DISQUS

Charles · 1 year ago

I like how they cross-branded the AI in iTunes with the Genius Bar, very smart. Even though I can get DRM free music for less at Amazon, I prefer iTunes because the presentation is so much better. Plus, they have given me so much in free content from their podcast directory and iTunesU, that I feel like I owe it to iTunes to be their customer.

Shawn K · 1 year ago

No argument from me. Just when I thought my 'iCrack' addiction was in relapse, they give me Genius. Here's to not having any money.....

digitalshaman · 1 year ago

Awesome convert willingness to pay into payments easily ... I look forward to the enhancements on the backend (perhaps with garage band or iMovie) to compete with content asset management ... A very interesting direction as more artists (established) move to radiohead-like (the street performer model) or even pearl jams authorized bootlegs (selling more controlled but familiar format) ... Ultimately how far can they get into management & more control over music assets ... Monitoring doesn't scale to well according to some - but the value of storage & transactions look to be in play (nokia bought loudeye, right?)

CraigK · 1 year ago

Smart move on Apple's part that like you said, should lead to more downloads. Although none of their updates were anything we didn't expect, I'm really hoping that itunes comes out with a subscription based service. I know if they had one I would sign up immediately. Would that appeal to anyone else?

Craig
www.budgetpulse.com

tunesbag · 1 year ago

I like the new feature (I suppose it's based on gracenote: http://www.gracenote.com/business_solutions/dis...) but I think human music recommendations will raise as well ... take all the blip.fm recommendations sent over twitter the whole day long.

At tunesBag.com, we will release a new feature called "smart playlist" soon (creates smart playlists based on ratings, listening habits or favourite artists) and introduce a "music follow" system where you can follow the listening stream of your friends - this way I've already discovered some nice tracks ;-)

As written in the wired article (http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/steve-jobs-...), the next step for apple might be adding social features - get to know people who listen to the same stuff as you do.

-- Hansjoerg

Corvida Raven · 1 year ago

Nice one Louis. I'm just glad that I don't use iTunes to play my music very often. Windows Media Player suits me better. Otherwise, I might be one broke cookie messing with Apple and iTunes.

secretsushi · 1 year ago

Apple certainly took it up a notch with both a new revenue generator for them and a great new way to enjoy my own music. I've never been one to take time and create my own playlists. I am a bit biased so it would take me forever to get anything worthwhile. The genius playlists are actually fairly spot on. I would say 1 in every 7-10 songs is something I would not consider a frequently played track, but the feel of it fits nicely with the rest of the frequently listened to hits. It kind of helps me discover some of the lesser listened to tracks that I pass up most of the time. In the past I was a huge music enthusiast (when I had more income to spare on albums) and I accumulated a great deal of music. I probably have a 5th of my CD collection in iTunes and I'm pushing 497 artists and 43 days of music.

Alex · 1 year ago

Well Apple Needs to redefine itself and Well Steve is the heart of it