@Jeff
For all the buzz about the Apple it just works mystique, the current iTunes Store design surely doesn’t – at least not the same way the rest of the web does. And I, for one, can’t get behind that.
That may be because… I don’t know… iTunes is not the web? And it doesn’t claim to be either? The only direct relations between iTunes and the web are that you download iTunes via the web (unless you’re on a mac where it’s preinstalled) and you can create links to a place within the itunes store from the web.
That’s it.
In fact, the later is analogous to e.g. Shoutcast streams which can also be linked from the web but do also require a third-party application to be useful.
I believe Apple could do all this AND have a web storefront, too!
They probably could. They chose not to. They don’t want a web front.
But how about software that’s more in harmony with the rest of the web?
That’s irrelevant, itms is not the web and neither is it on the web. There is no rest to speak of here jeff
As much as I like and use iTunes, I agree with this one. When I’m not on the appropriate computer, I just want to see some more information - not this suddenly hostile, ‘not invited’ web page with NO information what I was linked to.
I agree here with Jeff that those pages are unnecessarily unfriendly - I don’t give a darn if it’s in Apple’s interest to push more adoption of iTunes, I’m already a happy customer that doesn’t want to be pushed to install it on every computer I touch.
Most often, when I hit that webpage I close it and close the page that linked me to it. No thanks.
There are lots of good points, above - but most of them miss what I see as this core point, that this ‘get iTunes’ page is unnecessarily unfriendly and is certainly anti-web.
I agree. They’d be much better off showing the information and only bugging the user about software if the user actually wants to buy. A lot of potential customers probably just leave this way.
But how about software that’s more in harmony with the rest of the web?
Apple wants to keep the ‘iTunes experience’ as simple as possible and for this reason there is some sense in keeping everything inside the ‘walls’ of iTunes. A second web store running parallel in a browser would confuse that experience for users that just want ‘software that works’ and for that reason they would be unlikely to do it.
A cool little widget that can play a track sample, show some iTunes data from their server and then jump to iTunes when your ready to buy could exist without muddying up the experience too much. The problem is Apple wont touch Flash, they would be more likely to use another plug-in based on an ‘open technology’. I would expect to see more development from Apple in the future on this, eg SproutCore (JavasScript Framework), which Apple are using for their MobileMe service.
I have an iPhone. So I have iTunes, as well. Don’t like iTunes at all - on the WinXP platform, it is a buggy POS which almost always fails to terminate when I tell it too (it leaves the iTunesHelper app running which sucks up 50% of processing cycles! You must either reboot or manually the app on your own.)
I really like the iPhone, so I’ll deal with iTunes, but I absolutely would not if Apple did not force the issue.
You are right. They could have just as easily provided a way to browse the store, then when you purchase something, make the download an iTunes only delivery package whereby the download automatically launches iTunes and places it in your music list. A lot of software already does this and does it quite well.
I have to say that I pretty much hate everything about iTunes. It’s slow, it silently fails loding mp3 fils that other players have no issues with and doesn’t play most audio formats that I use.
And yet, even though I don’t use it anymore, I can’t escape it because of too many people putting phobos links up for their podcast feeds. This drives me nuts; it’s just like MS smart quotes – even if you don’t use the product, the proliferation will still catch up with you. HATE.
On www.gomusic.ru, no special application is required, music isn’t held hostage in DRM, and tracks are only about $0.15 each with a 10% discount off that if you buy the whole album. So @#$!% Apple. @#$!% them up their stupid @#$!%*@ @$$#$.
Now imagine that Microsoft had an online music store, and instead of iTunes doing this, it was Microsoft’s store.
Do you think that ANY of that Apple ballwashers in here wouldn’t be accusing Microsoft of being anti-web?
LOL! Yeah, it appears this comment thread has attracted the ire of the I-digg-stories-about-ATT-being-evil-but-I-was-waiting-in-line-on-release-day-for-an-iPhone Apple fandom.
Flash and Acrobat aren’t the same as what TFA is saying. Flash is properly used on public websites as value-added content. Sites which require Flash deserve and get this same criticism, except in very particular instances (such as intranets) where decrees about requiring software are acceptable. An exception to this is Flash’s being hijacked as a video delivery platform, which is mostly due to H.264 (aka a non-sucking universally supported video format) being WAAAY late to the party.
The long, protracted user-hostile pissing contest between Microsoft, Apple, and Real Networks that occurred before it produced three media players that were extremely noisy, invasive, irritating to use, and notoriously bloated. Not to mention, none of the content for one would ever work in either of the other two. Flash succeeded in this space because A) it always works, and B) when you close your browser, Flash GOES AWAY.
PDF, on the other hand, is a file format, and Acrobat is the application you use it with. It’s like linking to a ZIP file or something; a downloadable format. The fact that you often get PDF files from the web, and that Acrobat installs a browser plugin to make PDFs more web-like on most platforms is completely orthogonal. You can still actually get the content without Acrobat, potentially to transport it somewhere else or open it later, perhaps even with a different program.
ITMS doesn’t have either of these graceful degradation characteristics: the site is not even trivially unusable for it’s intended purposes without iTunes.
iTunes is a bloated mess. It takes forever to install, load, and find my music. The biggest problem is that it doesn’t autodetect new music. It’s like living in the dark ages.
I agree with Jeff… I don’t want iTunes to have to browse a website. I don’t want iTunes when I install Quicktime either, but that’s another story for another day…
Silvercode…that’s the exacted problem. Proprietary bullsht. After all, you are going to need it if you purchase music from Apple, I think. That’s very opposed to the direction that internet media SHOULD be going. I’d consider buying music from iTunes (as I do from Amazon quite often really) if they’d unlock their exclusivity bullsht.
Ugh, who cares? Obviously not the millions of people who are using it. What’s funny is that even though you hate Apple so much you are still trying to access content provided by them.
I have actually seen a trend where some of the more successful sites online these days require you to install a 3rd party application to get any sort of use out of them.
I’m not talking about flash either, it could easily be argued that these days having flash installed is just as important as having a web browser to browse the web.
I don’t really think iTunes needs to be web friendly, the iTunes store was designed to be accessed and used from within itunes, in order to put music onto your ipod. I highly doubt many people without ipods and iphones use iTunes as their source of online music, in which case those people already have iTunes.
If you are using the iTunes store to buy music for your non-apple music device, you should be shot and killed.
But how about software that’s more in harmony with the rest of the web?
iTunes isn’t a web app/site though. It can accept links from the web, but the iTunes store isn’t on the web. iTunes is a desktop app that connects to the internet for some features. The only point at which it interacts with the web is when you click on one of those links.
the problem with the whole having to install itunes thing, as stupid as it is, is that i have it installed on a computer, and still get blasted with that garbage because it cant find itunes.
This is odd.
Are you sure it is not your OS? No! It could not be? What am I thinking? Vista? No. No way. … no, it could not.
@Geebs: What ever. I am using iTunes proprietary or not, anti-web or not.
And no one has yet come up with a better overall solution for me. Some alternative suggestions of separate things has been said, though, but I am not convinced enough to change. So Apple stays powerful.