iTunes 9 bringing iTunes LP functionality, 'beautiful new look'
By Paul Miller 
posted Sep 9th 2009 12:47PM
posted Sep 9th 2009 12:47PM
Update: It's more or less official now, complete with a non-working "Download iTunes 9" button and everything. Apple's mainly touting the new interface for the store in this blurb, but we know it's just a front for taking more of our hard-earned cash and putting it in the hands of starving musicians. The nerve.
New features mentioned:
- Improved store navigation, including persistent navigation menu.
- Full window iTunes store. For times when that sidebar is just too much.
- Previews from anywhere in the store -- don't have to drill down to preview.
- iTunes LP includes lyrics, liner notes, video, photos and "more."
- iTunes Extras. It's like DVD extras, but with iTunes. Not clear if it includes director's commentaries, but let's hope.
- Genius Mixes. It's like Genius Playlists, but it plays forever like a radio station.
- App management, letting you set up and arrange your home screens on the iPhone and iPod touch. You can drag and drop to move certain apps or whole pages of apps.
- Home sharing enables file transfers between up to five local computers of songs, videos and even apps.
- You can send items in the iTunes Store as gifts, add them to a wishlist, and publish them to Facebook and Twitter -- look who's getting all social all of a sudden!
- It's available today.
oooooo
"Home sharing enables file transfers between up to five local computers of songs, videos and even apps."
Wait, so does this mean I can sync my iPhone to my netbook when I'm on business trips, without having to break the sync to my desktop, and reload everything from scratch?
Please Steve... I've only been asking for this functionality since the 3rd gen iPod.
ooo is right. That's exactly what I thought when I started iTunes 9. oooo it still looks ugly on Windows. C'mon Apple, stop with the hate and allow your precious ugly slow iTunes to look cool with Aero. We all know that without Windows users, neither the iPod or iTunes would have the following it has today.
ooooh.... looks like zune 3.0 software with an apple skin....
And what's more, iTunes 9 is causing more problems than 8 ever did... and far more than zune 3.0
Apple has missed an opportunity to bring iTunes to living room. It has not been designed to be viewed from a TV in a living room. Text size even on large size is simply too small.
http://mymediaexperience.com/2009/08/apple-has-missed-opportunity-with-itunes/
ooooo...
The question is, can it boot up in under 20 secs on a 4GB RAM PC?
Yay??????
?????
ehhh ... i'll just stick with torrentz but nice try apple, you almost had me
damn pirate
Now, if this iTunes LP actually had LP quality...
(For all you kids out there, Vinyl still beats the crap out of any kind of CD out there)
ARRRR...
This iTunes rev. be High.. Sez "i"
Arrr..
@TT: Well, that's still just speculation. Vinyl has a different sound, partly from being mastered differently. CDs have the same (or greater) maximum bandwidth (technologically), but the way they are mastered usually destroys much of the detail through compression. On top of this, in order to get all of the benefit of the recording you would still probably have to spend quite a lot of money for a CD player with a superior-quality D-to-A converter. I think it's unfair to criticize the medium just because the prevailing implementation is inferior.
But then again, I've never been able to hear the difference...my ears are already in pretty poor shape from a short stint in a small rock band that tried to convince me that earplugs were for woosies, and that ride cymbals were best experienced at a distance of three feet.
TT: You make it seem such a simple scenario. "Just throw in the vinyl and you're set to go with pristine audio quality." Not so fast.
First of all, you have to pay a much higher premium in order to get great sound out of vinyl. Mostly due to the mechanical nature of sound reproduction from vinyl. Mechanical means more labour in manufacturing the turntable, tonearm and cartridge (which also wears which leads to even more costs). You also have to buy an expensive RIAA-stage in order to get high fidelity.
Secondly, you have to pay a much higher premium for the medium itself. Great sounding vinyl requires high quality mastering and pressing processes. Fullfilling those criteria equals high premium. And, in order to get a well mastered and pressed vinyl, high premium is not always enough, since you cant's just walk/log into a store and pay for the product. There are thousands and thousands of beautiful recordings which have never been re-released in high quality vinyl editions. So, you have to look for the original pressings. Nowadays it's relatively easy since we have musicstack.com and such but those original pressings require, you guessed it, even higher premium.
So, if you have infinite funding and infinite time on your hands, sure, you can get the best audio quality out of vinyl. Actually it's highly subjective. Vinyl has a lot of harmonic distortion and lacks in resolution. But I admit, good vinyl sounds damn nice.
I personally have a decent vinyl system in addition to an accurately-ripped-flacs outputting PC media player hooked to a high quality DAC. I prefer, to the nth degree, the cost and ease of operation of the PC media player.
