What the Next Version of iTunes Needs:

[-Noodles]

Thought I'd start this discussion to see what others think should be included in the next version of iTunes.

Some things I'm disappointed with (in no particular order):

1. Why is the track title the first column in iTunes? I usually don't start my musical selection by scrolling down song titles. Further I don't know any who would with large libraries. What's worse is that it can't be moved or turned off. Artist / Track / Album or Artist / Album / Track would be a more intuitive and easy to read setup. Why the Track column is the only one that can't be moved around remains a mystery to me.

2. Since apple prides itself on being anti-establishment can't we think of a better way of displaying a list of thousands of titles other than an excel-like spreadsheet? What makes this even worse (gouging my eye with a pencil now) is that there's no way to condense this. The viewer doesn't need all this information at once. If it has to be a file like system can't we pack all these songs on a given album into - I don't know - something - lets call it - a... folder? Or even if left uncondensed can't we create some visual separation between albums in the spreadsheet before we hypnotize ourselves looking for a particular piece of music. On the other hand the grouped album artwork view is too big for anything more than displaying 1 artist's list of albums, not an entire library -nice but not efficient. Cover flow is an innovative approach but still not ideal as the viewer reads it linearly. If you've got even a modestly large library chances are you're not using cover flow - pretty but not practical.

3. On the subject of cover flow - album cover art work - how about getting it to work and sync with the internet correctly? Are platinum selling albums really that obscure?

4. Steps for burning a cd: a) load cd into mac b) highlight desired songs and drag to cd in iTunes c) press burn disc. Why should anyone have to make a playlist to burn a cd from their library?

5. Haven't tried this one in awhile (so hopefully this is no longer such a problem) but ripping a various artists cd or soundtrack - this isn't rocket science I really shouldn't have to lift a finger for it to recognize 1 disc = 1 album = see above internet syncing issue.

While I generally have no complaints with apple hardware/software since switching from the pc world -iTunes is the one thorn in my side. It seems far from ideal and at this stage in development is way overdue to address these types of issues.

 

[lofight]

1. i think you can change this, by shoving them up,,

2. this should be better, i agree

3. I found alot if cover art with itunes, but some i needed to go searching for.

4. It doesn't bother me

 

[-Noodles]

not sure what you mean by shoving them up - i've tried just about everything and the song titles don't move.

 

[bartelby]

Have you tried clicking the "browse" button?

Or the middle view button?

 

[-Noodles]

Have you tried clicking the "browse" button?

Or the middle view button?

the issue was moving the track column to the second or third instead of being first or turning it off all together. as far as i know there's no way to do this.

i guess my general complaint here is how much user input and work iTunes requires in order for it to work effectively. User input should consist of putting a disc in and pressing 'rip cd' -the end.

 

[nickane]

4 posts and nobody's mentioned the fact that itunes is the only major jukebox software not to offer downsampling on the fly. Nobody needs lossless files on their ipod, but those of us with big cd collections want lossless backups.

Please Apple, I plan to buy the 160gig classic anyways, but let me compress to aac on the fly.

 

[lofight]

not sure what you mean by shoving them up - i've tried just about everything and the song titles don't move.

sorry for the confusion, but you are right, you can't, but can with artist, time,...

it would be better if they also included that function that you mentioned..

 

[dXTC]

4 posts and nobody's mentioned the fact that itunes is the only major jukebox software not to offer downsampling on the fly. Nobody needs lossless files on their ipod, but those of us with big cd collections want lossless backups.

I've mentioned this particular point in a thread sometime ago. The only iPod for which iTunes allows the user to downsample is the shuffle. I'd love to see it for at least the nano as well, and at this point it would be just as easy to add the function for any iPod. The code obviously already exists-- Apple just needs to remove the piece of code that restricts the iPod model.

 

[QuarterSwede]

1. Amen! That's the way I sorted in Winamp and is one of the things I never understood about iTunes. It just isn't logical the way they currently do it.

2. I think you've really hit on something here. Since multi-touch seems to be the way of the UI future and iTunes seems to be Apple's testing bed, I bet Coverflow will be the way we access/see artist and album info very much like on the iPhone or Touch.

