How would you make iTunes better?

[Roger Emnett]

I'm generally a big fan of iTunes and I don't have as many complaints as others. One thing that drives me CRAZY is while listening to a song I will be browsing in song view, about 10,000 songs farther down the library, and when the next song begins iTunes automatically snaps back up to the current playing song. It ignores that I'm actually using the library while listening. I know I can play from a playlist and this won't happen, but it's super annoying.

 

Another request would be more listening analysis. I'm a big fan of last.fm and love looking at my listening habits.

Boy do I agree with that, I thought I was the only one that screams when that happens ! It should be smart enough to determine that you are actually using the library and not jump around.

[Roger Emnett]

I would add back in cut and paste to add album artwork. I am still using itunes 11 for my main library since 12 *still* doesn't have this functionality as far as I can see.

You can paste Artwork on one or multilple songs. Bring up Get Info, go to artwork and Cmd/V to paste.

[Roger Emnett]

It comes up often, this issue of improving iTunes, but in recent days, it's hit the mainstream, with articles in The Atlantic and other publications.

 

I've written about this issue many times, but I'm curious as to how others think iTunes could be improved. Any ideas?

I love iTunes and use it exclusivly for managing and listening to Music. I echo the need for better Volume Normalization. I run iVolume on all my songs and use Sound Check but when you listen to a large variety of shuffled music there is still a need for better normalization and the ability to apply compression or expansion without running another application. "Breakaway Audio Enhancer" handles this task very well it's default configuration, is very easy to set up and runs on my Music Server which requires me to run Windows in boot camp as there is is not a Mac Version of BAE. It is by far superior anything else that is available in the price range. I like a variety of music including Classical. I am not a audiophile purist but I want quality reproduction and need the ability to maintain a normal listening level that is suitable for background if needed. The "Late Night" equalization in IOS helps and is a step in the right direction but is not as good as BAE and is only available in IOS.

[someToast]

I love iTunes and use it exclusivly for managing and listening to Music. I echo the need for better Volume Normalization. I run iVolume on all my songs and use Sound Check […]

Oh, I wish volume normalization would work properly!

 

I use iVolume too, and with the third-party software I use to run my internet radio station, it’s fantastic. Songs fit together with perfect volume levels between them. In iTunes? It’s a completely different story. On my primary iMac that serves as my media library it’s a crapshoot, to say nothing about other Macs/iOS devices playing tracks via Apple Music. I don’t know if Apple Music isn’t syncing the iTunNORM tag correctly, or if the players are ignoring it, but Apple’s really dropped the ball on a feature they themselves added.

[Greg H]

I think they should eliminate calculated ratings or provide a way to turn them off.

[kirkmc]

Agreed. Those are nothing but problems.

[iansen1498576223]

My suggestions:

 

1. More clarity on the differences between home sharing and icloud sharing

2. More clarity on the functionality of iTunes Cloud Matching and Apple Music, including how they might affect existing libraries

3. Clearer terminology for Apps

4. Less invasive behaviour by Apple in terms of altering personal iTunes libraries (eg replacing lossless tracks with lossy versions) or put another way, Apple showing more respect to end users by explaining things more clearly prior to updates with such fundamental changes.

 

5. A return to greater flexibility in viewing one's personal library (eg resizing in album view, viewing of albums when browsing by genre, full screen etc)

 

6. More compatibility between desktop-based iTunes and the remote control of that libray via the Remote app on both iPhones and iPads. For example, the inconsistency of artwork appearing/ not appearing within Remote detracts significantly from the pleasure of using the App for such a purpose

 

7. If Apple doesn't want tags, then at least either

(a) the ability to assign more than one genre to a track or

(b) the search function to include the ability to search the comments section of a track's information box.

 

8. Might be nice to have automatic output of HD tracks (rather than relying on 3rd party apps like BitPerfect)

[BramSmits]

Oh, and the SINGLEs in my library should never be listed among the albums. I'm okay with EPs, though. Go figure. I'm stuck on semantics!

 

I would love for iTunes to be able to distinct between Albums, EPs, Singles, etc. Perhaps even between Studio Album, Compilation Album, Live Album, etc.

[Roger Emnett]

I would love for iTunes to be able to distinct between Albums, EPs, Singles, etc. Perhaps even between Studio Album, Compilation Album, Live Album, etc.

