I’m breaking up with Apple. And it’s nasty.

Tales of woe leaving the walled garden

Photo by zhang kaiyv on Unsplash

I’ve been in a deep and meaningful relationship since 2012. I’ve been surprised and I’ve been delighted, but lately I’ve been having bad thoughts. Forbidden thoughts. I feel trapped. I can’t play the music I want, their stuff is everywhere and I am starting to think they’re tracking me. Apple: I think I want out.

Relationships are often accompanied by their own soundtrack. I still remember unsealing that first iTunes gift card and gazing on the sheer choice of music I might buy. Over the years, I’ve built up quite the collection from iTunes, but I’ve recently started to buy music from a service called 7digital. In all honesty, I didn’t know where I could purchase new music outside of iTunes. I purchased a new album from 7digital on my iPhone, intending to play it from Apple’s Music app when I’m in the car or on a run. I quickly realised that there was no way to move the music from the Downloads folder on the iPhone to the Music app. I would have to tether the phone to my Mac and import the music using iTunes/Apple Music. Bored of this dance, I tried to play the music in my car over a wired USB connection. The old style ‘iPod’ interface on my car’s head unit didn’t show the music in the downloads folder. Likewise, the music would not appear when I was using CarPlay either…