31 comments

  • Adam T.Adam T., over 8 years ago

    Sorry, no. Maybe for the casual user who is ok not having ownership of their files. But I'll keep my 160GB of music and manage it "in-house" - thank you very much.

    Crazy to think that in a few years those who keep libraries on their hard drives will be looked at by "the streamers" as the crazy people, I remember when I did the same to people with CDs...

    6 points
    • Juan SolanoJuan Solano, over 8 years ago

      I agree they should not eliminate that pest right away but they should not force you to use it.

      0 points
    • Luke ChesserLuke Chesser, over 8 years ago

      Out of curiosity, is that 160 GB of paid or torrented music?

      0 points
      • Clay MacTavishClay MacTavish, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        Do you expect an honest answer?

        0 points
        • Adam T.Adam T., over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

          Honest answer- some of it is, some of it isn't. I do try and purchase music as often as I can, services like Bandcamp have made this incredibly easy to do. I probably spend $40 a month or so on albums from Bandcamp. It's certainly more gratifying to do this, and I make every effort I can to purchase music when I can. When it's a small-label band / someone I've seen live, I'll almost always buy music through Bandcamp. But, I'm only human, so yes some of it may have been through other avenues :)

          6 points
          • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, over 8 years ago

            Most of my music collection is CDs I have bought in the past, underground hip-hop, and Japanese albums. Most of it purchased (like yours), others...well, you know.

            1 point
    • Phil FreoPhil Freo, over 8 years ago

      I also manage a large music collection but entirely agree with this article. They could (should) split the app up into a Music app (just like in iOS 7) to manage/play music, another app for Podcasts, etc.

      0 points
      • Adam T.Adam T., over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        I think iTunes happiness is directly correlated to the amount of RAM in your computer and whether or not you have an SSD. Honestly I haven't really had problems, hangs, crashes, in the year and a half since I upgraded my 2011 MPB to 16GB and a SSD. But before that, it was surely frustrating to have your library need to randomly rebuild itself once a week.

        That being said, I don't use FLAC and I don't use Android. I also don't buy tracks off iTunes-ever... maybe a few years ago I would have agreed but I run iTunes probably 12 hours a day for weeks on end at work/home with few issues. I guess I'm just part of the ignorant masses on this issue ;)

        0 points
        • Phil FreoPhil Freo, over 8 years ago

          I think the complaints here are not mostly performance related, rather it's an issue of feature bloat, trying to do too many things, lack of focus, and an example of legacy decisions that led to a product that certainly wouldn't look the same way if Apple started over today.

          1 point
    • Cory W.Cory W., over 8 years ago

      I don't know if I'll ever get on board with the streaming thing. I like having files I can share with friends, put on various devices, put into mixes, etc. I can't proclaim I buy all my music, but it's not like Spotify/Rdio/other streaming services are doing much for musicians.

      1 point
  • deleted userdeleted user, over 8 years ago

    You’re funny.

    iTunes is the best thing on mac. Always open. Always doing something.

    Never have failed.

    3 points
  • Roy AbbinkRoy Abbink, over 8 years ago

    Criticizing is easy. Where is the solution?

    2 points
    • Clay MacTavishClay MacTavish, over 8 years ago

      I've pictured one app that handles your Mac apps, iPad and iPhone app updated/purchases, and from within this app iTunes for media (movies, music, books etc). Also from within this app would be control over your device settings. So things are broken up into nice usable pieces in one spot.

      Man, if i wasn't busy with other projects I'd totally do a mockup of what I envision. Then spew it all over DN :)

      0 points
  • Patrick SmithPatrick Smith, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I’m surprised it hasn’t been integrated into the Finder, which I’m sure 9/10 ways could be done terribly in a bastardised Windows way and 1/10 ways could be ok. The Finder isn’t great either in my opinion, too bloated.

