With macOS Catalina, Apple in 2019 gave up on the iTunes application in the Mac ecosystem. The firm is now doing the same for Windows 11, but omitting something useful in the process.
Like on the Mac a few years ago, Apple finally saw fit to leave out iTunes on Windows 11 as well. The idea? Gain clarity and dispatch its services in three separate applications: Apple Music (of course), Apple TV and Apple Devices, which is used for all synchronization tasks. A rather welcome reorganization… except for one detail: Apple has obviously forgotten those who still use CDs on their PCs, for one reason or another.
On Windows 11, Apple Music does not recognize the CD
Indeed, as our colleagues from MacGenerationthe Apple Music app on Windows does not support CDs, at least currently.
Unnoticed in the face of the increasingly widespread absence of optical drives on modern PCs, this shortcoming could pose a problem for users who wish to play their purchased music on a physical medium, but also (and above all) for those who used until now iTunes to convert on Windows the contents of their CDs into audio files in AAC or ALAC formats (Apple’s lossless format).
A shortcoming soon to be corrected?
In this case, it may well be a simple oversight. Not only is Apple Music still in the preview stage on Windows 11, CD support is much less used anyway than it was a few years ago. So it could be that Apple simply forgot to add this feature to its app. We can then imagine that the final version will correct the situation, without however being certain at this stage.
As pointed out MacGeneration, it’s unfortunately just as possible that Apple considered that Windows users have access to enough third-party software to convert and/or play their CDs. This would then be bad news, since the AAC conversion allowed until now by iTunes was paradoxically one of the best available on Windows.
Download
- Integrated conversion tool
- Audio Library Manager
- Many audio formats supported
iTunes is essential software and available for free download for iPod, iPhone and iPad owners. If it remains an effective application, this does not prevent it from being still much too heavy and slow when processing a large multimedia content library. A defect that the software has now dragged on for several versions… It is still essential for updating and troubleshooting Apple devices on a Windows computer!
iTunes is essential software and available for free download for iPod, iPhone and iPad owners. If it remains an effective application, this does not prevent it from being still much too heavy and slow when processing a large multimedia content library. A defect that the software has now dragged on for several versions… It is still essential for updating and troubleshooting Apple devices on a Windows computer!
Sources: Ars Technica, MacGeneration
6