3. Really haven't had a problem with that.

4. Again, you're spot on. I've always thought having to create a playlist just to burn a CD was moronic. Although, from Apple's perspective, I can see why you have to do it this way. It avoids confusion and makes you sure you want to burn a CD with those particular songs.

5. My biggest gripe is how iTunes handles various artist albums and I think adding more ID tag fields is retarded. Why would I want to re-input all that data and then add more view fields to my list?

My own addition would be how iTunes handles classical compositions since they vary from the norm. A lot of classical songs are made up of various movements, in themselves songs. The funny thing is that the iTunes Store handles them properly with an expandable structure (triangle) like one would expect in the Finder for folders. Why isn't this carried over to iTunes itself?

 

[SXR]

They need to add iPod Touch's , iPod nano 3G and Classic coverflow album flip to cover flow in iTunes i Think. Click on the album art, flips the album and you can pick a song on a list on the other side of the album art.

 

[newtonuk]

Things I would like to see in iTunes are...

1) The ability to sync my ipod on my Macbook from my shared library which is on my iMac at the other end of the house, without having two music libraries.

2) The ability to sync my podcast subscriptions and status fom my iMac to my Macbook so I can listen easily whilst away from home and know where I am with each podcast when I get back (I suppose it's like iPod syncing but to my Macbook).

3) Have an iTunes Server version...

 

[lofight]

Things I would like to see in iTunes are...

1) The ability to sync my ipod on my Macbook from my shared library which is on my iMac at the other end of the house, without having two music libraries.

2) The ability to sync my podcast subscriptions and status fom my iMac to my Macbook so I can listen easily whilst away from home and know where I am with each podcast when I get back (I suppose it's like iPod syncing but to my Macbook).

3) Have an iTunes Server version...

1 totally agree!! my dad just got an ipod and when whe where on vacation i downloaded some new songs a other computer (mac) but we couldn't sync them

 

[bclogan]

Backups

I would really like to be able to back-up my library of music onto an external drive. The only options I can currenty find is to back it up onto CDs. And generally after the 4th CD it craps out, making them unusable. I just want a good backup so that I don't have to re-load my hundreds of CDs again should my hard drive take a permanent vacation.

 

[-Noodles]

I would really like to be able to back-up my library of music onto an external drive. The only options I can currenty find is to back it up onto CDs. And generally after the 4th CD it craps out, making them unusable. I just want a good backup so that I don't have to re-load my hundreds of CDs again should my hard drive take a permanent vacation.

I'm still waiting on the update for the mac pro's so I haven't gotten leopard yet but I'm assuming that the new time machine feature plays a role in this -however this still leaves the pc world needing a solution.

 

[Howard Brazee]

1 totally agree!! my dad just got an ipod and when whe where on vacation i downloaded some new songs a other computer (mac) but we couldn't sync them

This has been my big want. It may be that it does more than I think it does - but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what does happen. I guess what's needed is to have iPods recognize its various owned iTunes and know which playlists get synchronized where.

Although I'd also like to get a second iPod - with different playlists automatically synchronized to the same iTunes.

I'd also like to look at a setting showing my shared iTunes 1-5, allowing me to select one to deauthorize. If I can't sync all of my iTunes libraries, I'd like to select which is my primary one.

Every time I buy a song, I start with iTunes - if it is DRM free, I buy it - otherwise, I go elsewhere. Then I search for lyrics and add them. Give me my song the way I want it.

Make it easy for me to play songs with the lyrics window open as it switches between songs.

 

[maxrobertson]

I've mentioned this particular point in a thread sometime ago. The only iPod for which iTunes allows the user to downsample is the shuffle. I'd love to see it for at least the nano as well, and at this point it would be just as easy to add the function for any iPod. The code obviously already exists-- Apple just needs to remove the piece of code that restricts the iPod model.

Yeah, I think that's probably the most glaring flaw in iTunes (that has glared at me anyway). My 2 GB nano is not be enough for me to use > 128 bit rate music, but sometimes I just feel better to keep the higher bit rates around, so I've got this elaborate setup that is far from ideal.

