Apple doesn't want to sell you content

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s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
The content is just the bait to get your life to revolve around their stuff.

A local band I like just released an album on iTunes only. Their next show isn't until 2014, so getting one in person is out. OK fine, I think, it's not on Amazon or Play, but iTunes stuff doesn't have DRM any more. Just click, d/l, upload back to Play Music...

Not so fast. First, you can't actually buy iTunes music from the web. This may seem obvious to a longtime Apple user, but -- c'mon, it's 2013, not 2003. I shouldn't have to install and launch a ridiculous bloat app that wants to take over my media storage/delivery just to buy a damn album. OK, I still have iTunes installed from the last time I did this (for the same reason), let me fire it up... Click. Oops, my credit card is expired. OK, I don't do this very often, so let me change it to PayPal.... Click. Accept, accept, OK. Wait, it's not redirecting back to iTunes like it's supposed to to finish accepting the change. Crap, I bet I need to update iTunes. Download, install, wait...

Still not working. Oh. I have to close iTunes and reopen it again. Or something. After a lot of fiddling, I let new iTunes take redirects of itsm links or whatever, and it finally works. Ok, great, let's buy the album! Click.

Nope. Because I reinstalled, iTunes tells me it's the first time I've bought content on this computer and I have to remember my security question answers. Wtf? I stare at the damn things and remember exactly how I phrased the answers for the two questions. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Now my account will be locked if I get it wrong again. And there's literally no way to find/reset the answers online -- I have to call their customer service. Screw this. I think I'm going to order a physical disc from the band's website.

Obviously you don't run into these issues if all your buying is through iTunes, you buy from an iDevice, or whatnot, but Apple has made it almost literally impossible to be a casual customer. It's utterly laughable how much simpler Google and Amazon make it. Nice work.

TL;DR: Apple's ecosystem is intentionally crap for an occasional user
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
51,110
6,962
136
s44 said:
Not so fast. First, you can't actually buy iTunes music from the web. This may seem obvious to a longtime Apple user, but -- c'mon, it's 2013, not 2003. I shouldn't have to install and launch a ridiculous bloat app that wants to take over my media storage/delivery just to buy a damn album. OK, I still have iTunes installed from the last time I did this (for the same reason), let me fire it up... Click. Oops, my credit card is expired. OK, I don't do this very often, so let me change it to PayPal.... Click. Accept, accept, OK. Wait, it's not redirecting back to iTunes like it's supposed to to finish accepting the change. Crap, I bet I need to update iTunes. Download, install, wait...
Click to expand...

You know...I hadn't ever really thought about that, but you have an excellent point. There's iTunes Match...Apple stores all of your purchases in the cloud anyway...there's Wifi sync on the iOS devices now...why isn't there an HTML5 iTunes-in-the-cloud interface? I actually like the iTunes layout because it's very simple to wrap my brain around - "All Music" and then Playlists on the left, music listing on the right, search on top. However, it's a real hog in terms of performance & system resources. I buy music on Amazon occasionally right from their website...why not the same with iTunes, Apple?

Good post!
 
B

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,605
3
81
s44 said:
The content is just the bait to get your life to revolve around their stuff.
Click to expand...

Uhhh... Yeah. That's the whole point.

And Google content is just the bait to collect information about you to target ads towards you.
 
A

alangrift

Senior member
May 21, 2013
434
0
0
bearxor said:
Uhhh... Yeah. That's the whole point.

And Google content is just the bait to collect information about you to target ads towards you.
Click to expand...

Google then provide you tons of features and apps free in exchange for information.
 
B

bearxor

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
6,605
3
81
WelshBloke said:
Apple doesn't collect information about you?
Click to expand...

Everybody collects information.

Apple collects information about you to try and lock you in to it's ecosystem.
Google collects information to better target you for advertising.
Microsoft collects information so they won't feel lonely at night.

I guess the whole 'Wow! I just discovered that Apple wants to try to lock me in to it's ecosystem!' was just a little silly, when it's really kind of been the whole point all along.
 
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

Platinum Member
Feb 18, 2010
2,893
0
0
Pretty much all the major players are trying to find ways to lock people into ecosystems. It's the in-vogue strategy right now. I have to say, personally, that the only system I feel really stuck with is my Gmail and my Kindle books. Even the GMail, though, all I'd have to do is change over a couple dozen accounts to a new location and I'm set. I may end up doing that in the not-too-distant future, not because I care about Google's information gathering, but because I feel like they're slowly nudging their features towards being Android/Chrome specific. The Kindle books I may be genuinely stuck with.
 