Vinyl rules for the ritual that is taking out that PVC slab from the seventies scenting jacket and putting it on the platter and dropping the needle and listening to the earthy, fleshy tone! The album art also in sensationally better then ones in CD or downloads... Still, I love the flac-thing...
TT-
I do not know about that. I believe it is subjective.
Some albums I try and find the original. But it is very hard to find original copies that don't pop, skip, etc... or aren't warped. I've started buying the audiofile versions and they sound awesome. But at $25 a copy, it's a bit expensive compared to the CD.
To each his own. Although this new LP thing is cool, I probably won't ever buy one. A hard copy I can back up at a higher quality is better then a few bonus tracks or extra artwork.
Vinyl is great in terms of artwork and such. I'm trying to buy music on vinyl whenever I can.
I think the best idea bands ever had was to sell vinyl with a free digital download. That way you get the best of both worlds!
While vinyl is good and I'd like to have every album in that quality I don't have the money for the equipment needed to play vinyls, or the vinyls themselves.
So I'll stick to CD and torrenting(when I can get a torrent ripped at lossless)
Because really Apple, you've got your own lossless format and bandwidth isn't exactly expensive, so why not just have an option so you can choose to download songs bought off iTunes in the Apple lossless format?!
(Not that I'd buy it due to DRM and the fact it costs more money than free)
Rocket Raccoon hits spot-on.
In my utopia albums would be released as vinyls which included a voucher for an at least 24bit/96kHz FLAC download including detailed meta data (composers, performing personnel) and high resolution artwork. There would also be a significantly cheaper option of purchasing only the download.
All older recordings would have gone through a remastering process of the highest degree.
You can dream...
erm, there are albums that are NOT deluxe versions that do the same...
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPreorder?id=327432907&s=143441
lol - yes!! finally mp3 collections are more expensive than the physical counterpart!
what took you so long apple?
where are the apple fanatics that love donating? i'm going to spit on my iphone
Time to upgrade my speakers and amp, and get rid of the old CD player. :D
iTunes 9 leaks... on iTunes. http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/09/09/itunes-9-leaks-itunes/
Get knotted, Apple. The reason people download music is because it's cheaper. CHEAPER. I mean, most people don't pay anything, and they're certainly not going to pay more than nothing for something they can find on Google Images anyway.
You apparently don't know too many Apple fans, do you? :)
@Peter S: Thats great!!!! Made my day!!!
sometimes it's cheaper... sometimes it's $635,000!
Seriously, mall record stores are outrageously expensive (I'm seeing $20+ at my local "record" stores now), even compared to iTunes. You can't buy everything at BigBox stores because you never know if they edit content on the disk... like a certain Wally does, and they don't stock releases more than 3 months old unless they sell.
"The reason people download music is because it's cheaper"
Disagree. The best thing about downloads is that they are damned near instant. If you want a particular track or album then you can have it on-demand. The price of downloads has never been something that has concerned me. Convenience is always king.
This is nothing really new. I know I bought a few Deluxe versions of albums a few months ago. They came with some music videos and a couple extra songs.
I poop on iTunes.
You mean iPoop?
I'm completely uninterested in buying one of these "enhanced" albums - even for an album I'd ususlly buy on CD.
How come I don't see any mention of the iPod linewide price reduction? Did Engadget not get the memo?
I already get all that stuff for free from decent torrent seeds. 320k bitrate, videos, and liner notes.
Can't find this on the UK store. The biggest change I'd like in iTunes is to be able to tag a song with multiple artists.
that's my tip! holler
For the love of all that is holy, please tell me this version FINALLY STOP SKINNING THE WINDOWS VERSION!
will it be as slow as all the other version of this great product? i'm referring to the windows implementation...
"[W]e know it's just a front for taking more of our hard-earned cash and putting it in the hands of starving musicians."
Rrriiiiiight.
i clicked download iTunes 9 and it downloaded 8.2.1 instead. hmmm.
still says 8.2.1 for me
Will it be a 64-bit cocoa application or is it still based on carbon?
sure as heck won't be carbon, Apple is going all-Cocoa with Snow Leopard and on
Carbon? Cocoa? Are you buying music or following a recipe?
too bad, the iTunesHelper is 64bit, iTunes still isn't
It's still bloody 32-bit Carbon. For crying out loud, Apple, get this key application rebuilt in Cocoa and give us the same improvements that we have seen in the Finder.
@Johanu: What the hell are you cooking with carbon as an ingredient?!
Steve Jobs just said the App Store has 75,000 apps! very cool!
And 74,647 of them are useless.
@Patrick
you give 350 apps too much credit. maybe only 3 are worth anything.
Oh really, you've examined each one of them?
Only MS fanboys/Apple haters make sorry attempts at trying to make the App Store's vast quantity of apps as a negative. Keep amusing us big boy.
