The iTunes interface is horrible, as horrible is its search engine. As horrible is the Apple Mail search engine and the Apple Finder search engine. They should bring back the great Sherlock search engine of Mac OS 9 or the one of HoudahSpot with the possibility to search non-indexed volumes like EasyFind.
Really high quality audio is a niche at best and wouldn't make a dent.
Just think about how many people still "crank that shit up" on garbage sound systems, way past what their speakers can handle, till it's just a garbled mess of distortion. The regular folk wouldn't care about super high quality audio and frankly 256 AAC is getting to the point where you have to be incredibly picky to complain too much.
SHH. I want iTunes match on my Nexus 5. Besides that, I refuse to buy a single Movie or Show on iTunes till they open up to more platforms. I don't need my movie collection locked to apple only devices in perpetuity thank you very much.
music is overpriced, artists are underpaid, and streaming is the worst culprit yet. streaming licenses are extremely expensive. nobody buys music anymore, so I guess this is the new normal.
Is there a problem here with Apple? iTunes Radio has not appeared in many countries. AppleTV is facing increased competition. The lack of information about progress with improvements to both streaming services and Apple TV is allowing the competition to promote alternatives that look to be taking business away from Apple. I have given up on iTunes Radio appearing in the UK and have tried Spotify instead which has been great. The result is that I have stopped purchasing music from iTunes. If Apple is to keep customers in an increasing competitive market they need to do more to keep them .
I'm a huge Apple fan. But I've shifted all my music consumption from iTunes to Spotify ($10/month). I don't want to own or buy music anymore. I'd be happy to use an equivalent Apple service if it existed.
Is there a problem here with Apple? iTunes Radio has not appeared in many countries. AppleTV is facing increased competition. The lack of information about progress with improvements to both streaming services and Apple TV is allowing the competition to promote alternatives that look to be taking business away from Apple. I have given up on iTunes Radio appearing in the UK and have tried Spotify instead which has been great. The result is that I have stopped purchasing music from iTunes. If Apple is to keep customers in an increasing competitive market they need to do more to keep them .
The only problem right now is HOW FREAKING LONG it's been since they announced anything or updated anything. The last keynote was back in October, which feels like an eternity.
This is a direct consequence of Apple free falling market shares in iphones and ipods. With android having over 80% market share worldwide, that means all those people are buying songs from google or other offering on android.
imo Apple needs to enter the mid-range market with a $300 phone to regain critical mass on its ecosystem. itunes on android will also help, but its better to offer cheaper hardware to keep selling music, apps, movies, ....
One of the stupidest, most ill-informed post I've ever read. Do you have a shred of evidence that "people are buying songs from Google" or "other offerings on Android"? No, because they aren't. iTunes sales still command a huge majority of music downloads, worldwide. There's numbers and stats to prove this. The fact that less people are paying for music has absolutely nothing to do with Android, nor marketshare- Google Music is barely making a blip. It has everything to do with people choosing to stream for free instaead, or use monthly plans- the apps with which this is done being all available on iOS.
So, with less people being willing to pay for stuff, your solution is for Apple to release a dirt-cheap phone, which will attract cheap people, who will.. do what? Buy a ton of music suddenly? A $300 phone is only a big deal in developing countries, etc where things arent subsidized- are THESE the people who are suddenly going to buy a ton of iTunes music? Next time, taking 2 seconds to analyze the situation, instead of the intellectually lazy "free-falling marketshare" line that you were obviously so desperate to spit out. Apple is selling a shitload of phones- pure numbers has nothing to do with it. People with Android phones are not spending $$ on digital downloads on non-Apple stuff, they simply don't spend anything at all. The figures are all available. Your solution that Apple should sell a dramatically cheaper phone in order to get more music downloads is almost obscene in its idiocy.
I'm a huge Apple fan. But I've shifted all my music consumption from iTunes to Spotify ($10/month). I don't want to own or buy music anymore. I'd be happy to use an equivalent Apple service if it existed.
Get it done Apple.
