iTunes 9

I converted to a Mac about a year and a half ago, which basically forced me to convert to iTunes as well.  This was probably the most difficult part of the transition for me.  Then when I replaced my mp3 player, having to buy an iPod so that it would sync with my computer was equally disturbing.  I've made peace with my iPod, though.  There's a lot about it that I like.

iTunes, however, is a little bit different story.  I mean, I like to have a media player so that I can play media, and for me, being the music junkie that I am, I generally mean music.  iTunes has become a bloated program, stuffed with things that don't have any business being in a media player.  Why can't Apple make a different program to sync phone apps and ringtones?  Why can't iTunes function like iPhoto and simply contribute music and media to a phone-syncing program?  And the music store is so overpriced I'm amazed it still makes money.  Add to this that iTunes has been clumbsy from the beginning; the browsing has never been very good.  Even my old MusicMatch software did a better job (I was so sad when Yahoo bought that program and ruined it).  iTunes needs to be stripped down to be what it is supposed to be with a redesigned browsing interface.

That said, I must say that, for the most part,  I'm pleased with the changes in iTunes 9.  I'm convinced Apple is going to continue to bloat the program with stuff that has little or nothing to do with recording and playing media.  But many of the enhancements in iTunes 9 actually help me browse and listen to my music.  Here's some of what I like:

Smart Playlists

 

This is my favorite enhancement, though it is only useful for music junkies like me.  iTunes 8 did a decent job of making smart playlists.  My one complaint, however, has been that when you set criteria you make for your smart playlist, all the filters have to have the same Boolean operator.  Either all had to be "any" or all had to be "all."  There was no way to group or mix them to make complicated playlists.  All that now has changed.  So, I am able now for the first time to make a playlist that contains vocal Jazz music that I've rated with at least 3 stars and either was released prior to 1980 or is a compilation CD.  I've never been able to do that before.

Genius Mix

Apple upgraded the Genius engine so that it does a better job of choosing music that fits together.  They also added a mix feature on the side bar (you have to update Genius in iTunes to see it).  If you click on that, up to 12 mixes will show up.  Click on any of them, and iTunes will choose music that goes together in the genre categories it chooses for you.  This is nice, though I don't understand why you can't customize your Genius mixes to match your tastes. You're stuck with what iTunes thinks you want.  And, you can't sync them on the iPod classic, even the new one.  You would think that would be where people would want it most, since it will hold most people's entire music library.  It will work on the Nano and Touch, though.

Home Sharing

Now anyone in the family can share music if they are logged into iTunes on the same account.  I haven't moved music from my laptop to my desktop in months.  Now I set up home sharing, clicked on my laptop iTunes from my desktop iTunes, displayed all the music that was on my laptop that wasn't on my desktop, and then I just imported all of them into my desktop.  Easy as pie.

Column Browser

I may not end up using this, since I tend to work with smart playlists more, but if you do use the browser, it's improved.  I'm going to be working with it more just to see if it changes my habits.

I don't like everything about it, though.  On my Mac in iTunes 8, the + bubble used to activate the miniplayer.  That is not technically right way OS X is supposed to work--the button is supposed to toggle the zoom feature, though that feature is pretty useless with iTunes.  So, Apple fixed it so that it's consistent with the rest of the OS, but ruined it in terms of its usefulness.  Note: 9.0.1 fixes this.  Download it if you haven't.  They also changed the background color for the grid view--it was a nice, dark grey, and now it's white, and the header that lets you choose between Artist, Album, Genre, etc. defaults to being turned off.  I have to turn it back on in grid view for every playlist I've made.  All in all, however, the new iTunes will improve my music listening experience, and for that I'm grateful.