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d: through the Apple Music subscription, which I had, Apple now deletes files from its users’ computers. When I signed up for Apple Music, iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple’s database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted. If Apple Music saw a file it didn’t recognize—which came up often, since I’m a freelance composer and have many music files that I created myself—it would then download it to Apple’s database, delete it from my hard drive, and serve it back to me when I wanted to listen, just like it would with my other music files it had deleted.

This led to four immediate problems:

1. If Apple serves me my music, that means that when I don’t have wifi access, I can’t listen to it. When I say “my music,” I don’t just mean the music that, over twenty years (since before iTunes existed), I painstakingly imported from thousands of CDs and saved to my computer’s internal hard drive. I also mean original music that I recorded and saved to my computer. Apple and wifi access now decide if I can hear it, and where, and when.

2. What Apple considers a “match” often isn’t. That rare, early version of Fountains of Wayne’s “I’ll Do The Driving,” labeled as such? Still had its same label, but was instead replaced by the later-released, more widely available version of the song. The piano demo of “Sister Jack” that I downloaded directly from Spoon’s website ten years ago? Replaced with the alternate, more common demo version of the song. What this means, then, is that Apple is engineering a future in which rare, or varying, mixes and versions of songs won’t exist unless Apple decides they do. Said alternate versions will be replaced by the most mainstream version, despite their original, at-one-time correct, titles, labels, and file contents.

3. Although I could click the little cloud icon next to each song title and “get it back” from Apple, their servers aren’t fast enough to make it an easy task. It would take around thirty hours to get my music back. And even then…

4. Should I choose to reclaim my songs via download, the files I would get back would not necessarily be the same as my original files. As a freelance composer, I save WAV files of my own compositions rather than Mp3s. WAV files have about ten times the number of samples, so they just sound better. Since Apple Music does not support WAV files, as they stole my compositions and stored them in their servers, they also converted them to Mp3s or AACs. So not only do I need to keep paying Apple Music just to access my own files, but I have to hear an inferior version of each recording instead of the one I created.

But why should I care?

For about ten years, I’ve been warning people, “hang onto your media. One day, you won’t buy a movie. You’ll buy the right to watch a movie, and that movie will be served to you. If the companies serving the movie don’t want you to see it, or they want to change something, they will have the power to do so. They can alter history, and they can make you keep paying for things that you formerly could have bought. Information will be a utility rather than a possession. Even information that you yourself have created will require unending, recurring payments just to access.”

When giving the above warning, however, even in my most Orwellian paranoia I never could have dreamed that the content holders, like Apple, would also reach into your computer and take away what you already owned. If Taxi Driver is on Netflix, Netflix doesn’t come to your house and steal your Taxi Driver DVD. But that’s where we’re headed. When it comes to music, Apple is already there.

https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/

Good times ahead, and beware of an I tunessubscription, because when you cancel it, they take it all back

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Cliff notes?

Guy gets apple I tunes

Apple iTunes downloads all music on his PC (including his own personally composed music) deletes it from his PC

Apple does not recognize all the music it took so it either disappears or is replaced with other versions of same songs

He can listen to his music now If he has an Internet connection and apple is able to serve it to him

Cancelling I tunes means he loses all his music and loses the right to listen to his own music online.

Sure enough it's in the agreement, but no one reads those hence cliff notes

Edited by TaiidanTomcat
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I never thought all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes or music I bought was ever going to be "mine". I tried awhile ago ripping dvd's so I could play them on my iPad/iPhone but never figured it out. The music I ripped ages ago I still have the CD's for so I don't know if it's a great loss of I were to get off the apple ecosystem of tech.

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Guy gets apple I tunes

No. Not even remotely correct. And it's literally the first sentence you posted.

Guy gets Apple Music subscription. Apple Music apparently deletes all his stuff, because of a bug, limited to a handful of users, which Apple hasn't been able to reproduce.

