iTunes Ate My Balls.

August 20, 2003, 02:08 pm

For some reason, I thought that Apple's iTunes Music Store had a web-based front-end, where you could purchase music online without iTunes, but I was wrong. Instead, I got on our only Mac (a crufty, old 400 MHz G4), signed up for an iTunes Music Store account, and bought a couple Coldplay songs.

I was thinking, Now I just have to install an AAC decoder for XMMS.

But I was wrong; dead wrong.

I finally got an AAC decoder for XMMS installed (which was a pain in the ass), but I couldn't load the .m4p file format. It seems that these files are protected by some sort of DRM that prevents you from playing it on non-iTunes apps and also prevents you from converting it to mp3.

So I had to burn a CD with the two songs I bought, then rip that CD to mp3, then copy those files to my linux box.

So I'm finally listening to the songs I bought. But what a freakin' pain in my ass. I don't think I'll ever use iTunes music store again, unless I buy a whole album or something.