Series: App improvement discussion - App: iTunes

[Diatribe]

In anticipation of the release of Tiger and the many improvements Apple has made to the various apps, of which a lot of things I have requested from Apple various times, I thought I'd start a series of discussions about where you want to see certain apps go.
What improvements would you like to see, what things to be alleviated, etc.?

Since the big music/iPod/iTunes hype ATM I thought it would be appropriate to start with iTunes.

There have been many threads like this before, but now seems like a good time to get some common ground for feedback and requests and submit them to Apple so they hopefully make their way into Tiger or iLife '05.

So here we go: (I know there are 3rd party apps but I'd like iTunes to have them implemented)


- alarm clock ability to wake the computer from sleep
- sleep function to put the computer to sleep after a playlist, amount of time, etc.
- be able to change the delete yes/no option with tab
- more album based sorting and other features for all the "complete" albums we all have
- be able to select the genre for Party Shuffle
- sync option for data like PlayCounts, Last Played, etc. for the same songs in different bit rates (i.e. have Lossless at home and 192AAC on your pod and a copy at home but let me sync that data so the lossless files have the same playcounts, etc.)
- and my biggest pet peeve ever..... I want a FULLY FUNCTIONAL undo option for all actions


If you feel the same about certain points please let Apple know.

 

[cluthz]

"Song links"
I heard about the "Search for duplicate songs and, delete those you’d like"-feature.
I have several albums with the exact same song, it should be possible to have the same song in two albums (like links). If you have "greatest hits/best of" albums you'll probably has the song.

Multiple librarys!!
If you want to keep music seperate f.eks movie/sound-effects in one library and music in another

Shared library files between users
If i edit song name on my user, the names isn't changed in my bros.
Same if i uncheck the "Part of a compillation", then album returns to under the artist again and not under compilations (i'm talking about folder locations in finder), many "best of" albums are marked compilations..

Users with different languages
If one user has "English" language as default, the compilations are put into a folder called "compilations" in the itunes folder. If a another user of this computer has "Norwegian" language as default, the compilations are put into a folder called "Samlealbum" (which by the way means compilations).
If both users has the same iTunes library it makes tons of problems.

I believe many has shared library in their household, because you don't want to have many idebtical copies of the same library.

 

[Diatribe]

These are some nice requests. Especially the multiple library and the language consistency. I experienced that when I set up my iBook in German (since my mum was going to get it 2 months later) and my Powerbook in English, now I have different folders in different languages... great.

I just submitted those to Apple too.

 

[Studawg7]

I am all about the alarm clock! Bring that baby on! I use my Ibook all the time, it would be so easy for it to become my alarm clock too. Since its a portable, the power could go out all it wants and it would still wake me up. I would never be late to a class/meetings again!!!!

 

[kylos]

Shared library files between users[/B]
If i edit song name on my user, the names isn't changed in my bros.
Same if i uncheck the "Part of a compillation", then album returns to under the artist again and not under compilations (i'm talking about folder locations in finder), many "best of" albums are marked compilations..

You can do this using an alias in finder. Just replace everybodys library file (home:music:iTunes:iTunes 4 Music Library(on a pc right now, can't check to verify)) with an alias to a shared library file. I have a system running like this right now. Depending on how you set your preferences, you can even lock out certain users from adding and deleting files in that library.

 

[Diatribe]

You can do this using an alias in finder. Just replace everybodys library file (home:music:iTunes:iTunes 4 Music Library(on a pc right now, can't check to verify)) with an alias to a shared library file. I have a system running like this right now. Depending on how you set your preferences, you can even lock out certain users from adding and deleting files in that library.

But then people cannot listen to the same song at the same time, correct?
(Not that this would happen a lot if you have 1000+ songs )

 

[cluthz]

You can do this using an alias in finder. Just replace everybodys library file (home:music:iTunes:iTunes 4 Music Library(on a pc right now, can't check to verify)) with an alias to a shared library file. I have a system running like this right now. Depending on how you set your preferences, you can even lock out certain users from adding and deleting files in that library.

I haven't thought of it .. I'll try later..

But then people cannot listen to the same song at the same time, correct?
(Not that this would happen a lot if you have 1000+ songs )

I have over 8400 songs, so that shouldn't be a problem and there are three computers connected to the library..


There is another thing that also should be a feature in iTunes..

iTunes locations
When i'm not at home or not connected to my sawtooth (which holds my itunes library) and i open iTunes, iTunes changes the location for the library to ~/Music/iTunes/... arrgh..
Also multiple libraries could fix this..
I image many powerbook users has their music on a external hd or on a networked volume. If i could have a smaller library on the powerbook i could still have to have music on-the-go...
(To change and import new libraries everytime you change locations is not acceptible, to import a 8000+ song library takes time......)


hehe, hope apple reads this, because itunes is good, but far from perfect...

