If you use an Apple device to study/revise audio, do NOT use Apple Music

[AdamD]

Apple Music locked me out of all the audio study material on my iPhone. All of it. It wouldn't let me see the files, and it wouldn't let me download copies from the iCloud Music Library. It just blew them away, without any warning whatsoever (while I was interstate and could do nothing about it for days).

 

The only fix is to disable Apple Music and the iCloud Music Library on all your devices, delete the .itl file that it created when it made this mess, delete all your music and resync it manually from a PC or Mac, and stay the hell away from the iCloud Music Library.

 

Apple's cack-handed approach to cloud services is legendary but this takes the cake. Do not use Apple Music, especially if you've got an exam coming up and can't afford to let anything go wrong. Spotify is mature, it works, and it doesn't break into your house and smash up all your records.

[Angelina]

Thanks.

 

I wasn't planning to use it anyway. Demonoid is down, Pirate Bay is down, even poor Grooveshark is down  , not to mention Silk Road. 

 

Seems like Apple Music is trying to be our only choice. 

[imron]

Demonoid is down

No it's not.

 

not to mention Silk Road.

 

Seems like Apple Music is trying to be our only choice.

I'm not sure that Silk Road and Apple Music are offering comparative products.

[Angelina]

Really? Last time I checked Demonoid was not working. Can you give me the link?

Yes, Silk Road 不是装卖音乐的, but it is an alternative to the corporations, you can hypothetically speaking- buy and sell music there, and I am seeing less and less alternatives. Even everything Radiohead is available on Apple Music.

RIP Grooveshark, you will be missed.

[imron]

Last time I checked Demonoid was not working. Can you give me the link?

http://www.demonoid.pw - still works with a login I last used years ago so it's at least the same database and user login as Demonoid from days past.

[imron]

Even everything Radiohead is available on Apple Music.

Note also that Apple Music is a very new streaming service (it launched only a few days ago) offered by Apple and is not the same as its iTunes Music Store.

 

It's had quite a number of teething problems at launch - see here.

[Angelina]

Let's see if I can still use Demonoid. If not, I have my guitar.

That's the thing with Apple Music, it will have control over everything. I will definitely boycott it. Let's hope people will not choose convenience over personalization. Radiohead were pretty vocal against Spotify, now even they have sold out.

Although Apple Music is not convenient now, they are definitely using convenience as an advantage and promising flowless work in the future. I will boycott it no matter what.

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/86424

BTW What is Kaliopi doing in a Forbes article???

[mikelove]

For what it's worth, rather than reloading or switching to the old library format or whatever I'd suggest that you simply give up entirely on managing this sort of content via iTunes and use a third-party app instead - store your audio files on Dropbox or OneDrive or whatever cloud storage service is working reliably in China this week and pick a podcasting or audio app that lets you easily download audio from that.

 

The writing has been on the wall for storage of non-music files in iTunes for years now - ever since they launched their standalone Podcasts app, really - but in part because of that, there are now a ton of excellent iOS third-party podcast / audio management apps, and you'll probably find that one of them works better for you than Apple's did even in its heyday.

[AdamD]

@imron:

 

It's had quite a number of teething problems at launch - see here.

 

That article does a ripping job of articulating Apple's stuff-you approach to people who care about music — an unusual strategy for a company which claims to care about music.

 

@Angelina:

 

That's the thing with Apple Music, it will have control over everything. I will definitely boycott it.

 

The service itself is actually pretty good, if you can move past the staggering number of major bugs and straight-up disdain for people's existing collections. Deleting my own files without asking is only one of countless major problems I ran into: hearting a song usually doesn't apply or applies to the wrong thing; adding music to 'my music' doesn't work at all half the time; downloading an album for offline use misses tracks or downloads multiple copies. (Excuses like 'oh but it's new and there's a surge of demand' don't cut it because the demand will only increase.)

 

For me it's not a boycott at all, it's an inability to access my own study material: the CDs that came with books I bought.

 

@mikelove:

 

I'd suggest that you simply give up entirely on managing this sort of content via iTunes and use a third-party app instead - store your audio files on Dropbox or OneDrive or whatever cloud storage service is working reliably in China this week and pick a podcasting or audio app that lets you easily download audio from that.

 

Thanks for the tip. That would certainly work for my study material. (There are albums and playlists I've got which Apple will obliterate based on incorrect assumptions, but that's a different battle entirely.)

 

Given that my phone is only a year old and Spotify is working fine, it's cheaper and easier to just not use Apple Music and carry on, but you're right, at some point Apple will just decide my iTunes library is not mine and hack it to pieces.
 

there are now a ton of excellent iOS third-party podcast / audio management apps, and you'll probably find that one of them works better for you than Apple's did even in its heyday.

 

Do you have any specific recommendations?

