iTunes 5 new features? What should apple do?

[acidrock]

What should apple put in the next iTunes five that will probably come out with the next system? One thing I would really like to see is a wish list, so when we find an album we like we can put it in a list and not have to search for it all over again. What do you guys think would advance iTunes?

[wPod]

a built in mp3 editor. maybe tied into garageband. something like iPhoto so i can click on the 'edit' button then do things like cut off the last 2 seconds of silence on some songs, or those 2 songs on an album that run into each other i can just clip together very simpily.

how about a pitch and speed controler so i can dj off of my PB.

a request song field in iTMS so if enough people request a certain song NOT found on iTMS then maybe the company that ones that song will realize they can make some money and will let the song be sold on iTMS.

[aswitcher]

What should apple put in the next iTunes five that will probably come out with the next system? One thing I would really like to see is a wish list, so when we find an album we like we can put it in a list and not have to search for it all over again. What do you guys think would advance iTunes?


Auto Album cover downloads.

Links to bands sites with downloads.

More than 128 Bit AAC downloads, say 160 if one wants for better quality.

[Snowy_River]

Support for more kinds of meta-data, even if it's only in the iTunes DB, and not directly contained in the music file. Things like lyrics, special mentions, liner notes, etc...

[Savage Henry]

As long as the music store makes it over here I wouldn't care if it came with a dose of plague.

Well I would, but at least the music store would somewhat comefort me in those few days left :)

[ChrisH3677]

1) The same thing I'd like to see in iPhoto 5.... multiple libraries. I hate having every song I've ever imported all in one library. all my wife's stuff, all my kids stuff, all my stuff. when i import new stuff with the automatic read & import option, it all gets dumped in there. i only have a few hundered songs., it must be a right pain for folks with thousands of songs.

2) Also, not having to go to preferences to change the export type... surely all export options could be offered all the time!

3) Being able to burn a selection to disc. i.e. select 10 files, command-click and select burn selection to disc. and if all the songs have the same artist and album name, then it would automatically use those as the CD title.

[Nik_Doof]

As long as the music store makes it over here I wouldn't care if it came with a dose of plague.

Well I would, but at least the music store would somewhat comefort me in those few days left :)

Very true, just hope Apple get the iTMS over here soon... :rolleyes:

[ph8te]

Since here at the office we have not yet migrated to OS X, and at home I only have a PC, my request might already be built in, but I would not know.

iTunes should have a function to sort out the duplicates, retaining originals with the best quality, and such

[theipodgod16]

a request song field in iTMS so if enough people request a certain song NOT found on iTMS then maybe the company that ones that song will realize
they can make some money and will let the song be sold on iTMS.


...they already have this feature built in. Its on the left column under the feedback & requests section

What I want to see is bands like IMA ROBOT, who used to be on the store, returned to the store. Their album was yanked, with no explanation as to why or when it will return. Now i cant forward my friends to their single the legit way....

[TBR]

iTunes 5 should have some cool new features not just old features expanded, more id tags etc.

The ability to auto beatmatch would be very cool for playlist creation allowing you to specify a BPM and iTunes will do it's best to create a constant uninterupted stream of mixed music.

Maybe some cool DJ-esque tools to allow iTunes to become a very cool DJ tool. Almost an automatic DJ. This would be very cool.

[27407]

a built in mp3 editor. maybe tied into garageband. something like iPhoto so i can click on the 'edit' button then do things like cut off the last 2 seconds of silence on some songs, or those 2 songs on an album that run into each other i can just clip together very simpily.


You can already do that by going into get info: options, and selecting the start and stop time.

[phillyag]

What should apple put in the next iTunes five that will probably come out with the next system? One thing I would really like to see is a wish list, so when we find an album we like we can put it in a list and not have to search for it all over again. What do you guys think would advance iTunes?

Definitely a wish list. I feel a little weird placing 50 or so songs in my shopping cart so I don't have to search ...... just think if someone got into my account..... yikes. Also you could email that list to family, friends, etc.

[Sol]

I would love to see some kind of multi-disc feeder with a fast CD-ROM drive that we could load all our Audio CDs into. This thing would work with iTunes 5 and togeter they could convert a music library in one go.

In the software I would love to see MP4 integration so that purchases from the iTunes Music Store could include videos. It would not be selling films but it could test the technologies that will go into film downloads in the distant future.

[wordmunger]

Burn Protected AACs into MP3 CDs.

I know. Not going to happen. I can dream, can't I?

[dukemeiser]

Definately a lyrics tag. Then you could sync with you iPod and have the lyrics displayed on screen! Kinda like iLyric does right now, but better integration. People could write scripts to auto find lyrics and add to your songs.

[tompatros]

I'd like to see some more robust ID tag editing, ideally from within the iTunes Library list. Sometimes, songs don't show up where I expect them on my iPod, so that's why I'm a stickler for maintaining good tags.

I'd like the lis to function more like a spreadsheet program, where you could edit a cell, then drag that value across several rows to, say, correct and entire album from a given artist. Paging through and editing tags one-by-one is just painful.

Currently, I store all my music on a seperate server, so I keep ZERO mp3s on my PowerBook. However, I only use my PowerBook to update my iPod. It would be nice if you could set up iTunes to automatically check a remote server for new songs, as I am always doing an "add to library.." and then pointing to new folders on the remote box.

[wPod]

You can already do that by going into get info: options, and selecting the start and stop time.

yes, but that implies you know exactly where you want the song to start/end. . . im thinking more of like a graphic representation of the song (such as you see when you import a clip in garageband) and possibly more editing options tied in with garageband. . . like i could take a clip of beats from the end of the song and copy it a couple times to extend the time to mix with another song.

[Snowy_River]

... Paging through and editing tags one-by-one is just painful...

Are you aware that you can change all the tags on a set of songs by selecting them, then using 'Get Info'? You get a dialog that allows you to set whichever tags you want on all selected songs to a given value.

[tompatros]

Are you aware that you can change all the tags on a set of songs by selecting them, then using 'Get Info'? You get a dialog that allows you to set whichever tags you want on all selected songs to a given value.

I never tried that - that is quite handy! I guess that works for now, but I'll still put a plug in for my idea :)

[TEG]

Automaticly Parse File Names that contain Title, Artist, Track into approate ID3 fields and then file the file appropriately. Free/automatic Album Cover download. Allow the adding of "Album Covers" to Streaming Files.

And my number one complaint, and Hope they fix...

Whenever I'm updating my iPod, or transfering any files, no matter how large of small, my sound skips, in iTunes, VLC, or QT. It is annoying, and I want something done, at the very least to store whole songs in the RAM to try to alieviate the skipping problem.

TEG

[Snowy_River]

A couple of people have mentioned 'iLyric'. I've looked it up and I'm quite interested. Unfortunately, it seems that the download is currently unavailable from End Production's site. Does anyone have a copy that they could send me?

[flyfish29]

1) The same thing I'd like to see in iPhoto 5.... multiple libraries. I hate having every song I've ever imported all in one library. all my wife's stuff, all my kids stuff, all my stuff. when i import new stuff with the automatic read & import option, it all gets dumped in there. i only have a few hundered songs., it must be a right pain for folks with thousands of songs.


I agree, but even better have music be able to be set up in a folder type structure like rolls of film in iPHoto, but be grouped how you want...genre, band name, album, etc. then you can close all the groups and or genre's you dont want to scan though or even play and just view the ones you want to.

I also think the biggest fault of iTMusic Store is the lack of a wish list. I have had this come up several times that I search for music and with the great marketing they do on iTMS with suggested picks, etc. I end up with more music than I can buy at that point in time so I have to delete some of them from my shopping cart...so I end up not remembering all that I wanted to buy the next time I purchase music. Would also be nice (but not necessary) would be the ability to have others search for your wish list and purchase music for you and the next time you show up at ITMS your selected wish list choices automatically download!

[GovornorPhatt]

I'd like to see folders or playlists that could contain sub albums or playlists. I have tons of iPhoto and iTunes albums and playlists and want to be able to organise them

[Mac Dummy]

What should apple put in the next iTunes five that will probably come out with the next system? One thing I would really like to see is a wish list, so when we find an album we like we can put it in a list and not have to search for it all over again. What do you guys think would advance iTunes?

Here is what I would really like to see in the next version of iTunes.

1. The ability to convert iTunes purchased, and protected AAC files to other formats (AIFF,WAV,MP3 etc.) as long as it is limited,for burning to CD since none of my CD players will play MP3 or other formats except for WAV and AIFF.

2. Support for WMA and other file formats, (Ogg Vorbis, Flac, ASF etc.) that way I wouldn't need Windows Media Player or the Napster player to play music in these formats.

3.The ability to uncheck groups of songs in a playlist. (especially useful for Shared playlists)

[stuckwithme247]

Here is what I would really like to see in the next version of iTunes.

1. The ability to convert iTunes purchased, and protected AAC files to other formats (AIFF,WAV,MP3 etc.) as long as it is limited,for burning to CD since none of my CD players will play MP3 or other formats except for WAV and AIFF.

2. Support for WMA and other file formats, (Ogg Vorbis, Flac, ASF etc.) that way I wouldn't need Windows Media Player or the Napster player to play music in these formats.

3.The ability to uncheck groups of songs in a playlist. (especially useful for Shared playlists)

1. Well i don't think there is such thing as a "protected" AIFF file...

3. You can already do that by selecting a group of songs and command clicking the check.

[m15t3r 8L4Ck]

I want to be able to resize the songtitle/artist/bitrate/etc etc columns per album or playlist, and have that resize only affect that particular album or playlist, instead of resizing the rest of the columns everywhere.
This feature existed in the original iPhoto but was discontinued for some reason.

[nuclearwinter]

i don't know if you can do this, but i would like to see the possibility to change aac into mp3 so you can burn mp3 discs. Alot of my windows friends like itunes but won't use it as the default because they imported as aac. That's partly their own fault since you can import as mp3 too, but they all have mp3 disc players in their cars, home stereos etc. aac is better i think, but some people just can't get over the old standard. If there were something that allowed you to convert an aac into mp3, i think alot more people would be using itunes.

[King Cobra]

[603]

i want SPEED. i want to scroll my 18.6 days of music without lag. if they can give iPhoto the ability to handle tens of thousands of photos at a time, they can fix iTunes to do the same with thousands of music files.

another speed issue: interface element resizing is sluggish on my 1GHz 12" PowerBook (768 MB of RAM) and on the dual 800 MHz G4 (1 GB of RAM) i use at work. same thing goes for the dual G5s in the Apple Store. i understand that it's because iTunes has proper anti-flicker algorithms, but i think this sort of interface unresponsiveness is one of the reasons that certain people perceive some Mac apps as being slow.