 

[laravia18]

My demand is more simple than most. I would just like for the songs from one item to be clumped together when they are from the same item. Regardless if they have another artist singing with them. I downloaded an album from iTunes this works but when I rip a CD, in Cover Flow they separate the albums because of that small variation. I would love if the other things that everyone said take place as well.

 

[xUKHCx]

4 posts and nobody's mentioned the fact that itunes is the only major jukebox software not to offer downsampling on the fly. Nobody needs lossless files on their ipod, but those of us with big cd collections want lossless backups.

Please Apple, I plan to buy the 160gig classic anyways, but let me compress to aac on the fly.

I've mentioned this particular point in a thread sometime ago. The only iPod for which iTunes allows the user to downsample is the shuffle. I'd love to see it for at least the nano as well, and at this point it would be just as easy to add the function for any iPod. The code obviously already exists-- Apple just needs to remove the piece of code that restricts the iPod model.

While I agree it should be there to begin with in the mean time you can use the lossless to aac workflow

 

[QuarterSwede]

3) Have an iTunes Server version...

I'm afraid Apple would think that is what the AppleTV is for. But I know what you mean and I think that's a slick idea actually. It would solve a lot of problems people have (just by reading this thread).

 

[Nugget]

The only iPod for which iTunes allows the user to downsample is the shuffle. I'd love to see it for at least the nano as well, and at this point it would be just as easy to add the function for any iPod.

Oh, yeah, totally. I really wish this feature was available for all iPods. I'd love to rip all my CDs to lossless, just so I can have the peace of mind that I'll never, ever have to rip them again. But it will be years before Apple could ever deliver an iPod with a hard drive large enough to hold all my music in lossless format.

I don't need lossless audio fidelity when I'm listening to music in my car at 70mph with the top down. Let me down-sample when I sync. Same on my iPhone, for that matter.

 

[72930]

The problem now is that iTunes has no real competition, in a few years I think Songbird will change the game, and Apple will really have to push themselves...I mean what is up with the lack of an option to make 'Move to Trash' default when deleting songs...

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I really really like that whole iTunes Server idea.

Right now, I have 3 libraries... one on my mini, one on my MBP, and one on my backup drive with an ungodly amount of music I'll probably never need, but I didn't want to delete.

Assuming HDD space isn't an issue, why can't I just have my whole ungodly huge library be my main library, and have the iTunes on my MBP and Mini sync with it, and keep selected songs on the drive locally and other songs on the external... it would make my life so much easier!

EDIT: Here's an idea. AppleTV as a server with a 300+ gb hard drive, and iTunes will sync back to the AppleTV in the same manner that an iPod syncs to iTunes. The iPod could then sync with the local iTunes, or the entire collection on an AppleTV.

Now we just need to get apple to do it...

 

[lofight]

The problem now is that iTunes has no real competition, in a few years I think Songbird will change the game, and Apple will really have to push themselves...I mean what is up with the lack of an option to make 'Move to Trash' default when deleting songs...

Yeah, but i have downloaded songbird in the past, but it wasn't very nice, and i also don't think it will improve alot..

 

[SXR]

I would really like to be able to back-up my library of music onto an external drive. The only options I can currenty find is to back it up onto CDs. And generally after the 4th CD it craps out, making them unusable. I just want a good backup so that I don't have to re-load my hundreds of CDs again should my hard drive take a permanent vacation.

Totally agree. Too bad we have copyright , else I could back them up to my 400 GB Dediacted server

 

[Howard Brazee]

Also, the Windows version's upgrades always delete the old version, update the registry, and put the new version's start icons in the same place in the start menu.

At work I got permission to install it the first time, but can't install upgrades until I get some other excuse to have update privilege. I also put my iTunes icon under my personal folder in the start menu and want it to stay there. I also have it pinned to the big start menu - but that link is broken with upgrades.

Make iTunes easy for Windows users - easier than Windows programs. You can't convert users with that kind of installation procedures.