 

[Diatribe]

There is another thing that also should be a feature in iTunes..

iTunes locations
When i'm not at home or not connected to my sawtooth (which holds my itunes library) and i open iTunes, iTunes changes the location for the library to ~/Music/iTunes/... arrgh..
Also multiple libraries could fix this..
I image many powerbook users has their music on a external hd or on a networked volume. If i could have a smaller library on the powerbook i could still have to have music on-the-go...
(To change and import new libraries everytime you change locations is not acceptible, to import a 8000+ song library takes time......)

You could also set up iTunes so it doesn't copy over the files but just the links. You'd have some songs double, etc. and it's not as elegant as the multiple library option but it works.

hehe, hope apple reads this, because itunes is good, but far from perfect...

Send them feedback about everything you want to see. The link is in my first post. I doubt they read this, so giving feedback is our only chance.
It has worked many times in the past for me.

 

[HiRez]

Really I'd be happy with just f*@#ing gapless playback, but you guys have some great ideas. Would also be nice to be able to bookmark your place in a song. This is especially needed with long format stuff like audiobooks and Air America show archives.

 

[cluthz]

Send them feedback about everything you want to see. The link is in my first post. I doubt they read this, so giving feedback is our only chance.
It has worked many times in the past for me.

It's done.

 

[jrober]

I would love to see iTunes have the ability to:

Exclude a folder of music from the playlist, but still have it accessible.

I want iTunes radio to be able to see all web radio stations. e.g. the BBC stations are not accessible. Not sure of the reason but I have to use Windows Media Player or Real Audio to stream them, and there are many others missing.

I would love to be able to assign keyboard shortcuts to the application that work even if the app is in the background e.g. next track start / stop. So I don't have to bring it forward change and then send it back again.

John

 

[Diatribe]

It's done.

Good. Maybe we will see some of our requests when iLife '05 comes out. Wouldn't surprise me, Apple ussually listens a lot to feedback, when it is reasonable.

 

[Diatribe]

I would love to be able to assign keyboard shortcuts to the application that work even if the app is in the background e.g. next track start / stop. So I don't have to bring it forward change and then send it back again.

John

I am with you on the radio one.

For the keynoard shortcuts you could try Synergy . Although it would be nicer to have it integrated into iTunes since this is shareware, these were the best $5 I have ever spent. Awesome app, can only recommend it.

 

[kylos]

Really I'd be happy with just f*@#ing gapless playback, but you guys have some great ideas. Would also be nice to be able to bookmark your place in a song. This is especially needed with long format stuff like audiobooks and Air America show archives.

I believe macworld had an article about converting your music to the audible format to enable bookmarking of tunes.

But then people cannot listen to the same song at the same time, correct?
(Not that this would happen a lot if you have 1000+ songs )

I can't remember, has apple fixed the multiple user issue with itunes in the first place? In any case, one copy of all your tunes for every user is much more space efficient than a copy for each user. Besides, there really is no benefit to listening to multiple songs at once.

 

[kylos]

I would love to see iTunes have the ability to:

Exclude a folder of music from the playlist, but still have it accessible.

I'm not sure I understand what you want to do, but in playlists each song has a check mark beside it that can be unclicked to prevent playback of specfic songs. If you're looking for something else, please correct me.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Playlists

I'd like to be able to group several related playlists into one icon; the group members would be revealed with one of those disclosure triangles. I'd also like nested groups to be possible. Here's my reason for this request: My music library contains nothing but smart playlists, divided into groups like Bit Rate, Sample Rate, Format, Time, and Source. If I could group the related Smart Playlists together, I wouldn't have to scroll quite so much.

 

[jeremy.king]

Good. Maybe we will see some of our requests when iLife '05 comes out. Wouldn't surprise me, Apple ussually listens a lot to feedback, when it is reasonable.

Unless '05 comes out in the middle/end of the year, don't get your hopes up. It takes time to put changes into software, I highly doubt two months is enough time.

 

[HiRez]

OK, a few more I thought of (and some long-standing iTunes gripes of mine):

1. Party Mix from a remote (streaming) shared iTunes. The ability to treat a remote user's shared library as a playlist would facilitate this (IOW, add a smart playlist rule: "SONGS ARE IN PLAYLIST: <specify another playlist>").

