Rethinking iTunes

[Zeus 7997]

For all of us music lovers stuck with iTunes for better or for worse, one man asks a very interesting question.
 

Apple’s iTunes desktop app is notorious for trying to be everything to everyone, all the time: music, books, apps, videos purchasing, syncing, and a lot more. Would iTunes be a better product if it were split up into smaller, focused, single-purpose apps?

http://interface.fh-potsdam.de/itunes/

What do you think?

[doombox 4421]

It's hard for me to say because I use it almost exclusively for music and basically ignore everything else. So it wouldn't really bother me either way. For the handful of movie and TV show content I have bought through iTunes/keep in iTunes it works well enough that I would have never considered splitting it up, but it's probably due to the fact that my use in that area is so limited.

[Mihenno 4194]

As long as the new single-purpose apps work flawlessly, than I wouldn't mind the idea of splitting everything up. I can't see this being a thing though because I feel that a majority of people like that "all-in-one" functionality in an app.

[Furik 832]

Since iTunes is a one-stop media giant for pretty much everything, I feel they should rename it or brand it differently. 

In the similar sense of Google's Android Market becoming Google Play to concentrate on other medium like music movies, magazines, books, etc. instead of just Android apps and games.

 

iTunes has had music, movies and books for quite some time but the terms "iTunes" doesn't fit a lot of the medium. They released Apple Music is a one stop music service with a subscription (ie. Spotify). It also connects with your iTunes library.

 

If they called it like the "Apple Shop" or "Apple Store" it'd be suiting since iTunes isn't all about music anymore.

 

Another thing to note is that they've been using the "i" in their products since 1998. Now we have iPods, iPads, iTunes, iMacs, etc. that have come and gone. Not to mention since the discontinuation of the classic iPod in 2014 and the introduction of the Apple Watch (note this is a huge product and it's not called an iWatch as people were expecting) earlier this year, they have stated they want to phase out the "i" name in their products over time. 

[emmny 4139]

It's hard for me to say because I use it almost exclusively for music and basically ignore everything else. So it wouldn't really bother me either way. For the handful of movie and TV show content I have bought through iTunes/keep in iTunes it works well enough that I would have never considered splitting it up, but it's probably due to the fact that my use in that area is so limited.

^^this

[colorful人生 2777]

I would personally love it if they split Itunes into smaller apps!

 

I use Kodi + MPC-HC (w/ madvr, etc.) for my videos/movies, I read books on my tablet, and I already have other software/apps that I can tweak to heart's content to suit my needs.
As someone who doesn't exclusively use the Apple ecosystem, just having MusicFinder would be suitable enough for me.

 

(though I would prefer all the Music "library" apps to act as functions of one piece of software; you don't need to seperate playing albums v. individual songs in a library)

 

One of the qualms I've had about Itunes is the fact that it's always inadvertently presented as a "music" software ( I "tunes"). I've never used Itunes to purchase books or videos, and you have to do a bit of clicking
to get to their respective sections from startup. Separate apps could be really beneficial to individuals/companies/etc. to have their content seen from the get-go. 

 

[JukaForever 758]

Would iTunes be a better product if it were split up into smaller, focused, single-purpose apps?

 

Duh