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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,290
30,373


MacShrine is reporting on a new survey by Apple regarding its iTunes music store. Feedback is requested about the following features:

- A rewards program for those who buy more from iTunes
- The ability to replace lost songs via a maintenance agreement
- More movies/TV shows to U.K. store
- The ability to view a friend's wish list, with permission
- The ability to view what a friend is currently listening to, with permission (similar to iChat iTunes current track status?)
- The ability to view a friend's playlist, with permission
- The ability to view a friend's recent purchases, with permission
- The ability to view a friend's favorite artists, with permission

As MacShrine pointed out, it would appear as though Apple is continuing the trend of MySpace, Digg, iMix, and the like and continuing to investigate features that would expand iTunes' social feature-set.

Digg This
 

MarcelV

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2004
317
0
"More movies/TV shows to U.K. store", uhm, there's only one movie, which is really a musical on the US store. Where is 'more movies' coming from? And yes, I know the rumors, but we still have seen only one kinda' movie thingie....
 

extraextra

macrumors 68000
Jun 29, 2006
1,758
0
California
Macrumors said:
- The ability to view a friend's wish list, with permission
- The ability to view what a friend is currently listening to, with permission (similar to iChat iTunes current track status?)
- The ability to view a friend's playlist, with permission
- The ability to view a friend's recent purchases, with permission
- The ability to view a friend's favorite artists, with permission
So it'd be kind of like last.fm?
Is all this permission stuff necessary though? Like, to view what someone is listening to?
 

DaveP

macrumors 6502a
Mar 18, 2005
506
433
I don't really get the appeal of all the "social" features. Maybe I'm a loser.
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
I'd love that replacement thing to come in, I lost a lot of music videos when my HDD carked it and I'd like to get them back.
 

deadkenny

macrumors regular
Jun 25, 2006
129
0
I bet there'll be new Cinema Displays as well along with the new Mac Pro Design. The Cinema Displays are the products which havn't been updated for a looooong time.
 

AlanAudio

macrumors member
Jan 2, 2004
54
0
UK
extraextra said:
Is all this permission stuff necessary though? Like, to view what someone is listening to?

It would be unthinkable to have those features without permission being given in advance.

Just cast your mind back to those two or three days when iTunes 'phoned home' so that it could recommend similar music to the music you're already enjoying. From the ensuing outcry, you'd think that Apple had abused the trust of it's customers instead of adding value to their listening experience. Fortunately the issue was resolved as soon as Apple staff returned after that weekend.

The hysterical over reaction to that issue was ridiculous, so there's no way that Apple will be risking the same sort of thing happening again, but with real people being able to scrutinise your musical selections.
 

Flowbee

macrumors 68030
Dec 27, 2002
2,943
0
Alameda, CA
It's just a survey... of course Apple is considering these options. Not any sort of guarantee we'll see them any time soon.

I would rather see Apple develop tools to make it easy to share this info with friends via other social networking sites... Plug-ins for people's MySpace pages that show "My favorites" "My playlists" "now listening", etc. that all link back to the iTMS. Maybe even a simple imbedded player that plays the 30 second previews.
 

Dr.Gargoyle

macrumors 65816
Oct 8, 2004
1,253
0
lat: 55.7222°N, long: 13.1971°E
Sounds like reasonable features, however I would prefer to rent flickas through iTMS. THAT would be a brilliant idea! Perhaps even with an option to buy the movie at a reduced price if you liked it.
deadkenny said:
I bet there'll be new Cinema Displays as well along with the new Mac Pro Design. The Cinema Displays are the products which havn't been updated for a looooong time.
:confused: A bit OT, don't you think?
 

iMeowbot

macrumors G3
Aug 30, 2003
8,634
0
Apple probably will move on this feature Real Soon Now. This is exactly the territory where Zune/Urge is headed.
 

dongmin

macrumors 68000
Jan 3, 2002
1,709
5
Flowbee said:
It's just a survey... of course Apple is considering these options. Not any sort of guarantee we'll see them any time soon.
Sure. But what's important is the overall direction Apple is taking, which is that they're interested in adding these so called social features.

And iTunes 7 is not too far off. Maybe MWSF. Maybe sooner, to coincide with the new iPod video 2.0. Personally, I'd like to see better video playback controls implemented on iTunes before they add the gimmicky social features.
 

Marx55

macrumors 68000
Jan 1, 2005
1,913
753
There is an essential feature missing on iTunes on Mac OS X: the possibility to RESUME playback on the song that you left last time you quit iTunes on Mac, rebooted or shut down the Mac. That is very useful to listen from head to tail long playlists and was present on the application from where iTunes was developed (SoundJam MP 2.5.3) back in year 2000.

I have been requesting this essential feature for ages since iTunes 1.0, yet Apple does not seem to listen. The reason why is beyond my understanding!

And yes, I know the workaround of sorting the songs by last played, but I do not want that. I want a true RESUME PLAYBACK.

Please, please, please!!!

Thank you.
 

Flowbee

macrumors 68030
Dec 27, 2002
2,943
0
Alameda, CA
dongmin said:
Sure. But what's important is the overall direction Apple is taking, which is that they're interested in adding these so called social features.

A survey isn't an indication of the direction Apple is taking. It's an indication of what Apple is *exploring.* Just as they develop prototypes of products that may never be released, they also do a lot of marketing research on ideas that may never get out of the survey stage.

That being said, it makes total sense that they would start moving in this direction.
 

jaxstate

macrumors 6502a
Apr 13, 2006
542
0
Screw all the "view friends XXXX", but being able to redownload lost music is pretty much the only thing they have been missing. I'd love this feature in iTunes, but it has to be a free service. Maybe the first replacement downloads would be free, and a small charge for each additional downloads.
 

p0intblank

macrumors 68030
Sep 20, 2005
2,548
2
New Jersey
I would love a more social experience! :D I know a lot of people who use iTunes and would love to know what they're listening to/watching at a moment. Also, a rewards program sounds great. I find myself buying more TV show episodes lately.
 

quigleybc

macrumors 68030
Marx55 said:
There is an essential feature missing on iTunes on Mac OS X: the possibility to RESUME playback on the song that you left last time you quit iTunes on Mac, rebooted or shut down the Mac. That is very useful to listen from head to tail long playlists and was present on the application from where iTunes was developed (SoundJam MP 2.5.3) back in year 2000.

I have been requesting this essential feature for ages since iTunes 1.0, yet Apple does not seem to listen. The reason why is beyond my understanding!

And yes, I know the workaround of sorting the songs by last played, but I do not want that. I want a true RESUME PLAYBACK.

Please, please, please!!!

Thank you.



I totally agree....forget this social stuff, and add real useful features like the above, FLAC playback, true gapless playback and burning....
 

MacAddict1978

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2006
1,650
883
Marx55 said:
And yes, I know the workaround of sorting the songs by last played, but I do not want that. I want a true RESUME PLAYBACK.


Sorry, but I think that feature is pointless except in regards to audio books. I would be happy if they would fix the random play! The ability to adjust it was a great idea that doesn't work. iTunes always plays the same songs out of my 8,000 track library. Fix that!

And I think all the features would be great additions. Especially a maintainence plan.

I would like to be able to browse people's wish lists.... and I don't think that would be an invasion of privacy. Think Christmas!
 
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