Yeah, I realize the genre thing was going to continue as long as I let itunes connect with Apple's servers, so I unticked share my library with Apple, locked the itunes store out using parental controls, deleted genius, and just generally did everything I could to physically firewall my itunes software from communicating with Apple, because Apple is giving it instructions that are screwing up my collection. I'm going to be uninstalling Apple's update software shortly.
In the long run, of course, I probably can't sit here on this version of itunes forever. Basically, my hope is that Apple changes it's mind or allows an opt-out, and then I could upgrade to that version and re-enable communication with the store, genius, etc.. If they don't, I'll probably have to switch to software from a different brand to see what'll let me do things the closest to the way I want. Either that, or swallow Apple's changes and deal with it (I doubt it). End of an era.
Apple seems to be moving past people like me. I think they're prepping people's collections to go to an entirely cloud base subscription service sometime in 2013 (September at the latest would be my guess). That's also probably why they stopped increasing storage space on their devices, and only leave an ancient ipod classic design for people who want a lot of storage, and there keep being rumors of them getting rid of even that.
If the other gentleman can write that script to recover some of the playcounts from backups, that'll help me either move forward if Apple alllows an opt-out of the genre changing or I decide to accept it (The latter being unlikely). It also could help if I choose different media software that ports my playcounts (I hear some can read itunes library files and import elements of them).
Or I guess if absolutely necessary, I may just zero out my remaining playcounts and start fresh with something other than itunes.
I don't know, I don't feel like I have any real good choices.
Basically, Apple's got a virtual monopoly on good music management and high capacity music players. So they basically figure that people like me are stuck with whatever they decide to do. They might be right. But they also might have underestimated some of our stubbornness.
I mean, especially if they eliminate high capacity music players, a lot of what would keep me are smart playlists I've create and accumulated play counts and last played info and stuff. Well, there go the play counts, high capacity music players may be next to go, etc..
In the end, if they make itunes no better than some competitor's software, and make ipods no better than Android phones, why not just use a competitor's software and sync to my phone? Would save me a lot of money replacing my ipod (Which I was going to have to find a way to do so soon).
This is really sad. I loved the ecosystem they'd created and they're destroying it. They've possible irreovably destroyed my play counts, too. If that script thing doesn't work out, I'll probably have to start at 0, which I can just as easily do with other software.
The cloud is great as a backup or to use in a pinch, maybe on a phone or a tablet or a friend's computer or something. But I want home base to be files I own on a computer and a high capacity portable music player that doesn't require a frequent Internet connection and can store all my music. And I want to be able to choose my music and how it's organized. I don't think Apple gets people like me. I don't think they care. I think they just want the throw "throw around cash" and like glittery things demographic that won't notice or care about the details or have strong opinions on how they want things to work. The type of people who will pay them big bucks every months for a subscription and don't care about owning their own music is probably their demographic of the future- that's what these moves add up to.