ID3 tag updates could also be significantly faster.

i'd like to be able to use plug-ins so that iTunes can play different file formats. i want to be able to organize all my NSF/GBS/SPC/PSF files just like i can organize my WAV/AIFF/AAC/MP3 files. AFAIK there isn't an open playback plugin architecture for iTunes that allows people to build their own plugins for different formats... but i could be wrong. someone PM me if they know of anything like this.

the Browser view is another point of contention. the iPod-like interface is almost really good, but i rip all the "genre" tags out of my music. as a result i'm left with an empty "genre" box in the top left that doesn't do anything except take up space. i should be able to close that box if it's empty, or iTunes should do it for me automatically.

you can't context-click (right-click, CTRL-click) a playlist to delete it, you have to use the keyboard. in that vein, CTRL-clicking a playlist, radio station, or the "radio" icon gives me the option to "EJECT DISC." i should only get the context menu for the object that i'm clicking on. it does this whether or not i have a CD in the optical drive. i can (sort of) understand the desire to put that option in the context menu of every item, but that's not how context menus are supposed to work.

i'd like to sort the main library view by the columns that i choose. i can almost do that, but i can't put them in this order: ARTIST > ALBUM > SONG, which is my preferred hierarchical method of organization. that is also the way the iPod is laid out.

iTunes can only see an audio CD if it's in my top optical drive... if i put an audio CD in the bottom drive, it gets ignored by iTunes, but can be accessed by other applications and the Finder.

some column headings in the library view are aligned to the left (ARTIST, ALBUM, SONG), some are aligned to the right (BIT RATE, PLAY COUNT, TRACK #)... just a small visual inconsistency.

i also think the "BROWSE" icon (the rainbow eyeball) doesn't fit with the interface at all.

but really, forget iTunes - it was free and it does a great job, despite these somewhat esoteric complaints. what i really want is gapless playback, seamless looping, and crossfading on the iPod already!

[OutThere]

I agree, but even better have music be able to be set up in a folder type structure like rolls of film in iPHoto, but be grouped how you want...genre, band name, album, etc. then you can close all the groups and or genre's you dont want to scan though or even play and just view the ones you want to.


I think that you haven't found the "Browse" button yet. It's in the main Library in the upper right corner of the window, click it and it will let you browse by various different things. If I understand you correctly, then this is what you want.

I want the ability to make an iTunes kiosk type thing. Have a computer set up inside a cabinet, allow users to make requests to the computer, full screen iTunes. People would be able to come up to the Jukebox-like station and type in songs that they want, that will get played later on. People could also come up and put in their personal ratings for each song, so that it would determine how often that song got played. I think that this would have some serious potential at parties or bars.

[kungfu]

I'd like to see iTunes 5 completely re-written in Cocoa... I'm sick of this carbon crap.

[603]

I'd like to see iTunes 5 completely re-written in Cocoa... I'm sick of this carbon crap.

:)

i hear you!

[bluebull]

I would really like to have that internet tv thing that Winamp 5 has.
(I haven't seen but I've heard about it)

[bennetsaysargh]

Auto Album cover downloads.

Links to bands sites with downloads.

More than 128 Bit AAC downloads, say 160 if one wants for better quality.
i think 128 is good enough. if you think about it, how would they go about doing that? they'd need to re-do the entire store. and people will be mad about their existing purchases. never gonna happen.

what i want is an ID3 tag for featuring. it's needed because on my ipod, i have a few bands that have people guesting on songs on the album, but then it comes out as a new artist.

another one is sub playlists. it would probably be so easy to do this, yet it would be so useful.

[strider42]

Here is what I would really like to see in the next version of iTunes.

1. The ability to convert iTunes purchased, and protected AAC files to other formats (AIFF,WAV,MP3 etc.) as long as it is limited,for burning to CD since none of my CD players will play MP3 or other formats except for WAV and AIFF.
)

I might be missing something, but you can burn those protected aac files onto a standard Cd that any CD player can play with no problem. you can even then re-rip them back to your hard drive in any format you like, with no DRM whatsoever.

[bankshot]

another one is sub playlists. it would probably be so easy to do this, yet it would be so useful.

Do you mean where you could make a smart playlist based on the contents of another playlist? I've suggested this to Apple several times (they probably just ignore me). It would allow advanced users to easily create playlists with arbitrarily complex logical conditions without complicating the user interface at all. Sound like a no-brainer to me.

My other big wish item is true gapless playback. I've ranted on this before (several times, heh) but it's important for the absolute best listening experience. Steve Jobs said in the last keynote that the people working on iTunes and iPod are music lovers. I don't believe him, or they would have fixed this by now. Listen to a live album (really listen) and tell me the gap between tracks where the crowd noise cuts out briefly isn't distracting. Or any album where tracks run together (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, which I happen to be listening to right now :cool: ).

The solution is incredibly easy, but I don't think Apple cares enough to implement it, and probably most of their customers don't care enough to want it. Most people don't listen to albums much anymore, but playlists of single songs.

All they need to do is rip a CD as one complete audio file and store the start/stop times of each track as metadata. Problem solved. Unfortunately I'm not holding my breath. :(

Does ANYONE else out there care about this, or am I just a lone nut? :D

[bankshot]

I'd like to see iTunes 5 completely re-written in Cocoa... I'm sick of this carbon crap.

Why? Just because Carbon is based on the older Mac toolkit doesn't mean there's anything wrong, or "worse" about it. I see people say this all the time, but there's generally no good reason one way or the other from the end user's perspective.

[bennetsaysargh]

Do you mean where you could make a smart playlist based on the contents of another playlist? I've suggested this to Apple several times (they probably just ignore me). It would allow advanced users to easily create playlists with arbitrarily complex logical conditions without complicating the user interface at all. Sound like a no-brainer to me.
no i mean there is a little triangle next to a playlist, and you click on that triangle to show another set of playlists.

I'd like to see iTunes 5 completely re-written in Cocoa... I'm sick of this carbon crap.

im not so sure. they'd have to spend a lot of time rewriting it and then sift out the bugs. nott worth it. although, if it makes it faster, i wouldn't mind. i don't actualy see bad performace out of itunes.


and hint if you listen to concert, turn on the crossfader to like a second or lower if you can.

[MoparShaha]

I think the biggest arguement for rewritting iTunes in Cocoa is that you could get rid of the brushed metal. I'd love to have a white iTunes window, or something that matches a theme installed in the OS. As of now, you can apply mediocre skins to iTunes, but they follow the same gradiant lighting pattern as the original, and can only be in grayscale. Anyways, iTunes has been around in it's current form since OS9 days, it's time for an improvement. For Apple, it wouldn't be that difficult to redo in Cocoa, and I think it would be slightly snappier.

[New Guy]

I would like to see the rendesvous names or IP adresses of people listening to my music over my company's network. I like listening to other people's music and I like sharing my own. I just wish it weren't anonymous.

[benixau]

[QUOTE=MoparShaha]For Apple, it wouldn't be that difficult to redo in Cocoa, and I think it would be slightly snappier.[/QUOTE

ok - you rewrite millions of lines of code in a new language with new API calls and new classes and function names.

as for faster - BS - cocoa is just a wrapper for carbon calls. It is not faster at all - its just some of the, ok most of the, important carbon APIs have been hidden and made private by apple and are only able to be called from cocoa - making cocoa appear faster.

[leftbanke7]

I'd like to put playlists in any order I want, not in alphabetical order. Plus I'd like to be able to seperate playlists from other playlists with a line or something to that effect. I have my music in broad decade based playlists but I'd like to have a "Relaxing Music" or "Upbeat" sub playlist that I can seperate from the rest.

[Borg3of5]

It's slightly annoying to rip fully beat-mixed CD's I've bought for export to my iPod and there be a gap, albeit minute, between tracks. Can you imagine if we didn't have this on the dance-floor? How rude! :o

[jeffy.dee-lux]

I'd like to see folders or playlists that could contain sub albums or playlists. I have tons of iPhoto and iTunes albums and playlists and want to be able to organise them

yeah, this would help me out a lot. i have a sony mp3 cd player, and when there's 150 tracks on a cd, its not too easy to move through the songs if i burn it through itunes. There's a jog dial that you can turn, but it only skips over like 3 songs each turn, so that's not too quick. Furthermore, if you're on track 120 and you turn the wheel, it starts at track 1 again, so the wheel ain't too useful. The only way to get around quickly is if you burn through the finder, seperating things into folders. Then you can navigate between the folders on the cd player with jog dial. i just wish there was a way i could do this with itunes, cause i like using itunes, cause its cool. But yeah, seems like it would be pretty simple to just have playlists within playlists. Total run time displayed at the bottom of a playlist with other playlists in it would just be the total of all the playlists inside... i don't see any other issues. i like that idea of the sorta graphical representation of setting playback times. Joining tracks on a cd that belong together is pretty easy, just select the songs and then connect them under the advanced menu. But it'd be cool if you could do that to tracks already in you library, especially since so many people are getting their tracks off of ITMS.
and oh yeah, itunes canada. lets go.

[7on]

I'd like to see something that would also be useful in iPhoto and Address Book...

The ability to delete a song/photo/address from a playlist/album/group and also have it deleted from the library (not necessarily replace the remove from p[playlist/album/group but allow it an option, maybe option+del or option+cmd+del)

[jeffy.dee-lux]

My other big wish item is true gapless playback. I've ranted on this before (several times, heh) but it's important for the absolute best listening experience. Steve Jobs said in the last keynote that the people working on iTunes and iPod are music lovers. I don't believe him, or they would have fixed this by now. Listen to a live album (really listen) and tell me the gap between tracks where the crowd noise cuts out briefly isn't distracting. Or any album where tracks run together (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, which I happen to be listening to right now :cool: ).

The solution is incredibly easy, but I don't think Apple cares enough to implement it, and probably most of their customers don't care enough to want it. Most people don't listen to albums much anymore, but playlists of single songs.

All they need to do is rip a CD as one complete audio file and store the start/stop times of each track as metadata. Problem solved. Unfortunately I'm not holding my breath. :(

Does ANYONE else out there care about this, or am I just a lone nut? :D

i am so there with you on that one. i am all about albums that work as a whole as opposed to jumbled singles. I like to listen to albums which are well put together, especially the ones where you can't even tell where one tune ends and the other starts, or even when its obviously separate tracks, but they're put so close together or even overlayed so you don't lose the momentum. That gap is plain terrible, ruins my listening experience of albums by the Chili Peppers (blood sugar, one hot minute), Hendrix (electric ladyland), the Beatles (abbey road, sgt pepper), Zeppelin (II), others that you already mentioned... I even go through the trouble of figuring out which songs really have to be heard together and joining those tracks so they always play together without the stupid gap. What really annoys me is my mp3 cd player that even has to spin the cd up again usually to start reading the next track. When i make a cd of a couple beatles albums, i'm so gonna just group the tracks by the original record sides.

[aswitcher]

i think 128 is good enough. if you think about it, how would they go about doing that? they'd need to re-do the entire store. and people will be mad about their existing purchases. never gonna happen.
SNIP


You seen the superbit DVDs? ;)

Some people want the best and obviously the market is responding with it. It wouldn't bother me but I am sure there are some who would want the higher quality...

[redAPPLE]

i haven't read all the posts yet, but the webstreaming feature of iTunes4 would be cool. but because of this RIAA "complaint", Apple could create a technology bluetooth-like, 2 macs could be "paired" and only the 2 (or maybe 3 or 4) macs could contact the "iTunes Music Server" which is let us say @home from the office macs.

[bankshot]

no i mean there is a little triangle next to a playlist, and you click on that triangle to show another set of playlists.

Ah, well that would be a good feature too. :cool:


and hint if you listen to concert, turn on the crossfader to like a second or lower if you can.

