ITunes: Difference between revisions

ITunes is a proprietary digital media player application, developed by Apple Computer, for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also the interface to manage the music on Apple's popular iPod digital audio player. Additionally, iTunes can connect to the iTunes Music Store (sometimes referred to as "iTMS") which allows users to purchase digital music and movie files that can be played by iPods and iTunes.

ITunes has gained and maintained a reputation for being easy to use while still providing many features for obtaining, organizing, and playing music. The program is freely downloadable, bundled with all Mac computers and iPods, and supplied with Mac OS X.

ITunes is compatible with computers running Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. The program was initially developed on Mac OS 9, but OS 9 support was discontinued with the release of iTunes 3; in addition, no version of iTunes has supported a non-NT based Windows release such as Windows 98 or Me.

Users are able to organize their music into playlists, edit file information, record compact discs, copy files to a digital audio player, purchase music through its built-in music store, download podcasts, back up songs onto a CD or DVD, run a visualizer to display graphical effects in time to the music as well as encode music into a number of different audio formats.

'Smart playlists' are playlists that can be set to automatically update (live updating), (like a database query) based on a customized list of selection criteria. Different criteria can be entered to control many aspects of the playlist.

Playlists can be played randomly or sequentially. The "randomness" of the shuffle algorithm can be biased for or against playing multiple tracks from the same album or artists in sequence (a new feature in iTunes 5.0). Party Shuffle can also be biased towards selecting tracks with a higher star rating. With this bias enabled, each star rating increases the preference for that particular song about 4% over that of a one-star-less rated song. Unrated songs are the least likely to be played.^[1]

The Party Shuffle playlist is intended as a simple DJing aid. By default, it selects tracks randomly from other playlists or the library; users can override the automatic selections by deleting tracks (iTunes will choose new ones to replace them) or by adding their own via drag-and-drop or contextual menu. This allows a mixture of both preselected and random tracks in the same meta-playlist. The playlist Party Shuffle draws from can be changed on the fly; this will cause all randomly chosen tracks to disappear and be replaced.

ITunes stores metadata about the audio files in two files.

The first is a binary file called iTunes Library (iTunes x Music Library in previous versions) that uses its own music library format. This both caches information such as artist and genre from the audio format's tag capabilities (for example the ID3 tag), and stores iTunes specific information such as playcount and rating.

The second file, called iTunes Music Library.xml, is refreshed whenever information in iTunes is changed. It uses XML format, allowing developers to easily write applications that can access the information (such as Apple's own iDVD, iMovie, and iPhoto or Freshly Squeezed Software's Rock Star.^[2]

This system prevents vendor lock-in as any changes to a track's metadata except playcount, last played date, and rating, is stored in the audio file itself; with all information being available via the XML file.

ITunes 1.0 came with support for the Kerbango Internet radio tuner service, giving iTunes users a selection of some of the more popular online radio streams available. When Kerbango went out of business in 2001, Apple created its own Web radio service for use with iTunes 2.0 and later. As of July 2005, the iTunes radio service features around 200–300 distinct "radio stations" (with a total of over 400 streams, allowing for multiple bit rates), mostly in MP3 streaming format. Programming covers many genres of music and talk, including streams from online staples such as Radio Paradise, DI.fm and SomaFM as well as terrestrial stations such as KKJZ, WFMU, and WMVY. ITunes also supports the .pls and .m3u stream file formats used by Winamp, enabling iTunes to access almost any stream using that format.

Apple no longer promotes the Internet radio feature, and no mention of it appears on the iTunes website.

ITunes can currently encode to MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, Midi, AAC, and Apple Lossless, and can play anything QuickTime can play (even some video formats), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Music Store and Audible.com audio books. In order to play other formats such as the Ogg-contained Vorbis or Speex codecs, iTunes requires the Xiph QuickTime Components to be installed. iTunes currently will not play back HE-AAC/aacPlus audio streams. HE-AAC/aacPlus format files will play back as 22kHz AAC files (effectively having no high end over 10kHz).

