# iTunes 5 features



## jackdahi (Apr 11, 2004)

Anyone care to guess what new features iTune 5 will bring to the table?

Any feature you wish will make it to a future iTunes release?


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## ziess (Apr 11, 2004)

How about the ability to turn off internet radio just like you can turn off the music store?
If that could be hidden from the source column that would be great because as it is, it's very annoying to have to click the dialog box telling you that you're not on the internet when you're offline. It's the bane of my iTunes existence! Grrr!


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## Captain Code (Apr 11, 2004)

Ability to share your songs over the network without having iTunes open all the time.


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## soulseek (Apr 11, 2004)

Captain Code said:
			
		

> Ability to share your songs over the network without having iTunes open all the time.



allready there, turn on personal file sharing, go to someone elses music folder in Home, and get all his music without havin iTunes open.

the good with iTunes sharing is that u can also select which playlists to share; it just makes things easier.

and anyways, How would ur proposal be a NEW feature to iTunes 5, if ud want it closed ?


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## mindbend (Apr 11, 2004)

iTunes really needs a subscription-based, radio-style option. If only to compete with the other options. 

I originally poo-pooed the Napster/M$ (and others) subscription model, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. especially if Apple did it right, the way they did ITMS to begin with.

For example, let's pretend Apple added a subscription/radio option for $15-$25 per month. Ideally I could choose a "station", kind of like iTunes has now for the radio section, but much more niche and much more customizable for a given user. If I could choose "80's Industrial" for an hour and then pop over to "70's folk music" for another hour, that would be cool. 

But it need to go even farther by having stuff like "If you liked that song, you should check out this one...". And you should be able to rate songs as you hear them if you wish, or otherwise mark them for later consideration. And you should have the immediate option to buy the song/album as you stumble upon it via the "radio play" approach. What a great cross-sell approach. Apple gets a steady stream of subscription fees, plus people might be more inclined to purchase-to-own as they hear things on the spot. I know I would.

Where it might fall apart is the iPod thing. I'm not a big fan of expiring music. Maybe others are fine with it.

Also, I hear more and more people grumbling over the issue of the fact that the 99 cent per song and $10 per album isn't exactly true across the board. Especially the PC people seem to complain about this. I can't say I blame them. I try to remind them it was never about price. It was never about quality. ITMS is about convenience.


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## Captain Code (Apr 11, 2004)

soulseek said:
			
		

> allready there, turn on personal file sharing, go to someone elses music folder in Home, and get all his music without havin iTunes open.
> 
> the good with iTunes sharing is that u can also select which playlists to share; it just makes things easier.
> 
> and anyways, How would ur proposal be a NEW feature to iTunes 5, if ud want it closed ?




That's not a good option IMO because it's not as easy as having the playlist show up in iTunes.  It'd be good to have a person's shared playlist show up regardless of whether iTunes is open or not.  This would have to be a separate background program running, but that's better than having iTunes open all the time.  

It'd be a new feature of iTunes because you are sharing your iTunes playlists.


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## chevy (Apr 11, 2004)

It would be good to be able to choose who can access my playlist.

It would be good to access a database of CD artwork at the same time one loads the CD track name when ripping a CD.

It would be good to have the video equivalent to iTunes (with a TeraByte hard disk, of course).


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## fryke (Apr 11, 2004)

You can turn iTunes into a background application by hiding it. ;-) You don't have to always show it in the front, you know? ;-) ... Yeah, I know what you mean, but it really isn't needed that much. And afaik iTunes 4 doesn't use that many cycles in the background, anyway.


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## Urbansory (Apr 11, 2004)

Smart file relinking... say if i selcet one to relink, it sees others, and .... they're done.

Next song fade in, when you click next, instead of a sudden jump to the next track, it fades in, obviously that would be optional.

A DJ setup, where i can cue another song while another plays, via a headphone sampler USB device or something, would make iTunes great for that wanna be DJ.

Menu bar support, I use an older FREE version of M-Beat that i skinned, looks good, but not enough features.

A way to remove duplicate tracks, and not have tracks i click to open that are not in any of my playlist be included in my Library. I have a lot of songs in my library that either is a duplicate, or some other track, wasting space and giving me incorrect file count.

Optimize the play list, go in clean up, fresh new file, which will be smaller is size.

Less CPU usage

I guess thats all for now.


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## Ricky (Apr 12, 2004)

I want it to eat much less CPU time and to finally abolish that hideous gap between tracks issue that has plagued the program for so long.

Now that I've said it, I've jinxed it from ever happening.


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## senne (Apr 12, 2004)

i want album rating.