Unfortunately that's not an acceptable solution. It may work in some cases where there's only crowd noise during that one second - there you wouldn't notice. But any studio album that runs tracks together won't work, especially if there's a particular tempo that's kept between the tracks. You'll miss a couple of beats for a split second. Also, the iPod doesn't support crossfading, so it's no good there.

As I said, I believe the solution is technically simple. I mean come on, a 20-year-old CD player can do what iTunes and iPod can't: play tracks that run seamlessly together, AND skip around among them if you want. With iTunes, you get one (rip the whole album as a single track but lose all individual song information) or the other (rip normally but lose seamlessness between tracks). It can't be hard... :rolleyes:

[MOFS]

How about the ability to tag songs with multiple tags in the same field? I have a load of duets, but when I put them in, putting "Tom Jones and the Cardigans" creates a new artist, as opposed to putting it in with either my Tom Jones songs or my Cardigans songs.

Also synching iTunes w/ Text Edit or Appleworks would be useful to print of CD inserts.

Oh yeah. Biggie. iTunes Europe/ UK

We don't want Coca-Cola winning the plaudits...

MOFS

[TBR]

I'd like to put playlists in any order I want, not in alphabetical order. Plus I'd like to be able to seperate playlists from other playlists with a line or something to that effect. I have my music in broad decade based playlists but I'd like to have a "Relaxing Music" or "Upbeat" sub playlist that I can seperate from the rest.

You can have a "relaxing" or an "Upbeat" playlist, you can use the grouping tag for that.

the Browser view is another point of contention. the iPod-like interface is almost really good, but i rip all the "genre" tags out of my music. as a result i'm left with an empty "genre" box in the top left that doesn't do anything except take up space. i should be able to close that box if it's empty, or iTunes should do it for me automatically.

If you go to views you can turn on/off all the different tags to show or not in the browser window.

[gopher]

What should apple put in the next iTunes five that will probably come out with the next system? One thing I would really like to see is a wish list, so when we find an album we like we can put it in a list and not have to search for it all over again. What do you guys think would advance iTunes?

1. The Browse columns should include Composer.
2. MP3 recording built-in for any sound input device.
3. WMA and Realplayer streaming support both audio and video, as well as
Quicktime. I would like to see iTunes as my one stop for all streaming media.
4. The ability to search and replace multiple MPEG3 tags much the same way a spreadsheet or word processor can.

[Damien]

1. The Browse columns should include Composer.
2. MP3 recording built-in for any sound input device.
3. WMA and Realplayer streaming support both audio and video, as well as
Quicktime. I would like to see iTunes as my one stop for all streaming media.
4. The ability to search and replace multiple MPEG3 tags much the same way a spreadsheet or word processor can.

In response to point 3, I would also love that. Using iTunes too replace quicktime and having it play realplayer and WMA wouuld make it great. The best media player ever but they couldnt call it itunes it would have to be iMedia or something

[stoid]

While it would be really neat to see iTunes and QuickTime team up into one app, I think that right now they have jobs that aren't combinable. Quicktime uses one file at a time of a relatively short list. iTunes collects all your music files into one huge list and can access them all upon launch. Perhaps QuickTime 7 will have a file organizing utility like iTunes that will allow you to have access to all your movie files just by opening it.

Steve has made it clear that he thinks movies and music are two completely different animals and should not be treated as if they are two sides of a coin. The only thing that a joining of QuickTime and iTunes technology could possibly involve would be music videos.

"You listen to your favorite songs hundreds of times, but you only watch your favorite movies a few tens of times at most."
-Steven Paul Jobs

[Damien]

While it would be really neat to see iTunes and QuickTime team up into one app, I think that right now they have jobs that aren't combinable. Quicktime uses one file at a time of a relatively short list. iTunes collects all your music files into one huge list and can access them all upon launch. Perhaps QuickTime 7 will have a file organizing utility like iTunes that will allow you to have access to all your movie files just by opening it.

Steve has made it clear that he thinks movies and music are two completely different animals and should not be treated as if they are two sides of a coin. The only thing that a joining of QuickTime and iTunes technology could possibly involve would be music videos.

"You listen to your favorite songs hundreds of times, but you only watch your favorite movies a few tens of times at most."
-Steven Paul Jobs

I will noot be itunes though it will be a merging oof several diffrant apple products, a media tool, Using itunes browse feature whhich wiill have a added secrion to decide it you want audio or video then it wouuld either go into the current format for itunes or a new one devoted to video the video will preview in a small window and go to a bigger screen such as itune has e.g the visual effect feature to display video.

It would also be used for DVD, a dvd icon appearing in the left bar like a current cd.

[Snowy_River]

i haven't read all the posts yet, but the webstreaming feature of iTunes4 would be cool. but because of this RIAA "complaint", Apple could create a technology bluetooth-like, 2 macs could be "paired" and only the 2 (or maybe 3 or 4) macs could contact the "iTunes Music Server" which is let us say @home from the office macs.

Something like this could also open up the University streaming market, a la Napster...

[briankonar]

cocoa.
new UI.
instant download of album art (it d/l's CD info automatically, why not album covers).
new UI.
user editable crossfades.
new UI.
better visualizer options.
itunes menu extras (non 3rd party, something like Synergy)
and a NEW UI.

[Snowy_River]

...
new UI.
...
new UI.
...
new UI.
...
and a NEW UI.

You know, based on this post, I really can tell that there's something about the user interface in iTunes that you don't like. However, I have no idea what it is. Just asking for a new UI is like saying you want a soda that tastes different... :rolleyes:

[stoid]

asking for a new UI is like saying you want a soda that tastes different... :rolleyes:

Well, damn, that must be my problem!! I've been sending letters to Coke and Pepsi telling them to make it taste different. I was inspired by the whole 'think different' and said taste different. :D

[bennetsaysargh]

briankoner, what's wrong with the UI?
im fine with the current one as it is.

[jesuscandle]

DL'ing album covers would be great, but there are some pitfalls...

First, they *could* rig it up to DL covers from the itms, but I think this is part of the product that they want you to pay for. It doesn't seem like a good business model to give it away.

Plus, most of the cd's I don't have cover art for aren't on the music store...so...what's the point?

Second, any third party option would run into similar problems. You can't just steal the album cover from amazon, as Amazon wouldn't want to increase their server traffic with no promise of increased business. Remember, you'd only DL the album art *after* you bought the record.

You might be able to convince the All Music Guide that this would be a good thing for them, but Apple would have to pay them. And again, that seems like a lot of money for a relatively minor thing.

todd

[wrldwzrd89]

The same thing I'd like to see in iPhoto 5.... multiple libraries. I hate having every song I've ever imported all in one library. all my wife's stuff, all my kids stuff, all my stuff. when i import new stuff with the automatic read & import option, it all gets dumped in there. i only have a few hundered songs., it must be a right pain for folks with thousands of songs.
Why on earth do you do this? Use Mac OS X's multiple users feature if you want everyone's stuff separated. That's what it's there for! With that you don't NEED multiple libraries.

[jelloshotsrule]

Why on earth do you do this? Use Mac OS X's multiple users feature if you want everyone's stuff separated. That's what it's there for! With that you don't NEED multiple libraries.

signing in and out just for different libraries is more of a pain that it needs to be. it's that simple.

with multiple libraries some people don't NEED multiple users

[nesbitt_a]

On the fly queuing of music - essential for those of us DJing off our powerbooks!

-- Andrew

[New Guy]

I think not only should iTunes let you see who is listening to your music it should be integrated with iChat as well. In the left hand pane, underneath the playlists, should be an iChat icon with one of the expander arrows next to it. When you click on the arrow it expands to show a list of all users listening to your music. Click on a name and the right hand pane shows a list of the last 10 songs they listened to. Double clicking on a name would bring up an iChat window so you could send that person a message.

[nesbitt_a]

I think not only should iTunes let you see who is listening to your music it should be integrated with iChat as well. In the left hand pane, underneath the playlists, should be an iChat icon with one of the expander arrows next to it. When you click on the arrow it expands to show a list of all users listening to your music. Click on a name and the right hand pane shows a list of the last 10 songs they listened to. Double clicking on a name would bring up an iChat window so you could send that person a message.

What happens with windows/rendezvous users? I definetly agree that there should be some kind of share history.

One feature i've just thought of is temporary playlists when connected to another computer - so you can pick and choose which songs you want to play, or create several playlists - that could be stored locally and used every time you are connected. This would avoid the hastle of selecting/deselecting songs that you do or do not want to play.

I'd be up for a few more visualisations too Apple! (skins?)

[ingenious]

What happens with windows/rendezvous users? I definetly agree that there should be some kind of share history.

One feature i've just thought of is temporary playlists when connected to another computer - so you can pick and choose which songs you want to play, or create several playlists - that could be stored locally and used every time you are connected. This would avoid the hastle of selecting/deselecting songs that you do or do not want to play.

I'd be up for a few more visualisations too Apple! (skins?)
i heard that hp was working with apple on some rendezvous stuff.... can anyone back me up on this one? also, skins are too much of a "PC" thing. Very ugly (IMHO). I agree with the iChat thing, tho, more of a link to see who's listening to my music. I share it in class and a I can't ever tell who's listening to it without ACTUALLY talking! ;)

[TyleRomeo]

Have another info slot if a song is a cover or not. a good lyric link would be great. room for liner notes under comments could work also. FLAC files in the ITMS. C'mon bandwidth. I can take downloading 40MB files. I'm not paying for something thats compressed.

Tyler

[wrldwzrd89]

signing in and out just for different libraries is more of a pain that it needs to be. it's that simple.

with multiple libraries some people don't NEED multiple users
I have a question for you, then: what's so painful about signing in and out? I would think that the benefits of multiple users (distinct preferences, distinct permissions) would outweigh the benefits of allowing users to have more than one library. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not the type to share my user account with others, which seems to be the only situation in which multiple libraries would be useful.

[Freakk123]

Like others have said, a lyrics tag would kick. And if it worked with my iPod, all the better! And, yeah, multiple libraries would be awesome. The auto-DJing idea is a great one, I'd love to see what apple could do with it. Lets see... I have a more concerning matter... What color will they make the musical note in the logo?!? :p

[Jeewhizz]

CDDB integration :)

Oh and itunes in the UK. I am using it at the moment with a friend's US credit card, but i'd like to whack on about 15 albums at a time, and would rather do that on mine ;)

Jee

[bennetsaysargh]

I have a more concerning matter... What color will they make the musical note in the logo?!? :p

that is my main concern actually. stupid, yes, but i don't know. they already have the gift certificates in green, so what happens when they need to change the color?
i didn't like purple all too well. it was a bit de-masculinizing. (not a word)
maybe teal? or silver. hmm. another thread awaits! :p

[mainstreetmark]

You can play OGG files in iTunes:
http://www.illadvised.com/~jordy/

You can queue your music on the fly:
Just make a new playlist, get iTunes playing in that playlist, and drop new files in there as you find them

You can already connect to CDDB (or equivalent) in iTunes

There are better visualization options:
To name a few: http://www.itunesregistry.com/products/products.php?cat=Software&subcat=Visualizer

You can turn off the "Genre" column in the browser

You won't be able to play WMA and RA in iTunes:
It's unlikely that Apple will be able to license the technology for free, and iTunes isn't currently an Allpurpose Media Player anyways.