There has been some criticism of the quality of Apple's MP3 encoder, with regards to variable bit rate encoding. In a January 2004 double-blind public listening test of six MP3 encoders encoding at 128 kbit/s, conducted by Roberto Amorim, the iTunes MP3 VBR encoder came last.^[3]

The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert unprotected WMA files to other audio formats, but it does not support direct playback or encoding of WMA format.

ITunes Library songs can be shared over a local network using Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous)—Apple's implementation of the Zeroconf (zero configuration required) open network standard—which allows shared lists of songs within the same subnet to be automatically detected. When a song is shared, iTunes can stream the song but won't save it on the local hard drive, in order to prevent copying. Songs in Protected AAC format can also be accessed but authentication is required. A maximum of five users may connect to a single user every 24 hours.

Originally with iTunes 4.0, users could freely access shared music anywhere over the internet, in addition to one's own subnet, by specifying IP addresses of remote shared song libraries. Apple quickly removed this feature with version 4.0.1, claiming that users were violating the EULA.

Music sharing uses the Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP), created by Apple for this purpose.^[4] DAAP has been reverse-engineered and is now used to stream playlists from non-Apple software.

Just days after the Windows version of iTunes was released, William Zeller, a 20-year-old Trinity College, Connecticut student, wrote myTunes^[5], a program which allows Windows users to circumvent the iTunes restriction and download music from an iTunes shared playlist over a network. There also exists a similar open source Java client, called ourTunes. Yet another approach is used by iSyncTunes.^[6] This application does not use DAAP and only depends on external interfaces to transfer music between computers. It transfers the songs, saves them on the local hard drive and creates a song list that can be imported into the user's local library. There is also the Blue Coconut^[7] application for OS X, an AppleScript and Perl client.

On May 9 2005, video support was introduced to iTunes with the release of iTunes 4.8. Users can drag and drop movie clips from the computer into the iTunes Library for cataloging and organization. They can be viewed in a small frame in the main iTunes display, in a separate window, or full screen. Video support in iTunes is limited: while videos are distinguished from audio in the Library by a small icon resembling a TV or display, they are still grouped with normal music and organized by the same musical categories (such as "album" and "composer"). iTunes is also incompatible with some common video formats, including AVI and WMV.

On October 12 2005, Apple introduced iTunes 6.0 which added support for purchasing and viewing of video content from the iTunes Music Store. iTMS initially offered a selection of several thousand Music Videos and five TV shows including most notably ABC's Lost and Desperate Housewives 24 hours after airing as well as the collection from past seasons; since that time, the collection has expanded with NBC Universal, USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel shows, and Viacom, in addition to further Disney-owned networks' shows. iTMS also gives the ability to view Apple's large collection of movie trailers. Format for purchased Videos is 128 kbit/s Protected MPEG-4 video (H264)1.

As of January 26 2006, iTunes offers over 40 television shows for download, including, most recently, additions from Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV with episodes of episodes of such shows as Spongebob Squarepants, South Park, and Punk'd. Many videos and video podcasts currently require the latest version of Quicktime (7) which is incompatible with older versions of MacOS (only v10.3.9 and later are supported).

ITunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins. Visualizer plugins allow developers to create music-driven visual displays (iTunes includes a default visualizer, G-Force^[8], licensed from SoundSpectrum). The visualizer plug-in software development kits for Mac and Windows can be downloaded for free from Apple.^[9] Device plugins allow support for additional music player devices, but Apple will only license the APIs to bona fide OEMs who sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Version 4.9 of iTunes on June 28, 2005 added built-in support for podcasting. Users can subscribe to podcasts in the iTunes Music Store or by entering the feed URL. Once subscribed, the podcast will be downloaded automatically. Users can choose to update podcasts weekly, daily, hourly, or manually. Apple maintains four "official" podcasts: Podfinder (with Adam Curry), Street Official Real Talk (interviews with hip-hop artists), iTunes New Music Tuesday, and Apple Quarterly Earnings Call. The front page of the directory also displays high-profile podcasts from commercial broadcasters and independent podcasters. For information on the podcasting feature, see external links.

