Apple today introduced iTunes 9, the latest version of the world’s most popular software application to purchase, manage and play media, packed with innovative features such as iTunes LP, Home Sharing and Genius Mixes, as well as a redesigned store and improved syncing. iTunes 9 makes it easier than ever to discover, purchase and enjoy your music, movies, TV shows, and apps for iPhone™ and iPod touch from Apple’s revolutionary App Store. Plus, Home Sharing now lets you easily transfer songs, movies and TV shows to other computers in your home.
“iTunes 9 is a great iTunes release, with innovative features that make using iTunes better than ever and iTunes content richer than ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “iTunes LP, for example, lets artists share more of their creativity with fans and gives music lovers the feeling of being immersed in an entire album with art, lyrics, liner notes, photos and videos.”
iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more. iTunes LP debuts today with albums including Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me,” The Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty” and Dave Matthews Band’s “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King: iTunes Pass.” The new iTunes Extras provides a similar experience for movies on iTunes with features including documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes Extras is now available for select movies including “Twilight,” “Batman Begins,” “WALL-E,” “Iron Man” and “The Da Vinci Code.” Customers can enjoy iTunes LP and iTunes Extras on a Mac or PC.
iTunes 9 also introduces Home Sharing, which lets you easily transfer music, movies and TV shows among up to five authorized computers in your home. Family members can now view up to five iTunes libraries on their home network, see only the portion of these libraries they don’t already have, import their favorite content directly to their own libraries, and automatically add new purchases from other computers into their library.
The incredibly popular Genius feature gets even better with Genius Mixes which are created using the results of over 27 million music libraries with over 54 billion songs that have been submitted and analyzed by Genius. The new Genius Mixes feature is like having a “Genius” DJ that automatically generates up to 12 endless mixes of songs from your iTunes library that go great together.
With improved syncing in iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1, you can now organize your iPhone apps right in iTunes and they will automatically appear on your iPhone with the same layout. Plus, syncing music, photos, movies and TV shows is easier than ever with the added ability to sync music by artist and genre and sync photos by Events and Faces. The iTunes Store on iPhone now features precut ringtone downloads with over 20,000 ringtones priced at just $1.29.
iTunes 9 is available immediately as a free download at www.itunes.com. Or simply choose “Check for Updates…” from your iTunes menu.
The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 7,500 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
Source: Apple Inc.
iTunes 9 also finally contains support for HE-AAC
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Does anyone fact check these stories? As of 3pm EST itunes 9 is not available. The apple store says iTunes 9 coming soon. It’s NOT available for download YET…..
iTunes 9 turned out to be the most significant announcement of the event. Home Sharing is going to make things much easier for a lot of people.
@ JoeSmoe
I’m downloading iTunes 9 from the iTunes (UK) webpage:
(http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/) & provide email address then click the big blue download now button. Not currently available via software update.
@ JoeSmoe – Umm… it’s definitely available for download from Apple’s site, I’m looking at it as we speak: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
It’s available now.
App Organization.
Hip Hip Hooray!!
iTunes 9 has shiny new buttons – that’s the “look & feel” update. New welcome video too, loading taking 15+ minutes… server must be feeling the load.
Genius mixes… can’t seem to find how to do this.
iTunes Store is beautiful, way cleaner.
iTunes 9 downloaded and installed without a hitch. iPhone 3.1 upgraded and synching as I type this.
I assume tethering hack will be disabled in iPhone 3.1. Not upgrading until I know for sure.
Also, has anyone figured out how to use Genius Mixes? The intro video says it should appear below Genius in sidebar, keywords being “When it appears…” So we’ve got to wait?
Re: GrandxAdmiral @ Genius mixes..
Go to the store menu and click “Update Genius”.
The Genius mixes is amazing! You have to try it. There are 12 playlists to choose from with a ranging variety of music genres. I couldn’t make better playlists if I tried when it comes to similarity of music. I love it. Very much like a radio station.
You gotta be the biggest dumbass on the net. Get your head out of your ass and download the iTunes, or are you a Microsoft asshoat hitwhore?
Just downloaded iT9…backing up iPhone just as slow as always
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Come to think about it…the only thing I really wanted was a fast sync…maybe stars will explode when combined with 3.1, let’s hope
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Haha, if that wasn’t an over-reaction, I don’t know what is….
Thanks Wha, Mixes is awesome.
Agreed.. kudos to Apple on this one. I’ll probably be revisiting my music more often because of the genius mixes feature.
Has anybody read anywhere if it is 64bit? That is what would be nice… A good speed boost. Mail and those other core Apple applications got it with Snow Leopard. I thought this would be a must?… Haven’t read it anywhere yet though.
iTunes Extra:
Anybody know how they are doing that?
What file format are the movies in?
I know you can have hyperlinks in Quicktime, but how are Apple creating this interactive content?
Joe, you really ARE a schmoe.
Updated two iPhones.
1st gen was a separate and smaller download.
Tethering was still listed on my 3GS, but I haven’t tried it.
(I don’t have 3g were I live, so I rationalize that when I go to my girlfriends, I am allowed some bandwidth that I already paid for and use it on her computer, which has horrible DSL)
Mini player now requires ‘option click’, otherwise the window expands like other apple Apps.
Something else a little odd.
after updating both iPhones, I checked my trash and it was loaded with what looked like every iPhone software update since 08/2008.
Maybe they don’t want us re-installing the old?
Maybe I misunderstood the file type?
Maybe the voices in my head stutter?
Looks like they took some stuff out of iTunes as well.
iTunes no longer identifies songs in your iTunes library (or in the store) as being available by ringtones.
What’s more, that nifty little editor for making custom ringtones from within iTunes is gone.
Looks like I was the only one to use it.
The new store and interface refinements look good.
Overall I think it’s a great update. I did a full review and gave it a big thumbs up.
iTunes 9 Review
http://jimlynch.com/index.php/2009/09/09/itunes-9-review/
Here is a brief First Look video detailing the new version of iTunes
iTunes 9 First Look
iPhone update breaks tethering. Somebody come up with a hack quick!
App organization is great.
Next, I’d like to be able to assign different images,(I’d settle for flat colors) for the background of each app page. I’m up to 9 pages and it would be nice to have a little extra visual cue as to where the heck I am.
Home Sharing is fantastic! There is a work around for iTunes 8.x, but this looks to be completely pain free. I have a ton of apps (many actually are useful!) and my GF would be happy to get a few more of them.
The cleaned up content organization in it iTunes store is certinly welcome. And the entire application looks cleaner and somehow fresher.
Excellent upgrade!