iTunes Store Woes!

1 Oct 2026 16:05:18

Mick Burrell

I have just discovered (the hard way!) that if you purchase music from the iTunes store, either individual tracks or a complete album, and Apple choose to delete the album the tracks were on or the complete album, your purchased music will no longer play!

The advice I received from Apple was: if the tracks are available on other albums, by that artist, buy them again! Having fallen for it once, I'm not about to fall for it again.

Re: iTunes Store Woes!

2 Oct 2026 16:37:43

Tony Still

Thanks for that Mick, very useful to know. I'm sorry you learned the hard way. Presumably the licence let's them do that (I know it's not a straightforward sale even though we always talk about "buying" it).

On a related note (B sharp?), has anyone with ripped CDs in their library subsequently taken a subscription to Apple Music (ie pay monthly to stream whatever you want)? I keep being offered free trials but see it as risky.

When the service was new, a number of people found that it wiped any pre-existing copies (notably ripped CDs) in their library. My library is mostly ripped from my CDs, the ripping/metadata process is a huge investment of time that I would hate to lose; it was damaged even when Music was updated some years ago.

So is it safe now?!

Re: iTunes Store Woes!

2 Oct 2026 16:55:37

Trevor Hewson

All very alarming! Like Tony, most of my music is ripped from CDs (or from vinyl / cassette!). Fortunately it is all copied onto a couple of USB sticks inserted in the front of Yamaha hifi units.

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