Rick s frustrated with iTunes. It seems to have a mind of its own. It wants to manage his own personal music and deletes some of it randomly. Is there a substitute that gives him more control over his music and podcasts? Unfortunately, iTunes has taken up all the air in the room in this category and most of the alternatives have dried up. But there are some third party programs to consider:
Robin Thicke and Pharrel Williams lost a $7.3 million dollar copyright case this week to the estate of Marvin Gaye. They stated that the singers copied the 'feel' and 'vibe' of Gaye's hit "Got to Give it Up" with the Thicke hit "Blurred Lines." Critics state that the decision could be disastrous for the music industry.
Dave wants to know how he can get music from his Droid Mini to play through his speakers in his motorcycle. Leo says that a wired cassette adapter is the best option since FM modulators can be problematic in areas where radio station traffic is really crowded. Wired is always preferable.
Steve Martin uses the new Windows Surface Pro 3 and he loves it. But iTunes keeps losing his playlists and music on the tablet. Leo advises using MediaMonkey instead. iTunes for Windows has always been problematic. He should install Media Monkey, and then have it sync from the iTunes folder.
Pete is interested in hi-res music. He wants to download FLAC music and convert it to Apple lossless. Leo says you can do that, but remember that the MAC tops out at 96 Khz, but the iPod can't play it because it's not that high, nor does it have the CPU power to process and playback hi-resolution audio. You need special hardware to play back high resolution audio. Leo says that iPods were designed for mp3s, but they can play back Apple's lossless compression at 48K x 24 bit.
This week, Amazon announced a new music service called Amazon Prime Music. Leo says it's a bit limited right now with only a million songs, though.
What you need to know about Amazon Prime Music (Engadget)…
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/12/amazon-prime-music/
If you have a new computer, transferring your music library from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod can be problematic. This is because Apple does not natively support copying music to a computer if the iOS device hasn't been paired with iTunes first. In order to pair that device with iTunes, iTunes makes you erase the device first. There are, however, third party programs that can safely copy the music from the iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
Ed uses iTunes Match, has 40GB of music, and his laptop's hard drive has broken. He got a new 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display, and wants to download that music back to his SSD drive. Leo says that because Ed is an iTunes Match subscriber and has it all uploaded, he can download them.
Jay has an iPhone 5s and his new Mac doesn't recognize any photos from before he bought the 5S. Leo says that there are plenty of alternatives including Google+, Microsoft One Drive, DropBox (only 2GB), and Flickr. There's a ton of options and some are free.
Daryl also wants to know about music software and what's the best platform. Leo says that a lot of people use Macs. Logic Pro would take him to another level. Ableton's Live is great for live performances. DJs have taken to the iPad, which has a lot of apps for music. FruityLoops is a good app for DJing. There's also an option for Windows: Cakewalk.
