Statement on MusicMatch's iTunes Compatibility Claim
Apple is not trying to sabotage anyone

November 5th, 2003

According to several reports, MusicMatch recently sent its customers an e-mail suggesting that iTunes for Windows somehow interferes with MusicMatch and recommended uninstalling iTunes entirely as the only solution. The e-mail seems to imply that iTunes sabotages MusicMatch by "deleting critical files," and some in the iPod community have speculated on whether Apple may be trying to hinder MusicMatch now that iTunes is available for Windows.

Based on our development work with our own iPod management software, Anapod Explorer, we do not believe that Apple intentionally tried to hinder third party software, nor does iTunes delete any "critical files" necessary to properly manage the iPod.

With the release of iTunes for Windows and iPod Software 2.1, Apple did make a number of changes in the way the iPod works, some of which could potentially cause unpatched third party software to malfunction or stop working. However, our examination of these changes suggests that they are all reasonable and/or necessary and are not meant to intentionally impede third party developers in any significant or malicious way.

So while the new iTunes and iPod Software may require third party developers such as ourselves and MusicMatch to make adjustments in our software, it is by no means impossible. To demonstrate this, we released Anapod Explorer 8.3.1 on November 4th, which resolves all known outstanding compatibility issues with iTunes. Anapod Explorer users can comfortably use both Anapod and iTunes on the same computer and they certainly do not need to uninstall iTunes. In addition, Anapod Explorer has been enhanced to be able to transfer iTunes-encoded AAC files and iTunes Music Store music tracks and audiobooks. We have also introduced a number of iPod maintenance utilities that can, in some circumstances, detect and repair errors and inconsistencies on the iPod created by other software, including missing and mismatched tracks.

Although conspiracy theorists may be disappointed, a close technical examination shows that any problems created by Apple's changes are both non-malicious and eminently surmountable by a reasonable development effort.

Red Chair Software