I've heard album cover art works really well if you buy from iTunes. I've also heard that on average there are 22 tracks purchased from iTunes on the average iPod. Which means most people have to rely on iTunes to download artwork automatically for them. But it works badly. Very badly.
I don't have numbers (numbers are boring anyway), but my experience is that automatic downloading only works about half the time. So if I have 600 CDs, I have to go out and find ~300 covers. If it takes 1 minute per cover, that's way too much time. And heaven forbid you library gets corrupted and you have to go through it all again. It's so broken there are various utilities out there to download artwork for you. I just googled "download artwork for itunes" and got 170K results (admittedly not all utilities).
Now why is this so hard? The mp3 files are tagged with artist and album name as well as all the track lengths. I rip my CDs and get the information from a CDDB database. (These aren't illegally downloaded files with weird tags.) And Apple has iTunes, so Apple has all the information about the CDs. Is it really so hard to match this stuff up? No, it's not. There's no reason this hasn't been fixed.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Intro
I love my iPod. I sleep with on the pillow next to me. My iPod has come home with me to meet my parents. We're in a very serious long-term relationship. I'm thinking about popping the big question, but there's a problem. And that problem is iTunes.
It's an abomination. Now you should know that I use iTunes on windows, not OSX. I've heard it's a joy to use on Macs. It's like relaxing on the back porch with a warm summer breeze in your hair and puppies licking your toes (if you're into that kind of thing). But on XP/Vista it's painful.
Now, I don't really expect this blog to change anything. I'm pretty egotistical, but I've got my limits. But this blog is a chance for me to vent (and you to if you choose to comment).
I'll be posting a couple of times a week, but I spend most of my time over at audiohenge.com. Yes, a shameless plug. Each post will highlight a different abomination and possibly to respond to comments depending on my mood.
It's an abomination. Now you should know that I use iTunes on windows, not OSX. I've heard it's a joy to use on Macs. It's like relaxing on the back porch with a warm summer breeze in your hair and puppies licking your toes (if you're into that kind of thing). But on XP/Vista it's painful.
Now, I don't really expect this blog to change anything. I'm pretty egotistical, but I've got my limits. But this blog is a chance for me to vent (and you to if you choose to comment).
I'll be posting a couple of times a week, but I spend most of my time over at audiohenge.com. Yes, a shameless plug. Each post will highlight a different abomination and possibly to respond to comments depending on my mood.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
