here are a few data points...

• Cesium's author points out that playing music on your own phone is increasingly difficult via Apple Music in iOS 11.
  • That is, where Apple Music API used to be an easy way to access files and streams, it's now neither. A change is coming.
• HomePod is an obvious push towards subscriptions.
  • The only music you can play that doesn't require at least an Apple Match subscription is stuff you bought directly from Apple.
  • In a sense, those files are delivered via streaming too... the only twist is that you sometimes save the bytes.
• This useless Android Apple Music app, which can't even play what you've purchased from Apple. It's only streaming.
• As Michael Tsai remarked recently (and I mighta mentioned), Amazon recently ended its song hosting.
• Microsoft stopped its streaming service and replaced it with Spotify.
• And Microsoft stopped selling online music completely.

The writing's on the wall. Heck, Apple Music on iTunes has a whole second UI...

After cashing in a $100 for $85 Apple Music gift card (<<< I'm not an affiliate, but it looks like it was legit), iTunes asked me if I'd like to put that towards an Apple Music subscription.

No, no I wouldn't. But I did drop into the Apple Music UI side of iTunes, which is obviously different than the normal iTunes Music Store. I bet there's some crossover with the Android app. After looking around the posh store of which I wasn't a member, I slunk out, knowing there's a new side to iTunes I don't get to experience.

Follow the money

I don't blame Apple, much. Streaming revenue continues to grow like mad, and 36 million x $100 or so is lots more than $600 million in digital sales.

The number will continue going lower. And subtract from that number the cost to support the mammoth mess that is iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. Microsoft's Groove is a small-scale test of the economics of supporting music sales. There are better places to spend that development time.

The Apple Music side of iTunes will eat the iTunes Music Store. We're getting rid of the cruft of the Store now. In a year or two, the iTMS will be a clear second fiddle to Music. Then we'll get a warning, like I did on Groove, to download all my purchases by a certain date, or they'll be unavailable.

And finally, acceptance

After years of hang-wringing, I find that by now I don't really mind that online track sales is dying. I have a good collection.

And I'm lucky enough to have a local record store. Here's what they wrote to all of their newsletter subscribers when Best Buy said it was closing down CD sales...

From Monster Music:

The whole point of all of this isn't to slam Best Buy...  But what invariably happens when the media reports an item like this is that the general public totally misconstrues what's going on.

 

What's going on, as it affects you, is... well, not much.

 

Except for this - not only are we going to continue to sell CDs, we're actually adding to our CD inventory.

I don't see vinyl getting less hipster. And, as they say later in their letter, "Three, there will be a CD resurgence one day, you know there will. It might not be as drastic and fantastic as the vinyl resurgence, but I'll bet it'll be stronger than the cassette revival." That's probably a good call too.

After the iTunes Music Store closes its doors, I'll still have music to buy. And rip. And mix. And burn.

Labels: Apple Music, business, iTunes, music, obsolescence, subscriptions, vinyl

I realize I'm old, but I still haven't swapped from buying music to streaming all of it.

Seems like folks like me are being underserved. It's not that we don't like to buy music. In many cases, it's the opposite. I buy more albums & tracks each year than I'd like to count.

Why don't any of these music cloud services provide good, ad-free recommendation services for music buyers, not renters, like me? They're sitting on millions of people's listening habits. Why not convince me to buy more with spot-on suggestions?

For Apple, Spotify paid, and Amazon Unlimited, I've yet to find that I need to pay $10 a month or so to listen to everything. That's about ten new albums a year plus a few guerilla tracks, which seems enough, so far.

These are closed ecosystems. I can't easily get just the recommendations. I hear Spotify has great recommendation playlists, but ads are too annoying to listen to when I use my music (and I do, mostly to give myself a little more energy when coding). I'm not going to pay for recommendations if I don't know they'll be pretty good, and I'm not excited about listening to music with ads. I'd rather buy the good stuff. Nor do I want to pay so much for recommendations that I can't afford to own anything new. I'm not a fan of subscriptions in general... Enjoying music shouldn't be a capital addiction, just an emotional one.

And why don't I trust recommendations? I used & enjoyed Pandora for a while, and it was initially great for giving me suggestions for new music, but once good suggestions ran dry (and they did dry up -- at first the suggestions were great, but then they became repetitive and/or reaches that didn't quite fit), the honeymoon, as they say, was over.

