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Apple Planning Major Overhaul of iTunes to Emphasize iCloud and Sharing

Wednesday June 27, 2012 6:33 pm PDT by Eric Slivka
Bloomberg reports that Apple is preparing a major overhaul of its iTunes software to more closely integrate its iCloud services and add new features for sharing music.
With an increasing amount of content available on the store, the overhaul is intended to improve how people manage all their files, one person said. That includes changes to how users find new material and how they access what they already own on different Apple devices, said one person.

One of the main ways Apple will attempt to improve discovery is by making it easier for people to share songs, a popular feature of Spotify Ltd.’s music-subscription service. Apple has been negotiating with major record labels for rights that would let a user listen to a song sent to them from a friend for free, one person said.
Apple's iCloud efforts will improve organization of users' own content while also the company is also considering splitting out some functions of iTunes as it did yesterday on iOS with its new Podcasts app.

Apple is also looking to include more multimedia content in the iTunes Store, requesting more photos and music videos from artists to help broaden its offerings.

The revamped iTunes application is set to launch before the end of the year and is said to be one of the largest sets of changes since the iTunes Store's debut in 2003. As announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, Apple is also working to improve the iTunes experience on iOS, revamping its digital store apps in iOS 6 to aid users in discovering new content.

[ 191 comments ]


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PlaceofDis
92 months ago
for the love of all things i hope they do split it up finally. i don't know why i am managing books in a music app or my mobile applications in a music app. and ffs make an OS X iBooks app so we can read our books on our Macs too. no reason not to since the displays are being retnified there too.
Rating: 22 Votes
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DTphonehome
92 months ago
About time. iTunes was overdue for an overhaul a long time ago. It's a bloated mess at this point.
Rating: 22 Votes
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rorschach
92 months ago
LONG, LONG overdue.

Hopefully we will finally get better ways to organize content. I mean, jeez, we're still forced to tag movies using "Artist" and "Album" fields. :rolleyes:

Rating: 17 Votes
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LagunaSol
92 months ago
Good. Dump that ugly icon while you're at it.
Rating: 16 Votes
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AustinIllini
92 months ago
With the increasing popularity of streaming services like Spotify, this update is LONG overdue.
Rating: 14 Votes
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dsuriano
92 months ago

The revamped iTunes application is set to launch before the end of the year and is said to be one of the largest sets of changes since the software's debut in 2003

iTunes 1.0 was released on January 9, 2001
Rating: 12 Votes
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AxeluteZero
92 months ago
About time...

I've been dying for a new iTunes forever. It's a big, bloated program. :\
Rating: 11 Votes
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guzhogi
92 months ago

Sounds like iOS. Hopefully they don't force five apps on us.


it's also become one of the most bloaty.


If it stays a single app, how can it become less bloaty?
Rating: 10 Votes
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Jason S.
92 months ago

I wonder if we're finally getting a Cocoa re-write of iTunes.


iTunes became a Cocoa app for OS X Lion last year: https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/apple-releases-itunes-10-4-as-64-bit-cocoa-app-for-lion/
Rating: 8 Votes
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Earendil
92 months ago

You're not alone at all. Apple needs to tone down the rhetoric about how people don't want a subscription service, that they want to "own" music.


While we're making request, could all you subscription junkies tone down the speaking for others? Why must all these discussions be a zero sum game? Can't we have both, and that be okay?

There's really no point in owning digital music


There is for me. I rent things I throw away, or can't take with me. I buy things I have a continued use for, and want to do with as I please. There was an argument in the past that renting all your LPs might have made sense, because incompatible formats were coming and going by the decade. There is little argument for that now, as the "format" is transferable and flexible. Heck, it's already been in existence for over two decades!

But to each their own. If that makes financial sense to you and your use, fine. I have my own desires and expectations for my music, and spotify doesn't cover it. Digital non-DMR files do.
Rating: 7 Votes

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