Apple Stole My Music. No, Seriously.

[BajiRav]

Source: https://blog.vellumatlanta.com/2016/05/04/apple-stole-my-music-no-seriously/

 

Long read, some excerpts.

 

Quote

“The software is functioning as intended,” said Amber.
“Wait,” I asked, “so it’s supposed to delete my personal files from my internal hard drive without asking my permission?”
“Yes,” she replied.

Quote

What Amber explained was exactly what I’d feared: through the Apple Music subscription, which I had, Apple now deletes files from its users’ computers. When I signed up for Apple Music, iTunes evaluated my massive collection of Mp3s and WAV files, scanned Apple’s database for what it considered matches, then removed the original files from my internal hard drive. REMOVED them. Deleted. If Apple Music saw a file it didn’t recognize—which came up often, since I’m a freelance composer and have many music files that I created myself—it would then download it to Apple’s database, delete it from my hard drive, and serve it back to me when I wanted to listen, just like it would with my other music files it had deleted.

 

[BinaryData]

And this is why I have a strong distaste for Apple. I still can't music I purchased through iTunes back. The awesome "one time download" only. ###### Apple.

[Randolph]

whatttttttttt, nooo way 

[+Mud W1ggle Subscriber²]

Why does this surprise anyone when it comes to that company?

[+virtorio MVC]

iTunes deleted well over half my local music files on my MacBook Pro (and also made many incorrect matches, which is still continues to do), but didn't do it on my Desktop PC (where it seems to work like it's supposed to), which makes me think it's less about a bad policy and more about badly written software.

[Gone]

Well this is why BitTorrent and P2P was made! 

 

And I would never advocate piracy .

 

But one must do what they must to get back what is rightfully theirs and paid for.

[Genesis1982]

1 hour ago, Mud W1ggle said:

Why does this surprise anyone when it comes to that company?

Actually you should say "why does it surprise anyone that consumers are being played, one way or an other, no matter what company"
Every company does some dirty stuff behind consumers' backs, EVERY company no exception.
Apple does this, Microsoft does other creepy stuff, Google does it (well let's not even go there, lol)...

Pretty unfair to point a finger at Apple here, since in the business world, you can't always play following the rules.
No company in the world has grown big by constantly following the rules... it's just not possible, because it would give consumers too much power and no money would be made.
Sure, there are boundaries that companies should keep in mind, but if 99% of their marketshare is ok with it, why even bother changing their policy?

As long as the mass buys their product, apparently we are ok with it... they (the companies) know exactly what they are doing, and that they can get away with it.

[chrisj1968]

18 minutes ago, The_Prodigy_1982 said:

Actually you should say "why does it surprise anyone that consumers are being played, one way or an other, no matter what company"
Every company does some dirty stuff behind consumers' backs, EVERY company no exception.
Apple does this, Microsoft does other creepy stuff, Google does it (well let's not even go there, lol)...

Pretty unfair to point a finger at Apple here, since in the business world, you can't always play following the rules.
No company in the world has grown big by constantly following the rules... it's just not possible, because it would give consumers too much power and no money would be made.
Sure, there are boundaries that companies should keep in mind, but if 99% of their marketshare is ok with it, why even bother changing their policy?

As long as the mass buys their product, apparently we are ok with it... they (the companies) know exactly what they are doing, and that they can get away with it.

yeah but I can understand peoples anger when they invested hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a collection and have it deleted by Apple. I smell a lawsuit coming, a VERY large class action to be more specific. torrents are theft, deleting off of peoples systems are theft as well.. I can't stand Apple.

 

Here's another supporting article: Apple Music is quietly deleting songs from hard drives  (Geek.com)

 

Quote

The old problem of iTunes reorganizing your files is one thing, but actually deleting your files? Inexcusable, especially without getting a confirmation from a user. The official line from Apple is that “the software is functioning as intended.”

“As intended” is one thing, but as users expect it to do something entirely different in this case. Pinkstone believed his songs would be made available via Apple’s cloud, but with loads of empty drive space and no reason to dump his digital tunes he didn’t see the deletion coming.

 

[Raa]

Ouch! I'm no Apple fan for sure, but I can't see any justification for this from any company...

[-T- Member]

That's odd, I've had the iTunes Match service for a while and use Apple Music, and this has not happened to me at all. I did let iTunes consolidate my music but that's all it's ever done. All my files still exist 

[T3X4S]

Uhhh - sorry - I know I am naturally skeptic but something doesnt "sound" right here.

Apple has too much to lose, and is far too public of a company to do something this wreckless.

There has to be more to it.

 

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Never had this problem; although some matches were off (usually when it came to EPs or live versions).

[Dick Montage]

I understand the "uploads it to their DB if it's never seen it" part.  But the "then deletes it off your hard drive" part sounds fishy to me.  I run 3 apple machines and none of them have done this to my (self produced) mixes.

[adrynalyne]

46 minutes ago, Nik L said:

I understand the "uploads it to their DB if it's never seen it" part.  But the "then deletes it off your hard drive" part sounds fishy to me.  I run 3 apple machines and none of them have done this to my (self produced) mixes.

It's a known bug that some people here flat out deny (not you) but it's been acknowledged nonetheless. 

 

http://m.imore.com/apple-music-didnt-delete-anyones-library-itunes-1233-sure-might-have

[Dick Montage]

5 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

It's a known bug that some people here flat out deny (not you) but it's been acknowledged nonetheless. 

 

http://m.imore.com/apple-music-didnt-delete-anyones-library-itunes-1233-sure-might-have

I'm not denying it, but a digital composer stores his output on a computer that he connects to apple music and allows it to control his library this way?  I acknowledge it has happened to some people (and I have a theory as to why, but that is moot), but this story sounds a little off...