iTune Blues

I'm working up a certain amount of hostility toward iTunes these days. I still like iTunes more than I dislike it, but in the words of the Babylon 5 movie "In the Beginning", "not as much as in the beginning."

First, they take all the Insomnium off iTunes. I don't know why - maybe it wasn't even iTunes that dictated that decision. But it grates on me, especially since they sell Ratt and (hang on to your butts) Bullet Boys. It's like being slapped with a large fish; I can't decide if it's insulting or merely annoying.

Then they dangle the prospect of Robin Trower before me. I've been waiting patiently for the album Bridge of Sighs to appear on iTunes. It was my favorite album by far in high school, and though some of the songs haven't aged all that well, certain ones like "Day of the Eagle" and "Too Rolling Stoned" and "Bridge of Sighs" remain excellent. The only thing that might be better would be finding the Robin Trower song "Twice Removed from Yesterday" on iTunes. But Bridge of Sighs is an amazing album, I think. Not my usual style, but still pretty amazing.

So one day it appears, and I click buy album. Only I can't, because you have to have "iTunes Plus" to buy it. Why? It's an album, right? Just like all the other albums I've bought, right? What about this album requires "iTunes Plus"?

I tried to download iTunes Plus but it wouldn't take; it kept complaining that "Bonjour" wouldn't start, and Apple, true their bullshit version of customer service, never mentions what Bonjour is, what it does, or even that it exists in the first place. You think you're installing iTunes Plus and all of a sudden it's installing Bonjour... I suspect it's about advertising. Usually when someone tries to interest me in an improved cell phone, website or music buying experience, it's because someone figured out a way to advertise to me in new and unusual ways. They can hoot about the grooviness of it all, but let's face it, it's all about the money, and I personally resent them holding Bridge of Sighs hostage to some marketing chucklehead's idea of what software on MY computer should or should not do.

So the bottom line is that iTunes Plus wouldn't load, so Bridge of Sighs remains unpurchased, and I've half a mind to give up on iTunes altogether and start buying albums on CDs again. But on the good side, though the album claims to have been remastered, it was remastered with a certain amount of taste and decorum and doesn't sound significantly different from the original effort (unlike the old ZZ Top albums which, after being remastered, sounded more like Devo than ZZ Top).