Ads plus the same rotation of songs, plus a few new misses when I sign back in every few months? No thanks. If they were as good as they once were, I'd consider $5 a month for "personalized radio with no ads". But I'm afraid that because they're doing this with "curation" (human and algorithmic) rather than actual listeners' habits, the recommendations simply aren't as good as they should be.

Here's an easy example: For the most part, I like hard rock with female front'men. Why do they give me so many whiny dudes? NO WHINY DUDES, PANDORA, KK? THX. Apparently the music genome has no concept of XX.

Three services I actually use

Amazon Prime hits a sweet spot. In one app, I can listen to all of my own music that I've uploaded, and its catalog is just big enough and its recommendations are just good enough for me to occasionally discover new artists without ads when my ear starts wanting to wander. This is sort of how the radio used to work, but adless.

(It's worth mentioning that I listened to a lot of cassettes when I started driving. I don't like ads. And that means I've known a few albums -- Knowledge is Power, Pump, Aftermath -- really well for decades.)

Occasionally, I hear of something new that's not on Prime or an artist that I've "discovered" on Prime doesn't have their entire discography there, and that's where Spotify's free tier pops in.

Yesterday, I bumped into Samantha Fish on Prime (a follow-on from listening to Halestorm, I think), but the most recent record, Chills and Fever, that was on Prime, wasn't nearly as good as Black Wind Howlin' from a few years back, at least not for a Halestorm fan.

A little sleuthing later determined that she has two albums from last year, and that the Chills & Fever one was a little experimental. Belle of the West is a little more like her earlier stuff.

Spotify lets me take a quick listen with minimal ads to see if this I'm buying a track or two or the whole CD.

And where did I do this research? The last of the three services I use: YouTube. I really thought this one was "just for the kids", but, newsflash, it's MTV. This is not new, no matter what the internets are telling you.

I hate the ads (hello Grammarly and Wix. I code native javascript, dangit, and host my own servers! Stop advertising to me!), but I really enjoy the videos. I realize this dates me again, but I could deal with an adless YouTube streaming related music videos in the background while I worked, but I'd need a third or fourth monitor (depending on the office) to host it. ;^)

And YouTube's related videos list is a pretty good place for discovery too.

What can Apple learn?

As a stockholder, this pains me a little. Probably the coolest picture of Steve Jobs is the one when he's sitting, cross-legged on the floor, at home, with his albums, hifi on the floor behind him, fancy-pants light over his head, drinking tea. Minimalist. Relaxed. Big honkin' speakers. Good sound. Good albums.

^{(image from geeksandbeats.com)}

You know what's most important to folks listening to music? Good music. Knowing which albums to buy. Why do I use Amazon streaming? Because it's all of my music plus more, and that more is curated for me in a way that's not annoying to access.

But, like Jobs, at least in 2007, said, [some] folks prefer to own music.

Why can't folks who are stuck in 2007 get good recommendations from Apple Music? Why can't I play even the stuff I've purchased from Apple on the Android Apple Music app? Why doesn't Apple try to sell and sell me good music? Why does Apple Music feel like a closed system, and the iTunes Music Store feel a little like Tower a month or two before they started discounting for clearance?

Good recommendations are out there. Apple has them. Why can't I hear the recommendations without ads or a monthly access charge?

And if you hooked me on enough recommendations, enough that it'd far exceed my album budget to keep up? I wonder what I might finally do...

That's all.

Aside: Why do gal blues guitarists feel the need to dress so, um, not relaxed? It's not everyone, but let's just say B.B. King didn't wear an analogous wardrobe. It's a little embarrassing when I'm recommendation-rabbit-holing and pop up some of these NSFH[ome] album covers.

The worst part for me is that it's not even clear self-aware [and therefore often self-]exploitation like, say, Maria Brink in In This Moment, which is easier to ignore, because you know she's in on the game: This is not her. This is simply and obviously a brand. (That said, they made their best album before the brand went, well, over the edge with "branding".)

I was going to include some samples, but if I pixelate them at the same time, it kinda kills the point. Maybe folks are more comfortable making images with less on, which is fine, natch, but, eg, Ana Popovic doesn't seem to want to wear anything while she poses for covers. I know, I know, it's anti-feminist and Puritanical to suggest someone should put clothes on, but here's one vote to please wear whatever makes you most comfortable when you jam, and slap that on the cover -- if you want yourself on the cover.

