Transcript of iTunes conference call published

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Transcript of iTunes conference call published

The Mac Observer has posted a complete transcript of yesterday’s iTunes anniversary conference call with Steve Jobs. Here he describes the new WMA to AAC conversion feature in iTunes 4.5:

“Another thing we’ve added is automatic WMA to AAC conversions, that is automatic conversion from WMA—which is the format that many people use on Windows—to AAC—which is the format that iTunes uses—so that Windows users can automatically create iTunes versions of the songs encoded in unprotected WMA, which means if you’re adding iTunes to your PC, you’ve got a music library in WMA, it will automatically create an iTunes version that is playable in iTunes, allow you to convert your library to iTunes and sink it to iPod just really in a snap. And this is going to help us a lot in the Windows market along with HP and some of the other things we’re doing and we’re excited about that.”

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Comments

1

Who *sinks* to their iPod?

Posted by kainjow on April 29, 2004 at 11:42 AM (PST)

2

anyone know where i could get an audio file fo the keynote???

.wma please….

i would love to listen to it over and over!!!

Posted by rivlinm on April 29, 2004 at 12:03 PM (PST)

3

You know, I just don’t see why, you know, Steve Jobs has to be so, uhm, you know…reserved, and, uhm, guarded, you know, about his products and why he can’t, you know, answer a single question without saying ‘you know’ at least twice. You know?

Posted by dethbrakr in Tacoma, WA on April 29, 2004 at 1:24 PM (PST)

4

Not all of what Steve says is true - I have been sending e-mails and posting at Apple asking for OGG support for two years now.

Posted by Dale on April 29, 2004 at 1:29 PM (PST)

5

You and 26 other nerds.

Posted by Chimpee on April 29, 2004 at 1:41 PM (PST)

6

WMA is a widely used format?

Since when has it been used for anything? It’s useless, MP3 is the most widely used lossy compression for Winblows.

Posted by Stasyna on April 29, 2004 at 3:45 PM (PST)

7

WMA is most commonly used be clueless computer users who use WiMP to rip music, exactly the kind of Windows users Apple wants to target. The non-geeks.

Posted by ketsugi on April 29, 2004 at 5:27 PM (PST)

8

If WMA was “clueless” then why did it have WMA Lossless for the past year and only now Apple are catching on and copying Microsoft’s technology for delivering high-quality reproduction of source material?

Posted by WMA on April 29, 2004 at 7:33 PM (PST)

9

converting from wma to aac is hardly ideal, converting from one lossy format into another you could end up with some pretty rubbish sounding aac files.

Posted by bassman-x on April 30, 2004 at 12:56 AM (PST)

10

Can you just imagine the screams of outrage if Bill Gates announced that the next version of Windows Media Player was going to “automatically” convert your audio tracks to WMA?

Posted by IDSmoker on April 30, 2004 at 4:03 AM (PST)

11

iTunes doesn’t “automatically” convert the .wma’s to aac’s without regard you dolt, the process is automatic.. and if Bill Gates came up with something half as cool as the iPod then maybe those lousy .wma’s would serve some purpose.

Posted by polesmoker on April 30, 2004 at 4:34 AM (PST)

12

Do some research before you go poo-poo’ing WMA, you freak zealots. Its size-to-quality ratio is just as good as AAC, and when you factor in the way it works with the OTHER 95% of the players out there, it’s clearly on top. Apple’s going out of their way as usual to trip at the finish line, making it a pain in the a$$ for people like me who have lots of great WMA audio on their hard drive already. I don’t want to recompress it, and I sure don’t want duplicates of my music.

Oh, and anyone with a newer PC can vouch that WMA rips CDs CRAZY FAST at any quality. I love my iPod, but not opening it to WMA is one more reason Jobs irritates me to no end - and why I sold my 2xG4 for a Dell 2 years ago - I’m tired of his politics…

Posted by WMA on April 30, 2004 at 5:04 AM (PST)

13

if you love .wma so much go get a dell jukebox and get your music from the walmart’s online store.. i for one don’t understand why anyone would rip in either .AAC OR .WMA , mp3 is certainly the most compatible and more futureproof, and if encoded right, sounds great.

Posted by WMA sux on April 30, 2004 at 5:13 AM (PST)

14

Here’s why people use WMA files… Windows Media player comes with Windows XP equipped pc’s, is a decent program, and will only rip high quality files (160) in WMA format. With no obvious reason not to use WMA at the time, I’m one of the people currently looking for a way (easy and free) to change all of those files to MP3, now that I have a player that can’t read them. (On a side note, many car stereos and handheld disc players can read WMA files) WMPlayer will only record in MP3 format at a horribly restricted quality level.

Posted by PBnJ on May 2, 2004 at 2:32 PM (PST)

15

Ogg Ogg Ogg Ogg!

Posted by OGGboy on May 3, 2004 at 7:27 AM (PST)

16

I have protected WMA’s from MusicMatch and I want to install them on my mini. Anybody know how?

Posted by Stephen on June 2, 2004 at 7:43 PM (PST)

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