A Love Affair with iTunes leads to Marriage with Apple

I have loved music for as long as I can remember. Playing music on records (I still remember my first record player and albums when I was six), then to cassettes, and then CDs. But it was the combination of music and computers that opened up new possibilities to think about music.

Combining music with computers in the form of MP3 files was a revelation for me, but I struggled with finding a program that would do everything I wanted. I tried everything except iTunes since I wrongly believed that I needed an iPod to use it and that it would not play or catalog my MP3 files, just the ones purchased off the iTunes store. So about two years ago, I decided to see what everyone was raving about, I downloaded version 7 and immediately fell in love.

What charmed me was that my most wanted features at that time were being provided:

• iTunes provided a clean and attractive interface that controls the folders of the MP3 files. Unlike many other control freaks out there, I don’t care what the file or folder is named, I just care that the files are there and easily found.
• iTunes allowed me to create MP3 CDs with customizable and dynamic playlists. If I wanted a Punk CD, I just create a dynamic smart-playlist that sorts out Punk bands in the Genre heading and its all there.
• These playlists can be also ordered in any fashion I see fit. If I want to create a customized playlist that focuses on year, genre, and mood, I can easily do this. I do not need to follow the default folder system that many other MP3 list makers do.
• iTunes usually tags compilation / greatest hit albums with the songs individual dates which was really important to me. I don’t care what year a compilation comes out, I care when a song is released.

So now for the past 10 months I have been importing every one of my CDs into iTunes. So far I am up to 10,000 songs being imported and there are many more to go. iTunes not only satisfied me when it first came out, but continues to be improved and is up to version 9.

And Apple sure knows how to market. Not only did they provide a superior free product, but the software’s appeal eventually lured me to a recent purchase of an iPod Touch about two months ago which I love.

I have been manipulated into marriage with Apple through an affair with iTunes. And I could’nt be happier being had.