What a shame that no one will develop for Zune HD. They'll all be busy making money at the Apple App Store.
we know it's just a front for taking more of our hard-earned cash and putting it in the hands of greedy labels. The nerve.
fixed it for you.
that's what Microsoft and the record labels were scheming to do by creating PlayForSure DRM. They wanted to lock down every music buyer and nickel and dime them for everything. Thankfully Steve Jobs killed DRM and convinced the labels to go DRM-free.
"that's what Microsoft and the record labels were scheming to do by creating PlayForSure DRM. They wanted to lock down every music buyer and nickel and dime them for everything. Thankfully Steve Jobs killed DRM and convinced the labels to go DRM-free."
Uh... is that how it happened, exactly? Something seems off there, can't put my finger on it...
Steve accomplished that? Yeah, no - Amazon had been selling all DRM-free music for over a year before Steve jumped on that bandwagon with any real effort. . . if teh steveo had actually wanted it, he'd have done so quite a while before. Owning so huge a share of the online market as Apple does, Apple could have easily thrown its weight around. . . as we saw them do with others.
FoxKenji, Steve took YEARS to undo DRM and in the meantime made huge cash off DRM. Then he wants people to rebuy non-DRM versions of songs they already paid for, for another 30 cents. As the OP said, Amazon is the true DRM breaker.
looks like the same hideous interface...with a few tweaks. wow.
I also tried to download it and got the old version...
They're trying to copy Zune's software. I can't wait until Sept 15 when 4.0 gets released and once again pushes innovation. Apple is so far behind on their software front in terms of design and functionality.
LOL. Zune software , like the player, are total garbage. You should check out the nice innovative features of iTunes 9. Steve Jobs is talking about them right now at this moment at the Apple Rock n' Roll event.
Zune much? ..."trying to copy Zune's software"...That's was my first thought too.
Sorry guys that I don't buy a device depending on whether or not it has a lot of marketshare. Right now I'm on a MacBook Pro and I can assure you that the Zune experience is far superior to that of iTunes. You all are pretty biased and probably haven't even used it for more than a few minutes. Everything is tightly knit and the design is lightyears ahead of what Apple is offering right now. Apple keeps tweaking iTunes because honestly it doesn't match the caliber of the Zune software.
Genius Mix - the "me too" version of Mix View
Home Sharing - the "me too" version of Windows 7 Home Group and play to
Improved Syncing - the "me too" version of how Zune has been able to sync individual playlists, artists, etc. since day one.
Sounds like a copy to me.
Oh, and I forgot, Facebook integration, just like I have been able to do with Zune Cards for a while now.
Personally, iTunes has too much clutter for me. Plus, I hate the way it looks. I like following my friend's plays in Zune, see what they're listening to. The software has always worked well for me. It's not "garbage" as some people put it.
funny how some fanboys prance around proclaiming the "superiorities" of Zune stuff while consumers and the market continue to stay away from it. Even the Zune's Marketing Exec quit Microsoft 2 weeks before the Zune HD's launch!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10318811-93.html
Microsoft is posting drastic 42% revenue losses in their entertainment division. "The market reception for Zune is so disappointing that many retailers have even stopped selling it altogether," said George Kurian, a vice president at Tradition Capital Management LLC, which owns Microsoft shares. Zune market share shrank from 2% to 1.1% now and keeps dropping.
It's funny how some people claim the "superiority" or Apple computers and OS while the majority of the market stays away from it.
@Banana - I see what you did there, except for the gaffaw that Apple is rapidly gaining market share, while your Zune is dropping like a, well, a Zune. Nice try, though. Seriously, though, just go buy a Mac. Nobody will know, it will be our little secret, and then you can see what the buzz is about.
Fox: MS lost tons in their entertainment division with the original xbox. Now it makes them bank, they are looking long-term with zune, they get that they need things to also look good and zune hd is that. In a few years MAYBE they are the big dog in daps
Don't worry Fox, the iPod will see sales tank. The Microsoft Haters (like yourself) said the Zune was not selling as well as the iPod because it had that outdated technology nobody wanted called FM radio, and the Zune HD was going to be even worse because it has an even more useless technology - HD Radio. Now Apple had to pull the "me too" act and integrate a FM radio into their music player. Nobody will want it so they will not buy it - at least that is the reasoning if you follow Apple fanboy "logic".
@frank - Apple is gaining about the same marketshare as the zune is losing, 1% or so a year. And the reason for the drop in zune market share last year was the fact that there was no hardware refresh, and most people buying new devices were going for the iPod touch. We'll see what those marketshare numbers look like at this time next year, after the launch of the zune HD.
@Bananarama
With all due respect, what determines someones decision to buy a product is rather more complicated than "is it good". The idea that Microsoft's products are better because they have a higher market share is just completely nuts. Windows is universally cursed in offices across the globe but it is still bought because the world is tied to the platform and its what people buy because it is what they know. Much of this is Apple's own fault, of course, since they effectively threw the desktop PC market away in the 1980s and 1990s.
