I use iTunes as my music library manager. It gets the job done for me and I can work quite well with it. Having said that, I have to vent. I use various smart play lists to organize music for me or to see what I have been listening to, etc. The way iTunes classifies tracks that have been listened to just does not make sense to me. This is how it works:
- Music: The end of the track must be played for it to be counted as played.
- Podcast: If it is played at all, the episode is considered to have been played.
Let’s review:
- I listen to the 4:59 of a 5:00 song (omitting the last second) and it is considered to not have been played.
- I listen to the first one second of a podcast and iTunes says that I listened to it and will automatically remove it from my iPod on next synchronization.
Can someone tell me how that makes any sense at all? Come on, Apple. Make it user-configurable so that I can say, for example, that if I listen to more than half of a song or podcast, then it counts it as played. Yes, I know I can change what iTunes considers the end of a song…on a track-by-track basis. I have neither the time nor the desire to manually set the “end time” for thousands of tracks.
It may seem like a small thing, but it is very annoying – particularly for someone with a lot of live music who tends to hit “Next” once the song ends in order to skip the last few seconds of crowd noise.
Comment space reserved for Josh’s “I hate iTunes” remarks. 
That is why I don’t use iTunes. I use RythmBox on my Linux machine to sync my music collection to my ipod. It also provides the same features like smart playlists and counts the number of times songs are played. I would recommed it to all my Windows enslaved friends…
Philip
September 17th, 2007
Philip,
I’m disappointed. I expected you to chime in with a Linux comment much sooner. It took you several hours. You need to shape up.
Seriously though, yes, RhythmBox is a great program. I’ve got it running on my other partition, though I do not use it to handle iPod syncing, etc. Right now, Windows is my primary OS.
Zack Rippy
September 17th, 2007
Well,
I guess I can be the non-cool kid who stands up for Apple and iTunes…I like them both. A lot. There are some annoyances with iTunes, like it’s incompatibility with anything other than the iPod…BUT everyone should just by an iPod…and a Mac.
Jordan
September 17th, 2007
*buy
Jordan
September 17th, 2007
Jordan,
This wasn’t to bash iTunes. I actually really like it. I also think that the iPod is the BEST portable music player on the market. Period. The whole play count thing is just an annoying quirky thing.
Zack Rippy
September 18th, 2007
Understandable. I definitely agree that it’s the best portable music player.
Jordan
September 18th, 2007
You guys are all out of your minds. The iPod has nothing on my hot new Zune. You may disagree, but we will see who is cooler when I’m rocking out to FM!
Chris
September 18th, 2007
Chris,
I’ve played with the a Zune and I disagree.
I don’t think they are terrible or anything, I just prefer my iPod.
FM is nice…but I never listen to FM radio. Seriously, I hardly ever do. It might have something to do with the radio stations in Montgomery being pretty lame overall, or it might be the fact that I am a complete political junky and listen to AM when I listen to the radio.
I still think it’s awesome (regardless of the player you choose), that I can have hundreds of CD’s in my pocket!! Rock on!
Zack Rippy
September 19th, 2007
Zack,
I am a hardcore iPod owner, and love it. I have merely mocked the Zune as it sits untouched in its little display case at Brookstone. Just decided to be a smarta** and see what kind of comments it would generate.
Chris
September 19th, 2007
You are probably already planning this, but I think it would be nice to hear your take on Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia. Just curious and enjoy your political science reviews.
Chris
September 24th, 2007
You know, I DO have some thoughts on this…
I try to shy away from politics here. I’ve been planning on setting up a permanent political blog, but I haven’t had the time. Hopefully, I will get it going soon.
I might just have to post something on this though. It’s been driving me crazy!
Zack Rippy
September 25th, 2007
Here we go again…
Linux! Zune stinketh! Long live the Ipod running Linux.
Philip
September 25th, 2007