iTunes 4.8 Coming

[coolfactor]

other things i'd like to see
3) recommender system
something that hooks in to the itms as recommends music

It's called iMix. Works great.

 

[ketha]

Yup! I agree with both.

Especially number 2:
It would be awesome to save space that way by shortcuts, and they could put a little logo so show it was a shortcut. The only problem I can see is that i have a ton of live stuff on there and when I click Show Duplicate Songs now, it shows those songs... so it might replace my live songs with those...

The only thing is number two would be too hard to do to please everyone and with the upgraded iPod capacity, doesn't look like Apple would be doing this.

I think there are lots of features that would be great but Apple also has to balance this with being user friendly. I'd love to see changes to the main interface. I would like to link one song to two or more album names, simple as that (it could just be a + - sign like with playlists).

Secondly I'd love to see a more album art search front end (like windows media centre), perhaps even great innovations in this area.

 

[SWC]

My wishlist:

1. Automated album art and lyrics
2. Subfolders
3. FLAC and SHN support for christsake. Apple Lossless? That ticked a bunch of people off.
4. Some sort of "back" button, so that (for example) when I click on the arrow to go to the artist, and then click an album to go to an album, I can "back" up to artist. The Music Store already has this ability. It's be nice to optionally turn that little browser-bar thing on and off.
5. Smarter song fades. Playing an Album shouldn't have track fading, but playing randomly perhaps should.
6. More Shuffle options. Playing 2 or 3 songs by the same artist seems like a nice idea. Works well for radio stations.
7. A "Album View" sort of thing, where it shows the album art and other info it has for the selected songs. Also similar to how Music Store shows album info, with songs below.

I have to say I agree 100% I would also like to be able to sort my libray by album so like you just see Album-Artist and click and arrow and it shows all the songs and rest of the tags. I have 60+ gigs of music and going through is a pita if I could collapse and expand albums it would make my life much easier.

Also please please please give me the option to have it not jump back in the library when a new track starts, I hate more than anything when I am editing tags in the t's but listening to an artist that starts with an A and when the new track starts it brings me allll the way back. This is such a stupid feature when it shows info about the current song at the top. Maybe even scrap this alltogether and add a button is the display to jump back if you so choose.

Last thing I would like to see is when burning MP3 cds to keep the different albums in different folders. I like to burn discs with 10-12 albums and skip through albums when I don't want to listen to it. This is impossible to do when burning the disc with itunes it throws ALL the songs into one folder. (I know I know we should all have iPods, I do but cant stand an fm transmitter quality and can't modify my company vehicle)

 

[sacear]

Has Apple been paying attention? With all the lyrics sites out there, why hasn't this been brought to the iPod? Scrolling lyrics or the ability to click a button and get lyrics for the current song.
Not to mention, the ability to search the iTMS by lyric.
How often do you hear a song on the radio that has a specific lyric, but you don't know the song name. You go to Google and google the lyric to find out who it is. Why not go to iTMS and do the same, then if the song is there, you might be inclined to download it right then.

Give us LYRICS in iTunes 5.0 Apple!!

You all do realize that lyrics are copyright owned property? Lyrics are most often owned by a different entity than the music and of the actual recording itself. Ever notice that statement in the CD booklet that says "Lyrics used by permission?" Notice that there is never a statement that says "Music used by permission." If Apple sells the lyrics as part of a song from iTunes then Apple must pay royalties (publishers would love it), that means the consumer pays more money for the product. Yes, there are many lyrics sites on the web, yet they are not selling the lyrics, otherwise they would have to pay royalties or be shut down.

 

[BWhaler]

Sorry about my earlier snotty post. I don't know what was with me that day.

The whole lyrics thing is interesting, but I don't think I would ever use it. I suspect I am in the majority with this one.

What I would love is the ability to download high quality, appropriate formatted, album art. With color soon to be standard on the iPod, it would be a great must have feature which would differentiate iTunes for everyone.

I am not optimistic since Apple wants you to buy through iTMS, but I thought I would mention it nevertheless.

 

[jxpx777]

I thought all "play by grouping" was was sorting by grouping then playing the playlist like you normally would, which is possible in iTunes 4.7.1.
Wrong again about smart playlists by grouping - I see Grouping as one of the filter options in the Edit Smart Playlist dialog. What is "shuffle by grouping" supposed to mean? As far as I'm aware, you don't shuffle by anything in iTunes - you just shuffle.

