Apple halts iTunes' Internet sharing ability

[matt merch]

Apple has knocked on the head iTunes 4's ability to stream music over the Internet.

The modification comes in iTunes 4.0.1, released yesterday and downloadable from Apple's Web site and via Mac OS X's Software Update system.

iTunes' music sharing facility was launched alongside Apple's online Music Store as a sign of the service's user-friendliness. Touted as a way of allowing downloaded music to be played back on up to three locally networked Macs. However, canny users quickly uncovered the protocol Apple's software engineers had used to implement sharing and began publishing on the Web details of how to extend iTunes sharing to other computers via the Internet.

Apple's motivation in blocking such activity undoubtedly lies in a desire to prevent piracy and keep its relationships with the major music companies sweet. We tried a number of iTunes-based sharing facilities but found no direct way to save streamed songs on our own hard disk - it isn't sharing in the Napster sense - but since there are undoubtedly hacks that allow you to do so - not to mention legitimate apps that can perform the function for you - Apple has a point.

That said, with KaZaA now topping the download charts, Apple's efforts will undoubtedly do little to stem the tide of free music downloads on the Net, and almost certainly limit iTunes as a force for music promotion. The 30-second clips Apple offers are no substitute for hearing the full track before buying.

Of course, if you can listen to the full track at will, why buy it at all? Such an attitude has clear implications for Apple's Music Service revenue stream, so Apple has another strong reason to turn off this particular tap.

Alas, the genie's out of the bottle, and presumably relatively few existing users will switch to 4.0.1, specifically to continue streaming music across the Net. Apple may well have adjusted the online service to only operate with 4.0.1, thereby forcing users to upgrade, but with so many users outside the US - and thus unable to use the service - that will only bother North American iTunes users. ®


http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/30895.html

[d-koolest]

Oh crap. :mellow

I won't upgrade 'til I have to. Though iTunes had a ways to go before it was an efficient sharing app anyway.

[isus]

ehh, its not a big deal. it was a nice little thing to use, but it's not really important.

i still like neo and acqx better.

i dont hafta rely on a hacked prog to do stuff.

[wessman]

iTunes Indie Meeting Notes
from the reality-distortion dept.
posted by michael on Friday June 06, @14:21 (music)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/06/1548241

[0]BWJones writes "The [1]CD baby! site contains notes taken from the indie music meeting recently held at Apple. Interesting statistics revealed were that there are about 500k songs/week being downloaded from the iTunes Music store and that 45% of songs are being purchased as albums. Other interesting items of note are that Apple is treating everyone as equvalents in that all labels receive equal treatment with the same deal, the same agreements and you work with the same team of people. What's more is that Apple cuts a check EVERY MONTH which is huge for the smaller labels." Wired has another story about iTunes which notes that [2]what Jobs taketh away, the community is bringing back.

Links:
0. http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~marclab/
1. http://cdbaby.net/itunes
2. http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,59127,00.html


ITunes Music Swap Just Won't Die By Leander Kahney
02:00 AM Jun. 06, 2003 PT
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,59127,00.html

Apple Computer may never be able to stop Mac users from sharing music over the Internet, despite its best attempts.

Last week, Apple released an iTunes update that disabled the ability to stream music over the Internet.

In April, Apple added a feature that let Mac users share tunes over a local area network, such as an office or a couple of Macs hooked up at home. This feature also permitted users to stream iTune music files. When some users published their addresses and began streaming iTunes music files over the Net, Apple responded by disabling the streaming aspect of the feature.

The move enraged a lot of Mac users, who were using the feature to stream music from their home machines to machines at work.

"Apple force-feeds customers shit, calls it sunshine," is how Cory Doctorow put it in a widely cited rant against Apple on the boingboing weblog.

But what Steve Jobs takes away, hackers are giving back.

On Thursday, programmer James Speth released a hastily written piece of software called 401(ok) that restores Net-wide music streaming to iTunes.

"I really liked the ability to access my music from anywhere, and I didn't like that the 4.0.1 update removed that feature," Speth wrote.

In the software's Read Me file, Speth writes that the software is "inefficient, ugly and poorly written. If anyone really uses this thing, I'll work on making it better."

The hack makes it fairly easy to restore Net-wide music streaming to iTunes. A more complicated, but more powerful hack exists in Andromeda, a software application that makes use of Mac OS X's built-in Web technologies, the Apache Web server and the PHP scripting language.