 

The specialist audio app I use most is AudioStretch, which only holds one track at a time. If I rely on Dropbox, I'll be downloading every track I want to work with, usually on 4G at 4G prices.

[imron]

Excuses like 'oh but it's new and there's a surge of demand' don't cut it because the demand will only increase

Heads would roll if Steve Jobs was still around.

[AdamD]

You think? I reckon it's more likely he'd force the employees to kill themselves getting the thing out a year earlier with even more issues, and just handwave the impact they'd be having on users (this is the 'you're holding it wrong' guy), but I also think it's more likely that the current regime will never acknowledge how much damage it's done since last Wednesday.

[Angelina]

The current regime cares more about rainbow flags than the collections people took years to build. I don't like the way tech companies do business and promote political causes even when I actually support the cause itself.

I would also like to discover new audio management apps

[AdamD]

The current regime cares more about rainbow flags than the collections people took years to build.

 

I don't know that that's fair. Companies the size of Apple can do two things at once, and I doubt piking on a couple of pride rallies would have made the iCloud Music Library any less destructive.

 

On a personal note: if false dichotomies weren't false and Apple were to improve LGBTIQ rights at the cost of my music, I'd sacrifice my music. Every time.

[Angelina]

It's not a false dichotomy, tech companies want more power- political, social, business, you name it. Whether it is controlling your music collection or your views about marriage, it's the same. I do support my friend who is going through a sex change at the moment, I hate being forced to hear the Kardashian/Jenner stories that are all over the Internet. Huge difference.

Anyway, I managed to log into Demonoid again yay

[Angelina]

This

"Apple is making that easier by taking iAd more specific with personal information, including a massive expansion that brought the platform to more than 75 new countries. Through iAd, marketers will soon be able to send messages to customers in Apple Wallet, target by user tastes in the News app and break up songs with commercials in Apple's subscription music streaming service.

On Thursday, Apple secured a patent for a viral advertising platform that can track content across email, texts and social networks and store users' phone numbers, email addresses and other personal data."

http://mashable.com/2015/06/21/apple-safari-adblock-mobile/

[AdamD]

break up songs with commercials

 

Only in the free service, I believe. Not that I'm making excuses for them.

 

a viral advertising platform that can track content across email, texts and social networks and store users' phone numbers, email addresses and other personal data.

 

The one thing that's worse than ads being shoved in our face are creepy stalkery ads being shoved in our face. So much for Cook's privacy monologues.

 

I'm also keen to see how world courts and regulators will respond to Apple blocking other people's ads in Safari while it jams its own ad platform into everything else.

[Angelina]

Are you sure governments have the power to negotiate with Apple?

Cook cares about privacy as much as he cares about human rights: he doesn't. This sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory, idk, was Zamyatin a conspiracy theorist?

[imron]

You think? I reckon it's more likely he'd force the employees to kill themselves getting the thing out a year earlier with even more issues, and just handwave the impact they'd be having on users (this is the 'you're holding it wrong' guy)

Heads rolled over the antenna stuff, and they also rolled over the Maps debacle.  There may well have been more bugs under him, but heads would have definitely rolled (maybe they still will with this too).

 

 

 

"Apple is making that easier by taking iAd more specific with personal information, including a massive expansion that brought the platform to more than 75 new countries. Through iAd, marketers will soon be able to send messages to customers in Apple Wallet, target by user tastes in the News app and break up songs with commercials in Apple's subscription music streaming service.

This already happens on the Internet anyway and has been happening for years.  iAd is part of Apple's strategy of taking control of that and preventing third-parties from compiling and using that information anyway (see here).

 

And at least Apple makes money from its users via hardware sales and so unlike certain competitors it hasn't built its entire business around making money from selling your data.

[AdamD]

@Angelina:

 

Are you sure governments have the power to negotiate with Apple? 

 

 

Sometimes, plus what imron said.

 

Cook cares about privacy as much as he cares about human rights: he doesn't.

 

I'm prepared to waive the fake concern thing if the company gets positive results.

 

@imron:

 

Heads rolled over the antenna stuff, and they also rolled over the Maps debacle.  There may well have been more bugs under him, but heads would have definitely rolled (maybe they still will with this too).

 

Perhaps it depends entirely on whether the press picks up on it. Most people either haven't noticed their savaged iTunes libraries or don't care.

 

And at least Apple makes money from it's users via hardware sales and so unlike certain competitors it hasn't built its entire business around making money from selling your data.

 

Yeah, I'm far more inclined to trust Apple than Google.

[imron]

Yeah, I'm far more inclined to trust Apple than Google.

Me too, but not because I believe they do it out of any sort of altruism for their users, but rather because anything they do to protect their user's privacy chips away at their competitors' ability to earn money from them - ultimately hitting those competitors where it hurts.