[bennetsaysargh]

You can play OGG files in iTunes:
http://www.illadvised.com/~jordy/

You can queue your music on the fly:
Just make a new playlist, get iTunes playing in that playlist, and drop new files in there as you find them

You can already connect to CDDB (or equivalent) in iTunes

There are better visualization options:
To name a few: http://www.itunesregistry.com/products/products.php?cat=Software&subcat=Visualizer

You can turn off the "Genre" column in the browser

You won't be able to play WMA and RA in iTunes:
It's unlikely that Apple will be able to license the technology for free, and iTunes isn't currently an Allpurpose Media Player anyways.

not quite sure about how people want to do the on the fly list. your idea works, but maybe people are looking for a shortcut.
as for saying iTunes isn't an all purpose media player, i think it will be soon. with pressure to open up the iPod to play Real's AAC, itunes will have to do the same. this will make apple and real talk, and i don't see why not adding rm. not necessarily in itunes 5, but i don't see why not down the line. as for WMA, i think apple might budge eventually and accept it, because they now have itunes for windows, and people may have started using itunes and still have WMA files. yet again, i say why not? it won't hurt them. maybe the Real aac thing wont go through, so that might cause they rm not to go through.

if you look in the resources folder in the iTunes app package, there are 2 icons for ogg and wma, so you never know.

[nesbitt_a]

Thats an interesting point actually. Why include the icons if the player cannot handle the file-format?

-- Andrew. :)

[happycapy]

agree about the customizable fading. The current fade-in/fade-out model is pretty awful; even if it's not editable, the ability to truly cross-fade would really help... as would the ability to *not* pause between specified tracks.

[RBMaraman]

I also think the biggest fault of iTMusic Store is the lack of a wish list. I have had this come up several times that I search for music and with the great marketing they do on iTMS with suggested picks, etc. I end up with more music than I can buy at that point in time so I have to delete some of them from my shopping cart...so I end up not remembering all that I wanted to buy the next time I purchase music. Would also be nice (but not necessary) would be the ability to have others search for your wish list and purchase music for you and the next time you show up at ITMS your selected wish list choices automatically download!

*ATTENTION*

You can already have a wishlist of iTMS songs on your very own computer running the latest version of iTunes!

1. Create a regular new playlist and name it Wishlist.
2. Go to the iTMS.
3. Find a song you want, click on it, and drag it to the Wishlist playlist.
4. When you go to the Playlist, it will display all of the information about the song, and it even has a one-click button to purchase the song without having to go to the music store!

I've had a wishlist for several months now.

[Krs A]

My appologies if someone has allready posted this, but there's allready a wishlist function in iTunes. Just create a new playlist and name it "wishlist" for example, then go to the musicstore and drag and drop the songs you want to the new playlist. Later on you can buy them right form the playlist.

[mkrishnan]

My appologies if someone has allready posted this, but there's allready a wishlist function in iTunes. Just create a new playlist and name it "wishlist" for example, then go to the musicstore and drag and drop the songs you want to the new playlist. Later on you can buy them right form the playlist.

I believe you can also highlight items in the shopping cart and buy just those items, as opposed to the whole cart. At least I'm pretty sure I've done this. But it would be nice to have a wishlist in the Amazon sense from which other people could buy you songs. Well, no one I know uses that at Amazon, but it seems to work for them. :rolleyes:

[sjpetry]

I think they should let you choose the quality of the songs 128 kps - 320 kps or Apple lossless. :)

[combatcolin]

Don't know how many people have said this as im just off out for a meal down the pub but...

...i would really like convert AAC into MP3 when burning off an MP3 cd, this would make me very happy.

And also my brother in law.

[Littleodie914]

I'd like a couple things from iTunes 5...


The ability to download songs at higher than 128kbps.
To be able to hit the delete key when in a PLAYLIST and be able to delete the song from your library. I have a "New Tunes" smart playlist, which updates with the songs added within 2 weeks time. Sometimes I don't like the songs, quality is bad, etc. Instead of being able to delete them on the spot, I have to search my library (~1300 songs!) to find it and delete it. Gets a bit frustrating
Automatic album art downloads, like when ripping CD's and such. The third-party apps are nice, but not perfect.

[Harry K.]

I'd like a couple things from iTunes 5...


The ability to download songs at higher than 128kbps.
To be able to hit the delete key when in a PLAYLIST and be able to delete the song from your library. I have a "New Tunes" smart playlist, which updates with the songs added within 2 weeks time. Sometimes I don't like the songs, quality is bad, etc. Instead of being able to delete them on the spot, I have to search my library (~1300 songs!) to find it and delete it. Gets a bit frustrating
Automatic album art downloads, like when ripping CD's and such. The third-party apps are nice, but not perfect.


I believe you can delete a song from a playlist and your library at the same time. It's by holding down some keys at the same time or something. I read about it in one of the tip things from Apple.

[chameeeleon]

option-delete is the shortcut you're looking for if I'm not mistaken. or cmd-option-delete.

[rock6079]

option-delete is the shortcut you're looking for if I'm not mistaken. or cmd-option-delete.

sweet i was just about to say i want that feature also. its so frusterating having to find the song again, especially when its a duplicate or such.

anywase the bigest feature i want is nested playlists already.

[sebisworld]

i don't know if you can do this, but i would like to see the possibility to change aac into mp3 so you can burn mp3 discs. Alot of my windows friends like itunes but won't use it as the default because they imported as aac. That's partly their own fault since you can import as mp3 too, but they all have mp3 disc players in their cars, home stereos etc. aac is better i think, but some people just can't get over the old standard. If there were something that allowed you to convert an aac into mp3, i think alot more people would be using itunes.

I think you can already do that. Just select MP3 as your standard importer and then click on an unprotected AAC File. If you go to Advanced, you should find an option to "Convert selection to MP3".
By the way, you can even use iTunes to burn MP3 CDs.

[parrothead]

I wouldnt mind the option to NOT download the album art with every song. Also, being able to choose bit rate would be nice.

[jaw04005]

I want a feature that automatically copies all downloaded music to other authorized comptuers on your network, elimnating the need to manually export each new iTMS file and copy it to each workstation.

[jaw04005]

I wouldnt mind the option to NOT download the album art with every song. Also, being able to choose bit rate would be nice.

I'm just curious as to why? When you can just disable the artwork preview pane therefore never seeing the artwork again.

[gco212]

Won't happen, but I'd like to eventually see quicktime mixed in with iTunes. Like WMP, only higher quality. I'm sure Apple would be able to make a nice interface for it. It's still a couple revisions away in my mind, but it will be much easier having it all in one central location.

[puckhead193]

an option to have all the artist to come together, like the triangle thing on AIM.....

[martintyler]

1. The ability to add tracks to the Library based on the directory/filename rather than Tags - not everyone uses compressed/taggable formats. Also also pick up album cover art if it is present.

2. Better remote/shared/distributes integration features. ie things like allowing the updating of ratings/playcounts for shared libraries, remote control of other itunes, streaming music to other devices (like airport extreme) using a single sharing/control open protocol.

Basically I would like the setup where I have a server running itunes, a device like a Roku soundbridge attached to my hifi, and a powerbook. I want to be able to use the roku interface/remotecontrol to play stuff from the server and update ratings/playcounts. I also want to be able to use my powerbook to send stuff to the Roku and also use the powerbook to send stuff from the server to the roku

[sacear]

A frequent request for iTunes and iTMS is wish lists, which has been available and capable since the introduction of iTunes 4.0 and the iTunes Music Store. The majority of users don't seem aware of this feature yet, and maybe it seems a bit quirky dragging a song from the iTMS to a personal playlist in iTunes. iTMS songs can be dragged to any playlist and mixed with songs already in your iTunes library (useful for "theme" playlists), however they will only play a 30 second sample and will not record (burn) to CD.

What I want to see is bands like IMA ROBOT, who used to be on the store, returned to the store. Their album was yanked, with no explanation as to why or when it will return. Now i cant forward my friends to their single the legit way....The decision for albums to get added or pulled is made by artists and/or their record companies, not by iTunes Music Store.

The ability to auto beatmatch would be very cool for playlist creation allowing you to specify a BPM and iTunes will do it's best to create a constant uninterupted stream of mixed music.

Maybe some cool DJ-esque tools to allow iTunes to become a very cool DJ tool. Almost an automatic DJ. This would be very cool.This would be good as a separate program or add-on module, such as a plug-in. I want iTunes to remain a simple (and small) song player (jukebox), without any unnecessary features. I want my songs to playback as intended by the artist without beatmatching (or other "DJ" manipulations) and with the natural pause of silence between songs.

[Mechcozmo]

You want a wishlist? That's easy!

Make a new playlist. Drag the iTMS track to that playlist (call it wishlist). It appears as a track. You can play it if you can connect to the iTMS. It even has a "Buy" button there, so you can buy the music. Its a neat feature.

[dotdotdot]

Defidantly, I want the feature to play WMA... on iPods also.

Also, it wouldn't be too bad if iTMS downloads could include the back cover art also - sometimes, the back cover is nicer than the front cover/explains more about the album...

ahem, Eminem's Encore is an example...

[wrldwzrd89]

Defidantly, I want the feature to play WMA... on iPods also.

Sure, that would be nice...but Microsoft won't allow it, I'm afraid.

The one feature I want in iTunes 5 is hierarchical playlists.

[sacear]

Sure, that would be nice...but Microsoft won't allow it, I'm afraid.Plus, WMA is crappy compared to other standards.

Burn Protected AACs into MP3 CDs.

I know. Not going to happen. I can dream, can't I?Don't know why you'd want to do this, as MP3 is crappy compared to AAC (MPEG-4), however, this has been possible since iTunes 4 and QuickTime 6.

I'd like to see some more robust ID tag editing, ideally from within the iTunes Library list. Sometimes, songs don't show up where I expect them on my iPod, so that's why I'm a stickler for maintaining good tags.

I'd like the lis to function more like a spreadsheet program, where you could edit a cell, then drag that value across several rows to, say, correct and entire album from a given artist. Paging through and editing tags one-by-one is just painful.This is already currently possible in iTunes, just select multiple items, then Get Info (command-I).

. . . im thinking more of like a graphic representation of the song (such as you see when you import a clip in garageband) and possibly more editing options tied in with garageband. . . like i could take a clip of beats from the end of the song and copy it a couple times to extend the time to mix with another song.That is not the intention nor the purpose of iTunes and is better served by a different application program. iTunes is a song playback application, like a jukebox, not a DJ mixing booth or station, and needs to remain so. Song manipulation and DJ features would be good as a separate program or maybe an add-on module, such as a plug-in. These programs already exist and are available. I want iTunes to remain a simple (and small) song player (jukebox), without any other unnecessary features. I want my songs to playback as intended by the artist without beatmatching (or other "DJ" manipulations) and with the natural pause of silence between songs.

[Nermal]

Don't know why you'd want to do this, as MP3 is crappy compared to AAC

Because most players can't read AAC.

however, this has been possible since iTunes 4 and QuickTime 6.

How? :confused:

[wrldwzrd89]

How? :confused:
Go into iTunes preferences. Select "Burning". Choose "MP3 CD" as the type of CD to make. Burn a CD like you normally would.

[Nermal]

Whenever I've done that, it's skipped the AACs.

