Good Alternative to iTunes?

They took away options? Did I miss something?

What options did they take away?

Yep, I guess I'm in the dark too about the reduced options. I haven't really noticed any problems with using my 950+ purchase iTunes tracks on my iPods. And, if you are asking for iTunes alternatives, I think you're looking in the wrong forums. I think most all users here will agree that iTunes is unquestionably the best app out there.

One thing to be wary of in going back to a previous iTunes version is that files purchased from ITMS do not seem to be backwards compatible. I know that with each implementation of a new iTunes, the security on ITMS files increases and it would seem that the latest software would be required to play the latest files. Please correct me if I am wrong!

Also, this may have been a unique problem to me as I had been using Mac OS 10.2.8, then went down to 10.1.5, then finally upgraded to 10.4.2 (involving 2 separate computers). I try to only have one iTunes library to help keep things consistent with the smart playlists… I know it is a little crazy, I guess, but I like having the most played and ratings be similar to the same on all 3 of my computers…

I’m sorry if this next part is a little vague, but I can’t remember all of the details of which iTunes versions were on which computer… I for sure upgraded the one running 10.1 to the highest version compatible with that system. I had some problems with 4.9 on the other computers, so I may have been using 4.8. I am now using 5.0 on the computer running Tiger and on my laptop that is running 10.2…

The music I downloaded from ITMS using 10.2 couldn’t be played on the computer with 10.1 because iTunes couldn't connect to the Music store to authenticate the account. I know the max number of authenticated computers had not been reached, so that's not my problem...

Once I upgraded, it all worked as it should.

Also, you said that you have purchased 950+ songs from ITMS... as far as I know, iTunes is the only program that will let you play these songs.

For 3rd party programs, including ones that will allow you to either take music off the iPod or copy music to the iPod, check out ipodlounge.com. There is a lot of software available there.

Is your iTunes set up to automatically update playlists on your iPod or do you have it set up to manually update or only update certain playlists? This could be causing problems if it isn’t set up to manually update...

Hope this helps! 🙂

Previous versions of iTunes let you transfer to and from an iPod with total freedom.

I think you must be not remembering something correctly, here. We have never been able to transfer music from the iPod Library to the iTunes Library. No version of iTunes has ever allowed this. Now, if you mean you have used your iPod as an external Hard Drive and copied files to and from it that way, then you are correct, and it will still function that way. But you have not transfered music from the iPod Library to your iPod Library.

Plus my purchased music is now locked. I just think the security restrictions with the new iTunes and the iPods is too restrictive.

What do you mean? There haven't been any new security restrictions put in place. Nor have there been any changes to the iTMS DRM. What do you mean when you say your "purchased music is now locked." Have you looked in the iTunes Knowledgebase for a solution to your problem? There are some known issues that have cropped up that Apple has posted solutions to in the KB.

One very important thing you should do is make sure your iPod has the latest firmware so that it can work correctly with iTunes 5.