Maybe they’re too focused on the iPhone, but iTunes needs a real update that covers both form and function. Amazing that with all the developments and updates iGod does with the OS and hardware as well as favorite toys iPod and iPhone, the iTunes interface has essentially remained the same for years. (They’ve obviously focused on refining the shopping process for the Apple Store though. Wouldn’t wanna blow that. *snark cranked to 11*)Apple purists/snobs/whatever will say you don’t need to fix what ain’t broke because, well, it’s as refined as it can be. I’m one of those purists/snobs and I’m saying hold up—in this case, that’s just not true anymore because I think they got complacent. It’s apparent when you go through any of the tutorials at Apple.com that they think they’ve just nailed the perfect music organization experience. Maybe, but iTunes feels sterile, and music is anything but.
Simple is one thing, outdated is another. Here are five things in no order that bug me the most about iTunes:
1) No integration with outside streaming music sites. iLike, Blip, Last and the rest may model their communities around the idea of the iTunes playlist, and each may be pushing for iPhone compatibility, but there’s currently no way to link all the sites a person listens to with iTunes. I also love a lot of what I find in their streaming radio section, but that experience is buried. I’d love to see it played up more at launch and in the iTunes store. Even the online streaming stations like radioparadise.com. Worse, most of these sites all drive traffic back to iTunes to purchase and they don}t seem to be getting the same love back.
Apple is showing the same
2) Outdated functions. First, off, iTunes loads way too slowly, either when it first launches or switching between things like the music library and the iTunes store. Second, if you have a ton of stuff in your library, you know what a chore it is to have to scroll for miles to get through all the playlists. Shouldn’t be this way. Add an alphabetical nav to get around faster. Last is the search feature. Weak. Doesn't find simple things like the playlists I create. If the Mac’s Finder can do a global search, so should iTunes.
3) Adding/deleting/synching iPod songs is painful. IRS forms are easier to figure out. You have to be careful NOT to erase the music you already have on your iPod when you go to synch it up. Want to update a podcast from the library directly? Not so fast stud. Being able to drag and drop something directly where you want is the hallmark of the Mac OS, but not when you go to synch-up existing podcast subscriptions1 .
4) Dead. Gray. Interface. All white is all right as far as Apple goes, but Microsoft battleship cubicle gray has got ta go. How about an option to skin the interface any way you want? Almost any social net now has even basic features that surpass iTunes in terms of customability—new word, Wiki that shit younginz—but you can’t even change the background color in it. I take that back. They have a small window to display iPod artwork in the lower left and the Visualizer. *yawn* (You may not prefer iLike, but at least its look is a lot more colorful and interesting.)
5) The iTunes store. Talk about an interface that needs work. Feels like the crowded window of a Barnes & Noble with 500 different new releases that they want you to buy. There’s nothing special that sticks out in all the steel gray blueness. (Again, regarding No. 4 above, Apple.com with its open whiteness is much cleaner by comparison.) As for their reviews, I don’t like the idea of being given a set list of Top things to check out based on, well, they don’t say. Which leads me to...
**BONUS RANT**
6) No iTunes community. It’s astonishing that a brand like Apple that revolutionized how individuals experience music, has done nothing to foster a broader sense of community in support of the music itself. Instead, they’ve let third-party streaming sites pop up and do it for them. The only “community” there is deals with complaints or troubleshooting, and it’s on Apple.com.
If they can set one up there, why not build a music-only blog or forum in the application as well as in the store. I'm not saying site function needs to be as complicated as Last.fm, but you don’t build a music community based on discussing software releases or newbs asking FAQ about how to burn a CD—you do it by talking about the music.
Got an iTunes peeve? Lemmee hear it.
Tags: Apple, iTunes
5 comments:
What drives me nuts about iTunes is that it automatically stops downloading new podcasts after a seemingly arbitrary number of days if I haven't listened to it. Then I have to manually click on each exclamation mark and ask it to start downloading those podcasts again. I wish there was a setting to tell it to keep downloading until I say otherwise!
The inability to create/modify playlists on the go with my iPod. I know I can use the on-the-go function, but that shit is weak. I hate having to spend time modifying or creating new playlists on my computer to then sync them with my iPod. If there's a song I want to delete from a playlist as I'm listening to it, I can't do it right then and there. I have to wait to do it on my computer.
Great post, by the way.
Some of what you say is true. There should be a forum. Syncing is an issue. etc.
But I'm surprised to hear you say the interface hasn't changed. They implemented the coverflow interface change (which is still available) and everybody cried foul. People wanted the boring grey. They also implemented the genius recommendation bar which does a great job of enhancing listening by both recommending from your own library and the store. And the comments sections for albums functions somewhat as a community of interaction on songs -- at least as well as a comments section on a blog does.
There are clearly areas that need improvement in iTunes, but let's at least give them credit for the changes they have made. Explore the software options a little more. You'll find all kinds of things that they are subtly adding to avoid the uproar they caused with coverflow as a default.
@MM - I feel your pain.
@DO - Rock on.
@Bob, Sorry, not agreeing. ;-p
Overall, Apple has been great at coming up with stuff that is intuitive and conforms to the natural way people do things. They don’t suffer from the same issues a lot of other software does: They don’t force you to learn a proprietary way of doing things the way an Adobe, Facebook, etc. does.
(You could argue the big exception to this was the GUI they rippe... er, borrowed from Xerox. People actually had to learn how to use it who had never touched a computer before.)
But, point is, you love Macs because they “just work” without you having to figure out a lot of steps.
Re: the Genuis rec., that's one of the things I have an issue with because I don’t know who's making those choices for me. I can find that out on a Blip or Last where I'm used to a certain style/band list from my network of followers.
I'm coming at it from a different angle though. I've used iTunes for years in specific ways: Finding new podcasts, streaming music off their radio, synching iPods and digitizing my CD collection, (then burning). And in that context, this interface has not changed at all from what I’ve seen, and I'm on it hourly.
None of the improvements you mention help me do those things I need to do. In many ways, it lags behind other sites in terms of the basic things I mentioned above, (customizing, function, etc.)
The subtle things you seem to like may enhance their utopian view of what a streamlined music experience should be, but they don’t focus on the music.
Those changes though also assume the only way I will interact with iTunes is in the purchase of something? That’s a narrow view on their part. They focused so much on creating their own proprietary way of how to experience music that they’ve overlooked ways to let people personalize it for themselves.
The credit I’ll give them is that they were first in the space when it came to organizing and digitizing your music. But they’ve fallen behind other sites when it comes to other areas.
iTunes needs the life their original iPod commercials had.
Yo, MTLB. You are right. And you may have missed the point.
Did you ever consider that *confusing* interfaces may boost sales?
- If I can find exactly what I want with a clean UI, I'm in, out, maybe make one purchase.
- But if a lousy UI (the current Apple iTunes) makes me wander, I'm more likely to bump into stuff I didn't know I want, click on it, and buy it.
Perhaps the incredibly lousy, confusing UI is Apple's strategy -- similar to putting spaghetti sauce at the end of the grocery-store aisle. You run into things you don't want, and you throw them in the cart ;)
Post a Comment