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## tk4two1 (Apr 12, 2004)

I would love sound check to be able to adjust volume by album instead of by song.
Also I want to be able to turn off albums like you can with songs by unchecking them.


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## Giaguara (Apr 12, 2004)

Urbansory said:
			
		

> A DJ setup, where i can cue another song while another plays, via a headphone sampler USB device or something, would make iTunes great for that wanna be DJ.
> 
> A way to remove duplicate tracks, and not have tracks i click to open that are not in any of my playlist be included in my Library. I have a lot of songs in my library that either is a duplicate, or some other track, wasting space and giving me incorrect file count.



I see djs using other applications .. just like they use (and used) differnt turtables than 99 % of the people, or differnt cd players than the majority of people, it would not have to be that their needs for the itunes are the same as the standard population. 

Maybe an iTunes Pro. With faders, .. a lot of other options .. ot just _an other_ application. DJing, I would not probably be satisfied even with a few extra features..  I'd want a bunch of them, and I doubt if an application had all those it would be called iTunes any more. The DJ program has a different market - and the program can cost (a lot more than a non-dj user is willing to pay) if it is really good.

Removing dupliicates.. done that. Manually. Pain in the apple. I removed everything that was duplicated (I tried some scripts that would have done that too  but were dumb) and as well trashed all the music that I don't like any more, reducing the size from 30 GB to 20 GB .. I think I still would not want that automated. _maybe_ an option GUESS the duplicates (by hte eay they sound) .. of all collection? If there is a Artist 1 - Track 1 - Album 1 and that is identical to an artist, track and album with a real name, the old fashioned figuring it is a duplicated does not work.


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## Urbansory (Apr 12, 2004)

the DJ feature would make a nice plug-in.


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## Decado (Apr 12, 2004)

i would like to be able to rate with half stars instead of just whole. that would make for more interesting, and exact, ratings.


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## gollum84 (Apr 12, 2004)

Have better visual effects at a higher resolution, be able to share music with OS 9 computers and have the ability to remove music from your iPod without deleting music from your iTunes library.


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## Quicksilver (Apr 12, 2004)

chevy said:
			
		

> It would be good to be able to choose who can access my playlist.
> 
> It would be good to access a database of CD artwork at the same time one loads the CD track name when ripping a CD.
> 
> It would be good to have the video equivalent to iTunes (with a TeraByte hard disk, of course).




I would also like to see somthing like that. Imagin, while ripping one of your cds iTunes locates the appropriate artwork and video clip to play later. Then say you have a party and all you do is insert your iPod into its dock which is some how linked to your tv/projector and you have all your favourite songs on random playing all your video clips.


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## jackdahi (Apr 13, 2004)

I would love to see a DJ style plugin for iTunes, I think that sounds great. Of course it would have to be a high quality software plugin (There are a few great candidates out there but few are solid performers).

I dont think that paid radio service is a great idea. Radio should always remain free. Imagine that radio stations were to adopt a pay to listen model. They will quickly loose a large number of listeners.

There are many great features they can add to iTunes.  The ability to share music with users on the same computer. They can also bring back the share over the internet feature. I have 20,000 songs in my library. Thats almost 100Gigs of music that I would love to access while at work or even when i'm on the road. The reality is that I just cant because a few people decided to ruin this for the rest of us. Im sure Apple can add this feature again simply by forcing a user to authenticate with their ITMS ID. Or some other method!

The album art feature is great but it could be automated just like track names is. The album art should be available automatically on iPhoto in a special Album. And when the album art is needed for other purposes you may search for it there. BPM and lyrics should be included when buying a song from ITMS, although not necessary it would cool though.

There are a few music video libraries on the web (Yahoo, Rolling Stone). It would be nice to make a deal with either and when you buy a single from ITMS there should be a link to the music video. And have an option to play the video as a visualization.

iTunes is a great peice of software that can be improved even further. But the truth is that it does what it needs to. And it does it well.


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## texanpenguin (Apr 14, 2004)

Improved CD-ripping, which is, to me, unusable at present.

And a HUGE "here, here" to the person who suggested auto-removing of duplicates.

When Switching my music from my PC to my new Powerbook, I added some of my songs manually, before remembering the add files option within iTunes. I used it, and it proceeded to leave me with hundreds of duplicate files. I ended up having to delete the whole list and reimport them all - removing all the ratings of the music I had.

It would have been nice if it could have just told me "You're copying duplicate files. Do you want to keep your ratings?" or something...

It infuriated me.


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## jackdahi (Apr 15, 2004)

How about a quick edit function to trim the edges of a file. Yes i know his can already be done, but it would be nice to do it visually through a waveform.


