Dump itunes

You don’t have to look far online for horror stories about lost itunes music libraries, disappearing album art and corrupted files. Then there were the problems (teething troubles, if we want to be kind) with itunes Match and the new Apple Music service.

Over the past year, the Windows version of itunes has been updated dozens of times in attempts to fix this mess, and to patch security flaws. Meanwhile, Apple claims to take security so “seriously” that it’s quick to lock you out of your account if you forget your password, reset it and then forget what you reset it to. Which, let’s be honest, is easy to do. Oh, and some Windows 10 users have found that itunes won’t even recognise their iphones and ipads.

itunes cultivated hostility early on by attempting to make itself compulsory. It applied device-based restrictions and ignored the simple drag-and-drop process that made sense to young internet users (for whom drag-and-drop is second nature) and us old-timers (who miss our compilation tapes). Apple took away your control – and it’s now taking away your safety and your music, or at least moving it to somewhere you can’t find it.

Ten years ago, you didn’t have much choice, but now there are loads of free alternatives that work across multiple platforms and let you control your files. We like the simplicity of Foobar2000 ( www.foobar2000.org/download), which now has versions for Android, IOS, Windows Phone and Windows (PC). It’s free and safe and has a great, supportive website.

If you’re on Android or PC, Google Play Music ( https://music.google.com) is a must-have. It’s free and gives you plenty of storage space. It syncs seamlessly between your computer, phone and tablet, lets you edit file info as much as you like, supports playlists and even has a Spotifystyle streaming tool. The IOS version ( www.snipca.com/17835) is not as good, but it’s still a decent itunes alternative.