 

I agree and would also like to be able to use a track in more than one album. The same track may appear on more than one album and the only way to maintain album integrity is to maintain duplicates in your library. Of course if the track is the same song but a different arrangement you may want to have a duplicate but if it is a duplicate or do not care you should be able to assign a track to more than one album.

[Roger Emnett]

Oh, I wish volume normalization would work properly!

 

I use iVolume too, and with the third-party software I use to run my internet radio station, it’s fantastic. Songs fit together with perfect volume levels between them. In iTunes? It’s a completely different story. On my primary iMac that serves as my media library it’s a crapshoot, to say nothing about other Macs/iOS devices playing tracks via Apple Music. I don’t know if Apple Music isn’t syncing the iTunNORM tag correctly, or if the players are ignoring it, but Apple’s really dropped the ball on a feature they themselves added.

 

You should not have to use a third party application to normalize playback volume and dynamic range. Neither Sound Check or the iTunes Equalizer solves this problem. I am listening to my music server which runs Windows 7 , iTunes in shuffle mode with "Breakaway Audio Enhancer". Every track from a wide variety of music from multiple genres is a pleasure to listen to without needing to constantly adjust the volume. Claesson Edwards has so far not been interested in releasing a Mac Version of BAE. Not sure why as there is definitely an untapped market for it.

[arc6th]

I agree and would also like to be able to use a track in more than one album. The same track may appear on more than one album and the only way to maintain album integrity is to maintain duplicates in your library. Of course if the track is the same song but a different arrangement you may want to have a duplicate but if it is a duplicate or do not care you should be able to assign a track to more than one album.

My workaround uses the ratings. For example, "When Doves Cry" is on both the "Purple Rain" soundtrack and "The Hits" compilation. I gave the track 5 stars for the former and 2 stars for the latter.

 

My preferred playlist is Smart and Live Updating. It does not consider any track with 2 or fewer stars. Anytime that song is played it's the original version and that track's Play Count (which I care about for some reason) is the one that matters. However, since the track from "The Hits" remains checked the duplicate track will play if I choose to listen to Prince's greatest hits.

[Roger Emnett]

The more I think about it your solution is the best idea I have run across. Prices continue to drop for both local and cloud storage so space is not a problem. Album integrity would be maintained and the playlist would do all the work. Unfortunately I have never used ratings so if I decide to use your method all I need to do is rate a few thousand tracks. Oh well no one said it would be easy.

[arc6th]

...all I need to do is rate a few thousand tracks...

I hate that iTunes, if you just hit Shuffle, will treat every track the same when they aren't.

 

My playlist is based on Rating, Year, and Last Played fields. It's a lot of work, but it's been quite satisfying. I enjoy a random playlist of music that I know I like instead of relying upon a streaming service and its far from exact science of guessing what I might like.

 

G'luck!

[arc6th]

I thought (memory is tricky) there was a brief moment in time where iTunes would automatically sort individual artists by their last name. Regardless, I am now fed up with scrolling through a library seemingly sorted by a first-grader.

 

I am embarking on tedious task of completing the Sort As fields. Does anyone have any tips for this project or warnings of unintended consequences to share?

 

Thanks.

[kirkmc]

Yes, use this script to automatically add the name in the correct order (Last, First) to the appropriate tag:

 

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=artisttolastfirst

[TexasTs]

So much good stuff in this topic, I had to go ahead and sign up.

 

I would like for iTunes to have multiple windows back again. That might even solve a few of the issues here. You can sort of simulate it with the program (Yeah yeah. Not App, I'm old...Sue me) Playlist Assist, but only to a point.

[kirkmc]

You can have separate playlist windows now; right-click on a playlist and choose Open in New Window.

[PJ07]

My top 3:

 

1. I appreciate there are different opinions on this topic, but on desktops and laptops, I favour a single iTunes environment for all media types. Separate apps are ok on iOS devices, which are mostly "consumption" devices. But on Macs, I find editing and maintaining a media library to be easier in a single application. In fact, I wish Apple would re-integrate iBooks back into iTunes. As a separate Mac app, iBooks offers fewer features, such as limited ability to edit tag data.