Although Andromeda requires a complex setup, it even streams copy-protected music bought at the iTunes Music Store. However, streamed tunes are still subject to Apple's copy-protection scheme. Music bought from the store is restricted to three Macs predesignated by the user, and if a machine hasn't been authorized, it won't play the songs.

However, Jim Heid, a contributing editor at Macworld magazine, had the simplest solution to keep streaming in iTunes: Drag the iTunes application into a new folder before installing the update. By changing the application's location, it won't be overwritten when the new version is installed.

"Keep both versions," Heid writes, "they'll coexist on your hard drive?. When you want Internet sharing, simply launch version 4.0."

© Copyright 2003, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[isus]

hmm, the streaming tunes to work is actually one of the best legal uses i have seen... i thought everybody was using it to dl tunes without a real network.
i.e.: you would find an address, open it up in itunes, then use an app like ibug to dl the tunes, instead of just streaming.

but, i still think apple did the right thing... even if they are force-feeding us shit, there are still alternatives... open up a real streaming music prog.

i would use my ipod... you can load songs onto the ipod from one comp, and hook it up to another, and in itunes, just click "ipod" or whatever you named the ipod, and then it works from there. i think that's best, cuz then you can listen to the music everywhere anyway.

[wessman]

Dashboard, Interpol May Be Headed For iTunes As Apple Woos Indies
by Gil Kaufman
06.03.2003
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472248/20030603/dashboard_confessional.jhtml

Just a month after opening its doors, the Apple iTunes store is looking to expand.

With content already available from all five major labels, the online music service is reaching out to independent labels in hopes of offering the broadest, deepest catalog of downloadable music.

Apple has invited hundreds of indie label representatives to a private presentation on Thursday at the computer giant's Cupertino, California, campus to discuss hopping onboard and adding their content to the more than 200,000 songs already available through the service.

"The plan was to go out of the gate with the five major labels, but there's always been an interest in expanding the store beyond that," an Apple spokesperson said.

Senior iTunes music store staffers will show the label reps how the store runs and they'll perform some hands-on demos, though it is unclear whether Apple boss Steve Jobs will attend. The spokesperson declined to specify which, or how many, labels were invited to the meeting.

One label president who has already booked his flight is Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman. "I'm very interested in this as the owner of a label," Poneman said. "The Apple store is accessible, well organized and attractive. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Poneman said the decision to join the iTunes store would come down to the compensation package that Apple is offering, which he has not yet seen.

With one of the deepest catalogs of alternative rock, including seminal albums by Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden as well as discs by bands like L7, Hole, Sebadoh and Hot Hot Heat, Sub Pop would be an attractive addition to the iTunes galaxy, Poneman said. But, he cautioned, were Sub Pop to join iTunes, the inclusion of music from many of the signature bands on the label's roster would have to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. "As for the new bands," he said, "I would find it hard to believe that they'd be as aggressively technophobic at this point."

Another indie boss who will make the trip is Matador Records co-owner Gerard Cosloy, who said he has no idea what to expect. "I'm just going to a meeting. It would be premature to speculate on what may or may not come out of that meeting. I do hear we're going to have lunch, however," Cosloy said. Matador's catalog includes albums by Pavement, Guided by Voices, Interpol, Pretty Girls Make Graves, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Cat Power.

The iTunes initiative has been more successful than even Apple predicted, selling more than 3 million songs since its April 28 debut. The New York Post recently reported that there are discussions to bring the iTunes store to Amazon.com, which would give Apple a larger distribution channel while giving Amazon.com greatly expanded digital music offerings. The Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the report, and an Amazon.com spokesperson could not be reached by press time.

Among the American indies whose catalogs are not yet available on iTunes are such venerable blues and folk labels as Alligator (Buddy Guy), Blind Pig (Muddy Waters), Rounder (Alison Krauss) and Razor & Tie (Prince Paul), as well as the world music powerhouse Putumayo and the punk labels Kill Rock Stars (Sleater-Kinney), Fat Wreck Chords (NOFX), Lookout! (Green Day) and Vagrant (Dashboard Confessional).

If any deals are signed following the meeting, the Apple spokesperson said there is no timetable yet for when the songs could be added. "It's quality over quantity at this point," the spokesperson said.

© MTV Networks.