How about (re)integrating Front Row into iTunes? I'd love to use Front Row as a 10-foot interface to my iTunes music catalog AND be able to stream to my Airport Express devices for whole house audio.

Currently I have to choose one or the other:

I can either use Front Row to pick my music from afar using the remote, but I can't stream to my Airport Express devices...

- or -

I can use iTunes to stream to my Airport Express devices, but I can't use the Front Row interface.

I want the best of both worlds. Pretty please?

f00fighter

screw pandora repeating itself after 45 mins, i'm all about last.fm these days.

leemajors

@XSteveMurphy: There is a third party one

look up 'Pandora Jam' ( I don't know if its Mac only or not, but it works :] )

Jon B.

I've been waiting for them to integrate Pandora into their system... It's about time.

Xavoc

iTunes is great unless it is running on a PC. In that case, it is a bloated, slow resource hog. bleh.

MrBlahBlah

I want different columns of check boxes to set what gets synced to what, or some easy way to set that without having to go through my thousands of songs and putting them into separate playlist sets for each device. When I had my nano, my iPhone, and my shuffle, I used the nano mostly for when I was driving, my iPhone for when I was at the office, and the shuffle for the gym. I want a different set of music on my nano for when I'm driving and might want something harder and faster, but while at the office, I want a more laid back, white-noise, softer collection going at the office, and my shuffle, well have yet a different set. Maybe also another row to specify which ones to play when shuffling the music on the client. Its really not too uncommon now-a-days for people to have more than one device to sync to iTunes, and I think a lot of people would like that functionality.

aquajaws

Where is the wireless syncing for iPhones and the iPod Touch?

Late_Night

It might not be the biggest, but it sure is the best.

Notch Johnson

I've always wondered why Pandora doesn't sell a desktop product that can tie into iTunes and similar products that runs your library through its music genome project and not only lets you choose a song or songs and have your iPod or computer generate a "radio station" from it, as well as offer additional music from the iTunes Store that fit the bill. Always seemed to make a lot of sense.

XSteveMurphy

How about batch editing of non-music fields?

SEJerome

@ALT: Pandora is indeed running short on teh cash. If Apple was to buy them out...

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG :)

Jon B.

Yeah, is this just through MY music? Because I can do that myself, and even though I may not qualify as a 'genius,' I know how to make a playlist. Now, if they actually took Pandora onboard and made it part of the system, I would be jump up and down freaking out.

ALT

yikes that thing is really ugly.. then again, i thought the nano fatty was ugly as well, but have warmed up to it a bit

ae74

I just downloaded iTunes 7! When does this come out? Next Tuesday? That smart music dealy might be cool, especially if its like Pandora's system.

Ike_Skelton

I'm pumped for iTunes 8.

It seems I'm the only one who likes iTunes when it comes to playing my music in the background.

Jon B.

I liked this when it was called Pandora.

Gann

I'd like to see iTunes with some other useful menu options, sort of like the three column sub-menus above the main list like Songbird. Makes typing in to search for everything a bit less necessary.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

And a partridge in a pear tree...

yoshi

1. iTunes needs to have a better way to group songs. I have compilations (soundtracks, etc) that don't group together. If they have the same album art, it should be grouped together as one album!!

Which brings me to my second point:
Put the album art on all the songs in the album and not just the first one! If I play a song on my iPhone and it's not the first in the album (or one that I've specifically attached an image to) the album art doesn't show up. I don't want to have to go through 12+ gigs of songs just to put the album art on all of them.

Maybe I'm just not doing it right but, IMO, WMP > iTunes. :(

highfloydelity

@ALT: Agreed.

iTunes on OSX Leopard - Resource heavy, but very fast

iTunes on M$ Windows - Resource heavy, very slow

My 4GB can handle iTunes along with CS3 easily, but iTunes still shouldnt be so bloated.

Jon B.

@ikelleigh: I couldn't agree more, the Remote App on my iPhone works great for me...but I'd also love the flexibility of have a "jukebox' that can display album art and song info that is big enough for everyone to see.

For example, people that come over for a party could just pickup a remote and select a song from a distance while looking at a large screen, instead of squinting at the iphone screen. Besides...the beverages served at a typical party make guests in attendance prone to dropping things...and I'd rather my iPhone not be one of those things! A $30 remote I can sacrifice...but not a $300 phone!

I belong to a "music club" (think book club, but for new music) and it would be great to listen to a CD while viewing the album art (and hopefully lyrics and extra content in iTunes 8.0) on a 20" monitor that everyone can see.

f00fighter

I've always wondered why they hadn't got into the pandora-like thing before. I wrote a php/mysql site that would show the web of connections between music groups and others like them, it was actually kind of fun to do.

A system like that would be a huge selling tool for iTunes, just like Netflix entices you into a 300+ movie queue, they could show you new bands to get into. Very cool but I will end up ridiculous wads of cash on more music.

med

@Jon B.: I'm w/ you on that. When I was on windows, I hated it because I thought it was bloated compared to Winamp, but now that I use it with all it's features, I really think it's a good setup.

Joseph

@MrBlahBlah: I gotta say, iTunes on a mac is a pretty upsettingly resource heavy program. I sometimes have to listen direct from ipod if I am working on big indesign files and photoshop files concurrently. Not always, but enough to notice the slowdown.

ALT

Sweet its Pandora I have to pay for.....:\

efenili

@f00fighter: There is a way to downgrade Front Row to the older version and you get all that functionality back. Just Google it that's how I found it.

