Apple iTunes 4.7

http://reviews.cnet.com/4505-3669_7-20201986.html

At a glance

Editors' rating: 8.3 Excellent

CNET editor's review

Reviewed by ; Eliot Van Buskirk, John Rizzo, and Rebecca Viksnins
Reviewed May 11, 2004 (updated December 6, 2004)

Editors' note: Version 4.7 adds the ability to optimize and transfer photos to the iPod Photo. You can also display and delete all duplicate songs, a much-needed feature for iTunes. Finally, Windows users can minimize the player into the Windows taskbar. (12/6/2004)

Whether you are looking to purchase music over the Internet or just need a good way to play and organize your digital music, iTunes is a great option, although it's available for only Mac OS X and Windows 2000 and XP. The iTunes Music Store section of the program offers flexible usage rights, high-quality tracks, a simple pricing scheme, a catalog of more than 1 million songs and 9,000 audiobooks, no-cost burning, and extended song information. Meanwhile, the nonstore portion of the application works great for ripping, encoding, creating playlists, smart shuffling, and even streaming your music to other computers on the same network--all for free. And, of course, you can use iTunes to transfer music onto the iPod, regardless of where you acquired the songs.

Installation and interface

Getting started is a simple matter of downloading and installing the latest version, a major advantage over more-convoluted programs such as Musicmatch. After that, you can start ripping your CDs and browsing the Apple iTunes Music Store for digital downloads. You don't even have to enter a credit card number or fill out any forms in order to browse and listen to 30-second previews. In typical Apple style, the iTunes interface is clean, friendly, and intuitive, even for beginners, but a help file is included.

The iTunes Music Store is integrated into the iTunes application, so you can purchase additional music seamlessly. Click a song title, and you can edit its ID3 tag information, submit your own rating (1 to 5), and add it to a playlist or Party Shuffle (an automatically generated on-the-fly playlist). You can also customize iTunes by selecting new columns of information that should appear for each song. For instance, you could add Genre for sorting purposes.

The catalog focuses on rock and pop, with some jazz and classical goodies. Downloads are fast: 45 seconds for a six-minute song over a home DSL connection. In our dozen or so tests, we consistently noticed smooth, fast transfers. Some copyright holders still aren't letting Apple sell certain albums in their entirety; these works are labeled as partial albums. For example, although most of the 73 Ella Fitzgerald albums are available intact, much of Miles Davis's extensive catalog is offered as partial albums. Also of note: Songs with racy language are labeled Explicit. The same songs sans profanity are labeled Clean.

Browsing and searching the iTunes Music Store is quick and simple. You can search by genre, as well as the standard artist and album categorizations. Click the Artist or Album column next to any song to bring up new lists of songs or pictures of album covers. You can hear 30-second clips of every track, including exclusive new songs from profiled artists. Apple has deals with all five major labels and more than 450 indies to create a catalog of 1 million songs, although artists such as the Beatles still refuse to be included in this or any other online music store.

In addition to browsing for tunes, you can choose from more than 9,000 downloadable audiobooks, thanks to Apple's partnership with Audible.com, a Web service we've long admired. There's even a menu of free streaming Internet radio, and it includes a decent selection of stations, categorized into 19 genres to make them easier to find, with a visualizer that displays graphics moving in time with the music.

Since most kids don't have their own credit cards, iTunes offers allowance accounts to help parents manage the amount of music their kids can spend. You can set up allowances that recur each month, in addition to separate accounts for each kid in your family. You can also buy iTunes gift certificates in $10 increments, from $10 to $200 (the same amounts apply for monthly allowances).

Features

The iTunes application can play MP3s, AACs, and Audible files. This new version also lets you convert unprotected WMA files ripped with other programs into unprotected AAC files so that iTunes (and the iPod, if you have one) can play them. The program offers an equally healthy set of options for ripping CDs; you can choose between MP3, AAC, and the Apple Lossless codec, which compresses files in half without losing one bit of CD information.

iTunes really shines in the area of playlists. You can create a playlist by manually adding songs or by specifying certain parameters, then having the program create a Smart Playlist. There's also a feature called Party Shuffle; when you click it, iTunes creates a spontaneous playlist from your music library or any playlist. If it's not what you want to hear, you can reorder the songs and add more tunes from your library via drag and drop. There's also a Celebrity Playlist option, which lets you browse and purchase songs or full lists from various celebrities, such as Missy Elliott and Michael Stipe. Right now, there are about 16 available.

A few generations ago, Apple added a feature that allows iTunes users on the same network (say, at work or in a dorm) to listen to--but not download--each other's music. Unfortunately, users of iTunes 4.7 cannot access the libraries of those running older versions and vice versa. Another quibble: You can burn only the exact same playlist of purchased songs 7 times, instead of the 10 times previously allowed. The compromise: Apple lets you access purchased music on five computers in this version, as opposed to three in earlier versions. If you upgrade or replace a machine and want to transfer purchased songs to the new computer, you can de-authorize a computer with a simple menu command in iTunes--a feature glaringly missing in Napster and other services.