I'm buying the music, not your picture. Like, literally, if streaming has done nothing else, it's given us the ability to hear everything we're considering buying. I'm just buying the music.

Painfully, I've ironically spoken too soon.

Labels: algos, apple, Apple Music, iTunes, music, pandora, spotify

I like to listen to artists by album, and I like to pick which album to start from. No luck in iOS Music-land. From macrumors.com:

OMG Seriously! Far out, Apple have done bad! 

Thanks for that though 

That was not particularly discoverable.

But it gets worse...

That certainly works, but the albums are still sorted in reverse chronological order (and have been since iOS 7).

So bad. Big league! This has driven me crazy for years. You'd think Apple could get the iPod part right by now.

I tried Cesium. Something eventually talked me out of it... I think, in addition to the fact that Siri only uses Music, that I recall a few nasty crashes.

Doesn't seem like a music app would be this difficult to get right. There were lots of decent ones on OS 9-, for instance.

Labels: apple fail, ios, iTunes, music

Labels: apple, fail, iTunes

Hello, kudos to Windows. Groove Player is playing FLAC format out of the box, as advertised, apparently.

I'm not an audio snob, but I sure do enjoy downloading free and legal shows from etree. They're usually in FLAC format now (no more shn, I don't think), and not having to convert them is wonderful. And it's nice not having to load a new codec to get things to play like I did on macOS for so long (thank you for years of use, Perian).

I've gotten to the point that I enjoy using the Windows Groove player okay. It's so much more straightforward than iTunes now, and its Metro style/UWP GUI is a huge improvement over Windows Media Player. Lighter-weight, less resource hogging software is good, though I'm afraid it's going to keep creeping up as they try to sell more and more stuff (lots of streaming stuff in "Your Groove" now). FLAC support just adds to the enjoyment.

Labels: flac, iTunes, music, windows

Gruber weighs in on the rumored iTunes reboot:

What do you see when you open the Spotify or Pandora apps? Just the streaming music you have access to. That makes them less complicated, by definition. “Everything you see is in the cloud, and you have access to it because you are a subscriber” is easy to understand. “Some of this is in the cloud, some of this you own” is more complicated.

He's joining a reasonably long list of Apple pundits with the request to split Apple Music into its own app, the most recent I can think of offhand was Jared Sinclair, whose step two of four ways to reorg Music was, "Bye, Bye, iPod - Break out all the legacy iPod features into another app."

The worst part is that, sort of like the Big Jennifer Null stuff I've mentioned recently, the iTunes confusion really was preventable.

Gruber leaves the door open on the preventable part, saying,

Maybe there’s a way to design “all your music in one app” that is completely clear, convenient, and obvious.

The four sets of Apple Music

Well, the idea Apple had was bang on. It shouldn't matter where your music lives, you should be able to sync it all. There are really only four sets of music files from iTunes' perspective:

1. Files that you brought to Apple music (no DRM)
2. Files Apple thinks it's matched from 1.) on another of your devices (no DRM)
3. Files Apple didn't match from 1.) and allows you to copy to your other devices via their cloud (no DRM)
   • This is really another version of 1, just copied to a new device.
4. Files you've only ever gotten from an Apple Music subscription (DRM)

Apple should keep 1.) around like those files are gold. Never let the user whack those without going through some sort of "locked button with cover" removal process. As Jason Snell points out, there's a real UI issue here, but also a serious functional one. "Remove download" should never throw your original files in the trash. Warn that those are files that you brought to Apple Music, and that deleting them will irrevocably remove the originals. And even then, after they're deleted, make sure users can redownload matched versions at the worst, if they were matched, without DRM, until their subscription lapses. Better is to immediately create a backup of that original file, though I realize there are cases where the user might really rather that original disappear immediately.

Files from 2.) should similarly always be downloaded without DRM. There should also be the possibility of saying, "That's a bad match; give me my original file." Maybe in version two you let the user pick from other possible matches, and then you cloud source the right matches after you get a better idea what goes where.

Files from 3.) are pretty simple. You didn't match 'em, so you let folks copy them anywhere they are logged into iTunes. It's pretty much what Dropbox does.

For the fourth, well, the only real gotcha is when they really do match something from 1.), and Apple mismatched it. But then you've already got both files. If someone tries to delete their original because it's now "duplicated", you should send them through that "locked button cover" process, and possibly have a, "duplicate match" reason there. Then you should delete the file from 4, not 1.