1. When browsing, groupings do not come up as playable options. If you sort the library by grouping and play, it still plays by track order of the album. A smart playlist for the entire classical genre does allow this though, so that is a work around for the time being. Although, this is not a fix for my iPod. No sorting there and when I am browsing a composer's works, it brings up albums instead of works which isn't appropriate for the genre. Thanks for the idea. However, this makes me play my classical works in alphabetical order. So, I have to hear all of Beethoven's nine symphonies before I get to Brahms. Thus,I think it is clear that this is a limited workraound at best. But, this leads to...

2. No, not wrong about smart playlists by grouping. I didn't mean the criteria for selecting the playlist, I meant the criteria for limiting the size or time of the playlist. Perhaps I wasn't clear about that part.

3. Click iTunes> Preferences> Advanced. See Shuffle by:? A grouping option would be nice. I shuffle by album all the time. Also, maybe when I don't have a grouping, give me another option to shuffle by so that when I am playing classical where there are groupings, I can have it shuffle by grouping instead of album, but then when I am playing my other genres, it will still shuffle by album.

As a follow-up, I think it would be nice to be able to select the form (in classical music what would properly be called "genre" but for the sake of clarity I will use "form") or instrumentation you would like to listen to and then shuffle by grouping (now that we know you can shuffle in different ways). For instance, sometimes all I want to hear is chamber music. Let me choose that. And let me have sub categories for quartets, quintets, trios or brass choir. Also, let's have a way to distinguish vocal from instrumental. Although, some pieces would cross over the two (such as Beethoven 9). Moreover, it might be nice to know who the important performers are without having to put all of them in the Artist field. For instance, the soloists from Verdi's Requiem are not the only performers. You could put their names in the comment field, but I use that field for other things. Also, when i am browsing, what if I wanted to play all of the works that Pavarotti performs on? I know this could be done in smart playlist and the comment field, but it would be better if I could do it from the browsing window and not have to give up my comment tag that I use for KungTunes purposes. Perhaps it's time that Apple moved to the tag system like Flickr, Technorati, Gmail, and del.icio.us have done. This allows things to be in different groups at the same time. Maybe different sets of tags such as "people" "instruments and ensembles" and "classification." This could also help with the "allow one instance of a song to be in different albums" and a "live" tag would help differentiate live versions from studio versions. Anyway, it's clear that there are a lot of things that could make iTunes better and I suspect that few if any are eminent.

Godspeed,

P.S.
Apparently, you don't know iTunes like you think you do and you might do well to explore something that seems unfamiliar or unclear to you before you tell someone he or she is wrong.

 

[JzzTrump22]

I can't wait to see what Apple comes up with for the next revision.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

1. When browsing, groupings do not come up as playable options. If you sort the library by grouping and play, it still plays by track order of the album. A smart playlist for the entire classical genre does allow this though, so that is a work around for the time being. Although, this is not a fix for my iPod. No sorting there and when I am browsing a composer's works, it brings up albums instead of works which isn't appropriate for the genre. Thanks for the idea. However, this makes me play my classical works in alphabetical order. So, I have to hear all of Beethoven's nine symphonies before I get to Brahms. Thus,I think it is clear that this is a limited workraound at best. But, this leads to...

2. No, not wrong about smart playlists by grouping. I didn't mean the criteria for selecting the playlist, I meant the criteria for limiting the size or time of the playlist. Perhaps I wasn't clear about that part.

3. Click iTunes> Preferences> Advanced. See Shuffle by:? A grouping option would be nice. I shuffle by album all the time. Also, maybe when I don't have a grouping, give me another option to shuffle by so that when I am playing classical where there are groupings, I can have it shuffle by grouping instead of album, but then when I am playing my other genres, it will still shuffle by album.

As a follow-up, I think it would be nice to be able to select the form (in classical music what would properly be called "genre" but for the sake of clarity I will use "form") or instrumentation you would like to listen to and then shuffle by grouping (now that we know you can shuffle in different ways). For instance, sometimes all I want to hear is chamber music. Let me choose that. And let me have sub categories for quartets, quintets, trios or brass choir. Also, let's have a way to distinguish vocal from instrumental. Although, some pieces would cross over the two (such as Beethoven 9). Moreover, it might be nice to know who the important performers are without having to put all of them in the Artist field. For instance, the soloists from Verdi's Requiem are not the only performers. You could put their names in the comment field, but I use that field for other things. Also, when i am browsing, what if I wanted to play all of the works that Pavarotti performs on? I know this could be done in smart playlist and the comment field, but it would be better if I could do it from the browsing window and not have to give up my comment tag that I use for KungTunes purposes. Perhaps it's time that Apple moved to the tag system like Flickr, Technorati, Gmail, and del.icio.us have done. This allows things to be in different groups at the same time. Maybe different sets of tags such as "people" "instruments and ensembles" and "classification." This could also help with the "allow one instance of a song to be in different albums" and a "live" tag would help differentiate live versions from studio versions. Anyway, it's clear that there are a lot of things that could make iTunes better and I suspect that few if any are eminent.