D

dumdum

Junior Member
Dec 10, 2013
1
0
0
I use itunes and idevices, and getting music from any other source makes it impossible to integrate it into my playlist, but I can access them through third party djay applications. Laaaaaame……more lame were the four and a half hours I spent on the phone with AppleCare only to hear that these files aren't "playing nice" with itunes…wtf?? Apple products are great, and easy to use, but if you get past the casual consumer level you're done. They do make any idiot look like a computer expert tho….AppleCare is worthless, however
 
J

JAG87

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2006
3,921
3
76
Or you could have just gone to iTunes directly from your iPhone (from just about anywhere), purchased the album there and immediately started listening to it. It's nobody's fault that you don't maintain your Apple ID up to date and that you mixed ecosystems and made your own life harder. This is really just another PEBKAC scenario.
 
Kaido

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
51,110
6,962
136
JAG87 said:
Or you could have just gone to iTunes directly from your iPhone (from just about anywhere), purchased the album there and immediately started listening to it. It's nobody's fault that you don't maintain your Apple ID up to date and that you mixed ecosystems and made your own life harder. This is really just another PEBKAC scenario.
Click to expand...

I think the industry should fix that problem :biggrin:
 
Z

zoiks

Lifer
Jan 13, 2000
11,787
3
81
JAG87 said:
Or you could have just gone to iTunes directly from your iPhone (from just about anywhere), purchased the album there and immediately started listening to it. It's nobody's fault that you don't maintain your Apple ID up to date and that you mixed ecosystems and made your own life harder. This is really just another PEBKAC scenario.
Click to expand...

Yeah but not everyone has an iphone. Did you think about that? I for one refuse to install itunes on my computers. If a product ever had bloat, it's itunes.
 
JimKiler

JimKiler

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 2002
3,561
206
106
s44 said:
The content is just the bait to get your life to revolve around their stuff.

A local band I like just released an album on iTunes only. Their next show isn't until 2014, so getting one in person is out. OK fine, I think, it's not on Amazon or Play, but iTunes stuff doesn't have DRM any more. Just click, d/l, upload back to Play Music...

Not so fast. First, you can't actually buy iTunes music from the web. This may seem obvious to a longtime Apple user, but -- c'mon, it's 2013, not 2003. I shouldn't have to install and launch a ridiculous bloat app that wants to take over my media storage/delivery just to buy a damn album. OK, I still have iTunes installed from the last time I did this (for the same reason), let me fire it up... Click. Oops, my credit card is expired. OK, I don't do this very often, so let me change it to PayPal.... Click. Accept, accept, OK. Wait, it's not redirecting back to iTunes like it's supposed to to finish accepting the change. Crap, I bet I need to update iTunes. Download, install, wait...

Still not working. Oh. I have to close iTunes and reopen it again. Or something. After a lot of fiddling, I let new iTunes take redirects of itsm links or whatever, and it finally works. Ok, great, let's buy the album! Click.

Nope. Because I reinstalled, iTunes tells me it's the first time I've bought content on this computer and I have to remember my security question answers. Wtf? I stare at the damn things and remember exactly how I phrased the answers for the two questions. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Now my account will be locked if I get it wrong again. And there's literally no way to find/reset the answers online -- I have to call their customer service. Screw this. I think I'm going to order a physical disc from the band's website.

Obviously you don't run into these issues if all your buying is through iTunes, you buy from an iDevice, or whatnot, but Apple has made it almost literally impossible to be a casual customer. It's utterly laughable how much simpler Google and Amazon make it. Nice work.

TL;DR: Apple's ecosystem is intentionally crap for an occasional user
Click to expand...

Apple does not want to sell content because the profit margins are too low. If they were higher Apple would be more than willing to sell more content.
 
D

deathBOB

Senior member
Dec 2, 2007
569
239
116
Hey OP, let me play for you and make you feel better
AFYre.gif


Somehow I don't think this thread would have existed if OP had had trouble with his Google or Amazon accounts...
 
WelshBloke

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,901
11,038
136
openwheel said:
that's because dumbass cannot understand
Click to expand...

Oh I understand well enough that the Apple ecosystem wouldn't suit me personally so I don't use it.

See different usage patterns beget different choices, all are valid if they suit your usage.
 
Zaap

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
I'm glad to say I've never experienced any of this because I would never buy content through Apple. I'd rather buy physical media and rip it.

Ecosystems are for wildlife.
 
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