Apple today announced iTunes 8, the next major release of Apple’s ubiquitous music and video player for Macs and PCs which is seamlessly integrated with the most popular online content store in the world. iTunes 8 includes the new breakthrough Genius feature, which lets you automatically create playlists from songs in your music library that go great together — with just one click. Genius helps music fans rediscover favorite songs in their existing music library and suggests related music on the iTunes Store they might want to add to their music collection. iTunes 8 features new ways of viewing your music and video libraries, and adds television programs in stunning high definition for sale on the iTunes Store.
Using Apple’s breakthrough Genius feature is easy-select any song, click the Genius button, and iTunes instantly creates a playlist of songs that go great together from your own library. You can preview the playlist Genius creates, refresh the list to choose different songs and save Genius playlists to enjoy again later. You can even create Genius Playlists on-the-go with the new iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod nano and iPhone. The Genius sidebar appears right in iTunes and recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have, based on the songs you select.
When you turn on iTunes 8’s new Genius feature, information about your music library is anonymously sent to the iTunes Store, where it is combined with the anonymously-gathered knowledge from millions of other iTunes users and processed through Apple-developed algorithms. The Genius results, specifically tailored to your personal music library, are sent back to your computer to enable users to automatically create Genius playlists in iTunes and on your iPods, even when they are not connected to the Internet.
iTunes 8’s new visual browsing interface displays your music and video libraries using your album and video covers, and also provides a great way to navigate your movies, TV shows, iPhone apps, podcasts and audiobooks.
The iTunes Store has become the world’s most popular online TV store and features an incredible selection of over 30,000 episodes from ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX, NBC and over 70 cable networks including Bravo, Comedy Central, Disney Channel, ESPN, FX, HBO, MTV, Nickelodeon, Sci Fi, Showtime and USA. With iTunes 8, television fans can now watch their favorite programs from ABC, NBC and Showtime in stunning HD for just $2.99 per episode, perfect for viewing on their Mac or PC, or on their widescreen TV with Apple TV.
The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of 8.5 million songs, over 30,000 TV episodes and over 2,500 films including 600 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, 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.
iTunes 8 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.com). Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Video availability varies by country.
DLing it now, can’t wait to try it out!!
I think the iTunes 8 have got better!
So, how did Steve look. Vibrant? Healthy? I have noticed it is the skinny men who live the longest.
Steve is looking much snappier.
I hope iTunes with the 2.1 iPhone update fixes the “bug” of rearranging your icons after every app update. Ugh. It’ll be interesting to see how they will handle the lengthy phone backups starting this Friday. I’m hoping for the best.
It’s… full of… snappier!
QuickTime and Front Row have also been updated. iTunes 8 apparently requires the QuickTime update.
The Genius playlists are not bad (could be better), but the sidebar is suggesting albums and songs I already have!
Welcome back, NBC.
So the Visualizer rumor was/is a bust? Maybe I missed that part.
Where is magnetosphere?
The new visualizer is there – they just didn’t announce it. It’s the iTunes Visualizer. The old one is called iTunes Classic Visualizer.
Expect a “Brinier” os so application for windows media player in a few days…
Thanks for that info Jay-Z.
What? No change to the iTunes icon color??? I feel robbed!
I have tried to install iTunes 8 and it says that the installation was successful, but when I try to launch it, the SLA screen pops up, as usual. I click to “Agree” and it hangs for a minute, crashes, then asks me to send an error report, which I do. I have deleted the install a few times and re-downloaded the iTunes 8 installer, but it keeps happening.
What gives? Any ideas?
All your PANDORA are belong to us !!!
Looks good.
The Genius thing does nothing for me at all. Maybe a shrug.
I’m not a fan of the new grid album cover view. The plain list view and album cover list views have been merged. Very logical.
They moved the Import Settings… preference to the FIRST “General” preference tab just to the right of the “When you insert CD” popup. MUCH better.
Am I missing something? I can’t remove those damn arrow thingies as before. Even tho HELP says I can, it doesn’t show up in Preferences.
You can no longer remove arrows next to track names or the “genre” section from the browser.
They also removed the little “eye” button to show/hide the browser.
“The Genius playlists are not bad (could be better), but the sidebar is suggesting albums and songs I already have!”
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Then I’d guess that some of your library songs/artists are not tagged properly?
@ MikeK:
Trust me – they’re tagged properly (I have OCD). Some are even albums I’ve told the iTunes Store I already have when looking at suggestions!
@JayZ,
It was just a suggestion.. iTunes and Genius suggestions rely on tags to make suggestions. I know in my library that whenever I have had suggestions on music I already own, it was because of an improper tag.. The smallest difference in an artist or album title field in iTunes and the iTunes store can make a difference..
If you’re sure your tags are correct, I’m not sure what the problem is. I have not had any duplicate suggestions since correcting all my tags.
I just LOVE the new iTunes 8!!!
The new visualizer (nee Magnetosphere) is some pretty amazing eye candy.