A Short Rant on the Lameness of iTunes
Been meaning to post a link to this little rant I saw about iTunes. The author quite perceptively cites some of the biggest annoyances and usability issues with iTunes (both Mac and Windows versions), such as:
- Sort by *exclamation point*. Duh. I have a mass of broken links I want to delete and iTunes won’t give me a method to select and delete them all in one or two clicks.
- Find original tune for multiple songs. I can double click on a broken link and manually hunt for the tune. How embarrassingly easy would it be to do this en masse- select all broken links and resolve them all automagically.
- Check for dupes on import.
And there’s more where that came from. As much as I like the iTunes/iPod ecosystem, I have to say that iTunes has annoyed me to no end when it comes to music management. For syncing, it’s great. For managing my content, not so much.Remind me to tell you about the time I check a box in the Preferences screens, and “magically” ended up with dupes of EVERY SINGLE MP3 ON MY HARD DRIVE. Nice.
Dear Apple: Why Does iTunes Library Management Suck So Bad?
November 27th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Yup, iTunes’ library management leaves something to be desired some of the time.
But I’m reminded of that old saw that “Capitalism is the worst basis for a society in the entire world… except for all the others.” Or is that “Communism is the worst form of government in the world, except for all the others.”
You take my point, I’m sure: we all have our favorite annoyance and pain points, but half of the stuff that you can do in iTunes you can’t do *at*all* in other music apps. Show Duplicates. Folder structures for containing groups of playlists. A record of all your purchases. Sort Artist fields. I could go on for hours. Odds are good that few of the things being complained about are even doable in parallel apps.
We’re not really bitching that iTunes does a bad job. We’re bitching that they only got 98% of the way to perfect. We need to keep in mind what we’re really complaining about: tiny pockmarks, where other apps have potholes and even sinkholes.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:10 am
Good point, Jim. It’s funny how our expectations (and in my case, my level of snarkiness) rise over time. Five years ago I would’ve been happy just to be able to get Windows Media Player to work. When I switched over to the iTunes ecosystem, I definitely became a bit spoiled. -PS
November 30th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Paul,
What is that checkbox that you mention that dupes all of your songs? I have been having a similar issue and wanted to check whether I had the same box checked.
PS Glad that you had a good time in China. Did you meet any of my co-workers from Lenovo?