Godspeed,

P.S.
Apparently, you don't know iTunes like you think you do and you might do well to explore something that seems unfamiliar or unclear to you before you tell someone he or she is wrong.

Thanks for that, jxpx777. I don't use iTunes the same way you do, and I was unaware that some of the options you mentioned even existed. #2 was a misinterpretation. I didn't know that you meant grouping as a song limiting method. I don't see how that would work, though, other than as a sub-option of Random (along with all the other fields) - and that doesn't make much sense to me because it wouldn't be any different from random selection.

I agree with you regarding more tagging options; unfortunately, changes like these will not be compatible with the ID3 tag standard, so some sort of fallback mechanism will have to be implemented in case you ever take the tunes outside of iTunes.

P.S.
I almost NEVER use the Shuffle option. All of my playlists are set to loop 1 song, and I have nothing but smart playlists in my library.

 

[joed]

Many of my wishes have been said, but here's my list:

- Auto Album Art when inserting a CD
- Remove redundant Eject Icon in bottom right hand corner, we already have eject icons next the source (like iPod and CD)
- Play/Pause feature integrated onto iTunes dock icon (not just in contextual menu)
- Lyrics
- 'Burn Selected Songs' option in contextual menu
- Ability to see who's listening to my music & song over a local network
- "Show song count for playlists" like iPhoto 5 now has as well as song numbers listed in 'Browse' mode
- Search via Album Art
- Multiple Library's from different sources (local drive, external HDD etc)
- Playlist Folders (like now available in iPhoto 5)
- Broadcast feature, to allow a user to stream audio directly over internet (like a user radio station)
- On Screen Controls during Visuals (like Preview in 10.4 and iPhoto 5)
- Kiosk mode, full screen iTunes, ability to lock with password access out of iTunes or to change anything within iTunes like playlists
- Expand metadata (ID3 tags) to include URL and 2 Custom Fields

(http://mactimeline.com/macwishlist.html)

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

My guess is that iTunes 4.8 will be Apple's way of rolling out a bunch of little changes they've wanted to make, but none of them individually warranted a version number bump.

A list of possible changes:
1. iTMS updates (new features, more countries, etc.)
2. iPod-related updates (both for new and older iPods)
3. New ways of looking at your music (a la Party Shuffle)
4. Various minor bugfixes

Thinking about the recent article in the Washington Post about the iPod DJ parties, it would be neat if you have lets say two songs bought from ITMS and a "dj" came up with a mix, that iTunes would allow you to download the "computer mixing instructions" so you could have that "dj" mix.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Chip NoVaMac

Thinking about the recent article in the Washington Post about the iPod DJ parties, it would be neat if you have lets say two songs bought from ITMS and a "dj" came up with a mix, that iTunes would allow you to download the "computer mixing instructions" so you could have that "dj" mix.

That would be very cool

 

[0098386]

i understand the autofill idea now, my 6gb mini is on its way and im frustratingly trying to whittle down my... well originally i had 13gb of music but i've 'trimmed the fat' so to speak and removed stuff im never going to listen too, down to a nice 10gb. freeing up my hard drive space too.

so yea, autofill for all iPods would be nice. thats all i want really in a new iTunes.

... i wonder if steve and his cronies read through places like this to know what people want?

 

[williamsonrg]

Personally what I wish they would do but never will is this:
When you are scrolling through your various items be they playlists, songs, artists, albums, etc you never know what rating you have given said playlists, songs, artists, albums, etc. At least on the iPod you don’t. What I would like to see is Apple go to a color coded star system:
1-Black
2-Red
3-Orange
4-Yellow
5-Blue


So lets say you are scrolling through your albums list. iTunes desktop client averages out what your rating for that album and color codes it appropriately. So when you scroll through the list you know HEY! I really like those songs in that playlist because it’s got a yellow color to it. Or I really like that album because its Blue. Apple could do so much with color in the iPod Photo beyond simply viewing pictures. It just kills me that they haven’t done anything with the interface. Hello!! *knock knock* Hello in there Apple. Its called innovation.

I'd been thinking for a long time that they needed a way to make a rating for albums based on the average score of the songs on the album. I love your idea of coloring them. The only difficulty I foresee is how to deal with albums where some of the songs are unrated. Say one album has several songs with high ratings, and others that I haven't rated yet. Would I have to rate them all to make it work properly? Just a thought.

