iTunes 5 new features? What should apple do?

[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]

MP3

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]

what should Apple do...

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 ).

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?

 

[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]

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]

Mixed CD support

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!

 

[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 ).

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?

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]

music streaming!!

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.

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...

 

[MOFS]

iTunes 5?

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