Version 6 of iTunes introduced official support for video podcasting, although video and RSS support was already unofficially there in version 4.9. Users can subscribe to RSS feeds through the iTunes Music Store or by entering the feed URL. Video podcasts can contain downloadable video files (MOV, MP4, M4V, MPG), but also streaming sources and even IPTV. Downloadable files can be synchronized to the new iPod, and both downloadable files and streams can be shown in Apple's new Front Row Media Center application.

ITunes can automatically synchronize its music and video library with an iPod every time it is connected. (The OS X version of iTunes can also synchronize with a number of other digital music players [10]; the Windows version will only support the iPod. [11]) New songs and playlists are automatically copied to the iPod and songs which have been deleted from the library on the computer are also deleted from the iPod. Ratings awarded to songs on the iPod will sync back to the iTunes library and audiobooks will remember the current playback position.

Automatic synchronization can be turned off in favor of manually copying individual songs or complete playlists; however, iTunes supports only copying music to the iPod but not from it, which has inspired third party software for the latter purpose. It is also possible to copy from the iPod using ordinary Unix command line tools.

When an iPod is connected that does not contain enough free space to sync the entire iTunes music library, a playlist will be created and given a name matching that of the connected iPod. This playlist can then be modified to the user's preference in song selection to fill the available space.

IPod owners in US markets are taken to a one-time page within the iTunes Music store when first connecting it to their computer. This page currently offers a free album sampler from Lava and Atlantic Records where either the whole album or individual tracks can be downloaded. An album sampler from Universal Records was previously available and may still be accessed via a special link on the web.

ITunes supports a number of other popular portable music players with some limitations, most notably the inability to play music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Supported players include a number of NOMAD players from Creative Labs, some players from Rio Audio, and the Nakamichi SoundSpace 2 device. Other manufacturers may also offer integration by way of a device plugin.

Though iTunes is the only official method for synchronizing with the iPod, there are other programs available that allow the iPod to sync with other software players, most notably the ml_iPod plugin for Winamp, that allows users to manage their iPod content through Winamp, and provides functionality not available through iTunes, such as the copying of music off of the iPod.

Version 4 of iTunes introduced the iTunes Music Store from which iTunes users can buy and download songs for use on a limited number of computers and an unlimited number of iPods. Songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store are copy protected with Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) system. To date, over 950 million songs have been downloaded since the service first launched on April 28 2003.^[12]

Some complain that the tight integration of the iTunes Music Store with iTunes makes the sold music inaccessible to users who use operating systems other than Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows such as the Linux operating system, for which no version of iTunes is available. These complaints have resulted in the development of a number of alternative player software as well as published hacks or workarounds that allow customers of the iTunes Music Store to use the audio software or operating system software of their choice. The most notable of these hacks is PyMusique, which Apple has made several unsuccessful attempts at blocking.

Others complain that their purchased music can only be easily played in iTunes or on an iPod (though they can "burn" the tracks to a compact disc). This has led to the development of software such as Hymn, which decrypts purchased music (from versions of iTunes prior to 6.0) so that it can be played anywhere, or even shared.

Another minor complaint is lack of a recovery facility, whereby users could redownload music files which have been lost. This is a service offered by many of iTunes' competitors, while iTunes only allows "re-authorization" (or ability to recover the license).

There are currently iTunes stores available in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia.

This feature was added in iTunes version 6.0.2. It adds a small window to the bottom of the main window, which can be turned on or off. When the user selects an item in their library, information about that particular item is sent to the iTunes Store, and the MiniStore shows related songs or videos. Initially, the MiniStore caused controversy because people feared it could be used as spyware.^[13] Apple clarified that the MiniStore didn't collect any information from users and later made it opt-in.^[14]

On the Macintosh, iTunes is tightly integrated with Apple's iWork suite of applications and the rest of the applications in iLife. These applications can access the iTunes Library directly, allowing access to the playlists and songs stored within. Music files from iTunes can be embedded directly into Pages documents and can supply the score for iDVD, iMovie and Keynote productions. ITunes is also integrated with Front Row (Front Row reads its info from iTunes and iPhoto.) In addition, any song exported from GarageBand, Apple's music-making program, is automatically added to the user's iTunes music library.

