I switched to iTunes from winamp a few years ago. This was before I got a Mac, btw. But when MP3s first got bit, I did as everyone else did and had my folder with MP3s in them. As my collection grew larger I started to organize more and more, and in the end it became a lot of work.
I initially didn’t like iTunes moving them around either, but then I realized that I needed to let go of control of this part of my file system. Why do I need to know where they are anyway? The thing is that iTunes does everything I’ll ever need to do with MP3 files anyway. It can burn them as MP3s, or a CD (rarely ever use these anyway now though) and it plays them. If you want to move the files around, you can simply just select and drag them into any finder window. I don’t miss the days of manually renaming files at all.
The thing about iTunes (for me) is that it’s very much like anything else Mac. If you try to make it work your way, you won’t win, but if you adapt to the Mac way of things it will mostly work out better.
As far as the claims of slowness, I haven’t used it on a PC, so I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me though.
Yeah I don’t have any of the experiences anyone else here has. The complaints about syncing your phone with the itunes store to activate it is ludicrous, that’s the simplest method of activation I’ve ever found.
However, you’re post is the biggest gripe I have with it. I use Amazon too, or CDBaby which gives a higher percentage to the actual artist/label than any of the big corporate jobs.
With all due respect, this is an excellent working definition of a cult. IMHO.
Now, I understand that on the larger scale “Mac cultists” are petty - they aren’t about to camp out in Guyana and kill visiting congressmen for example.
But for myself, I prefer a lot more wiggle room when it comes to enjoying the things I enjoy, like computers and music.
I think it’s an excellent working definition of computer software. Take a look at Windows, for example. I don’t want to put my data in stupid little folders called “my this” or “my that” but over the years I’ve been forced into following their structure because so many programs break if I don’t. I don’t want to use Microsoft Internet Explorer, but I’ve been forced into it for many Web sites, and I can’t delete it without breaking Windows.
I’ve found iTunes to be neither more nor less restrictive than everything else–most of the time people just don’t understand their software. They don’t realize that you can organize your folders your own way, that you can turn off the options you don’t like, that you can buy music from anywhere and put it in iTunes, etc. etc. etc.
On some things, you can easily do it your own way. On others, it’s just easier to sigh and do it their way.