The Macalope

Chris:

I think you might be misunderstanding him. I read it and was confused the first time I ran through it.

All he is saying is that he feels that the name “Purchased” for the folder that contains songs bought through the iTMS gives off the impression that things NOT in that folder must not be purchased; even though chances are, most your music is from purchased ripped CDs.

pedro:

And possibly doesn’t care for the leafy greens native to his part of the world… Or he was just pressed to come up with another entry, and resorted to a good ‘ol fashion mental flatulence.

Louis Gray:

(FYI – I’m the author of the original piece)

Clearly, the responses I received here and on The Apple Blog were not what I expected. That probably goes more to my writing it quickly than anything else. There’s no quota, so that guess is out the window.

Since 2003, we’ve had a dichotomy between Apple’s “Purchased” songs, and “Everything Else”… so to speak. I thought I’d address the usual gamut of stories that say 97% of songs are from somewhere else. Much of the time, it’s thought they’re from P2P instead of ripped CD’s purchased elsewhere.

If I were to rewrite it, I’d probably focus a bit more on that. I’m glad the Mac community cares enough to rip on the piece.

Neven:

“Since 2003, we’ve had a dichotomy between Apple’s “Purchased” songs, and “Everything Else”…”

*No we have not*, not in the iTunes UI (the focus of your piece). If you still think this, you did not read the comments posted on your blog, many of which were excellent.

How about the dichotomy of “Audiobooks” and “Music” – Apple must think that my ripped audiobooks aren’t really audiobooks! Or the dichotomy of Party Shuffle and Music. Or Movies and TV Shows.

There’s a piece to be written about Apple’s attitude regarding non-iTunes Store content in iTunes. But writing it by picking on the way iTunes displays different content sources is absurd.

Splashman:

Louis, you’re completely missing the point. Nobody except a blogger desperate for blog material would devote more than two synapses and a half-second to the name of the “Purchased Music” folder. I fully expect your next scintillating blog entry to take Apple to task over their use of the word “Store,” when the iTunes Store brazenly provides free podcasts. I’ll even write the faux-outraged kicker for you: “How *dare* Apple insinuate those podcasts might have cost me something! Oh, the humanity!” I’m certain you can stretch that screed to a thousand words easy.

The Macalope’s explanation is as good as any. So take a friendly suggestion: if you can’t find anything more exciting to blog about than drop-shadow opacity under contextual menus (“Did Apple think they could change it from 55% to 58% without me noticing?”), take the day off and wait for Rob Enderle’s next column to appear.

(This suggestion goes double for TUAW.)

doppelf:

Oddly enough, i just removed TUAW from my feed reader, yesterday.

Drasty:

@Louis:

You hit the nail on the head: I hate how iTunes labels all of my music not in the “Purchased [from the iTMS]” category as “Stolen!—the RIAA will be calling soon,” or how it calls me a “Thief” when I add music from my CD collection.

It’s even more annoying that only “purchased” music will load on to my iPod. What’s up with that?

Emily:

The Macalope said: “Apple doesn’t think you stole the rest of your music. Only Steve Ballmer does.”

Yes. Exactly. Steve Jobs explicitly mentioned ripping CDs, which is perfectly legal. Ballmer is the one who suggests that all of our iPods are filled with illegal music.