[wrldwzrd89]

Whenever I've done that, it's skipped the AACs.
That's weird...maybe it isn't possible to make MP3 CDs from iTunes Music Store files directly. Perhaps you have to waste a regular audio CD, re-import the files as MP3s, then burn an MP3 CD from those. That should work, although it's a royal pain to do.

[Nermal]

JHymn to the rescue then :)

Edit: No, it won't touch unprotected AACs either.

[sacear]

Whenever I've done that, it's skipped the AACs.Are you talking about Protected AACs? Or regular AACs?

Edit:
Right, I missed the "MP3" CD part. So of course AACs won't record to MP3 CD, they are not MP3s! I can't run my diesel vehicle on unleaded petrol.

There is no way to do this directly nor a way around this due to copyright protection laws. This is the compromise Apple was able to make with copyright holders in order to make and distribute iTunes. (I'm still surprised Apple even got the legal "Okay" to make and distribute iTunes in the first place.) If Apple implemented such a feauture, then they would not be allowed to make or distribute the product (iTunes). To copy or distribute someone else's property is stealing and is illegal.

[Nermal]

I've tried both, and it just skips them and won't convert them to MP3 - I have to do it manually (Advanced -> Convert Selection to MP3).

[sacear]

I want to be able to resize the songtitle/artist/bitrate/etc etc columns per album or playlist, and have that resize only affect that particular album or playlist, instead of resizing the rest of the columns everywhere.
This feature existed in the original iPhoto but was discontinued for some reason.I definitely agree with this one! Resizing column widths never seems to hold.

i don't know if you can do this, but i would like to see the possibility to change aac into mp3 so you can burn mp3 discs. Alot of my windows friends like itunes but won't use it as the default because they imported as aac. That's partly their own fault since you can import as mp3 too, but they all have mp3 disc players in their cars, home stereos etc. aac is better i think, but some people just can't get over the old standard. If there were something that allowed you to convert an aac into mp3, i think alot more people would be using itunes.This is already currently possible. Read previous posts.

[wrldwzrd89]

I definitely agree with this one!
Hmm...interesting. My library has no regular playlists in it...100% smart playlists...and I don't have this problem.

[cyanide]

1.i want iTunes five to have native access to at least ten times as many radio stations. I know i can still listen to them, but having them in the radio "playlist" would be nice.

2.Tabs.. i want to be able to open playlists, iTMS, radio, and my iPod in different tabs ala safari.

3.I would like iTunes somehow integrated with .Mac and iSync so that no matter where I go I have an Apple-branded solution to listen to my music from my home's dynamic IP. It would require logging in to .Mac to protect my files.

4.I want iTunes five to surprise me with its intelligence like the iPod Shuffle did.

5. Smart integration with iApps, along the lines of the magic iMovie feature. Something like this: I define the parameters of music in iTunes or an iApp so that iTunes oh-tomatically (sj :P) takes the songs i listened to the most during the week i was vacationing in oregon and groups it with the photos i took that week, creates a slide show, and plops it on a DVD. Automator is the closest thing i have seen to this.

Current Song: Fiona Apple::Fast as You Can Help free Fiona's latest album from the clutches of a corporate criminal! (http://www.freefiona.com)

[shidoshi]

Edit:
Right, I missed the "MP3" CD part. So of course AACs won't record to MP3 CD, they are not MP3s! I can't run my diesel vehicle on unleaded petrol.

Er, it could, I don't know... convert the unprotected AAC files into MP3 in order to put them on said MP3 CD?


As for me, my #1 wish for iTunes 5 is better tagging support. First of all, iTunes doesn't even support the entire range of tagging that the CDDB supports. That's not nice.

Second - and this might break things if the tracks are then played in non-iTunes players, I don't know - I'd love the ability to add my own tags. I'm big into Japanese and Korean music, and putting them in my library can be tricky sometimes. For example, for a Japanese track, do I have the song's name be the original Japanese title, the Japanese title in romaji, or the song name translated into English? Do I have the artist's name be in Japanese characters or romaji?

Right now I use the artist name tag for the name in romaji, and use the composer tag for their name in the original language. (I know, that's not what it is for, but it works.) Of course, that doesn't fit the problem I have deciding what I do with the name of the track.

[Nermal]

Er, it could, I don't know... convert the unprotected AAC files into MP3 in order to put them on said MP3 CD?

Yeah, the problem's not that you can't do it (you can via the Advanced menu) but rather that it doesn't happen automatically.

[bennetsaysargh]

i still want a tag for featuring artists. come on, how annoying is it to scroll through an ipod with the featuring as it's own artist?

[mkrishnan]

i still want a tag for featuring artists. come on, how annoying is it to scroll through an ipod with the featuring as it's own artist?

Yeah, this is annoying. What I do is recode all the songs when I get them in iTunes, so that the artist is the main artist and the title is "xxxx (feat. xxxx)." That way, when I do searches in iTunes, I still get all the songs where the artist is a feature, as well as their own songs, but in the iPod I don't get the multiple artist entries. But it doesn't help find them in the iPod -- there's no way to get all the songs that have Twista in them, for instance, from my iPod. :(

[Nermal]

i still want a tag for featuring artists.

YES! That's much more important than the AAC -> MP3 conversion I talk about above.

[sacear]

Hmm...interesting. My library has no regular playlists in it...100% smart playlists...and I don't have this problem.Well, I wonder if this is an OS level problem. I just updated this Mac a few hours ago to 10.3.8, which runs much snappier, btw. I just tried resizing columns in iTunes on this Mac (not mine), and iTunes had never been launced before, this was the first launch. This is iTunes 4.7.1 and I use iTunes 4.6. iTunes 4.7.1 is holding column widths in all libraries, including playlists, smart playlists, Party Shuffle, and the main library; even after Quit and re-launch. I know column widths is a problem on my PowerBook because it irritates me to no end. I'll check it out in iTunes 4.6 on my PB later.
Er, it could, I don't know... convert the unprotected AAC files into MP3 in order to put them on said MP3 CD?Yeah, the problem's not that you can't do it (you can via the Advanced menu) but rather that it doesn't happen automatically.Because AAC is a newer, better, and stricter algorithm developed by a group that includes Dolby and the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers, and standardized by the ISO and the IEC, there is no way to do this directly (automatically) for the purpose of recording to a CD, nor a way around this due to copyright protection laws. This is the compromise Apple was able to make with copyright holders in order to make and distribute iTunes. (I'm still surprised Apple even got the legal "Okay" to make and distribute iTunes in the first place.) If Apple implemented such a feauture, then they would not be allowed to make or distribute the product (iTunes). To copy or distribute someone else's property is stealing and is illegal.

[Nermal]

I'm not following you here. There's no law that says you can't convert from AAC to MP3. :confused:

[wrldwzrd89]

I'm not following you here. There's no law that says you can't convert from AAC to MP3. :confused:
This only applies to Protected AAC. For unprotected AAC, the sky's the limit.

[sacear]

I'm not following you here. There's no law that says you can't convert from AAC to MP3. :confused:Well, it depends on your intent and purpose. If your intent is to distribute the files, then yes there is a law against that, and that is why Apple had to agree to not enable this type of function. In other words, Apple was told they would not get sued as long as they made a simple song player (jukebox) that did not promote or enable file sharing. It may only playback song files. AAC is a patented format and converting AAC to MP3 for the purpose of distribution violates copyright and enables filesharing.

[Nermal]

Yet iTunes will let you convert from AAC to MP3. You just select the song, and choose Convert Selection to MP3 from the Advanced menu. You can then copy these MP3s onto CD and listen to them with, say, an in-car MP3 player.

The feature that we want is the ability to have iTunes automatically convert from AAC to MP3 when we choose to make an MP3 CD. Currently we have to convert the songs (using the Advanced menu), then copy the songs to CD - it's a 2-step process.

[spacepower7]

Wish list:


Help for PC users switching: Sometimes alot PC MP3 rippers save a playlist file and name the individual files. The MP3 tags of the songs only contain the title of each track. The playlist file contains the artist and album MP3 ID tags, and iTunes can't connect them. I have had to fix alot of MP3 tags with TriTag.

How about an option to use Gracenote DB or FreeDB. I find that FreeDB has many more albums(especially imports, limited editions, and rereleases), although many errors too.

Spelling and grammar correction/suggestion for song titles. Especially capitalization. This is probably more a FreeDB and PC problem.
(I know my own sucks but I can copy directly off a CD, why can't everybody else.)

Keyboard shortcuts for the various columns... Source,Artist,Album, and Songs.

Better organiszation of VA or Various Artists.

That's my wish list. :)

[sacear]

1) The same thing I'd like to see in iPhoto 5.... multiple libraries. I hate having every song I've ever imported all in one library. all my wife's stuff, all my kids stuff, all my stuff. when i import new stuff with the automatic read & import option, it all gets dumped in there. i only have a few hundered songs., it must be a right pain for folks with thousands of songs.This is handled at the OS level. Create a user account for each person (yourself, your wife, your kid, etc.) in OS X and each person will have their own iTunes library.

2) Also, not having to go to preferences to change the export type... surely all export options could be offered all the time!I am not sure what you mean. I am not familiar with any Export type options in iTunes preferences. All export format type options (xml, unicode, & text file) are presented and selectable in the Format drop-down list in the dialog box after choosing "Export Song List" command from the File menu. The "Export Library" command allows only the xml format type.

I'd like to put playlists in any order I want, not in alphabetical order. Plus I'd like to be able to seperate playlists from other playlists with a line or something to that effect. I have my music in broad decade based playlists but I'd like to have a "Relaxing Music" or "Upbeat" sub playlist that I can seperate from the rest.Yes, definitely! The ability to re-order playlists by dragging would be great! Currently, I am using numbers to put my playlists in the order I want.

I'd like to see Browser view improved and customizable. I'd like to be able to choose which columns are visible and in which order, just like in playlists.

I'd also like the ability to sort according to mulitple criteria order and column names, and to pick that sort order, for example, Artist > Year > Album > Song.

[sacear]

Yet iTunes will let you convert from AAC to MP3. You just select the song, and choose Convert Selection to MP3 from the Advanced menu. You can then copy these MP3s onto CD and listen to them with, say, an in-car MP3 player.

The feature that we want is the ability to have iTunes automatically convert from AAC to MP3 when we choose to make an MP3 CD. Currently we have to convert the songs (using the Advanced menu), then copy the songs to CD - it's a 2-step process.Yes, that is what I have explained at length. It will remain a 2-step process so that Apple does not get sued. iTunes will not convert an AAC file to MP3 and then record that to CD all from one command because they are legally prevented from doing so. Those that own the AAC format won't allow it, because the probability of illegal file sharing is great. Apple has given us everything they are currently allowed. AACs can be recorded to audio CD and AACs can be down converted to MP3s. Dolby wants money for their technology, so contact them about the agreement with Apple about the abilities and capabilities of iTunes. And quite frankly that process does take only two-steps. So what? Let's not be so lazy that we complain and draw attention to things that the copyright owner did not want. Apple gave us the loop-hole, so let's not ruin it, otherwise even that will disappear in the next iTunes release.

[Nermal]

Sorry if it seemed like I was being stubborn, the way I read your posts I didn't think you realised that there was a conversion feature built in - I thought you were flat-out saying that it can't be done. Your last post clarifies what you were trying to say.

