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0 pointsshkkmo2y ago0 comments

> Apple didn’t just copy all the music onto iPods and sell it — it took them a decade of deal making and lots of money to acquire the rights to the content

I recaly iPod being a hard drive that I could connect to a computer and just copy music directly to.

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chubot2y ago· 2 in thread

Pretty sure it was never like that, it was always gated by iTunes.

It was an integrated system, not an open one.

Definitely is today. It's difficult to copy mp3 files directly to an iPhone and play them. Even from a Mac, but even more so from a PC or Linux.

I bet less than 1% of iPhone and iPad users do that. They mostly pay for streaming. (Again, not saying that's better, but just that the general public doesn't do Napster-like file sharing.)

shkkmoOP2y ago

> Pretty sure it was never like that, it was always gated by iTunes.

Then you need to recalibrate your certainty assessment. Not only did I do this personally with both music and videos, it is incredibly easy to find documentation of the steps. First google result: https://www.alphr.com/add-music-to-ipod-without-itunes/

Apple's ipod sales absolutely benefited significantly from music piracy. Especially early on when nobody hard large itunes collections yet and music torrents were much more common.

The genius of the ipod / itunes play is that they got to do both. They benefited from the demand from people with non-itunes libraries, while also offering a low friction sales platform that was easier than piracy.

chubot2y ago

I looked through the instructions

I guess I'll just say "meh" -- it doesn't negate the main point, which is that Apple spent a lot of money and time to acquire rights, and they have a music store.

It is gated by iTunes, just not 100%

I know some people side load stuff on devices -- there's no device where that's impossible.

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