Yes that is why The zune sells 1% and no one wants to buy the clunky outdated piece of junk. And why MS is losing money with it and canceling the line up except for 1.
Obviously you havent seen the Zune HD or ever used the Zune software in the last year and a half. This iTunes update still doesnt match the UI of Zune software, not to mention that you dont even have a subscription option. Jaws drop when people walk by my desk and my "Now Playing" screen on the Zune software is on. "Is that iTunes???" Sorry buddy, but pig's are flying and Microsoft has actually built a better and more attractive UI for their device than Apple. When Sept 15 rolls around it will raise the bar even higher. But if I owned an iPod/Phone i would be happy with these minor improvements... Good thing i don't though ;)
Only agreed with the last sentence. Especially in terms of the antiquated menus on the click wheel iPods. But that announcement is coming up next.
Btw - I was hoping for some real social integration in iTunes 9, but I guess I can send people my wish lists on facebook and twitter, yay?
Urgh... that was directed to cash rules baby.
@ glossysalmassi
I've tried Zune software and found it to be nearly useless. It was confusing and had a very poor ergonomics. It just looked like it was trying to be different for the sake of being different, with no rhyme or reason for it.
@FoxKenji Poor ergonomics? Are you sure?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergonomics
@ FoxKenji:
Fuck off. You're such a Apple fanboy that it's just not even funny anymore. Go back to re-watching the Apple Press Conference for the tenth time and bash one out to your favourite parts.
Oh yea thats why everywhere you go you see ipods. To be fair i have seen sandisks and use to see others but since MS left the playsforsure behind i see less and less. I can not say i have ever seen a zune other then in the box at the store.
"The market reception for Zune is so disappointing that many retailers have even stopped selling it altogether," said George Kurian, a vice president at Tradition Capital Management LLC, which owns Microsoft shares.
Man, and I actually thought that there was a sliver of hope that would permit syncing with 3rd party devices. Silly me.
From apple? not bloody likely.
If companies that want support for their products pay for that support then I think that anything is possible but it is hardly in Apple's interest to do it for free.
@FoxKenji
"What a shame that no one will develop for Zune HD. They'll all be busy making money at the Apple App Store"
That one sentence alone single handedly showed how dumb and how far up Steve Job's ass your dick and tongue are.
The thing is, your comments are so far out in the "I'm a complete lying sack of troll" field, other Apple fanboys dont even back you up.
aww looks like DeadTree got mad. Are you going to be one of those MS fanboys who will be lined up at the Best Buy return counter a week after the Zune HD's launch? It's amusing that such an ardent Apple hater as yourself is actually reading Engadget's Apple posts. You couldn't resist could you? :)
Okay, there may be new features, but the 'beautiful new look' looks awfully similar to the 'crappy old look'.
I was hoping for the music store to get a bump in audio quality (Most people have the connections nowadays to DL Apple Lossless). But instead we get more "bonus" crap to download with the same 256kbps files. Pass, I'll stick with buying CDs.
LOL 100% Zune Marketplace RIp Off!
Thats Itunes 9 up for download
Overall, I'm pretty stoked about iTunes 9. It looks like a legitimate update, even if Apple did finally relent on the social networking front (well, to some extent), which wouldn't be so bad if the applicable services weren't so inundated and unwieldy -- but that's besides the point.
One thing I'd like to know is whether in lieu of the renewed emphasis on ringtones, they have killed the nifty little .m4a ~> .m4r trick. I sincerely hope not, and if I find out that's the case, it'll be a bit before I update for having to create as many ringtones as possible.
Loved:
App management! YES!
True sharing (copying) of songs!
Hate:
Social networking integration -- but that's not because of iTunes.
No camera on the touch. Not applicable to this discussion, for certain, but I just can't get over what a huge disappointment that is.
App management - and there was much rejoicing
It's available for download now!
Downloading now, started off at 300+Kbs
Now its 44 and still dropping.
If I download this, will it sync my jailbroken 2g running 3.0.0?
Oops I meant to put 3g there not 2g...
Where is the 64b version?! That is what I need!
hmm.... is not showing up in software update in Snow Leopard but WHY???!!
I downloaded it directly from apple... no 64-Bit Mode WHY???!!!
Yes, I too downloaded v9 and got 8.2.1.6 instead.
Waste of bandwidth, checked for updates and nope, apparently this is the latest version!
Hahaha....I'm at a company with 1,000 plus workers in the building. Each time somone loads ITunes 9 there library is popping up for me to listen to. This is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
OhMyGod. I updated this, and it's actually faster clicking through things on my Windows machine.