Had To Ditch The Zune Because iTunes Is #FAIL

My mother purchased the first iPod ever made, yes, the ones with four buttons installed on the top. About a year and a half later, I owned an iPod Mini, so I have been using iTunes for a long time. Since the days of my iPod Mini (which I still love with a passion) I have slowly watched iTunes become a bloated, non-innovative piece of software that does not deserve to be installed on my computer. But, due to its attachment to the iPod I have been forced to use it and sadly, I do not think I will ever get away from it.

A few weeks ago, I finally downloaded the latest Zune software and what beautiful piece of software it for managing and playing music. It is crazy intuitive, has stunning album/artist art and is a truly unique experience as a media player that no other media player currently provides. Sadly, I will not be moving over and here are my reasons:

1. I Purchased Music Legally

At one point in time, I wasn't a tech nerd and I had no idea what DRM was, but I still held the value you should pay for your music. I downloaded nearly 300 songs via the iTunes store, all of them "protected" by DRM. It wasn't until I started reading TechCrunch that I moved to downloading from other sources (legal sources, of course). This means that all my songs are tied to my iTunes library only.

2. I Have Bought Three iPods

I have purchased the iPod Mini, iPod Video (1st gen) and iPod Nano. That's a lot of money to invest into a player and a lot of brand loyalty (not to Apple, the iPod line). To be honest, you just don't get over that really quickly and this of course, Apple is well aware of.

3. iTunes Does Not Like MP3's

iTunes default  file format is AAC, and while iTunes will accept MP3 file formats, when importing a CD it will automatically be put into AAC format. The Zune software does not accept the AAC format, making ninety percent of my music useless unless I duplicate them into the MP3 format, but then I have twice the storage for the same content... it is a bit redundant.

With all this, I have simply dedicated too much of my time and money to take more time... and more money (by buying a Zune HD to work with my Zune library) to move over to the Zune. And this is all because iTunes #FAILS at providing me with a way to move over to the Zune software in a convenient way.

It is a situation like this when a consumer realizes how much it blows when a company like Apple is not open and you want to move away.