I still don't understand the logic though, but I do know that the American legal system is crazy, so I have to assume that what you're saying is correct :rolleyes:

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

My wishlist:

1. The ability to "merge" files, so that if you have the same song on two or more albums (e.g. the original album, a collection and a compilation) you only need one physical file, and link to that from all places (thus also updating a common playcount etc for the song nomatter which album you're listening to). Having multiple instances of the same object is bad database design...

2. Better and more specialiced conditions e.g. the ability to say (A and B) or (C and D) or (E and F), without making three helping playlists and on random playlists the ability to say (like in Party Shuffle) "play higher rated songs more often".

3. Playlists in folders (like iPhoto).

4. The possibility to split tracks and remove parts (to seperate and identify bonus tracks, without having to have two instances - this problem is not that unlike #1) - or at least that when you set a Start Time or Stop Time in the option for a track that the iPod also gets (and reacts to) that information - its very annoying when I've "cut" away a bit of a track, and it sounds like I want it in iTunes, but NOT on my iPod mini (might be an iPod problem, but I had to get it off my chest ;))

5. Continious play (for albums like Pink Floyd "The Wall") without making the intire album into one track.

6. That iTunes recognices CD-Rs longer than 74 minutes, so you can burn 80 min CDs.

7. The ability to have an album connected to the main artist, but still mark collabarations with "Artist1 feat. Artist2" or "Artist3 with Artist4" and let them show up when you browse Artist1, -2, -3 or -4, respectivly. Now it will make a new arist (an folder) with "Artist1 feat. Artist2" and if you choose Artist1 and than the album, that track will not show in the browser...

8. Artwork seperated from the music files (in its own metafile?) and just linked in, it takes very much unnecessary space to have the image included into evey songs file (at least with larger scans). Again poor database design...

1) The same thing I'd like to see in iPhoto 5.... multiple libraries. I hate having every song I've ever imported all in one library. all my wife's stuff, all my kids stuff, all my stuff. when i import new stuff with the automatic read & import option, it all gets dumped in there. i only have a few hundered songs., it must be a right pain for folks with thousands of songs.
Different users -> logins -> libraries...?



a built in mp3 editor. maybe tied into garageband. something like iPhoto so i can click on the 'edit' button then do things like cut off the last 2 seconds of silence on some songs, or those 2 songs on an album that run into each other i can just clip together very simpily.
You can already do that by going into get info: options, and selecting the start and stop time.
Yes, but as I say in #4, my iPod dosn't get the Start Time, and there's also the pont, that if its a 14 minute track and you only want the first (or last) three minutes you "drag around" 10-11 MB (more or less depending on bitrate and encoding) of deadweight.

It's slightly annoying to rip fully beat-mixed CD's I've bought for export to my iPod and there be a gap, albeit minute, between tracks. Can you imagine if we didn't have this on the dance-floor? How rude! :o
Yes, crossfades on home burned CDs would be awsome, if possible...

I'd like to see something that would also be useful in iPhoto and Address Book...

The ability to delete a song/photo/address from a playlist/album/group and also have it deleted from the library (not necessarily replace the remove from p[playlist/album/group but allow it an option, maybe option+del or option+cmd+del)
Isn't this already a feature...? I thought it was with alt-delete (alt-<-), but I see other has different suggestions... Anyway, it IS possible... ;)

On the fly queuing of music - essential for those of us DJing off our powerbooks!

-- Andrew
Party Shuffle...?

As to burning aacs (protected or not) to mp3 cd's: That is not possible, but you can choose "Burn as data CD", and (at least the unprotected) aacs will also be burned into the cd with tags and everything (even my rating as far as I remember). Works as a music cd when opened on a Mac or PC with iTunes, though how it behaves in an mp3-cd-player I don't know...

Man, I should have started reading this post earlier... ;)

[Lacero]

UNDO that actually works..

other than that, I'd like
- ability to edit ID tags such as Year directly in the browser
- playlist folders
- separate libraries for my music, sound effects, misc stuff

[wrldwzrd89]

UNDO that actually works..

other than that, I'd like
- ability to edit ID tags such as Year directly in the browser
- playlist folders
- separate libraries for my music, sound effects, misc stuff

What's wrong with the current undo? It works for me when I'm in the tag editor and I unintentionally wipe out the contents of a tag.

Editing more tags in the browser would be nice...why you're not allowed to edit the year in the browser is unclear. I can understand forbidding editing the track number in the browser, since it's a 2-part tag displayed as one field.

Playlist folders = "Hierarchical playlists" (we both want the same thing)

Why do you need separate libraries when you've got playlist folders? With that, you could implement library folders too - achieving the exact same effect (organizing your audio files better) with much less hassle for Apple.

[sacear]

My wishlist:

1. The ability to "merge" files, so that if you have the same song on two or more albums (e.g. the original album, a collection and a compilation) you only need one physical file, and link to that from all places (thus also updating a common playcount etc for the song nomatter which album you're listening to). Having multiple instances of the same object is bad database design...I see what you mean, yet iTunes is not a true database, and for the purposes of iTunes each instance of a song object (each album) is a different object. Even though each song file sounds alike, even note for note, it is considered a different object, even if it came from the same album. I have many CDs of demo tracks and re-mixes of the same song, some have sub-titles and some don't, just the same song name. If iTunes were to take some action and "merge" or "delete" some of those songs, I'd be super angry. To do a search and then delete the songs myself that I definetely know are duplicates is much better, easier, and secure.


2. Better and more specialiced conditions e.g. the ability to say (A and B) or (C and D) or (E and F), without making three helping playlists and on random playlists the ability to say (like in Party Shuffle) "play higher rated songs more often".I understand your conditional statement, yet I'd like to see a real world example. I can do all I want with Smart Playlists and have not reached any limitations. I never use the "Play higher rated songs more often" option, yet adding it as an option to other playlists would be okay.


3. Playlists in folders (like iPhoto).Yes, I agree.


4. The possibility to split tracks and remove parts (to seperate and identify bonus tracks, without having to have two instances - this problem is not that unlike #1)I think that function is better served by another application program outside of iTunes.


- or at least that when you set a Start Time or Stop Time in the option for a track that the iPod also gets (and reacts to) that information - its very annoying when I've "cut" away a bit of a track, and it sounds like I want it in iTunes, but NOT on my iPod mini (might be an iPod problem, but I had to get it off my chest ;))I have not personally experienced this, yet would be very bothered by it.


5. Continious play (for albums like Pink Floyd "The Wall") without making the intire album into one track.Yes, I agree.


6. That iTunes recognices CD-Rs longer than 74 minutes, so you can burn 80 min CDs.I have only ever used 80min CD-Rs and have never used 74min CD-Rs, and iTunes works great burning full 80 minutes to 80min CD-Rs.


7. The ability to have an album connected to the main artist, but still mark collabarations with "Artist1 feat. Artist2" or "Artist3 with Artist4" and let them show up when you browse Artist1, -2, -3 or -4, respectivly. Now it will make a new arist (an folder) with "Artist1 feat. Artist2" and if you choose Artist1 and than the album, that track will not show in the browser...Yes, I agree. There needs to be an improvement on handling multiple artist songs. I hate putting "(feat. 'artist name')" in the song title, because it is not part of the song title, it's a featured artist not a featured song title. I wonder if the recording industry already has a "standard" way of doing this. Sometimes artists do one-time duets with other artists, Paul McCartney come to mind "Ebony & Ivory" with Stevie Wonder and "The Girl is Mine" with Michael Jackson. I wonder how those are cataloged.


8. Artwork seperated from the music files (in its own metafile?) and just linked in, it takes very much unnecessary space to have the image included into evey songs file (at least with larger scans). Again poor database design...Again, iTunes was not designed to be a database, it's design is for song playback. It really has outgrown it's original intention and could use a complete re-design and re-write from the ground up. Maybe store the artwork in iPhoto?


Different users -> logins -> libraries...?Yes, every individual user account in OS X has their own individual iTunes library.


Yes, but as I say in #4, my iPod dosn't get the Start Time, and there's also the pont, that if its a 14 minute track and you only want the first (or last) three minutes you "drag around" 10-11 MB (more or less depending on bitrate and encoding) of deadweight.This is a problem, but only for a small number of people. I think song file editing is better handled by a seperate application.


Yes, crossfades on home burned CDs would be awsome, if possible...So, the crossfade feature currently only functions for playback and not on recorded CDs?

[WildCowboy]

I'd like iTunes to have the ability to show what it last Autofilled my Shuffle with. For instance, I'm sitting in front of my PowerBook right now listening to my Shuffle (unshuffled). An unfamiliar song comes on and I want to know what it is. I should be able to open up iTunes and look at a playlist of what I last uploaded to the Shuffle, figure out where in the playlist the unknown song was, and learn the song's name! AFAIK, the only way to see what's on the Shuffle is to plug it in. iTunes should remember what it put on the Shuffle.

[chameeeleon]

Actually WildCowboy, in the iPod shuffle prefrences, there's a "Keep iPod in source list" button. Checking it does just that - and would show the last songs autofilled on.

[sacear]

I'd like iTunes to have the ability to show what it last Autofilled my Shuffle with. For instance, I'm sitting in front of my PowerBook right now listening to my Shuffle (unshuffled). An unfamiliar song comes on and I want to know what it is. I should be able to open up iTunes and look at a playlist of what I last uploaded to the Shuffle, figure out where in the playlist the unknown song was, and learn the song's name! AFAIK, the only way to see what's on the Shuffle is to plug it in. iTunes should remember what it put on the Shuffle.Very good suggestion, the best one so far! iTunes ought to create an actual "iPod Shuffle" Playlist in the Source pane during the Autofill process that lists all the songs from the recent Autofill download.

Edit:
Okay, well, chameeeleon beat me to the punch and provided the answer. That's good stuff.

[WildCowboy]

Actually WildCowboy, in the iPod shuffle prefrences, there's a "Keep iPod in source list" button. Checking it does just that - and would show the last songs autofilled on.
Thanks...brilliant!! I've had my Shuffle for several weeks, but just started seriously using it for tunes after getting my new PB last week and ripping a couple of thousand songs over the weekend.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I see what you mean, yet iTunes is not a true database, and for the purposes of iTunes each instance of a song object (each album) is a different object. Even though each song file sounds alike, even note for note, it is considered a different object, even if it came from the same album. I have many CDs of demo tracks and re-mixes of the same song, some have sub-titles and some don't, just the same song name. If iTunes were to take some action and "merge" or "delete" some of those songs, I'd be super angry. To do a search and then delete the songs myself that I definetely know are duplicates is much better, easier, and secure.
No, no, no, no, no... nothing automatic... this has to be a strictly manual function... ;)

I was thinking along the lines that if you mark three identical songs you get some sort of "merge" option, if only one of them is checked it merges into that, replacing the other two with alias/links to that original, if more than one is checked then you get asked what to do...

This could also go the other way. That you could have two or more instances of the same tune: one apple lossless (for home use, archiving), one aac@128 (for your iPod) and a mp3@128 (for your little brother/sisters non Apple mp3 player and/or mp3 cds for your car).