    Here is a possible way it could be split up and re-thought:

    • In the Finder sidebar click on your iPhone or iPad to managed its content there, with the same sort of UI iTunes has now for managing what's on a device. It should be ideally cleaned up, it's overloaded now.
    • Separate iTunes Store app like it is done on iOS, like a sister to the Mac App Store. When you download an app from the Mac App Store you don't wonder "why is the file downloaded to be used in this Finder app now?" so hopefully the user experience will be similar to that for songs, TV shows, etc.
    • The Finder sidebar has a 'All My Media' ('iTunes Cloud'?) option, where you can then drill down into music, tv shows, movies, audiobooks, etc. Drag anything from here to an iDevice in the sidebar to copy it. These are just simple lists, app made to enjoy it are built on top, like how iCloud Drive is built into the Finder to only show you stuff but you launch an app to use and edit those files.
    • Separate Music app, the essence of iTunes playing, create playlists, has Yosemite notification center integration for playing, queuing songs, using AirPlay etc. This completely replaces the jukebox functionality that iTunes has. Create music playlists easily, synced to the cloud, transfers to all your iDevices.
    • Separate Videos app, kill the QuickTime app, which was stripped of the legacy usefulness of QuickTime 7 anyway. Optimised experience for only watching video just like on iOS. Download and easily sync to an iDevice, download more video than can be stored on an iPad but easily transfer it across or stream in seconds, for say aeroplane trips.
    1 point
  • Ian GoodeIan Goode, over 8 years ago

    iTunes has become the Apple equivalent of Adobe Bridge for me. Whenever it's opened it's an accident followed by a curse word.

    1 point
    • Ernest Ojeh, over 8 years ago

      What music player do you use?

      0 points
      • Ian GoodeIan Goode, over 8 years ago

        Used to use Rdio, now use Spotify. If I need to play something from my own collection that's not on Spotify I just open it in VLC (looking at you 'In Rainbows'...)

        0 points
  • Darth BaneDarth Bane, over 8 years ago

    iTunes wasn't designed from a user perspective, it was designed from a marketing perspective. It's Apple's biggest (?) source of revenue, and is designed to reflect that. Long-term conversion trumps ease-of-use in this case.

    1 point
    • Luke ChesserLuke Chesser, over 8 years ago

      Biggest service-based revenue stream you're right. Although the App Store is due to surpass it soon.

      1 point
      • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        It's Apple's biggest (?) source of revenue

        iTunes provides portions of Music Rev and Software Rev (keep in mind that most iOS apps are purchased on the device, and lots of music is as well).

        iTunes isn’t Apple’s biggest source of revenue.

        2 points
  • Tyler DeitzTyler Deitz, over 8 years ago

    I've found that managing music with organized directories + vox music player is the simplest solution for me.

    1 point
  • Leury Hidalgo, over 8 years ago

    I used to be an iTunes evangelist.....until I tried the Spotify Web App. Goodbye iTunes. Too much of a hassle to wrestle down music along with tons of other stuff to manage in life.

    0 points
  • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, over 8 years ago

    I've never had an issue on iTunes and I started using it for PC years ago. Was using foobar2000 before that. I really dislike using iTunes to extract music from CDs though, all the extra ID3 tags they add to tracks gets on my nerves. mp3tag has always been the app I used before importing new music into iTunes. This workflow never bothered me.

    Now that I have a Mac (supplied by my work), I'm just irritated that I cannot use mp3tag. I haven't seen a worthy Mac app for editing ID3 tags.

    0 points
  • Jonathan LevyJonathan Levy, over 8 years ago

    Can't say no to that.

    0 points
  • Prabhu SPrabhu S, over 8 years ago

    They've already started reinventing iPhoto into something similar to the photos app on the iPhone so i guess its only a matter of time before they simplify their other iProducts.

    0 points
  • Ernest Ojeh, over 8 years ago

    So.. Is anyone gonna take up the challenge?

    0 points
    • wojtek w.wojtek w., over 8 years ago

      Just wait and see when first "redesigns" start popping up on Dribbble that look pretty much the same.

      2 points