2. Nested boolean logic expressions for creating smartlists. For example I want to be able to specify something like ((Genre="British Alternative" OR Artist="Catherine Wheel") AND Year > 1985). You can't do that now.

3. Should be a way to check/uncheck selected songs (directly), not just one at a time or all. You can get around this now by making a temporary playlist of the songs you want to check but that shouldn't be necessary.

4. Specify secondary and tertiary columns to sort on. For example, sort my albums by Artist, but then organize by (song) Year within that.

5. Additional tags like Album Subtitle, Lyrics, Conductor, Live (checkbox), Acoustic (checkbox). Also custom tags would be neat but that might get complicated.

6. Multiple genres. Maybe keep the primary genre to sort on but be able to add a list of others to use for smart playlists. For example, James Taylor has a version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on October Road. Well it's both Folk and Holiday, I'd like to be able to use either or both, depending on what I'm doing.

7. Set fade in and fade outs on a per-song basis, much like you can set EQ or song volume already. The fades would start or end at the adjusted begin and end points (that you can set now), and be of variable length. This would let you smooth out songs which just cut out suddenly, as happens with many live songs where the crowd noise continues to the next track. Also should be a checkbox to NOT perform the fades in the case that the next song played is the next track from the same album.

8. Automatically find and download album cover art from sources like Amazon, Walmart, etc. There is a freeware Mac app called Books that does this right now for book covers, it works great.

 

[Abstract]

Karaoke option. No, I'm not joking.

If iTunes had a way to automatically download both album covers from Amazon AND the lyrics to songs in your playlist, it wouldn't be difficult to allow for lyrics to appear at the top or something.

Other than that crazy request, I've got nothing. iTunes does everything I want. I also wish I didn't have to use Clutter to d/l album covers, and that iTunes didn't go to Amazon to find them. Soooo many album covers that they just don't seem to have.

 

[chameeeleon]

iTunes for me is the iApp that's the most perfect at the moment. That being said, there are still some things it could do better:
1. As others have said, auto-download the album art for songs. And move the album art up by the playback controls, ala MusicMatch. I like it up there a lot better, because where it is now steals real estate from my playlists, and forces a scroll bar on them. For this reason, I rarely have the album art on.
2. As previously mentioned, allow songs to have multiple albums listed.
3. Instead of having those arrows point back to the music store, have an option to search by default within your library, and turn off the ones beside song names.
I think that's it...

 

[Diatribe]

A lot of interesting requests and quite a few that I'd like to see too.

I'd like to be able to group several related playlists into one icon; the group members would be revealed with one of those disclosure triangles. I'd also like nested groups to be possible. Here's my reason for this request: My music library contains nothing but smart playlists, divided into groups like Bit Rate, Sample Rate, Format, Time, and Source. If I could group the related Smart Playlists together, I wouldn't have to scroll quite so much.

This one I like especially. I have so many playlists that scrolling can indeed be very annoying.

Unless '05 comes out in the middle/end of the year, don't get your hopes up. It takes time to put changes into software, I highly doubt two months is enough time.

IF iLife '05 comes out at MWSF... And even if it does, Apple has put little improvements into Apps in minor upgrades before, so it could be soon after.
All I am saying is that if you don't give feedback it might never come at all



I have another request that I felt the need for the last couple of days. I want to know in which playlists a certain song is, I want it to, when I search for a song, highlight the playlists it is in.
And the other thing is that when I want to delete a song that is in a playlist it should give me an additional warning that this song is in a playlist. Sometimes I delete a copy of a song when I reripped it and I forget that it is in a playlist and when I delete the copy that is in the playlist the song in the playlist is gone too.

 

[Mechcozmo]

I want to be able to delete a song from a Playlist and it be deleted from the library. Also, sometimes I make a Smart Playlist and want just one other song that doesn't meet the criteria and I then need to either add a criteria... I want to be able to just drag it in.

 

[enclave]

Imovie: Remove the stupid 2gb limit for single movie files. It's just lame.

IDVD: Dual layer dvd burner support and a faster interface, designing a dvd with motion on just kills performance to much, there has to be a better way.

Itunes: See all above posts

Iphoto: Support for album's within album's,

 

[Diatribe]

I want to be able to delete a song from a Playlist and it be deleted from the library. Also, sometimes I make a Smart Playlist and want just one other song that doesn't meet the criteria and I then need to either add a criteria... I want to be able to just drag it in.

alt + apple + backspace deletes songs out of playlists from the library.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

alt + apple + backspace deletes songs out of playlists from the library.

It worked! Thanks for the tip - I've always wanted to be able to do that, but didn't know how.