And, generally I would love if iTunes got better DB capabilities, like treating artists as objects... :D :p

So, the crossfade feature currently only functions for playback and not on recorded CDs?
Nor on the iPod... :(

[sacear]

No, no, no, no, no... nothing automatic... this has to be a strictly manual function... ;)

I was thinking along the lines that if you mark three identical songs you get some sort of "merge" option, if only one of them is checked it merges into that, replacing the other two with alias/links to that original, if more than one is checked then you get asked what to do...Oh, okay, that sounds much better. In a sense this can already be done to a degree with playlists. For instance a song appears on an album of original release and then the exact same song unaltered also appears on a Greatest Hits album. A playlist of each album can be created, one of the original album and one of the Greatest Hits album and placing the song in each playlist using only one song file. The limitation being that the ID tag info pertains only to the one album. The Comments field could be used for additional info.

This could also go the other way. That you could have two or more instances of the same tune: one apple lossless (for home use, archiving), one aac@128 (for your iPod) and a mp3@128 (for your little brother/sisters non Apple mp3 player and/or mp3 cds for your car).Right, I have this situation myself. Again, organized and separated using playlists.

And, generally I would love if iTunes got better DB capabilities, like treating artists as objects... :D :p Yes, at this point rewriting iTunes to be a song file database with a song player on top or on the side would be better than the current song player with a spreadsheet on the side.

[rdas7]

1. expanded Auto-Fill functionality to support other devices (eg. USB disks for filling your phone with songs - including "convert to 128kbps MP3"). Dock via bluetooth also useful (since speed is about the same as USB anyways)

2. Enhanced Digital Booklets - you can already hold multiple jpg/png data in the "artwork" tag of a song. Let's put Flash or PDF in there as well. At it's most basic, it would enable you to click on the artwork and flip through multiple images (like turning the pages of a booklet), but more advanced would be if artists developed their own "enhanced booklets" much like "enhanced-CD's" have multimedia content on them.

3. Auto-download album artwork (if the album is in the iTMS, can we have its artwork please? An act of goodwill?) I'm sick of amazon'ing all the artwork. And don't talk to me about Clutter.

4. iTMS Streaming Account - kind of an extension of the .Mac service, wouldn't it be cool if you could have your own secure webspace from which you could listen to all your iTMS purchases in streaming quicktime? I'm thinking: listening to your music collection from work yet still track playcounts, recently played and rating modifications.

5. Multiple Tag Support - if you have the same song that appears on several different albums, then maintain one data file (with common ratings, playcounts, etc.) but have it show up under the various different albums with corresponding multiple artwork. (Eg. if you play "Discotheque" from the U2 single, then the data for track one on the U2 album "Pop" will increase playcount by 1 also).

[sacear]

3. Auto-download album artwork (if the album is in the iTMS, can we have its artwork please? An act of goodwill?) I'm sick of amazon'ing all the artwork. And don't talk to me about Clutter.Hmm, I have artwork for every album and song I've ever purchased from iTMS. To my knowledge iTMS provides artwork for every song purchased.

4. iTMS Streaming Account - kind of an extension of the .Mac service, wouldn't it be cool if you could have your own secure webspace from which you could listen to all your iTMS purchases in streaming quicktime? I'm thinking: listening to your music collection from work yet still track playcounts, recently played and rating modifications.That would be and is cool and is already possible, if one has a .Mac account and sets up the iTunes Music folder there. I do this myself. If you want Apple employees to set it up for you and do the maintenance, then how are they going to be paid and who is going to pay their wages. Not everyone would want this. This would have to be a subscription service apart from iTMS.

5. Multiple Tag Support - if you have the same song that appears on several different albums, then maintain one data file (with common ratings, playcounts, etc.) but have it show up under the various different albums with corresponding multiple artwork. (Eg. if you play "Discotheque" from the U2 single, then the data for track one on the U2 album "Pop" will increase playcount by 1 also).More sophisticated database functions seems to be a popular request.

[GMGQ]

1) Support for non-iPod MP3 players

2) Enable the ability to add Shared songs to local play lists (and subsequently the ability to burn it). Right now I can only listen to music shared from another computer, but I cant copy them to my local playlists.

[wrldwzrd89]

1) Support for non-iPod MP3 players

2) Enable the ability to add Shared songs to local play lists (and subsequently the ability to burn it). Right now I can only listen to music shared from another computer, but I cant copy them to my local playlists.
1) Won't happen without AAC support.
2) Will never happen - will make the RIAA mad.

[gopher]

1) Support for non-iPod MP3 players

2) Enable the ability to add Shared songs to local play lists (and subsequently the ability to burn it). Right now I can only listen to music shared from another computer, but I cant copy them to my local playlists.

1) already exists for these players:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93548

If others want to add that access, they'll have to get demand from their buyers to support those features.

[Diomedes]

I would like to see something like nested playlists. For example, I (and many other music lovers I know) usually have a "Top 10" of current favorites. So you create a playlist for the top 10, create a shuffled playlist for other music , and nest the shuffled playlist in the top 10. That way you'd have your currentl list with other random selections.

And while on the topic of shuffling...I'd like to see more options for shuffling, and a more "random" suffling algorithm.

[bankshot]

I would like to see something like nested playlists. For example, I (and many other music lovers I know) usually have a "Top 10" of current favorites. So you create a playlist for the top 10, create a shuffled playlist for other music , and nest the shuffled playlist in the top 10. That way you'd have your currentl list with other random selections.

You can do this now. Just create the two playlists ("Top 10" and "Shuffled"), plus a third smart playlist. In the smart playlist, add two criteria and have it match on Any:
Playlist is Top 10
Playlist is Shuffled

They added this capability to smart playlists in a recent update (4.6 or 4.7). I'd been requesting it for a long time, as you can nest playlists to create the most complex logical criteria you can think of. The sky's really the limit with this capability.

[Floyd WHO]

I have two drives it would be nice if I could keep my library not on the drive my operating system is on.

An automated way to back-up your library to CD (in condensed format)

More liner notes not just the front artwork

[bankshot]

I have two drives it would be nice if I could keep my library not on the drive my operating system is on.

Easy. Copy your Music folder to the other drive, rename Music in your home directory to something else, make an alias to the copy on the other drive and name it Music in your home folder.

An automated way to back-up your library to CD (in condensed format)

Apple's Backup (http://www.mac.com/1/iTour/tour_backup.html) software will do this very easily, though I suppose it might be nice to have directly in iTunes.

[Floyd WHO]

Easy. Copy your Music folder to the other drive, rename Music in your home directory to something else, make an alias to the copy on the other drive and name it Music in your home folder.

Apple's Backup (http://www.mac.com/1/iTour/tour_backup.html) software will do this very easily, though I suppose it might be nice to have directly in iTunes.


Thanks this works and was pretty easy.
Sometime the most obvious things escape your cerebral cortex

[Mechcozmo]

1. expanded Auto-Fill functionality to support other devices (eg. USB disks for filling your phone with songs - including "convert to 128kbps MP3"). Dock via bluetooth also useful (since speed is about the same as USB anyways)

Bluetooth is far slower than Firewire. ~1 Mbps vs. 400 Mbps
Bluetooth is far slower than Firewire. ~1 Mbps vs. ~480 Mbps (less than that actual)

Bluetooth may be good for updating how many times a song has been played, but syncing a 3 MB song file takes a long time. A 20 MB video once took me 30 minutes to sync. You can kiss a week goodbye as you sync your iPod Photo.

I have two drives it would be nice if I could keep my library not on the drive my operating system is on.


Look at your iTunes preferences... you can change where the library is. And an alias will cause issues. You need a symbolic link eventually.

[Diomedes]

You can do this now. Just create the two playlists ("Top 10" and "Shuffled"), plus a third smart playlist. In the smart playlist, add two criteria and have it match on Any:
Playlist is Top 10
Playlist is Shuffled

They added this capability to smart playlists in a recent update (4.6 or 4.7). I'd been requesting it for a long time, as you can nest playlists to create the most complex logical criteria you can think of. The sky's really the limit with this capability.

Doesn't work. Creating the Smart Playlist from those two sorts them alphabetically by artist, not in the play order.

[rdas7]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rdas7
1. expanded Auto-Fill functionality to support other devices (eg. USB disks for filling your phone with songs - including "convert to 128kbps MP3"). Dock via bluetooth also useful (since speed is about the same as USB anyways)

Bluetooth is far slower than Firewire. ~1 Mbps vs. 400 Mbps
Bluetooth is far slower than Firewire. ~1 Mbps vs. ~480 Mbps (less than that actual)

Bluetooth may be good for updating how many times a song has been played, but syncing a 3 MB song file takes a long time. A 20 MB video once took me 30 minutes to sync. You can kiss a week goodbye as you sync your iPod Photo.

Let me clarify:

1. When you connect a Shuffle to iTunes you have the option of auto-filling it, and automatically re-encoding any file to 128kbps AAC. My suggestion was to be able to change this encoding preference to, say 128kbps MP3 (or any other format supported by iTunes, based on user preference?) - this is because not all devices yet support AAC encoding.

2. For the Source menu to display paired devices (eg. phones over bluetooth), not just mounted disks (eg. USB or Firewire).

The formatting issue (1) would address the fact that not all devices offer AAC playback (and I assume than unless a device specifically supports Apple's DRM, then m4p files are just completely exempt from this discussion).

The source issue (2) would enable you to easily manage the contents of your phone or mobile device. BT2.0 is much faster than BT1, granted, but in this instance I was talking about my phone which has BT1 and USB1, both of which are roughly 768kbps (realworld), 1Mbps (rated) which means that loading *anything* onto it takes a while...

For the record, I believe that this iTunes Mobile thing that's due in "Spring 2005" will most likely be software based, rather than hardware. Think: free download of iTunes J2ME java app for your phone. The release of iTunes 5 will most likely be related to this.

[bennetsaysargh]

hmm, would AACPlus come into play if bluetooth were to be enabled? i don't know much about it, but it's smaller sized files with the same quality (or at least comprable quality).

[redeye be]

screen shows:
party shuffle: upcomming songs
full library (with playlist capabilitys)

A single click will add the song to the end of the party shuffle playlist.

[wrldwzrd89]

hmm, would AACPlus come into play if bluetooth were to be enabled? i don't know much about it, but it's smaller sized files with the same quality (or at least comprable quality).
Everyone (that supports AAC) will benefit from HE-AAC (the accepted name for what you call AACPlus). It delivers equivalent quality to AAC at half the bitrate - even better than that if the bitrate gets low enough.

[bankshot]

Doesn't work. Creating the Smart Playlist from those two sorts them alphabetically by artist, not in the play order.

That's because you have it set to sort by artist (it may default to that, I'm not sure). Just click on the leftmost column header (the one with the numbers) and it will sort in your order. Then you can rearrange tracks however you want, in just the order you like.

All playlists and smart playlists work this way - click on any column header to sort by that column, and click it again to sort in the reverse order. The leftmost column is for your own custom order.

[wrldwzrd89]

That's because you have it set to sort by artist (it may default to that, I'm not sure). Just click on the leftmost column header (the one with the numbers) and it will sort in your order. Then you can rearrange tracks however you want, in just the order you like.

All playlists and smart playlists work this way - click on any column header to sort by that column, and click it again to sort in the reverse order. The leftmost column is for your own custom order.
For some strange reason, you can't do that to your entire music library - it won't show the numbers nor let you click the leftmost (empty) column. I wonder why this is.

[Diomedes]

That's because you have it set to sort by artist (it may default to that, I'm not sure). Just click on the leftmost column header (the one with the numbers) and it will sort in your order. Then you can rearrange tracks however you want, in just the order you like.