A more in-depth description can be seen here. The TL;DR version: either it is a bug, due to some weird conflict between a specific version of Apple Music, iTunes and iCloud Music Library OR it's a problem with the UI which is confusing users into deleting their stuff.

That said, it's another reminder: always back up important files.

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Just seen a feature on the iPhone 8 that suggests a 'Home' button (and other stuff) embedded in the edgeless display. Actually, I believe it will have no controls at all -Big A will control everything for you. Did you know your smartphone's voice recognition function is listening to you ALL the time? Or that it sends location data to its manufacturer even when you switch off the location option? It's all true!

Damn, who's at the door this time of night? Sorry, BRB.

(Sounds of distant thumping and muffled protests...)

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Guy gets apple I tunes

Apple iTunes downloads all music on his PC (including his own personally composed music) deletes it from his PC

Apple does not recognize all the music it took so it either disappears or is replaced with other versions of same songs

He can listen to his music now If he has an Internet connection and apple is able to serve it to him

Cancelling I tunes means he loses all his music and loses the right to listen to his own music online.

Sure enough it's in the agreement, but no one reads those hence cliff notes

Simple solution.....

Guy gets ITunes subscription

Pays for and downloads songs via ITunes

Converts all songs into MP3 files (You can do this by left clicking song and scroll down to "Create MP3 Version")

Download songs to an exterior hard drive, CD or MP3 player.

Even if you cancel your ITunes account, those songs remain with you.

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Just seen a feature on the iPhone 8 that suggests a 'Home' button (and other stuff) embedded in the edgeless display. Actually, I believe it will have no controls at all -Big A will control everything for you. Did you know your smartphone's voice recognition function is listening to you ALL the time? Or that it sends location data to its manufacturer even when you switch off the location option? It's all true!

Damn, who's at the door this time of night? Sorry, BRB.

(Sounds of distant thumping and muffled protests...)

Just watch out for those black drone helicopters controlled by Windows 10.........

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The issue is usually between the chair and the keyboard.

Same applies for phones and other technologies...

Nuff said,

I would normally agree, in the case of Apple doubly so however in this case it seems that this doesnt seem to be a user error, its a software error that nobody knows how to get to the bottom of.

Isolated or not only the empty headed use any system that takes actual control away from the user in even the slightest degree.

Even a glitch like that described in the OP is enough to make not using it a total no brainer! The fact not even Apple know what is going on with their tightly controlled software makes it even worse... They tell you its a no problem problem because so few have it so you think its fine.

makes me worry about the future

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FRom what I've read it's not I Tunes per se its Apple music. I have I tunes mainly just to rip CD's and I do not have music match turned on so it doesn't take any of my music. But always buy your your media physically and upload it yourself, that way if whoever your music hosting company is, any they go belly up for whatever reason, or if they change their policies, you will always have your media.

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Just watch out for those black drone helicopters controlled by Windows 10.........

Thanks for the heads-up!

And today...THIS!!! -Apple, Google, The Gumment, they're all in cahoots, I tells ya!

(So did Elvis!) Edited by ChippyWho
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The first time I tried iTunes, it was a real PITA so I decided to use other services and devices. I won an iPod a few years later and tried it again, and had the same issues - it just seems too controlling.

I think their structure makes problems like this more likely, and I'd rather just have direct control over my files and music. I know you can convert the Apple Music to MP3, but that's just an extra step to me. As it is, I download MP3s from Amazon and can just drag them to any device I want to play them from (or create a play list in Media Player), and I'm done. Just seems a lot easier to me.

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I've purchased 600 CDs over the years and will be acquiring another 200 or so to fully convert my LPs to CDs. As long as my house doesn't burn down, I can play or rip my music library. Stolen laptop? No problem. Fascist music vendors? No problem.

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I've purchased 600 CDs over the years and will be acquiring another 200 or so to fully convert my LPs to CDs. As long as my house doesn't burn down, I can play or rip my music library. Stolen laptop? No problem. Fascist music vendors? No problem.