 

2. I want to be able to open the iTunes Store in a separate window, so that I can see the Store and my library side-by-side.

 

3. Home Sharing is terrible - it's slow and unreliable. And it's been that way since inception. I really wish Apple would fix this.

[TexasTs]

My top 3:

 

1. I appreciate there are different opinions on this topic, but on desktops and laptops, I favour a single iTunes environment for all media types. Separate apps are ok on iOS devices, which are mostly "consumption" devices. But on Macs, I find editing and maintaining a media library to be easier in a single application. In fact, I wish Apple would re-integrate iBooks back into iTunes. As a separate Mac app, iBooks offers fewer features, such as limited ability to edit tag data.

 

2. I want to be able to open the iTunes Store in a separate window, so that I can see the Store and my library side-by-side.

 

3. Home Sharing is terrible - it's slow and unreliable. And it's been that way since inception. I really wish Apple would fix this.

 

 

Agree with 2 and 3.

[arc6th]

My top 3:

 

3. Home Sharing is terrible - it's slow and unreliable. And it's been that way since inception. I really wish Apple would fix this.

 

Agree with 2 and 3.

At risk of going off-topic...

 

How is Home Sharing slow and unreliable? Perhaps others use it differently than I do. My main library is far too big to load on an iPad or iPhone. That's a good problem that I don't mind, but Home Sharing works well for me when streaming to laptops and Apple TV.

[DavidL]

An interesting addition to the CA fora................

 

I use iTunes extensively and have nothing but praise for the iTunes functions I use: importing of music to my library and curating that library. I store the iTunes library (including all the iTunes folders and media) on a NAS. I use MinimServer running on the NAS to serve music tracks and BubbleUPnP running on a tablet to control play (building playlists etc). While iTunes is not well suited for curating classical music works (as opposed to albums) I have been able to use the functionality in iTunes to develop my own schema for handling classical music. I adopted this approach rather than using software tailored for handling classical-music meta data because of the maturity of iTunes and the high likelihood that it will continue to be supported.

The only improvement I would suggest for iTunes would be to add an 'library integrity check' function to check all media file tracks and their meta data against the track summary stored in the iTunes library file. I have found that MinimServer (and JRiver) do a far more comprehensive job of identifying any inconsistencies; if I remember correctly there is a DougScripts to do this but an integrated function would be better.

 

[Ralf11]

more of a music player and less of an advertisement and enticement to boost revenue

[wgscott]

Give it the AT&T/Standard Oil treatment.  Break up the monolith, so that

 

(a) The iOS interface functionality should be moved into the Finder, or put in a separate, stand-alone app. As for loading files onto the iOS device, it would make far more sense to have this functionality embedded in the macOS Finder.

(b) The video player should be separated from the music player. (Similarly for all the other junk like podcasts, ebooks, etc.)

(c) The music player should be a minimalistic, stand-alone entity.

(d) The store functionality should be a wrapper for a-c, and have all the purchasing functionality contained within.

 

As for (c), it should allow for automatic sample frequency matching (like all the quality players).  It should be able to play FLAC (and other currently omitted but standard formats).  It should explicitly expose the AU plugin interface.

[mjb]

iTunes has become IMO nothing more than a conduit for their store. I used to use it a lot, now I never touch it. Its a pity. Jack of all and master of none. Yes, I agree, it really does need to be split up into separate video, music, and sync apps. I'd love to see iTunes support FLAC playback as well.

[foodfiend]

While I hate how bloated iTunes has become, I can understand why Apple will not cut the links between store and player/database. At the same time, I also understand why they have not split music, video and app components - can you imagine if you had to use 3 different programmes just to sync and update your iPhone or iPad? Surely that is the way to lose your loyal customers.

 

I also would love if the iTunes store would start selling lossless audio at the very least (hi-res would be even better)! However, I think that 256 kbps AAC has become the new norm for music quality. The fact is, hardly anyone buys CDs, and are therefore unaware of the difference in audio quality between the lossy AAC or mp3 files they buy/download and what can be found on CDs. At the same time, I think the major recording studios are mixing the music such that there is less and less perceived difference between the AAC/mp3 version and that on the CD. Hence, I won't be surprised if there is really very little real demand for lossless music (compared with music in general); and therefore, no compelling reason to sell lossless music.