I was once a very loyal apple fan. But ever since Steve Jobs died, apple has been on a steady downward spiral. ITunes? OH MY GOD!
I can't even use their site. Apple can't seem to remember my log in information. I have had to call them and go around their endless self help nonsense more than a few times now. Once you reach a human they can usually get it worked out but it's such a pain I don't even look anymore.
So for this review the iTunes site is a horrible disorganized mess. Trying to search for anything is beyond hopeless. Then, why pay apple for a copy of some old song (most of my stuff is really dated.) When it can be found for free? Also are you aware that apple somehow manages to limit how many times you can copy a song once you pay to download it?
So if your devices need replacing, and you try to copy your music, after so many times, I think it's only 10, you can't? Please. I use to make tapes of my old records and no one could tell me how many copies to make. (all personal use only of course.)
Then there is the iTunes software you need. Well. Every single time they "upgrade" this, it gets worse. They managed to bury free internet radio. It's still there but I had to visit youtube to find out where. ITunes is anything but intuitive.
THEN. Ha. Suddenly, and for no reason what so ever, your music gets lost. Found this out the hard way but if you drag a song say to a few playlists, for example I might have a car song in a play list of travel songs, and in one with oldies. Well can't do that. ITunes will have a brain fart and can't find anything. Again it took a few sessions on youtube to learn from other frustrated users what's going on. Seems the only way to put your music into playlists is to import music to one giant music folder where everything is stored. THEN create a playlist and edit that, then hunt and fish for what ever you want to put into it. It's a royal pain.
I went around with apple support for weeks over this and over an iPhoto issue. (I photo another one. If you delete a photo while iPhoto is running? Get this. The entire application AND ALL YOUR FILES vanishes. Forever. Finally my fix? I save ALL my music on my computer in a "music" folder before I ever put it into iTunes. I still have to use iTunes since I need that to use my iPods. But I keep my music duplicated OFF iTunes. SO when iTunes loses it? I can put it back easy enough. (I never did reinstall iPhoto. Just dump pictures into my own folders.) Apple's answer to that is to scold me for not using the cloud and time machine. Listen, I DO NOT EVER want my files on a cloud and time machine? Seriously? I need to back up my stuff so when apples gimpy software loses everything I can reload a backed up version? I don't think so. I told apple to fix their messed up software and try actually reading the many many complaints about it. I back up my stuff on an external HD which are pretty cheap now. NO clouds, no need to send data over the internet.
As for the iTunes site? Haven't even attempted to use it in several years now. Again, stuff can be had SO easy, and usually free.