 

[Xapplimatic]

iPhoto has matured more than iTunes

iPhoto is nolonger an embarassment of a program, now that it's picked up some modest editing features and they can be easily deployed by even the droolingest idiot on the farm. In fact, it even lets you give your 1-5 star ratings to photos on the fly during a slideshow if you so choose.. iTunes doesn't have anything like that. It would be nice if it had a 'debut' mode which made it easy to rate the songs one by one rather than having to go through that micro-text thousand song library list, potentially clicking the wrong ratings on the wrong song. INNOVATE and IMPRESS>>>

 

[Xapplimatic]

Features coming to iTunes 5

Possibly likely and unlikely coming features:
1. Sharing menu more like iMovie offers more choices of music sharing (not just Bonjour aka Rendezvous). New choices should include BlueTooth sharing to fill your Motorola phone with iTunes support plus some kind of mode to automatically copy all your protected songs to your other authorized Macs on the same intranet.
2. HeAAC. Less likely support for FLAC since Apple introduced its own ALAC. Apple will almost certainly continue to dog Ogg. (why?)
3. Possible visualizer mode using your iPhotos and/or iMovies.
4. An editing mode for trimming fronts and backs of MP3s permanently (rather than the 'start' and 'stop' points which just mask them in current gyrations of iTunes).
5. "BLEEEP" mode for editing naughty lyrics to make them more kid-safe or parent-compatible as it is. (I don't think any music player has done this.)
6. Airport Express AirTunes is -REMOVED- from iTunes and put into the system software so other applications can use it (duh! Please!)..

 

[wdlove]

It would seem that at this point Apple should just wait for Tiger to to update iTunes. Tiger should allow iTunes to be even better.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I would also like to see better compatibility between the OS X and Win versions. The last time I looked some of the Ctrl/mouse click functions did not work the same on both versions.

Also a built-in duplicate finder with selected delete would be nice, rather than to have to use Applescript, add on programs, or the old fashioned hunt and search.

 

[Stridder44]

I know a while back I remember people talking about 'Smart Visualisations' - now that would be freaking awesome. I've loved iTunes Visuals since day one....

 

[Porchland]

It really seems like we would see a 5.0 build before a 6.0 but maybe they liked how winamp went from 1.0 to 3.0 skipping the 2.0 and are trying that on? ha ha.

Apple did it with iPhoto -- jumped (I think) from 2 to 4.

 

[howard]

its hard to say what they could do to make itunes better, just little things really. but definitely hierarchal playlists would be nice...not necessary but a nice feature. also a find album art would be great to. otherwise...i honestly don't know how they could make it much better.

 

[chevyorange]

I love iTunes. My #1 request would be the liner notes along with the album artwork - skip the lyrics... royalty reasons... but it would great. I'm already over not having the physical CD anymore.

 

[rikers_mailbox]

may have already been said. . .

I can see an iTunes 4.8 announcement coming alongside a small keynote for Star Wars themed iPods. Similar to the iTunes 4.7/iPod Photo/U2 Pod keynote

iTunes 5.0 with Tiger, for sure.

BTW, Apple needs to combine and sync iPod and iTunes updates. It would be easier to keep both updated, there'd be fewer downloads, and more people would probably be inclined to actually update their stuff. . . ahem, windows users*.

Might as well bundle any Quicktime updates in there as well. (isn't that all iTunes is, really?)



*a stereotype - it's been my experience that PC users are terrible at iTunes software updates.

 

[Montserrat]

Visuals

As far as I was aware there is quite a lot of control of iTunes visuals now by pressing the ? key during iTunes playback you are presented with a list of options to change the visuals display. There are some more keys (I think ASDF - keys or thereabouts) that do functions not listed when you press ?, but I can't remember exactly which Some of the suggestions have been really good, though - things I hadn't thought of. I currently really like the interface and haven't found anything as good for finding/navigating my tunes. The only thing I'd like to see is greater encoding support (LAME MP3 anyone?) or possibly support for encoding/other plugins. Not the most groundbreaking suggestion, but it'd make me happier

 

[Loge]

I love iTunes. My #1 request would be the liner notes along with the album artwork - skip the lyrics... royalty reasons... but it would great. I'm already over not having the physical CD anymore.

This would be cool, but I would settle for the ability to be able to see the comments field more prominantly, (that is not just on the single line) while the song was playing.

 

[chillywilly]

How about Podcasting subscription support built into iTunes? Ability to upload Garageband songs to your .mac account and allow people to subscribe to your song/show using RSS feeds. How about blogging support for .mac accounts? Come apple... THINK DIFFERENT.

I'd welcome this change. Would be a very welcome addition, especially with all of the podcasting sites out there now.