6 Things I Would Change in the iTunes Store
I like the iTunes Music store, but I have always found some things extremely annoying with it. I spend some of my music money there and would spend a much larger percentage at iTMS if some of these were resolved. Some of these issues are about getting more “value” from my $0.99, some are about usability and some are just to make it easier for me to be a repeat customer. As things stand right now, I have to know exactly what I want to buy before I visit iTunes and then get all of my information about the artists and songs from other sources.
Wish Lists
All online shopping sites have wish lists. They are extremely helpful in keeping track of things that you want to buy in the future when you are able to or when someone asks you what you want for Christmas. iTunes sorely lacks the ability to mark songs/videos for future purchase.
Browser-like Features
If not a wish list, could we have the ability to bookmark pages? I know you can bookmark iTunes URLs in your favorite browser, but it would be nice to have it within iTunes. And while I’m asking for browser-like functions, could we have tabs? Sometimes I find multiple albums I like and there is a limit to how many times I can hit the back button before I grow tired and give up. A site that sells stuff should not like a tired customer and especially not ones that give up. The store has recently added some user-specific suggestions, but more user customizability so that I can see more of what I’m looking for (music) and less of what I am not (audiobooks) in the limited iTunes real estate.
Better Search Results
Apple needs to realise there is more to a song that its artist, album, composer and title. There are many other things I would like to search on, especially since a lot of data already exists in the files. The data is there- we should have the ability to search all pre-1995 Metallica or post-Yoko Beatles. Anything information that the file contains should be searchable- if this makes it complex for the average user, have these features available only through the Power Search.
Browsing and Navigation
Which brings me to managing the iTunes real estate through better usability. First of all, a song can have multiple artists, but iTunes does not know this. It treats “Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds” as a separate artist from “Gene Kelly”, resulting in no “Singin’ in the Rain” songs showing up under Gene Kelly.
Also, iTunes does not understand the concept of Composers. In many genres of music- classical, soundtracks- the Composer is a more important attribute of a song than the artist. The ability to browse by composer should be obvious- I want to find Beethoven’s symphonies under Beethoven, not under “London Symphony Orchestra”. Also, I am used to flipping through album art at the music store- they have added the ability to flip through movie posters in the movie store, and this should be an obvious addition to the music store.
Finally, we should have the ability to browse by any attribute of the song, or by multiple attributes- that is, composer A within Artist B. I want Gershwin songs sung by Fred Astaire before 1955, but I can’t find them on iTunes even though the information is there.
Album information
Which brings me to Album information. When I buy an album at the store, the release date on a 1941 Jazz CD does not say 1999 just because that is when it was last re-issued. There is a lot more information there and I want it. Make use of the “Comments” field of the tag, provide a small pdf or something but there is a lot of information that comes with music that is being lost.
Also, Artist is a broad term- album liner notes usually tell me who was playing bass, who was on the drums and who produced the track. No such luck with digital tracks. My point is, there is a lot of information in a physical CD/record album that is not showing up on digital tracks and there is a lot of information on digital tracks that is unsearchable through iTunes. Also, while I’m at it, could we have lyrics?
Format
Finally, I come to the feature I want the most but expect the least- lossless, DRM-free formats. Enough has been said about why I would want those two things, so I will not repeat it all. All I will say is that no one ever told me which CD player I could play my CDs on.
Note: If I got any of these wrong, and some of these features actually do exist, let me know in the comments!
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I am with you on lossless. I would actually consider buying from the iTMS then, despite the DRM. You are also very right on navigation, it could be better. As an addition, I would like to see demo track *not* stopping whenever you navigate elsewhere. At this point it is “see all reviews” - track stops, “back” - track stops…
Good post.
As for a wish list, just use a shopping cart instead of 1-click buying. I have my shopping cart loaded with stuff I’ve found that I intend to buy at a later date. You don’t have to buy the entire cart at once.
Other than that, excellent points, and ones which I struggle with frequently. I hate having to go to Amazon to find out the original release date of the album, not the release date of the CD.
Agree with all your points. I’m surprised Apple haven’t put more thought into the features of the iTMS. Online shopping site conventions lead us to expect certain features (power search, wishlists, etc) and that they work in similar ways.
Regarding wishlists, however, you can do this locally by simply creating a playlist for your wishlist items within iTunes. This method works well enough but it limits the ability to share your wishlist with anyone beyond those on your network that you share your iTunes library with. I guess you could submit it as a suitably titled mix, but that’s a rather clumsy solution the problem. Conventional wishlist functionality would be a far better solution.
Two things.
Wish Lists:
1. Create a new playlist called Wish List.
2. In the iTunes Store drag songs you would like to purchase (or think about purchasing) to the Wish List playlist.
DRM Format
If you don’t like DRM, then buy CDs. But consider this. Before you bought music on CDs you bought music on tapes. You can’t play the tape on a CD player and you can’t play a CD on a Walkman.
Before you bought DVDs you bought videos on VHS. If you buy a movie on HD-DVD tomorrow, it’s not going to work on your Blue-Ray Player.
When you buy Microsoft Office, it only works on a few operating systems. Those still using Office ‘98 are left out in the cold when we switch to Mac OS X and/or Vista.
Bottom Line…this is a systemic problem only being understood and wrestled with thanks to the original p2p filesharing sites.
