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iTunes

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iTunes
Developer(s)Apple Computer
Stable release
6.0.4 (3) / March 12, 2006
Operating systemMac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Mac OS 9 (discontinued after iTunes 3)
TypeMedia player
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.apple.com/itunes/

iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application, launched by Apple Computer on January 9, 2001, for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also an 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. Apple have also developed a version which runs on mobile phones such as the Motorola ROKR and Motorola SLVR. The program was initially developed on Mac OS 9, but support for the classic Mac OS 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. There has been some success running iTunes under Crossover Office on Linux, a Wine variant.

iTunes originally had a brushed metal interface, but with the introduction of iTunes 5.0, it now has a new, thinner interface commonly referred to as "plastic", "light metal" (as opposed to the heavier "Brushed Metal"), and "dark unified" (based on the Unified look from Mac OS X v10.4, but darker).

Features

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, and encode music into a number of different audio formats.

Playlists

In addition to static playlist support, iTunes supports 'Smart playlists'. 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. Inter-star ratings are stored by iTunes, but only affect this feature in the range of zero to one star.

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.

Music library

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.[1])

This parsable XML format prevents vendor lock-in as any changes to a track's metadata (plus playcount, last played date, and rating, which are not standard fields in the ID3v2.3 format) can be extracted by any application that understands XML; on the other hand, viewing and manipulating the additional file metadata (playcount, last played date, rating, equalizer presets etc...) in software such as Winamp that rely solely on the filebound ID3v2 tags can be difficult.

For MP3 files, iTunes 6.0.4 writes tags in Unicode ID3v2.2 by default, but converting them to ID3v2.3 and ID3v2.4 is possible via its "Advanced" -> "Convert ID3 Tags" toolbar menu. If both ID3v2.x and ID3v1.x tags are in a file, iTunes ignores the ID3v1.x tags. AAC and Apple Lossless files support Unicode metadata, but it is not stored as ID3 tags.

Internet radio

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 February 2006, the iTunes radio service features around 300-400 distinct "radio stations" (with a total of over 700 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, radioio, Digitally Imported, Flashback Alternatives, and SomaFM as well as terrestrial stations such as KKJZ, WFMU, WMVY, and WRCT. 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.

File format support

iTunes can currently encode to MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC, and Apple Lossless, and can convert between any of these formats. (This is done by changing the import format in preferences > advanced > import using... Once you change this setting to the file format you need, you can convert file formats under the Advanced dropdown menu > convert to...)

It can also 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 22 kHz AAC files (effectively having no high end over 10 kHz).

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.[2] The author has later acknowledged that there were serious issues with how iTunes was tested.

The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert unprotected WMA (including version 9) files to other audio formats, but it does not support direct playback or encoding of WMA format.

Sound Quality

iTunes plays music through the sound card of a computer. iTunes also includes sound processing features, namely an equalizing section, and its "sound enhancer", which in some languages is translated into "sound improver". The enhancer works by inserting out-of-phase components of the signal into the opposite stereo channel, a technique often used on elements in music production. The use of the sound enhancer worries many producers and engineers of music, with a feeling that it poses a serious degradation of the playback quality of their product. [citation needed]

Music sharing

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.[3] DAAP has been reverse-engineered and is now used to stream playlists from non-Apple software.

Video

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, however, 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). iTMS initially offered a selection of several thousand Music Videos and five TV shows including most notably ABC's (Australia's Channel 7) 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. Video content available from iTMS is encoded as 540 kbit/s Protected MPEG-4 video (H264) with a 128 kbit/s AAC audio track.

As of January 26, 2006, iTMS offers over 40 television shows for download, including, most recently, additions from Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV with 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).

On May 9, 2006, iTMS added popular shows from FOX including 24, Prison Break, Unan1mous, Stacked, and "FOX Television Classics" Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost in Space and Firefly.

Plug-ins

File:ITunes Viz.jpg
iTunes visualisers: the default Apple visualiser is in front; and a 3rd party plugin is behind it.

iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins. Visualizer plugins allow developers to create music-driven visual displays (iTunes includes a default visualizer, G-Force,[4] licensed from SoundSpectrum). The visualizer plug-in software development kits for Mac and Windows can be downloaded for free from Apple.[5] 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.

Podcasting

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.

Video podcasting

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.

Synchronizing iPod and other players

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;[6] the Windows version will only support the iPod.[7]) 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.

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. A number of third party programs have been created to help a user of iTunes to synchronise songs with any music player which can be mounted as an external drive.

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.

iTunes does not allow you to transfer music files between computers. This may be necessary to back songs up, transfer songs to a new computer, or restore music after a disk failure using an iPod as the backup source. In particular, if you have purchased songs from the iTunes Music Store, but not backed them up, then your iPod cannot be used to restore the songs if your hard drive fails. A number of shareware or freeware applications exist that complement iTunes.

iTunes Music Store

File:ITunes-aacp.png
Protected AAC file from the Music Store.
Main article: iTunes Music Store

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. As of February 22nd, 2006, over 1 billion songs have been downloaded since the service first launched on April 28 2003.[8]

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).

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.

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.

In 2006, a controversy erupted about a French draft law aimed at reinforcing the protection of works of art against "piracy", or illegal copying; some clauses of the law could possibly be used to request Apple to provide information about its FairPlay system to manufacturers of competitor players.

MiniStore

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.[9] Apple clarified that the MiniStore didn't collect any information from users and later made it opt-in.[10]

Integration with other applications

File:ITunes widget.png
iTunes Dashboard Widget.

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 Artwork.saver is a screen saver included in 10.4 that displays album artwork as a screen saver. iTunes.widget is a Dashboard Widget that controls iTunes.

Various 3rd party applications also use the iTunes database as well. iEatBrainz is a MusicBrainz tagger that queries & corrects the iTunes database via AppleScript.

Recent version history

Main article: iTunes version history
File:Itunes6.PNG
iTunes 6 under Windows XP
File:ITunes version 1.0.gif
iTunes 1 under OS9

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.
  • 6.0.3 — February 15, 2006
    • Bug fixes
    • Performance improvements
  • 6.0.4 - March 1, 2006
    • Improvements for FrontRow (Mac)
  • 6.0.4.2 - March 3, 2006
    • Fixes problems that some users have with playlists only in version 6.0.4

See also

Notes & references

  1. ^ "Rock Star: Musical Game Software for Mac OS X". Freshly Squeezed Software. Retrieved January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Amorim, Roberto (2003). "Results of MP3 at 128 kbit/s public Listening Test" (http). Roberto's public listening tests page. Retrieved January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Digital Audio Access Protocol". DAAP. Retrieved January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "G-Force: the leading visual plugin for your media player". Soundspectrum.com. Retrieved January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Development Kits". Apple Developer Connection. Retrieved January 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "iTunes for Mac OS X: Compatible Players". Apple.com. Retrieved February 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "MP3 player compatibility with iTunes for Windows". Apple.com. Retrieved February 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ "Apple Launches the iTunes Music Store". Apple.com. Retrieved April 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "MiniStore in iTunes 6.0.2 comes with privacy concerns". ArsTechnica.com. Retrieved January 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "iTunes MiniStore now asks for your permission". TUAW.com. Retrieved January 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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