There is and it's either $25/year or free if you're a fan of iTunes Match, which your'e not because you don't want to own any music.
Maybe sound quality could be a differentiator for iTunes. With iTunes Radio streaming at high-quality 320 kbps AAC using a Spotify like on-demand model while providing the option for payed downloads at full CD quality Apple-Lossless and Studio Master quality 24bit 96kHz - 24bit 192kHz Apple-Lossless for audiophiles, like HDtracks, Linn Records etc...
I pay 6 a month for spotify and have virtually all the music I want to listen to without using any precious storage.
I would gladly pay that to Apple for an streaming service that has all the music on demand and not randomized tunes.
Keep in mind that the iTunes Store doesn't work in my country for anything other than apps. So buying content from Apple is out of the question. Still 6 dollars for unlimited music beats 0.99 a song.
"People with Android phones are not spending $$ on digital downloads on non-Apple stuff, they simply don't spend anything at all. The figures are all available. Your solution that Apple should sell a dramatically cheaper phone in order to get more music downloads is almost obscene in its idiocy. "
So all these people that are buying those expensive Samsung phones and tablets that Apple is right now suing Samsung accusing them of stealing their market share and demanding licensing fees of $40 a device are not buying anything from the Google Play store? That is rich.
We know that most Android sales are low-end devices to developing markets that are being used as feature phones or dumb phones. We know that because you guys tell us that over and over and over again.
But a lot of Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note phones and phablets are being sold. In addition, Samsung, ASUS, Amazon and Lenovo sold 64.5 million tablets in 2013. Not far off Apple's 70.5 million. Samsung, ASUS, Amazon and Lenovo do not make the "cheap $50 toys" that DED insists dominates Android sales (in reality according to this list, the "other" manufacturers only sold about 60.6 million tablets, and some of those do include other manufacturers of quality Android tablets like Google Nexus, Toshiba, HP, Acer etc. http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/03/gartner-195m-tablets-sold-in-2013-android-grabs-top-spot-from-ipad-with-62-share/).
So, I am sorry, but that is a huge potential market ... people who were willing/able to shell out at least $200 for a tablet and/or to get at least a midrange phone. Not as big as the IOS market, but still a good sized market. A lot of them do not buy music from the Google Play store, granted, because the Google Play store stinks. (I actually make most of my Google Play purchases through the browser on my PC and just let it download instead of bothering with the Google Play app on Android devices.) Google Play's app is even worse than the Amazon app ... much worse in fact. But they would be much more likely to buy music from an I-Tunes store. Just like Windows users gladly bought music from I-Tunes from their cheap Windows devices, remember?
Get a separate app for Iradio present system is a mess finding it in iTunes
Fix search iTunes still too hRd to find stuff and separate from my iPhone stuff I love apple but gee wiz hire some execs from google search division poaching can help
Make [B]iTunes AND iPhoto work[/B] BETTER with an external HD connected to your router (TC with external) Presently iTunes sucks on external not connected to your Mac Keeps forgetting where my library is hey if more people are using ssd and external to keep an ever expanding library [B]MAKE IT WORK[/B]
24 bit lossless sales and I'd start purchasing more as that's even better than cd quality. I know I'm in the minority but it would at least open up doors for marketing. I read a year or two ago that apple was requesting 24 bit tracks from the studios so maybe this is under consideration.
As far as iTunes, I'm still running running iTunes 10 because 11 seemed awful to me. The box set cover art isn't even centered not mention the elimination of cover flow.
iTunes also hasn't fixed a major bug on ios7 when trying to choose an album after selecting an artist. None of the albums are alphabetized like they used to be and all of the tracks are listed which takes forever to find an album. This bug alone has kept me on ios6 on my phone. Running 7 on my ipad since I don't use that for music. Sucks because I like ios7 otherwise and would love to update my phone. It's hard to believe Apple would allow a major app like iTunes to be this bad.
One of the stupidest, most ill-informed post I've ever read. Do you have a shred of evidence that "people are buying songs from Google" or "other offerings on Android"? No, because they aren't. i
Here's a shred.