Note that there's another category that we're going to ignore to make things simpler -- things that should be matches that aren't matched. I'd provide a mechanism to say when something's mismatched, but if there isn't a match found and should've been, having the original file from 1.) on another machine isn't too bad. That is, there's Category 5: Things Apple should've matched with AACs they have on file and didn't. Instead of providing a way to say so in order that you get more 2.), just leave them in Category 3 until you get everything else straight. That often happens now, and it's fine.

When your Apple Music subscription lapses, you should probably also be given a final download session (that could take weeks to finish), possibly even on more than one device. "Your Apple Music subscription has ended. Would you like to download your matched and/or original files that are currently missing on this Mac/PC?"

Notice that the first three categories make up iTunes Match.

iTunes Match should've let Apple know that they weren't doing a great job of providing its eponymous function -- matching -- and they really needed to make sure they could get 1.), 2.), & 3.) right before going whole hog into a unified Apple Music. But it's still just a database management problem. They "simply" should have been much more defensive with Apple Music for when matching failed. If your user doesn't have a file three places, don't delete it.

But as long as you have a space for a flag on each file to say which it is -- an unDRM'd original*, an unDRM'd "likely match", or a DRM'd file that's never been matched -- you don't have this trouble.

It takes some great QA, but it's a straightforward, at worst tedious, process. I could make such a system without the issues Apple's seen in, let's say, six months, and I could recommend a good five or so folks that could as well.

• "UnDRM'd" could also included files purchased before iTunes removed DRM.

Labels: apple fail, Apple Music, coding, fail, gruber, iTunes, qa, rdbms

So here I am, happily streaming songs from Prime via Amazon Music, when I hear a song from Garbage I know (#1 Crush*). I know this isn't in my favorites playlist on iTunes. Why not?

I check, and sure enough, it's a B-side, and I haven't shelled out for the Garbage 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition. ;^) So let's see if I can just buy the single file to "add" to my plain wayne version of Garbage (the album).

Search a little, and...

Nothing. I tried a few other options, and still nothing. Lots of crush, not so much crush from Garbage. That's interesting.

Surely (Shirley?) they have the song, right?

Yes they do. And now I'm previewing it. (See it, down there at #18?)

This is as bad as the "Big Jennifer Null" problem I blogged about a while back. THIS IS NOT LITTLE BOBBY TABLES. It'd be bad enough if it was, as even "real" SQL injection should be caught by anyone worth their salt these days. But not being able to search for special characters? No, past that, not being to able to find a title that contains special characters? That's just sad. Unforgivably sad.

It's not difficult to search for a string that begins with "#", dang it. Grow up, Apple. I'm dying to fix this. Please let me fix this. As I said before about J-Null, this isn't Little Bobby Tables. This is stoooopid.

Insult to injury? When I started writing this, iTunes decided it'd take 23.7% of my CPU. I'd noticed Garbage had a new release, and was on that page, doing nothing. Not playing any music on a page without even a rotating photo carousel (thanks a lot, Draper) takes 23.7% of my CPU.

Fail, Apple. That's a huge fail.

* Ha, I can't even make an affiliate link to #1 Crush.

Pro tip: Do not search for "Hooper Mix" on the affiliate link tool for the iTunes Music Store. Borderline NSFW. Thanks again, Apple.

Labels: apple fail, coding, fail, iTunes, SQL

• The driver wasn't written to support them (code to specifications)
• The adapter simply doesn't have the guts to pull it off. 

2. What is the maximum resolution available for use with the Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter?

The resolution available with the Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter is 1920 x 1200. VGA displays that use higher refresh rates (such as 85 Hz) at resolutions of 1600 x 1200 or greater may not generate video properly until you lower the refresh rate. 

The new MacBooks contain a hardware chip that prevents certain types of display being used, in an effort to plug the analog hole. Devices such as the HDfury can get around this, but this adds greater cost and inconveinience [sic] to what should be a relatively simple procedure. [emphasis mine]

Interesting to me that "cable-free" is included. /shrug

Labels: apple, DRM, FSF, iTunes, vga

Labels: apple fail, iTunes

Labels: iTunes

It’s easy to pick on iTunes, but this is pretty egregious.

Labels: apple fail, iTunes, qa

The problem now is that those who want to use iTunes for its original purpose, music, find themselves stuck in a morass of features designed to sell, sell, sell product from the iTunes Store.

