I don’t use iTunes to manage my music. I would rather just do it myself using the files themselves. I feel like it gives me more control. But, I do use it to copy stuff over to my iPhone and once in a while to listen to something.
Anyway. Why do you have to create a playlist? I must be missing something.
If I want to listen to just one artist I would go to the search box and type that name in so that is the only band that shows up in itunes
If I want to listen to just one album. I go to the seacrch box and type the name in.
I am betting there are other ways to do it. But, thats the one way that jumps out at me that doesnt involve making a playlist.
Awesome. I just lost an entire new album somehow - I downloaded it yesterday via eMusic, which always works just fine to transfer music over to iTunes. Except this time. The songs are now only on my iPod and no longer exist on my freaking hard drive. :smack:
I don’t use iTunes, but this is the sort of thing that irritates me in any software. I will make my own decisions, as today’s machines/software are too stupid to make decisions for me. Don’t organize my files, don’t download things without me telling you to, don’t stop something unless I tell you to. Someday machines might be smart enough to do things like for me, but that day has not yet arrived.
In my work, I deal with a lot of Apple fanboys/girls. They are annoying as hell.
They love iTunes. It’s not bloated, it’s feature-rich! It only begs and pleads with you to install Safari on your computer for your own good!
One of them was bitching at me today (because they didn’t understand a simple process that any idiot could) that we should be more like Apple, because “Apple never releases software before it’s ready.” Yep, like MobileMe and Safari for Windows, motherfucker.
I got a 30 gig iPod for my car a year ago for $99. Couldn’t match the price and features with anything else. For portable music, I use a Sansa.
I note that WinAmp lets you extract music from iPods.
I also note that DVDJon has a lovely program called doubletwist that converts m4as to mp3s for you.
We know–if you’d bothered to actually read the chain you were replying to, you’d see that we were discussing the specific problem of having to create a playlist to listen to a particular artist or album in iTunes, which would then be redundant on the iPod.
Thus, the question wasn’t “Why would you ever make a playlist?” but “Why would you make a playlist in that particular instance?”
I play plain ol’ MP3s on my iPod–there’s nothing that says you have to rip your CDs as M4A. Show me another music player that offers 160+ GB of storage space with a well-designed, easily navigable interface and a history of not being shitty and I’ll consider purchasing it.
Seriously - I know it’s totally cool to hate iTunes, but if you’re not going to switch to another program, could you even try to make the smallest effort at trying to figure it out? Here’s a few well intentioned tips:
See the little arrow next to “Name”? Click it. It should bring up a set of frames at the top of the screen. You can use those to filter by genre/band/album, solving your “play just one artist/band” issue.
Click “View” -> “View Options”. Select “Release Date” or “Year”. Now you can sort your albums by year.
The features you want are probably in there. You just need to spend time to figure them out (just like any piece of software).
Trust me, Apple and Mac haters are twice as annoying. Mac users can’t say anything good about their chosen platform without some Windows or Linux fanboy talking smack to them.
I’ve had zero problems with iTunes and I’ve been using it since the 5gb iPods were current issue. I’ve used it on a PC and now I use it on a Mac.
iTunes is fine. It’s not perfect nor is it a one size fits all application. It serves the needs of people who want something simple and fairly uncomplicated. If someone needs more flexibility, there are other choices.
Careful there or you may be branded an Apple fanboy.
Sorry, I didn’t make this clear–I meant that you can’t sort by year on the iPod. I’m aware that you can jump through fifty billion hoops to get iTunes to do it.
ETA:
Then I’ll counter with my XX chromosomes and the fact that I’ve never owned a single Mac in my life and never plan to.
But if five clicks is the same as “fifty billion hoops”, I’m not sure there’s a program out there for you. Does your cellphone have the word “jitterbug” on it?
Dunno if they do–but the point is that I should be able to choose how things sort on my iPod.
Hah hah hah, how clever–you’re insinuating that I’m an elderly person who is confused by technology, rather than a woman in her mid-20s who had a minor in Computer Science with her B.A. who has programmed in at least seven languages.
Because you’re apparently unaware of any program outside of iTunes, I’m contrasting this method with how I had my files organized when I used Winamp–I formatted all album directories as “[Year] Album Title,” so that when I used the “Sort by path and filename” function, they’d sort perfectly by artist, then by album (by year), then by track number.
I’ll venture a guess that the majority of people having problems with iTunes are doing one or both of these:
using it on a PC
trying to keep iTunes from organizing their music for them
I used iTunes/iPod on a PC for many years. It blows. Random PC and OS problems coupled with Apple writing software for an OS that’s clearly out of their wheelhouse leads to a pretty crappy experience. Since I moved to Mac, virtually no problems.
I don’t get the “I want to organize my own music” thing, but to each his own. iTunes theoretically supports this, but it seems to be an uphill battle. Just give in and let iTunes do the organizing. It does a fine job, and it frees you up to go be anal retentive about something else.
If both of these are dealbreakers, buy a Sansa clip and use Winamp or something. It’s commodity technology these days. You generally buy iPod because of its integration with iTunes. If that’s what you hate, buy something else. It’ll be cheaper, and you’ll be happier.
That’s great. But sounds like a general mp3 complaint rather than an iPod complaint, since you’re unaware of that functionality anywhere else. I’d like my iPhone to grant me x-Ray vision.
Yes - that seems MUCH easier than simply sorting by year with one click. Damn you, iTunes for not forcing me to reformat all of my files with new album directories! shakes fist at the heavens