By December of last year Japan had finally overtaken the US in App Store revenue. Yes Japanese smartphone/tablet users spend more on apps than buyers in any other country. So how do Google Play and Apple's App Store compare in revenue from their Japanese customers? Neck and neck, completely counter to "everyone knows Android owners don't spend money". https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.appannie.com/reports/App+Annie+Japan+Spotlight+-+Japan+Inflection+Point.pdf
I have other shreds if you'd like 'em including some from Distimo showing Android app revenues for the top 200 apps increasing 240% over the past year compared to an iOS bump of 20%. There's other shreds to go along with those if there's any interest in seeing them.
Comments
The iTunes interface is horrible, as horrible is its search engine. As horrible is the Apple Mail search engine and the Apple Finder search engine. They should bring back the great Sherlock search engine of Mac OS 9 or the one of HoudahSpot with the possibility to search non-indexed volumes like EasyFind.
Really high quality audio is a niche at best and wouldn't make a dent.
Just think about how many people still "crank that shit up" on garbage sound systems, way past what their speakers can handle, till it's just a garbled mess of distortion. The regular folk wouldn't care about super high quality audio and frankly 256 AAC is getting to the point where you have to be incredibly picky to complain too much.
SHH. I want iTunes match on my Nexus 5. Besides that, I refuse to buy a single Movie or Show on iTunes till they open up to more platforms. I don't need my movie collection locked to apple only devices in perpetuity thank you very much.
SUBCATEGORIES OF SUBCATEGORIES OF SUBCATEGORIES.
Get it done Apple.
Apple should fix (insert pet peeve here).
Are you saying you don't have any?
Wow. Good for you. Or you have less-than-high expectations.
Is there a problem here with Apple? iTunes Radio has not appeared in many countries. AppleTV is facing increased competition. The lack of information about progress with improvements to both streaming services and Apple TV is allowing the competition to promote alternatives that look to be taking business away from Apple. I have given up on iTunes Radio appearing in the UK and have tried Spotify instead which has been great. The result is that I have stopped purchasing music from iTunes. If Apple is to keep customers in an increasing competitive market they need to do more to keep them .
The only problem right now is HOW FREAKING LONG it's been since they announced anything or updated anything. The last keynote was back in October, which feels like an eternity.
*sigh*
This is a direct consequence of Apple free falling market shares in iphones and ipods. With android having over 80% market share worldwide, that means all those people are buying songs from google or other offering on android.
imo Apple needs to enter the mid-range market with a $300 phone to regain critical mass on its ecosystem. itunes on android will also help, but its better to offer cheaper hardware to keep selling music, apps, movies, ....
One of the stupidest, most ill-informed post I've ever read. Do you have a shred of evidence that "people are buying songs from Google" or "other offerings on Android"? No, because they aren't. iTunes sales still command a huge majority of music downloads, worldwide. There's numbers and stats to prove this. The fact that less people are paying for music has absolutely nothing to do with Android, nor marketshare- Google Music is barely making a blip. It has everything to do with people choosing to stream for free instaead, or use monthly plans- the apps with which this is done being all available on iOS.
So, with less people being willing to pay for stuff, your solution is for Apple to release a dirt-cheap phone, which will attract cheap people, who will.. do what? Buy a ton of music suddenly? A $300 phone is only a big deal in developing countries, etc where things arent subsidized- are THESE the people who are suddenly going to buy a ton of iTunes music? Next time, taking 2 seconds to analyze the situation, instead of the intellectually lazy "free-falling marketshare" line that you were obviously so desperate to spit out. Apple is selling a shitload of phones- pure numbers has nothing to do with it. People with Android phones are not spending $$ on digital downloads on non-Apple stuff, they simply don't spend anything at all. The figures are all available. Your solution that Apple should sell a dramatically cheaper phone in order to get more music downloads is almost obscene in its idiocy.
There is and it's either $25/year or free if you're a fan of iTunes Match, which your'e not because you don't want to own any music.