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## MacMuppet (Apr 16, 2004)

Another vote for Duplicate removal over here...


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## ora (Apr 16, 2004)

A Keystroke to go to the library. I've tried with macro programs but can't do it.


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## MacMuppet (Apr 16, 2004)

Also more control over play settings, like being able to set the gap between songs in the library or playlists, rather than just when burning.

also, can anyone tell me why, with two macs running the same version of iTunes, with the same playlists, one can regularly obtain more track details than the other from the CDDB? I regularly load music on my work mac, get track names ok, burn to CD, take CD home, load on mac - "track names are not available for some or all of these tracks.." Nightmare.


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## Satcomer (Apr 16, 2004)

I believe with today's iTMS Europe announcement that iTunes 5 will have Europe iTMS coming out with it this summer/fall.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 16, 2004)

Howabout an MP3Rage-style batch-file-renaming-based-on-ID3-tags feature?


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## HyperLiteG4 (Apr 16, 2004)

How about integrating iTunes into the Finder somehow? I have this great utility called Synergy, and I love it to death...but it would be awesome if the features of Synergy were built into iTunes! That way I don't have the annoying iTunes window open all the time, I could just control it from my menu bar at the top of the screen.

see attached...


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 16, 2004)

Hallelujah, HyperLite... that would rock.  I tried Synergy and loved it but am waiting until it comes out of Alpha to implement it full time.

Apple made the Music Store available in a separate window, why not the controls?  Good idea, man...


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## ora (Apr 16, 2004)

HyperLite (and ElDiablo), have you tried X-Tunes? Its not quite the same, but if anything is a bit quicker for controlling iTunes than using the menubar. It brings up a floating control on a definable keystroke with track info and all the normal controls. If you set the keystroke to apple-/ then you can control it one handed.

Available from here and its free!


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## aaike (Apr 18, 2004)

I'd love the DJ-feature although I am using Tracktor when it comes to real DJ-ing.

Sharing libraries on the same computer would be a must!

Better options for artwork search, lyrics.

Rating tool as in iPhoto (TuneRater a Konfabulator Widget is already very cool).


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## chevy (Apr 18, 2004)

I want a better multi-user integration.

I want to be able to launch iTune in my account even if my daughter has it open on her own account on the same iMac.

I want to have an easy way to share my library that is on my account on my iMac with my daughter's libray that is on the same iMac.


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## Quicksilver (Apr 18, 2004)

The ability to optionally intertgrate your .mac account with itunes 5. things like playlists, ratings, etc. Or mabey even the account setup process. eg once you have .mac your got iTMS access. this would also be good for future customers switching to mac.


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## owaters (Aug 16, 2004)

I would like to see a number of important enhancements in iTunes 5, such as:

- The ability to completely remove gabs between tracks on specific playlists. If you turn off the cross fader in the current version, you still get a small pause which is very very annoying when listening to tracks which are mixed. When listening to a CD of tracks with no gap, it's fine though. I have heard so many people complain about this.

- Introduction of a toolbar control such as Synergy or M-Beat.

- A more economical way of storing album art rather than a Tag within an MP3. It takes up valuable space on my iPod! Maybe the option of having the Artwork tag removed when uploading to an iPod. This would however, increase track transfer time. Apple really should take a look at this.

- A DJ feature would be cool, however not necessary. Would definitely be better as a plug-in as opposed to standard.

- The ability to remove the 'Radio' section like the iTMS.

That's me done for the moment...


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## Pengu (Aug 16, 2004)

You CAN remove the radio secton now. Get the latest itunes.


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## steven_lufc (Aug 17, 2004)

I would like an added info tag for 'Label'. I currently put the record label for each album under the 'Comments' tag.


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## texanpenguin (Aug 17, 2004)

ID tags, in order to be cross-platform and cross-program, and to conform to the mp3 standard, need to use the conventions in place in the ID3-tag standards. If anything, ID3 v3 needs to add this, not iTunes.

I want the ability to store a song's lyrics with the song, and to have a "lyrics" pane in the interface.


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## TheSketch (Aug 17, 2004)

I've admittedly only skimmed this thread so this may have come up, but some way to recommend songs ro auto-generate playlists, sort of á la Amazon's recommendations system.  I suppose I'm thinking of a tighter integration with the music store.  I could see getting a streamed radio station based on song lists generated by your purchases in the music store. 

Mind you that probably means Apple ponying up the computing resources for all these people streaming music from their databases.  I could see a subscribtion for this.  Build it into the .mac price.


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## owaters (Aug 17, 2004)

Pengu said:
			
		

> You CAN remove the radio secton now. Get the latest itunes.


Indeed you can! Lol, stupid me!


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