How would you change iTunes?

By Barb Dybwad

So we all know that poor old iTunes got about as close to ignored as is possible amongst the orgiastic frenzy of iLife updates, with just a minor update to version 4.7.1. Shame, considering iTunes and iPod are more synonymous than peanut butter and jelly and said iPod is hot, hot, hotter than when you pull said sandwich from the toaster oven. That fact combined with a tip from Zach Everson about his iTunes wishlist inspired this post:

What changes would you make to iTunes? What new features would you like to see? Go ahead and get wild on this question. You want a BrainTunes implant that will stream your library directly to your noggin? Put it down in this thread.

Here are my iTunes wishes:

  • Please, please, can we have folder organization for playlists?! iPhoto got it so please, Santa Steve, can we? can
    we?
  • More on organization: I don't have a lot of music that fits neatly into a single genre. I want to be able to
    'tag' tracks with multiple genres a la Flickr and
    del.icio.us.
  • Some folks are pining for album artwork delivered
    as PDFs via iTMS    . That's fine, but what I really want to see is a whole new multimedia concept behind album art
    instead of just reformatting old analog liner notes in the digital realm. Instead of looking at the visualizer while
    an album's tracks play, how cool would it be to watch slideshows, video, and interactive content? Like
    Zach, I don't want a separate
    PDF file to keep track of; I want it right inside of iTunes, and I want it to be rich media.
  • This is cool and makes me want to be able to
    sync my iPod directly with iTunes via Bluetooth. I hate cables.
  • I want an easier way to manage audio files distributed in multiple locations. A bunch live on my laptop, a bunch
    live on the desktop machine in my home office, and a bunch live on an external Firewire drive. When I'm out and about
    on the laptop, tracks that are not local show up with an exclamation point next to them – fine. But I want a way to
    say "show only those tracks which are local" so that I can play a playlist without generating the "file cannot be
    found" error. Maybe there's a workaround for this – does anybody know?

What do you want to see in iTunes?

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