I would gladly pay that to Apple for an streaming service that has all the music on demand and not randomized tunes.
Keep in mind that the iTunes Store doesn't work in my country for anything other than apps. So buying content from Apple is out of the question. Still 6 dollars for unlimited music beats 0.99 a song.
"People with Android phones are not spending $$ on digital downloads on non-Apple stuff, they simply don't spend anything at all. The figures are all available. Your solution that Apple should sell a dramatically cheaper phone in order to get more music downloads is almost obscene in its idiocy. "
So all these people that are buying those expensive Samsung phones and tablets that Apple is right now suing Samsung accusing them of stealing their market share and demanding licensing fees of $40 a device are not buying anything from the Google Play store? That is rich.
We know that most Android sales are low-end devices to developing markets that are being used as feature phones or dumb phones. We know that because you guys tell us that over and over and over again.
But a lot of Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note phones and phablets are being sold. In addition, Samsung, ASUS, Amazon and Lenovo sold 64.5 million tablets in 2013. Not far off Apple's 70.5 million. Samsung, ASUS, Amazon and Lenovo do not make the "cheap $50 toys" that DED insists dominates Android sales (in reality according to this list, the "other" manufacturers only sold about 60.6 million tablets, and some of those do include other manufacturers of quality Android tablets like Google Nexus, Toshiba, HP, Acer etc. http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/03/gartner-195m-tablets-sold-in-2013-android-grabs-top-spot-from-ipad-with-62-share/).
So, I am sorry, but that is a huge potential market ... people who were willing/able to shell out at least $200 for a tablet and/or to get at least a midrange phone. Not as big as the IOS market, but still a good sized market. A lot of them do not buy music from the Google Play store, granted, because the Google Play store stinks. (I actually make most of my Google Play purchases through the browser on my PC and just let it download instead of bothering with the Google Play app on Android devices.) Google Play's app is even worse than the Amazon app ... much worse in fact. But they would be much more likely to buy music from an I-Tunes store. Just like Windows users gladly bought music from I-Tunes from their cheap Windows devices, remember?
Maybe the revamp is also designed to avoid patent infringement?
Fix search iTunes still too hRd to find stuff and separate from my iPhone stuff I love apple but gee wiz hire some execs from google search division poaching can help
Make [B]iTunes AND iPhoto work[/B] BETTER with an external HD connected to your router (TC with external)
Presently iTunes sucks on external not connected to your Mac
Keeps forgetting where my library is
hey if more people are using ssd and external to keep an ever expanding library [B]MAKE IT WORK[/B]
Fix the bloat
KISS-A Keep it simple apple
Feel better getting that off my chest
As far as iTunes, I'm still running running iTunes 10 because 11 seemed awful to me. The box set cover art isn't even centered not mention the elimination of cover flow.
iTunes also hasn't fixed a major bug on ios7 when trying to choose an album after selecting an artist. None of the albums are alphabetized like they used to be and all of the tracks are listed which takes forever to find an album. This bug alone has kept me on ios6 on my phone. Running 7 on my ipad since I don't use that for music. Sucks because I like ios7 otherwise and would love to update my phone. It's hard to believe Apple would allow a major app like iTunes to be this bad.
Here's a shred.
By December of last year Japan had finally overtaken the US in App Store revenue. Yes Japanese smartphone/tablet users spend more on apps than buyers in any other country. So how do Google Play and Apple's App Store compare in revenue from their Japanese customers? Neck and neck, completely counter to "everyone knows Android owners don't spend money".
https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.appannie.com/reports/App+Annie+Japan+Spotlight+-+Japan+Inflection+Point.pdf
And another shred:
Google Play game revenue is growing twice as fast as Apple's, quadrupling over past year and driven by big spending from Asian smartphones users.
http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/26/google-plays-game-related-revenues-are-growing-twice-as-fast-as-ios/
I have other shreds if you'd like 'em including some from Distimo showing Android app revenues for the top 200 apps increasing 240% over the past year compared to an iOS bump of 20%. There's other shreds to go along with those if there's any interest in seeing them.