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Comment by jokermatt999 | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, this is attractive enough for me to consider reinstalling iTunes. I've ranted a number of times on the numerous issues I've had with it, but this service is amazing, especially as someone who doesn't buy their music from iTunes.

Why's that? Because for $25, all those older CD rips and music which was certainly acquired legally can now be obtained easily in 256 Apple lossless (edit: not lossless, duh). I don't know if I'd keep using the service, but that alone is, to put it bluntly, fucking awesome. I wonder if there will be some sort of limit on this to prevent abuse.

Edit: Any of the downvoters care to explain why I was downvoted for this post? Tone, mentioning piracy/abuse, hating iTunes? I'm genuinely curious here.

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> Honestly, this is attractive enough for me to consider reinstalling iTunes.

Windows user?

I haven't found a worthy alternative on OSX.

Windows user. iTunes on Windows is almost painfully bad, and pretty much everything else I tried worked better for me, from performance, to customization, to simply working the way I'd prefer. I can expand on the various issues I've had with iTunes in the past if you'd like, but whenever I do so, it tends to become a bit of a rant.

AAC, even at 256kbps, is not lossless. (Nor is it Apple-specific in any way.)

I think the only limit is 25,000 songs.

Bottom of http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/: Limit 25,000 songs. iTunes purchases do not count against limit.

Thanks for the link. Taking songs legit for 1,000/$1.00 is incredible. Even with Apple's large downpayment(s), I still can't believe the record companies agreed to this.

The service is intended to turn ripped songs from already purchased CDs. It doesn't magically turn illegally downloaded music to legal ownership even if Apple's service can't/won't enforce the difference. It's still gray.

The bottom line: No one cares about music any more. It's worth less than $25/year.

>The service is intended to turn ripped songs from already purchased CDs.

Apple didn't pay $150,000,000 a pop to the major labels to allow you to play music you legally acquired.

>It doesn't magically turn illegally downloaded music to legal ownership

  Step 1) Purchase an iTunes Match subscription
  Step 2) Convert MP3s to iTunes matched AACs
  Step 3) Delete MP3s

stare in amazement at this magic before you

Who cares if internet jokers down-vote you?

It really doesn't matter. It's best to be mature, take the high road, and ignore it.

Typically I don't, but HN seems to have less random downvote. I'd gotten -3 in a short time, so I was honestly wondering why people thought it worth downvoting.

Your rips will not help you. The iCloud music service does not work with rips. You need to have the actual CD. iTunes will scan, it, identify it, and identify the individual tracks.

Do you have a source for this? The blogging community seems to disagree with you...

Source please.

I don't remember this, but it may have been in some fine print I missed.

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