All playlists and smart playlists work this way - click on any column header to sort by that column, and click it again to sort in the reverse order. The leftmost column is for your own custom order.

Which playlist are you referring to - the source ones or the destination?

[Diomedes]

That's because you have it set to sort by artist (it may default to that, I'm not sure). Just click on the leftmost column header (the one with the numbers) and it will sort in your order. Then you can rearrange tracks however you want, in just the order you like.

All playlists and smart playlists work this way - click on any column header to sort by that column, and click it again to sort in the reverse order. The leftmost column is for your own custom order.

OK, I tried it again. The resultant Smart Playlist is sorted by the number column (the leftmost column), but that sorting is alphabetical by artist.

Aside from that, it seems that way requires one to have more manual effort in keeping the non-Smart Playlists organized, and makes the flexibility of moving tracks around as ones preference change. For example, if you (like me) move tracks around in my "Top 20" frequently, by that method (it seems) one would have to manually keep track of those changes.

My suggestion for nested playlists is to be able to add a playlist - smart or manual - in an existing playlist, at a specific point. And that nested playlist is independent of the one it is nested in. Using my example, my "Shuffled" playlist that is nested within my Top 20 list is self-contained. (I hope I'm not rambling too much...lol)

[rdas7]

For some strange reason, you can't do that to your entire music library - it won't show the numbers nor let you click the leftmost (empty) column. I wonder why this is.

That's because your main Library does not have a numerical sequence, nor does it have a custom order. Your main Library is just that: the main index of ALL your songs.

The number column is to indicate the order of the tracks, and the left (blank) column is to switch to your custom order. The Library is not a playlist, and as such has neither a fixed order nor a custom order.

If you wanted to order every song in your library, make a new Playlist and drag every item from your Library into it (or drag the Library from the source menu down onto your Playlist - that should work). Make a Smart Playlist, if you want it to auto-include any new additions to your library.

Ah, the magic of iTunes. Hard to believe that the initial version was a four month hack project ;) My how it's grown :)

[sacear]

Ah, the magic of iTunes. Hard to believe that the initial version was a four month hack project ;) My how it's grown :)What? iTunes was and still is SoundJam. The initial version of iTunes was SoundJam repackaged. SoundJam had been around for years before Apple bought the rights. Apple actually wanted Audion (a better MP3 player: better sound, better song transitions, faster ripping, with casting, and playlist organization; also the first Mac app with alpha-channels, i.e. skins), but Panic was not interested in selling Audion, so Apple bought SoundJam, dressed it up Mac-like and released it for free. iTunes functionally is still the same today as when it was SoundJam back in 1999-2001, just looks slick and has a few more features.

[Sharewaredemon]

The ability to sort by what is checked, and un checked.

I need this because I update my iPod according to songs that are checked.
If I want to check all my songs to back them up, I would like to be able to throw all of the songs that aren't checked into a playlist, so that after the backup, I can uncheck them again.

Yes, definitely! The ability to re-order playlists by dragging would be great! Currently, I am using numbers to put my playlists in the order I want.

I'd also like the ability to sort according to mulitple criteria order and column names, and to pick that sort order, for example, Artist > Year > Album > Song.

Two things which I would really like, especially the sort by multiple criteria, I would like to be able to listen to a bands albums in the order they were released, yet still be able to listen to each album as a whole.

UNDO that actually works..

other than that, I'd like
- ability to edit ID tags such as Year directly in the browser
- playlist folders
- separate libraries for my music, sound effects, misc stuff


OMG an undo feature is so despretly needed.

Ever delete a playlist by accident, then hit command z and nothing happens.

FRIG,

it's really bad when you do that.

currently I haven't updated my iPod for a month, because I deleted a playlist, and I still haven't got aroung to writing each song down from my iPod (which still has the playlist) so that I can recreate it.

Grrrrrr

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

The ability to sort by what is checked, and un checked.

I need this because I update my iPod according to songs that are checked.
If I want to check all my songs to back them up, I would like to be able to throw all of the songs that aren't checked into a playlist, so that after the backup, I can uncheck them again.You could just make a playlist with all the checked songs (easy to do with a smart playlist) then uncheck all in library and recheck the once on that list... ;)

[bankshot]

You could just make a playlist with all the checked songs (easy to do with a smart playlist) then uncheck all in library and recheck the once on that list... ;)

Even easier (at least to me :D) is to create two smart playlists: one called "Checked" which matches some criteria that'll catch every song in your library. Something like Time is greater than 0:00. Click on Match only checked songs. Then make a second playlist called "Unchecked" which matches Playlist is not Checked.

[Sharewaredemon]

You could just make a playlist with all the checked songs (easy to do with a smart playlist) then uncheck all in library and recheck the once on that list... ;)


That would work, I was trying to think up a way to do that,

anyway, I still want my feature.


:P

[bennetsaysargh]

currently I haven't updated my iPod for a month, because I deleted a playlist, and I still haven't got aroung to writing each song down from my iPod (which still has the playlist) so that I can recreate it.

Grrrrrr

hmm, how about just making an on the go playlist by holding the action button on that playlist on the ipod, and then it will bring that playlist back into itunes. just rename it from the on the go name, and it's back!
hope i helped :)

[Sharewaredemon]

hmm, how about just making an on the go playlist by holding the action button on that playlist on the ipod, and then it will bring that playlist back into itunes. just rename it from the on the go name, and it's back!
hope i helped :)


OH. MY. GOD.

You are a genius!

Thank you so much.

It's so great that I know so much about iTunes, and OS X, but I would never have thought of that.

Macs rule.

PS Nice 'tar, is that a fisheye you used?

[bennetsaysargh]

OH. MY. GOD.

You are a genius!

Thank you so much.

It's so great that I know so much about iTunes, and OS X, but I would never have thought of that.

Macs rule.

PS Nice 'tar, is that a fisheye you used?
no problem, and thanks! i actually put the lense of the camera up to the peep hole at a mohegan sun hotel room. :)

[Sharewaredemon]

no problem, and thanks! i actually put the lense of the camera up to the peep hole at a mohegan sun hotel room. :)


Ohhhhh cool!

Yeah I can totally see that now.

[dyck15]

One thing that I would like to see is a function that would allow you to create an AAC/MP3 playlist, then burn it as an MP3 CD, but iTunes would automatically convert the AAC files to MP3, burn them, and then delete the converted files. I'm not too sure if iTunes already does that with the recent releases, but I know that some of the older versions didn't. Would be great for when I finally get an MP3 deck in my car. :)

Also, some filter to remove streams (ie: Di.FM MP3 streams) from smart playlists would be great.

[arcobb]

I read all the posts and if I missed this one I apologize. I'd like to see an option when you back-up your library onto dvd it retains the songs into the artist folders and have it disc span the files across the dvds. Right now iTunes will disk span but it will list all the songs individually. Makes it harder when you only want back-ups of the stuff you don't really listen to (i.e. 50 Cent) but want to find later harder.

On a side note I did make a back up of my music using Dragon Burn and I was able to keep the artist folders this way. I just think it would be super easy to add a checkbox that would allow this.

[Dahl]

Folders!

[CubaTBird]

Auto Album cover downloads.

Links to bands sites with downloads.

More than 128 Bit AAC downloads, say 160 if one wants for better quality.

the auto album cover downloads would be great... nd id be happy enough with that.. and make em high quality... so when u maximize they take up the whole screen..

[tubedogg]

There is no way to [burn an MP3 CD with AAC files without converting them to MP3 first] directly nor a way around this due to copyright protection laws.Wrong. There is nothing in copyright law to back this up.
This is the compromise Apple was able to make with copyright holders in order to make and distribute iTunes. (I'm still surprised Apple even got the legal "Okay" to make and distribute iTunes in the first place.) If Apple implemented such a feauture, then they would not be allowed to make or distribute the product (iTunes).Wrong. The only way to prevent Apple from making and distributing iTunes is if iTunes were violating laws (actual laws, not those that you made up in your head). This would include, for example, decoding MP3s for playback without a license.
To copy or distribute someone else's property is stealing and is illegal.This is true, but is irrelevant to this discussion.

Yes, that is what I have explained at length. It will remain a 2-step process so that Apple does not get sued.I sincerely doubt you have seen the licensing agreement between Apple & Dolby, and therefore you have no basis for that comment.
iTunes will not convert an AAC file to MP3 and then record that to CD all from one command because they are legally prevented from doing so.Again I doubt you are familiar with the AAC licensing agreement; there is no basis in regular law for your statement.
Those that own the AAC format won't allow it, because the probability of illegal file sharing is great.Dolby doesn't have a stake in whether people file-share. In fact it could be said that Dolby is actually encouraging file-sharing by creating these formats that allow music to be compressed on a computer. It keeps improving them with new formats that compress into smaller and smaller files at higher and higher fidelities, allow quicker transport of the files, thereby further encouraging more file-sharing.
Apple has given us everything they are currently allowed.Where is the proof of this? Again unless it says in the licensing agreement "You must make it a two-step process for users to burn AAC files to an MP3 CD", there is no basis for Apple not being "allowed" to do this.
AACs can be recorded to audio CD and AACs can be down converted to MP3s.This is all true.
Dolby wants money for their technology,Again that's true.
so contact them about the agreement with Apple about the abilities and capabilities of iTunes.Again you have not seen the agreement with Apple and I am quite confident in saying with 99% certainty that there is nothing in it that causes the current method to be used, as it does not prevent file-sharing in the least, and even if it did, Dolby has no interest in pissing off its' licensees for something that doesn't benefit Dolby.
And quite frankly that process does take only two-steps. So what?So why should it take two steps? Your argument that it prevents file-sharing is crap. People who have AAC files that they are burning to CD are not doing so to use them on file-sharing networks! Hello, the files are already on the user's computer ready to be traded, in either AAC or MP3 (after they are converted using iTunes' handy AAC -> MP3 converter). What possible purpose would burning them to a CD have? If the user wants AAC files to be in MP3 format to trade them (which they don't even need to be these days, given the ubiquity of iTunes and WinAMP), they use the AAC -> MP3 converter and then trade them. Burning to CD doesn't enter into it, at all.
Let's not be so lazy that we complain and draw attention to things that the copyright owner did not want.Again this is just crap that you made up.
Apple gave us the loop-hole, so let's not ruin it, otherwise even that will disappear in the next iTunes release.There is no way it will disappear.

With all due respect, you are on crack.

You are saying that to prevent AAC -> MP3 conversion, Dolby forces Apple to make users perform a manual AAC -> MP3 conversion prior to burning the files to CD? This accomplishes exactly the opposite of what you claim is the goal.
Were it a seamless process where iTunes converts and burns on the fly, normal users wouldn't be able to keep the MP3 files to trade (advanced users might, if they could find where iTunes' cache was). Yet under the current way it works, the MP3 files are left over, just waiting to be shared.

All of this is moot anyway as MP3 files are not the only thing that can be traded on file-swapping networks. I'm kind of surprised AACs haven't taken off on them faster, considering the higher fidelity at lower bitrates (hence smaller file sizes).

You don't make any sense and you certainly don't have law backing you up. I'm 99% sure you haven't read Apple & Dolby's licensing agreement either, so that's not where you got your "facts". Nice try but you are just blowing smoke.