Survey Pointing At New iTunes Features? Social iTunes?

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif

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.

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[jonharris200]

Yes to all, please.

[MarcelV]

"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....

[Felldownthewell]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

- A rewards program for those who buy more from iTunes

YAY! This would be great...all of it would but this especially.

[hyperpasta]

Sounds like good iTunes 7 features. Expect it before the end of the year, alongside the new video iPod.

[extraextra]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

- 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]

I don't really get the appeal of all the "social" features. Maybe I'm a loser.

[liketom]

why have i not got a survey !!!

sound like good news to me

[Chundles]

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.

[mikeyrogers]

I would definitely pay for a service agreement. I'm sure it's cheaper than having to repay for all those songs I lost.

[deadkenny]

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]

Originally Posted by extraextra

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]

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]

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.

Originally Posted by deadkenny

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.

A bit OT, don't you think?

[iMeowbot]

Apple probably will move on this feature Real Soon Now. This is exactly the territory where Zune/Urge is headed.

[dongmin]

Originally Posted by Flowbee

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]

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.

[Leondunkleyc]

.

[Flowbee]

Originally Posted by dongmin

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]

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]

I would love a more social experience! 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]

This is great

Too bad everyone I know uses PC's and Winamp, so all the social stuff is stupid till Mac gets it's user share up.

even people I know with iPods still don't want to use iTunes....drives me nuts...

[quigleybc]

Originally Posted by Marx55

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]

Originally Posted by Marx55

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!

[Flowbee]

Does anyone have a link to the actual survey??