[PCWorld]

Post your comments for 11 Things We Hate About iTunes here

[LDailey]

howdy y'all,
my big bugaboo is the inability to export and then import SMART playlists. if i go to the trouble of making a nifty smart playlist definition, i would REALLY like to be able to ...
- back it up
- share it
- edit and re-import it
take care,
lee

[Nicholas1029]

Actually iTunes has had a taskbar player for a while in Windows. If you right click the taskbar, go to Toolbars, and then click on iTunes (or make sure it's checked). Then whenever you minimize iTunes, it should turn into a miniplayer on the taskbar itself.



Also when iTunes is running, you should see a little iTunes logo in the system tray. If you hold your mouse over it, it should show the song currently playing. Then if you right click it, you can get some controls



So you can cross number 9 off the list.

[tom1946]

I'm on the PC & I hate that iTunes is the only app on my desktop that doesn't recognize or use the scroll wheel on my mouse. It may seem trivial, but it sure would be useful when scrolling through thousands of songs or hundreds of artists or albums.

[chuckchuck]

I originally and still do use iTunes to listen to and purchase music from Apple . . . but I do not have an iPhone or an iPod . . . so why does software for the iPhone & iPod automatically get installed and run on start up and eat resources? Apple should offer a more customizable iTunes where a user can tick on or off if they want support for the iPhone or iPod . . .

[swiftly]

I would like to add something i dont like about the itunes (store). I am from the Netherlands, so I am using the Dutch store. What annoys me is the price differance with the US store. Would a song in the US store cost $0,99, in the Dutch store the same song cost €0,99. Which means about 55% more expensive (1euro=1,55dollar).

[BrotherJ]

I've had this gripe since iTunes 1st hit the scene and can't believe no one else does:
Start playing an album (not playlist) in iTunes. Then browse anywhere else in your library (say, for instance, to do some ID3 housekeeping or create a few playlists). Playback will stop immediately after the currently playing song finishes. This requires you to go back to the album, find the next track and continue playback...only to have to do it again and again and again.

[bignumone]

I think iTunes is due for a major overhaul. The look is getting old and it is getting crowded.
This is like Microsoft who built all the windows programs based on Win 95, with mostly the same base. After 10 years, it is probably best to keep the concept but change the application.
I know it is risky, but there are so many times I have though "Boy, they could do THAT a lot better" when doing things on iTunes.
Still, what other software is there out there that compares? THAT would be a great article! Has someone wrote it already?

[What4]

I mainly listen to audio books that I rip from CDs. Doing this on iTunes is needlessly awkward.
There is no way to change the headings on the columns to say "Author" instead of "Artist" or "Chapter" instead of "Song."

If you don't use the bookmarkable mp4 format (and I don't, because I sometimes fall alseep while listening, and I don't want the book to go all the way to the end every time that happens, but only to the end of the present chapter),you have to create an individual playlist for each chapter or CD, and that can mean 12 - 24 playlists for each book (and why, by the way, do my chapters wind up being called "playlists"?). I'd love to just be able to drag a folder of an audio book that
contains sub-folders of chapters and have the whole thing added to
iTunes in a way I direct. But that does not seem to be possible with iTunes.



I feel that I am working against a pre-set convention to wrestle it into doing what I need it to do, and it refuses to yield control. The iTunes approach does not allow users the flexibility to use the program and the hardware in creative, individual ways -- except for those authorized ways that support the Apple Store. Because it controls and limits users so much, iTunes is the most Windows-like application Apple has ever produced.

iTunes may be best understood as a marketing tool for selling songs through the Apple Store. It will be interesting to see whether Apple changes iTunes to make the new educational offerings work in a more reasonable way.

[orbital]

MediaMonkey is a great program, free, or $20 for the full version.

It will monitor any folder for new music you want, and can handle larger collections than ITunes.

It will also sync to your IPOD, or other MP3 device.

[eeejokesno]

Better than iTunes, let's see:
For Windows, we have:
-WinAmp
-Windows Media Player 11
-FooBar 2000 (for the brave)
-Songbird (in Development)
Linux Users have:
-Amarok
-Banshee
-Rhythymbox
-Songbird (in Development)
Mac Users: Sorry, you're stuck in a locked-down "ecosystem" that doesn't allow for the development of third party apps that interfere in any way with a proprietary Apple app. Luckily, you can always dual-boot a real OS, such as Ubuntu or Windows XP

[crazy4laptops]

I've been resistant to itunes b/c it keeps many processes running even after it's closed. Plus it has reached bloated status.

Quicktime is really annoying because i can't disable it from starting up in the system tray. And with all of it's security issues, i've moved to VLC.

[Wokeupsleeping]

I have an 80gb iPod and well over 80gb of music. It drives me nuts that iTunes does not have the ability to tell me how much music is going to sync and wheterh or not it is going to fit on my iPod. It will either sync (with space remaining) or give me an error telling me I have more music checked than I have space available. Every time I add new albums, I have to guess at how much music I have unchecked for it to sync sucesfully. I HATE THAT!

[damon5334]

@eeejokesno
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "you're stuck in a locked-down "ecosystem" that doesn't allow for the development of third party apps that interfere in any way with a proprietary Apple app"
There's not as many different MP3 players on the Mac because most Mac users don't have a problem with using iTunes, if there is something that iTunes doesn't do, they just create an add-on that fills the gap.
As far as MP3 players on the Mac:
Music Man
Cheap MP3 Player
are two that I found without much searching.

[ReclaimerCube]

Why doesn't PC World do a story on Winamp?
You can sync your iPod using it.

[HarveyDanger]

Here's a solution:

Don't use iTunes!

There's plenty of programs out there to convert your music. Try looking for JHymn (free; I believe the original website is now defunct). There's also a program called Tunebite (it'll cost you, but it offers more flexibility in conversion), although you may need a male/male stereo cable in order to use it, depending on your set-up.

Really, either stop complaining, or "man up" and get to converting your music already.

[distoor]

I will never use an Apple product again. When I use Quick Time it insists upon becoming a program that loads automatically when booting my PC. No matter how often I disable it, one use and it's back. Apple pissed me by insisting their crappy media player start automatically.

[blackcross]

I want to be able to click on a few songs and burn them to a CD not have to create a playlist and burn the playlist, then delete the playlist.

[AJGrossman]

While I don't want to come across as an Apple fanboy, I do have to correct the DRM point made about iTunes. Apple wants to offer all of the iTunes music DRM free, not just EMI. But, the other record labels are purposely not allowing their music to be non-DRM on iTunes while they work to build up competitors like Amazon so that they will no longer be beholden to Apple for selling their music in digital form.

[cpalanzo]

There is a free site to backup just Playlists so you can protect and restore your custom playlists only.... www.playlistvault.com.

It's pretty basic but seems to work.