Another new feature is iMix, which allows you to share your favorite playlists. After creating an iMix playlist, you receive a link that you can send to anyone else who uses iTunes. They'll be able to see the songs in your playlist and listen to 30-second samples of each, the idea being that they'll purchase the ones they like. This would be cooler if you could be paid referral fees or receive credits toward iTunes music when people purchase songs based on your iMix recommendation, à la Amazon's affiliate program.

iTunes Music Store also features a music video section, radio charts that track the most-played songs on about 1,200 stations nationwide, a way to print CD labels of purchased songs, and a freely downloadable promo single every Tuesday.

Music Store files are not MP3s; Apple uses a better codec called AAC. The files are encoded at 128Kbps and sound better than MP3s at the same bit rate. We noticed, however, that Apple chose not to normalize the files, so you might have to tweak the sound now and again or use the Sound Check control to level the volume automatically between songs.

Apple does a far better job of integrating artist and album information in its Music Store than its competitors. You can search artist biographies, as well as links to their influences and contemporaries. However, unlike Napster, which lets you browse other users' playlists, iTunes Music Store is thin on community features. With the exception of online forums, you're pretty much alone with your music.

We'd still like to see a line-in recording feature that would allow users to capture external audio sources into AAC, MP3, or any other supported format. Also, while applications such as Musicmatch Jukebox have a built-in album art retrieval service, you have to find your own with iTunes if you haven't purchased your songs from the Music Store.

Service and support

Due to the simplicity of the service, we doubt that many users will find a reason to ask for help. However, should you run into some sort of issue, Apple offers a variety of support options. If you've purchased another Apple product (such as an iPod) and its phone help is still valid, you can call for free iTunes-related support. Otherwise, Apple's info for Music Store is all online in the form of FAQs, material on upgrading and using the products, links to discussion boards where questions can be answered, and e-mail-based exchanges.

Search results within iTunes Music Store include EPs, albums, and partial albums, depending on what the labels licensed to Apple.

User comments

Average user rating
Excellent

8.2

out of 10

Average user rating: from 115 users

User rating
Perfect

out of 10

Awesome Jukebox Program
by mikes63737 - May 6, 2005

Pros:

Fast CD Burning, Fades Into Next Song, AirTunes Support, and everything else!

Cons:

None

User rating
Excellent

out of 10

Doessnt get any easier than this
by oli666 - April 28, 2005

Pros:

easy to use, auto playlist function very quick to sync with ipod

Cons:

No subscription option!

User rating
Perfect

out of 10

It cant get any easier. . .
by mrghos7 - April 16, 2005

Pros:

Everything . . .

Cons:

It wasn't around 10 years ago...

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

User rating
Terrible

out of 10

Look elsewhere for a good music managment program
by thecoffman - April 11, 2005

Pros:

Attractive interface, speedy, easy to use for beginers

Cons:

lacks almost any in depth features.

2 comments posted to this opinion.

User rating
Poor

out of 10

Horrible Service
by ce2030 - April 7, 2005

Pros:

Good selection of songs

Cons:

Very bad service

User rating
Spectacular

out of 10

Pleasantly surprised
by Mark32 - March 7, 2005

Pros:

Terrific interface with IPOD, very fast and easy conversion of CDs.

Cons:

Some fiddling with MP3s on CDs to move them over.

User rating
Perfect

out of 10

Pure simplicity
by joeandjill - February 28, 2005

Pros:

One click to download, rip, burn, and cram you pod

Cons:

Nothing I can think of

2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

User rating
Spectacular

out of 10

Best way to organize music
by Lukey0499 - February 25, 2005

Pros:

the swithing for store to libiary options and style

Cons:

somethings slow downloading and once you put music there you cant take it out

User rating
Abysmal

out of 10

A rock and a hard place
by sleepydad - February 24, 2005

Pros:

Great quality - great price

Cons:

Will not convert to MP3 for a player other than iPod

2 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 comment posted to this opinion.

User rating
Spectacular

out of 10

Excellent MP3 player and store!
September 14, 2004

Pros:

Easy to use easy to import old librarys, easy to burn, rip and compose cd in mp3 or audio formats...excellent all around player!

Cons:

Some artists are not avialable on itunes music store and you can look at what other countrys can get, even sample the music, but you can not buy any of it.

Basic specs for Apple iTunes 4.7

Version-- 4.6
Compatibility-- PC, Mac
Distribution media-- Download
License qty-- 1 user
License type-- Complete package
Min processor type-- Intel Pentium
Customer service phone-- (800) 275-2273
Knowledge base URL-- http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Registration URL-- https://register.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/GlobaliReg.woa
Software updates URL-- http://www.apple.com/software/
Technical support URL-- http://www.apple.com/support/
Technical support phone-- (800)275-2273