Im the same 1,922 CDs and counting.

My friends think Im crazy for still buying CDs, they all use iTunes or what ever the Android version of it is.

Reel 2 reel, vinyl, CDs, MD/HiMD and even some cassette tapes and I love em, wouldnt trade them for a music library on a phone for anything.

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I refuse to buy anything digitally. Seems like a scam to me. Especially when they charge you tax for something that doesn't exist. For music now I just use the free Pandora or Spotify. I don't see one possible reason for giving them any money. I can listen to a few ads every now and then. Movies I buy in disc. We probably have a couple hundred movies on the shelves. Video games and books absolutely not digital. video games you get some resale value when you don't want to play it anymore. Books you don't get the feel and smell of the book.

Down with digital!

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I love real books, but the newer backlit Kindles are a godsend for me. It has increased my reading at least tenfold, lighten my load while on the go, and allows me to read fiction without prejudice.

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I dont mind the digitising of music to MP3 but I would not buy music as an MP3. I buy CDs, MDs and sometimes even reels. Its the buying of something that doesnt have any physicallity. Part of the experience for me is opening the box, loading the disc or reel and looking at the box art.

Watching those 10" reels turn on a R2R is also part of it.

Its the fast food generation gone mad... I cant stand that a McDonalds burger doesnt takes like beef, and I cant stand how the music doesnt sound as good anymore.

Kindle is good. Its a modernisation I find works. While I much prefer a book Kindle is a good thing.

Movies are another along the lines of CD...

I just dont get that one in this day and age. Its not unlike when we used to hire a VHS from the video store but you do it online, Im with that, but these days it can cost as much to buy as it does to hire... So why bother

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ElectroSoldier, just a few thoughts. First, if you go to a restaurant, one of the things you're paying for is the service of a server bringing you your food. It's not a tangible object, you can't take it with you, and yet you are paying for it - paying extra to make sure it's good if you leave a tip. It's work being performed that you're paying for, and music and movies are similar - you're not paying for a disc, you're paying for the content of that disk. A blank CD is a few pennies, but one with music on it is usually over $10. What's the difference? The content.

Additionally, if it were the physical copy you're paying for, then you would never be allowed to make backups, etc., and would have to buy the disk all over again if your original were lost or damaged. Most people would rather have the ability to manage the content separate from the physical disk, so they can play the music they bought through an MP3 player or their stereo or their car without having to buy a separate copy of each. If you tie it to the physical media, you lose that flexibility.

When I buy an MP3, I can have it on my PC, in my MP3 player, on a flash drive in my car (both of my cars, actually), and even burn it to a CD if I want. If it were linked to hardware, I'd have to buy a separate copy, on whatever media was needed, for each location.

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When I buy an MP3, I can have it on my PC, in my MP3 player, on a flash drive in my car (both of my cars, actually), and even burn it to a CD if I want. If it were linked to hardware, I'd have to buy a separate copy, on whatever media was needed, for each location.

Ahhh, but this is a different situation than what it sounds like Apple is doing, or what it sounds like they may be heading towards. In a sense you are linking your music to YOUR hardware by copying it on to whatever format you are choosing. Once you put it on your flashdrive, computer or media device or whatever, then it's linked to your hardware in that you need that specific hardware to play the music. It seems like Apple (and other companies as well) want to remove that ability to store it on your hardware and keep control of it in a central "cloud" location. Which is all good until something happens and they have glitches, or decide your usage has run out, or any number of other possibilities...and you are essentially powerless to do anything unless you want to pursue a law suit or such. That's why some people aren't as open to accepting cloud based media. You buy something and you want something. To use your restaurant analogy, it's more like the restaurant keeping your plate back in the kitchen after you've paid for the meal and saying "whenever you want a bite let us know and we'll bring it to you on a fork." All they have to do is at any point tell you, sorry, you've eaten everything off your plate and you'd have no proof that you didn't get everything you've paid for. At least that's my take on it.

Bill

Edited by niart17
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