Labels: apple fail, iTunes

Labels: apple fail, fail, iTunes, qa, testing

Why did Apple give away three months of free Apple Music? I think, sure, those that stick around and pay their subscription price will give Apple a nice bump, but the real win is finding out what's in everybody's "library".

If you thought iTunes Match gave them some info, now they have not just libraries but favorite streaming artists from nearly everyone with an iPhone. Hello, data scrape.

I don't think it's any wonder that the iTunes Music Store's recommendations for me have gotten tons better -- probably finally passing Pandora -- for discovery in the last several months. Honestly, iTuens recommendations are noticeably better.

I wonder if this increase in recommend-fu will continue after the majority of everyone who was on the 3 month trial of Apple Music opts back out.

In the meanwhile, stock up for Apple.

Labels: apple, Apple Music, iTunes

My gut tells me that this is Apple’s “simplicity” ethos at work here: you never have to think about which credit card you’re using, which streamlines the checkout process of buying apps. But for those of us who do need to bounce back and forth between multiple cards, it would certainly be a boon.

Labels: apple fail, iTunes

Labels: apple fail, iTunes

Searching

To search for content from a field in your website and display the results in your website, you must create a search field that passes a fully-qualified URL content request to the iTunes Store, parse the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format returned from the search, and display the results in your website.

The fully-qualified URL must have the following format:

https://itunes.apple.com/search?parameterkeyvalue

{
    "resultCount": 5,
    "results": [
        {
            "wrapperType": "collection",
            "collectionType": "Album",
            "artistId": 481547798,
            "collectionId": 481547797,
            "amgArtistId": 3688,
            "artistName": "Black Crowes",
            "collectionName": 

"Stare It Cold (Recorded live at Greek Theatre, Nov. 1991 in L.A. CA, USA)",
            "collectionCensoredName": 

"Stare It Cold (Recorded live at Greek Theatre, Nov. 1991 in L.A. CA, USA)",
            "artistViewUrl": 

"https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/black-crowes/id481547798?uo=4",
            "collectionViewUrl": 

"https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stare-it-cold-recorded-live/id481547797?uo=4",
            "artworkUrl60": 

"http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/089/Music/09/30/87/mzi.osaekjzf.60x60-50.jpg",
            "artworkUrl100": 

"http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/089/Music/09/30/87/mzi.osaekjzf.100x100-75.jpg",
            "collectionPrice": 10.99,
            "collectionExplicitness": "notExplicit",
            "trackCount": 11,
            "copyright": "℗ 2011 Akarma",
            "country": "USA",
            "currency": "USD",
            "releaseDate": "2011-09-20T07:00:00Z",
            "primaryGenreName": "Rock"
        },
        {
            "wrapperType": "collection",
            "collectionType": "Album",
            "artistId": 2969371,
            "collectionId": 278116879,
            "amgArtistId": 3688,
            "artistName": "The Black Crowes",
            "collectionName": "iTunes Originals: The Black Crowes",
            "collectionCensoredName": "iTunes Originals: The Black Crowes",
            "artistViewUrl": 

"https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-black-crowes/id2969371?uo=4",
            "collectionViewUrl": 

"https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/itunes-originals-black-crowes/id278116879?uo=4",
            "artworkUrl60": 

"http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/034/Music/62/91/e9/dj.bbvgvohe.60x60-50.jpg",
            "artworkUrl100": 

"http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/034/Music/62/91/e9/dj.bbvgvohe.100x100-75.jpg",
            "collectionPrice": 9.99,
            "collectionExplicitness": "notExplicit",
            "trackCount": 27,
            "copyright": "℗ 2008 Silver Arrow Records",
            "country": "USA",
            "currency": "USD",
            "releaseDate": "2008-04-15T07:00:00Z",
            "primaryGenreName": "Rock"
        },
...

Labels: iTunes, noteToSelf

What needs to happen is to have a many to many relationship between songs and albums. Sites like FreeDB and CDDB need to have a concept of what's a verbatim repeat (like the example above) and what's not (like the pretty decent live version of Ruby Tuesday on Flashpoint). Then we can have an mp3 player that's worth its salt. Search for everything on Rolling Stones, the original version of Ruby Tuesday's there. Search for everything in Between the Buttons, you'll get that same entry. Same for The London Years. Not the same, obviously, for Flashpoint. And you'll get all your settings and properties for that entry in all [of the first] three listings.

Labels: iTunes

Labels: copyright, DRM, iTunes, ramble