“Over 50 million Apple iPods, and lots of competing digital music players, have been sold by now — as well as over a billion songs and tens of millions of videos, since legal media sales took off a few years ago,” Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret write for The Wall Street Journal.
“But many folks — even some who own iPods and other players — are still confused over how legal digital music works. So here’s a quick-and-dirty guide to the digital music world, in question-and-answer form. We’ve included the questions we are asked most frequently, plus a few other topics,” Mossberg and Boehret write.
List of questions answered:
• What’s the difference between the Apple iPod and all the other portable music players? Some of them seem to have more features.
• If I buy an iPod, must I buy music from Apple’s iTunes store? Conversely, can I buy music from Apple, and play it, if I don’t have an iPod?
• Will songs purchased from iTunes play back on non-iPod portable players? Will songs purchased from competing services play back on iPods?
• Is there any way around this? Can I legally modify or convert encrypted songs so they will work on portable players for which they weren’t intended?
• What is the difference between Apple’s iTunes store, and competing services like Rhapsody and Napster 2.0? Does one carry more music?
• How do I use multiple iPods with one iTunes library on my PC, if I want different music on each iPod?
• Can I copy the songs on my iPod to my second or third computer?
• Can I share the music in my iTunes software with others?
• What can I do with an iPod, other than play music on it?
Full highly-recommended article with answers here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Cathy V.” for the heads up.]
This article is especially perfect for some “tech journalists” who seem to have a great deal of difficulty with these simple concepts (please see related articles below).
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Related articles:
Another iPod+iTunes FUD article keeps the disinformation flowing – May 14, 2006
SmartMoney publishes compendium of iPod FUD – May 11, 2006
Tech writer: Apple’s iPod+iTunes ‘closed’ system will move into a niche like Macintosh computers – March 31, 2006
In Cleveland, ‘tis the season for Apple iPod FUD – December 10, 2005
New York Times: most non-Apple devices cannot play Advanced Audio Codec (AAC) – October 06, 2005
Apple’s vs. Microsoft’s music DRM: whose solution supports more users? – August 17, 2005
The New Zealand Herald serves up a steaming pile of iPod FUD – August 11, 2005
FUD campaign against Apple’s iPod+iTunes fails to stick – April 08, 2005