But once the Remote app came out for the iPhone/Touch, I don't even have a need for Front Row anymore. In fact, it seems faster and does everything Front Row used to, and on a smaller device.

ikelleigh

@Jon B.: I'll give it a shot but iTunes doesn't seem to do a very good job with retrieving album art. At least if WMP couldn't find a perfect match they would give you options that were close. iTunes just gives up :(

highfloydelity

@Jon B.: Even your long way can be shortened: just select the album in the browser window, instead of selecting all the tracks individual. When you "Get Info", it will ask you if you want to change info for multiple selections, just click okay or select the checkbox to never show the warning again.

Tim Faulkner

@Jon B.:

and before anything else is said

-You DO NOT need a credit card for an iTunes account, go out and buy a $10 giftcard

-It DOES NOT cost money to retrieve the album art from Apple.

Jon B.

@highfloydelity:

You obviously aren't doing it right. There are two ways

-----------------------LONG WAY-----------------------

-Left Click on first song ONCE

-Hold down the shift key and the down arrow til it highlights the whole album

-Right click ONCE in the highlighted area you just created

-Go to "Get Info" (or something like that)

-Add the art from there

----------------------SHORT WAY-----------------------

1) Log into the iTunes store

2) Go back to your music

3) Right click, 'get album art'. Has yet to fail me once.

Jon B.

@highfloydelity: Maybe it should be in the app, but I don't fault iTunes for strictly conforming to Gracenotes database of music. There are tons of 3rd party tools for Mac and Windows to get artwork. Here's a quick search on Lifehacker for several Windows options: [lifehacker.com]

Tim Faulkner

@ Kaiser Machead on the Edge:
In iTunes, type Command+B, or choose View -> Show Browser and voilà! You have your three-column sub-menus!

Yours Smugly

highfloydelity -
Re your compilation albums. Sadly I don't know of a quick way to address that. On mm Mac, I have to check "Part of a compliation" & change the album artist to "Various Artists".
All of my tributes & soundtracks now sort properly. (though I am tempted to put the tributee in the album artist field so that "Stone Free" appears w/ Hendriks in the library.)

rexplex

I should mention that most of my CD's were ripped using WMP and then imported to iTunes when I got my iPhone.

highfloydelity

those ipods are hideous

UrIt

@Jon B.
@Tim Faulkner
@rexplex
Thanks guys.. I'll take your suggestions and try to fix some of my music tonight.

highfloydelity

@Yours Smugly: I was wondering if Songbird had even more layers of navigation; couldn't imagine "Machead" didn't know the 3-pane browser has been a defining feature of iTunes since launch and that Songbird copied it. Which is it? Am I missing something in Songbird, or does Kaiser's "Machead" title need to be stripped from him?

Tim Faulkner

I've been waiting for something like this Genius thing since my first iPod. Oh I loved Launch (yahoo music) for its recommendations. I got to know so much new music during the time Launch wasn't blocked in my office... In conclusion, I hope the Genius rumor is true.

berbar

i really hope this feature can be implemented into itunes...when you've got thousands of songs it stops making sense to make your own playlists by hand.

socioecoboy

@UrIt: You mean the paper one with a plastic insert made by Kevin Rose or the wire-frame CAD drawings? Or all of them ever produced?

Tim Faulkner

I hope they add the following to iTunes8: (I am using Windows)

-The ability to copy a playlist from an iPod to iTunes (not the songs, just the playlist--I already have the songs on my iTunes--which is why I was puzzled that I couldn't copy a simple playlist)
-If there is an image file in an album's folder, give me an option to choose it as the album artwork for that album
-More advanced tag editing and adding of music to the library
-The ability to set the size of the cover/artist/song that shows up in the bottom left corner of the visualizations--it's TINY!

The visualizations called Magnetosphere BLOWS AWAY the Apple visualizations...

harshmellow

@Jon B.: $10 dollars for art work?

Why is it necessary to even attach myself to the store and require some form of payment (both potential and actual)? No other service requires such a ridiculous process. Apple is basically holding out a worm by doing this, and they are assholes for that.

diabolusunknownTheSecond

@XSteveMurphy: Other than a Pandora Radio add on mentioned above, what you're talking about sounds like LastFM's "scrobbling" system, which asks to catalog your music library and keeps track of your listening habits in iTunes, WMP, or LastFMs own media streaming app(s).

Behavioral data on music listening behavior is the one hope to retrieve this crap music distribution system so that listeners can find artists without a multi-million dollar grooming, advertising, and marketing scheme that bases all of its actions on the fact that it owns the rights to audio recordings long after artists are no longer performing or even alive.

cobaltage

Another thing I'd like to see in iTunes 8: SORT BY THE DEAD LINKS COLUMN.

Every other column can be sorted except the one that is the MOST frustrating to have to work with unsorted. They might as well change the message to, "You have 40 tracks that can't be found. Good luck finding them in your 10,000 song library."

I know there's tools to work around this... but come on, Apple.

XSteveMurphy

it would be nice if itunes would download artwork for albums that they don't sell in the store. for example, AC/DC.

hardisonthefloor

@diabolusunknownTheSecond: What?

I said the artwork was free, but you have to have an iTunes account.

Jon B.

@Jon B.: What if you dont have a credit card, or more correctly, dont want to give your credit card information to anyone? Is it still free?

diabolusunknownTheSecond

@diabolusunknownTheSecond:

People obviously do not read my posts...

To create an iTunes account, you MUST

1) Have a credit/debit card

-OR-

2) Activate an iTunes gift card

Jon B.

@Jon B.: OR

If you pick up a promo code (such as [www.tunecore.com])

Then it will have the same effect as a gift card - not needing to enter credit card details. Another plus is that promo code wll get you a 34 song album.

samhealer42

Anybody try genius? Does not seem to work on imported MP3's - only on ones purchased via the iTunes store.

tmadel