iTunes-Genius

Richard3552 · **iTunes-Genius -** 09-26-2008, 10:21 AM

Hello, I wondered how many people use itunes? The software is excellent but shame regards the store! Selling DRM and pricey music not personally my choice of shop!
What worries me and I shall not be using it is the new add on to version 8 called "Genius." I have read briefly up on the new service and in essence it creates playlists of similar type music to the one you are currently playing. All well and good (If you can't make your own) but the catch is you have to share your music library with iTunes! This is where I smell a Rat!! Why should you have to share your library with anyone let alone a music store unless they have something to benefit by knowing what music the masses have?

Anyone heard any news about my preferred shop sparks? The upload of new music has almost dried up!

solaris · **MediaMonkey for me, thank you -** 09-26-2008, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard3552

Hello, I wondered how many people use itunes? The software is excellent but shame regards the store! Selling DRM and pricey music not personally my choice of shop!
What worries me and I shall not be using it is the new add on to version 8 called "Genius." I have read briefly up on the new service and in essence it creates playlists of similar type music to the one you are currently playing. All well and good (If you can't make your own) but the catch is you have to share your music library with iTunes! This is where I smell a Rat!! Why should you have to share your library with anyone let alone a music store unless they have something to benefit by knowing what music the masses have?

Anyone heard any news about my preferred shop sparks? The upload of new music has almost dried up!

Hi Richard

I wouldn't dream of using iTunes - MediaMonkey's my favourite

Richard3552 · 09-26-2008, 06:19 PM

Solaris,
Can't say I've ever seen Mediamonkey. What do you prefer about it over itunes?
Is this used by most members?

joris · 09-26-2008, 07:00 PM

Everything

Dave C · 09-26-2008, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard3552

Solaris,
Can't say I've ever seen Mediamonkey. What do you prefer about it over itunes?
Is this used by most members?

It is going to be difficult to describe all of the ways that MM is better than i-tunes; there are just so many. For a start (as you mentioned it), i-tunes's new genuis playlists

is just a sub-standard version of MMs MusicMagic DJ (and you do not have to 'share' your music library with anyone). The things I particuarly like are:-
1. Playlists are much more sophisticated than itunes and easy to set up.
2. You can be listening to something on MM and doing numerous other thing within MM at the same time (i.e. importing other stuff / tagging different music / creating new playlists / etc). i-tunes is rubbish at this and either stops playing at the end of a track or just crashes.
3. Auto tagging albums from the web is so easy and I have only had one or two albums it has not worked with.
4. MM has got a really good forum associated with it, and if you ever get stuck trying to work out how to do something (no matter how obscure), posting on there will get you a good answer.
5. People are always writing new scripts and add-ons for MM (usually found via the forum). Some of these are a bit gimmicky, but lots are really useful (i.e. find genre / play history & stats).
6. It does not matter how much music you have, MM can handle it without crashing.
7. It does not matter what format your music is in, MM will play it.
There are lots of others, but those are my favs. I would highly recommend trying it

,
Cheers,
Dave C

jasn · 09-26-2008, 09:41 PM

I've DL'd the free version of MM and loading it with my MP3s and iTunes info right now (and listening to a track at the same time

)

Thx Dave.

Mellifluous · 09-27-2008, 01:03 AM

First post in ages... I dislike iTunes with a passion and have done for ages. It never changes and looks and plays terrible. Genius is a pile of crap as it's jsut a push for the music store itself.

As a Zune owner, I recently downloaded the Zune 3 software which has an equivalent feature called MixView. This is very nice, it doesn't work with all albums but when it does it shows a visual graphic of the album and around it it shows connected artists even if they're not in the Zune store, including artists who've influenced the artist you're listening to. All in all, very visually pleasing and user friendly.

solaris · **Zune store? -** 09-27-2008, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mellifluous

First post in ages... I dislike iTunes with a passion and have done for ages. It never changes and looks and plays terrible. Genius is a pile of crap as it's jsut a push for the music store itself.

As a Zune owner, I recently downloaded the Zune 3 software which has an equivalent feature called MixView. This is very nice, it doesn't work with all albums but when it does it shows a visual graphic of the album and around it it shows connected artists even if they're not in the Zune store, including artists who've influenced the artist you're listening to. All in all, very visually pleasing and user friendly.

Hi Mel, good to see you back

I didn't even know that Zune still had a store...