What's missing in iTunes

iTunes is probably the most popular media player today, yet its developers keep ignoring the basics that are still missing and keep – instead – adding new extra functionality that might someday – if it hasn’t already – convert it into a memory clog.

Yesterday, Apple released version 6.0.2.23 of the player. A minor upgrade that fixes a few bugs and adds a new feature to the library: the mini-store browser. Here’s how it looks on an empty library.

PlayBack Functionality

I have no complaints on the way iTunes handles playback; crossfade between songs could be smarter but it’s ok. The one thing that it’s missing is the option to queue songs.

This must be really easy to implement from inside the iTunes if it can be done from outside the program.

User right-clicks a song and the “Queue” submenu is available with “Add To Queue…” as the main functionality. “Move Up”, “Move Down” and “Remove From Queue” are nice-to-haves…

Oh, and a list of the queued songs is also useful as part of the submenu. The “Stop After Current Song” option and the “Follow Cursor” mode are also nifty features in FooBar2000 that iTunes could borrow.

Smart Playlists

Coding a SQL-like functionality for the SmartPlaylists feature must be hard, I know. But adding mixed logical operators per statement is not.

We have right now the “Match All” or the “Match Any”, which serve as a AND and an OR, but these can’t be mixed in a playlist. Why not change the feature so that every statement has a radiobutton for AND or OR functionality?

I know it’s tricky, but not impossible, and certainly easier to implement than making a mini-store that sticks to the library and reads what you’re playing to make recommendations.

Another useful addition would be to the “selected by” elements at the end of a SmartPlaylist, we’re still missing variables like “year”, “track lenght”, “play count”, etc.

Interface

I don’t want to open the info page of a song unless I absolutely have to. So here’s a list of things I’d like to be able to do from the main song list:

• Edit the Year of the song.
• Edit the Track Number
• Delete de Artwork
• View the Lyrics

On the last one, I think there should be a “View Lyrics” and an “Edit Lyrics” functionality per song.

Regarding the Seach functionality, everything is ok except for the fact that the Up and Down arrows are useless when I’m entering text in the search box, and so is the Enter key. Winamp’s search box allows you to navigate thru’ the search results with the Up and Down arrows, and immediately play any of them by hitting the Enter key. As a plus, hitting the Escape key clears the search box and returns to the song list.

Miscellaneous and Out of this Planet.

One last thing I’d like iTunes to do is improve their so-called perfect-match with the iPod. I hate having to wait fingers-crossed everytime I plug the iPod for it to appear in the iTunes main screen; a message saying “Ipod Detected… Connecting, please wait…” would be a lot friendlier.

How about a special option for songs rated 5 or 4 stars, when checked, this song’s rating will expire and – can – decrease depending on the amount of times it gets played, like a rating for hot new songs.

comments [1] | tagged as: Music, Software

2300 days ago, dALE said:

The smart playlist editor has both Year and time. However I agree with you that those Interface items should be reviseable from the list. A ratings system based on play count would be kinda cool. Cause obviously you like that song… I like that idea. From your lips to Job’s ears. W3rd

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