ITunes |
(sometimes referred to as iTMS ) which allows users to purchase digital music and movie files that can be played by iPods and iTunes.
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 Windows Me.
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 on all Apple Macintosh computers, and supplied with Mac OS X as well as Apple s iLife home-application suite.
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=Features=
Users are able to organize their music into playlists, edit file information, record Compact Disc, 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.
==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 artist in sequence (a new feature in iTunes 5.0). Party Shuffle can also be biased towards selecting tracks with a higher star rating.
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 (computing) 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 Computer s own iDVD, iMovie, and iPhoto or Freshly Squeezed Software s [http://freshsqueeze.com/products/rockstar/ Rock Star]).
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.
==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 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 DI.fm and SomaFM as well as terrestrial stations such as Virgin Radio, 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 iTunes radio feature, and in fact no mention of it appears on the iTunes website.
==File format support==
iTunes can currently encode to MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4 Advanced audio coding, and Apple Lossless, and can play anything QuickTime can play (even video formats, as long as they have audio), including Protected AAC files from the iTunes Music Store, plus Audible.com audio books. In order to play other formats such as the Ogg Vorbis, iTunes requires addition of QuickTime components. iTunes currently will not play back HTTP-streamed AAC or or AacPlus audio formats. HE-AAC/aacPlus format files will playback as 22kHz AAC files (effectively having no high end over 10kHz).
There has been some criticism of the quality of Apple s MP3 encoder, at least 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. [http://www.rjamorim.com/test/mp3-128/results.html]
The Windows version of iTunes can automatically convert unprotected Windows Media Audio files to other audio formats, but it does not support direct playback or encoding of WMA format.
==Music sharing==
iTunes Library songs can be shared over a local network using Bonjour (protocol) (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.
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 End User License Agreement.
Music sharing uses the and is now used to stream playlists from non-Apple software.
Just days after the Windows version of iTunes was released, client, called [http://ourtunes.sourceforge.net/ ourTunes]. Yet another approach is used by [http://wansch.com/isynctunes.html iSyncTunes]. 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 your local library.
==Video==
In .
iTunes supports visualizer plugins and device plugins. Visualizer plugins allow developers to create music-driven visual displays (iTunes includes a default visualizer, [http://www.soundspectrum.com/g-force G-Force], licensed from .
On October 12, 2005, Apple announced the latest iPod would be capable of playing back video files, which would be sold online through iTunes. These videos included 2000 music videos and episodes of popular television programs. Working a deal with Disney Television to be the first supplier of TV shows, the first shows available included all the episodes of Lost and Desperate Housewives with each episode becoming available the day following its original airing on free broadcast TV.
The selling of videos on iTunes sparked considerable debate as to whether there was a paying audience for programming available for free on TV. As MP3 Newswire astutely pointed out users are not so much paying for the TV programs themselves. Instead they are really paying for a service that offers the convenience of someone else digitizing free broadcast episodes for them for their portable device, each episode in commercial-free form, and a convenient place to select and download individual shows. Through an updated version of Quicktime users can create their own videos for the iPod, including digitized versions of programs recorded on their VCR if they wish to take the time and effort and save the cost.
==Podcasting==
With the release of version 4.9 iTunes added built-in support for podcasting. Users can subscribe to .
==Synchronizing iPod and other players==
iTunes can automatically synchronize its music library with an iPod or other supported digital music player every time it is connected. 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 that 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 Creative 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.
==iTunes 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. To date, over 500 million songs have been downloaded since the service first launched in April 2003.[http://apple.com/itunes]
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 (software), which decrypts purchased music so that it can be played anywhere, or even shared.
There are currently iTunes stores available in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and Australia.
==Integration with other applications==
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 (software) productions. In addition, any song exported from GarageBand, Apple s music-making program, is automatically added to the user s iTunes music library.
=iTunes version history (recent)=
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.
For a full changelog, see ITunes/changelog
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=See also=
=External links=
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