ITunes was developed from SoundJam MP, a popular commercial MP3 application distributed by the Macintosh software company Casady & Greene. Apple purchased the rights to the SoundJam MP software and hired the three programmers who created SoundJam. The first release of iTunes was very similar to SoundJam MP with the addition of CD burning and a makeover of the user interface. Apple has added a number of significant features in subsequent versions of iTunes.

• 5.0 — September 7, 2005
  • Refined look (more compact)
  • 'LCD' display at top now displays artist and song together
  • Ability to group playlists in folders
  • Search now has Search Bar for refining search results. It duplicates the Spotlight bar in Mac OS X 10.4 Finder:
    • Search all music, audiobooks, podcasts, and videos, etc.
    • Search all artists, albums, and songs
  • Automatically sync calendars and contacts with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express (contacts only)
  • Smart shuffle (with adjustable 'randomness')
  • Support for the playback and creation of Variable Bitrate AAC files
  • Parental Controls to limit children's access to podcasts, the iTunes Music Store, and sharing features
  • Lyrics tab in track info box
  • Each song has the option to remember playback position and to skip it in shuffle mode

• 5.0.1 — September 20 2005
  • Bug fixes
  • Bonjour for Windows removed from installer bundle after DNS conflict problems

• 6.0 — October 12 2005
  • "Videos" added to Sources list
  • Supports purchase of video content through the iTunes Music Store
  • Supports video podcasting
  • Can transfer video files to fifth-generation iPods

• 6.0.1 — October 20 2005
  • Bug fixes

• 6.0.2 — January 10 2006
  • First Universal binary version
  • MiniStore
  • Multiple speaker streaming
  • Preferred user language (Windows version)
  • Stability and performance improvements
  • Fixed Windows shutdown/reboot interrupt while in "Toolbar" mode.

• iTunes 1
  iTunes 1
• iTunes 2
  iTunes 2
• iTunes 3
  iTunes 3
• iTunes 4
  iTunes 4
• iTunes 5
  iTunes 5
• iTunes 6
  iTunes 6

• List of audio players
• Comparison of media players
• Music visualization
• IEatBrainz

1. ^ Hansen, Brian E. (January 12). "How Much Does iTunes Like My Five-Star Songs?" (http). OmniNerd.com. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |publishyear= ignored (help)
2. ^ "Rock Star: Musical Game Software for Mac OS X". Freshly Squeezed Software. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
3. ^ Amorim, Roberto (January 12). "Results of MP3 at 128kbps public Listening Test" (http). Roberto's public listening tests page. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |publishyear= ignored (help)
4. ^ "Digital Audio Access Protocol". DAAP. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
5. ^ "myTunes Redux". cowpimp.com. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
6. ^ "ISyncTunes". isynctunes.com. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
7. ^ "Blue Coconut". Husk.org. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
8. ^ "G-Force: the leading visual plugin for your media player". Soundspectrum.com. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
9. ^ "Development Kits". Apple Developer Connection. January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
10. ^ "Apple Launches the iTunes Music Store". Apple.com. April 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
11. ^ "MiniStore in iTunes 6.0.2 comes with privacy concerns". ArsTechnica.com. January 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
12. ^ "iTunes MiniStore now asks for your permission". TUAW.com. January 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: iTunes

• List of digital music players compatible with iTunes for Mac OS X
• Apple — iTunes
• A visual history of iTunes
• infoAnarchy Wiki entry
• iPodNN — iPod and iTunes news
• iLounge — a very comprehensive site about iPods and iTunes
• Features lost in iTunes upgrades — Notes some of the feature downgrades in iTunes updates, including tighter restrictions on streaming/sharing and the number of times playlists can be burned to CD. Also discusses some workarounds.
• iTunes Tips wiki for podcast listeners and for podcasters
• Podcast Chapter Tool Tutorial wiki
• iTunes iSbogus — Criticism of iTunes and its role in the music industry.
• iTunes Registry - graphs and statistics of iTunes listening habits
• Apple Portable Does Video. Notes. - October 13, 2005 MP3 Newswire article
• The Economics of Movie Downloads (Yale Economic Review)
• DownloadJudge - music download alternatives to iTunes compared.