DRM Format
If you don’t like DRM, then buy CDs. But consider this. Before you bought music on CDs you bought music on tapes. You can’t play the tape on a CD player and you can’t play a CD on a Walkman.
Why do people keep on insisting that DRM is a format? There is a big difference between incompatible formats and a purely arbitrary restriction on an otherwise perfectly compatible music file.
Imagine then that you buy a DVD and it is automatically digitally tied to your DVD player and can be played nowhere else. That’s DRM. It already exists with region encoding and the studios would implement it on every DVD player if they could, with people like you helpfully defending those restrictions. Thanks a million.
It treats “Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds” as a separate artist from “Gene Kelly”, resulting in no “Singin’ in the Rain” songs showing up under Gene Kelly.
I’ve been thinking this exact same thing with iTunes in general. It’s frustrating to me that duets/collaborations are treated as separate artists from single names. It seems to me that there needs to be a way to enter multiple artists for sorting purposes.
I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Well said Beeblebrox (on the DRM.. and the artists thing, for that matter), the only legitimate reason to defend DRM is if you make money off it.
To quote Cory Doctorow, no one woke up this morning wishing they could do *less* with their music. But I don’t want to get in to the DRM thing in this article and that’s why I kept that point brief.
#3) Helen, you beat me to that tip!
I still need to purchase “We Built This City” by Starship. so I can put it on my Shuffle http://tinyurl.com/koqex
I’ve never really liked iTunes as a music library manager. It might be due to the limitations of the current music tagging schemes… I don’t know. It has all the limitations you’ve mentioned, plus a complete lack of cutomization/tweaking abilities.
I’ve been using Songbird (http://songbirdnest.com/) for a few weeks now, and I think it’s just grand. I haven’t touched iTunes since.
Couldn’t agree with you more about the liner notes and additional content we miss out on with a download from iTMS. Is that John Lee Hooker guesting on guitar on track 6? We’ll never know with a iTMS purchase.
And while we’re ragging on iTMS, wasn’t Apples philosophy supposed to be $9.99 albums. Period. Many of the single CD’s I’ve shopped for lately have been $12 to $13. Ryan Adams “Gold” is $11.88 on iTMS and $13.99 new in my local record store. I’m only spending $2 more for the CD and I’ve got a quality recording with lyrics, a booklet, and more importantly, a physical item that actually has value after the purchase. iTMS downloads sound like crap and have a value of ZERO after the purchase. $9.99 was OK for a quick fix for some new music, but $12 to $13 is getting ridiculous.
And one more complaint…why are there like 6 copies of the same CD for thousands of titles? What would it take to remove all the duplicates. David Bowie’s “Outside” is listed 3 times on 1 page - twice as “Outside” and once as “Outside - Bonus Tracks”. All have the same 20 tracks and the same description and all are the same price ($13.99). If they’re all exactly the same why do they have to list it 3 times with 2 different titles? Maybe one of the reasons searching sucks on iTMS is because the database is so cluttered with millions of useless, confusing duplicate tracks.
I’m off to Amazon to get Outside for $11.99 (it’s the 19 track version, but I think I’ll get by)
What record label, what artist, is ever going to agree to sell its music without DRM? Curse DRM all you want, but it’s clear that people have no hesitation to share their non-DRM’d music with anyone they want, so we got DRM. If you don’t want DRM, buy CDs. Online music of any significance will always have DRM on it. Cory lives in a dream world. Bark all you want, but there’s no chance in heaven or hell that there will be no restrictions on music you get online. That said, Apple Lossless with DRM would be a dramatic improvement over what we have now. If another bigger contender can come along with better DRM which works with more devices, higher sound quality, lets you burn to more CDs, etc, then the iTunes Store will have some competition. Push for something better, not something that will never happen.
I’d like to search and browse by record label. Especially indie ones, where I tend to like most or all the bands on a particular label (like, Polyvinyl, for instance).
What record label, what artist, is ever going to agree to sell its music without DRM?
Emusic is the 2nd largest digital music retailer in the world with thousands of labels and artists and NO DRM.
We push for something better because if enough people demand it, the system will change.
I’ll admit it’s not easy. We’re apparently up against quite a few people like you who are too content to sit back and take it up the tailpipe.
Curse DRM all you want, but it’s clear that people have no hesitation to share their non-DRM’d music with anyone they want, so we got DRM.
I forgot to mention this but it’s important. DRM has NOTHING to do with piracy. No-thing. Nada. Zip. The RIAA justifications are what we in the biz call a “lie.”
First of all, DRM does almost nothing to prevent piracy. It’s ONLY a hassle for people who buy music legitimately and want to make backup copies or share music across multiple devices. Or, in the case of DVDs, buy a movie directly from Europe or India and play it in a player in Japan or America.
DRM serves just one function, and that is to control exactly what you are allowed to do with the media you purchase. They can track you, turn the rights on and off, keep you from reselling your music, etc. Like I said, if they could force you to buy a CD or DVD for every player you own, they would.
Look at the region encoding DRM on DVDs as a perfect example. What does it have to do with piracy? Nothing. It is expressly designed to control release dates and prevent selling of DVDs across multiple markets. Period.
People who ask me to give up on my ideals because they are impossible should get a better historical perspective. Anything worthwhile that has ever happened was not the result of someone thinking: “Ooh, this is easy to do!”
And Cory doesn’t live in a dream world- he just works hard so that he (and we) can.