“Apple Inc. plans an overhaul of iTunes that would mark one of the largest changes to the world’s biggest music store since its 2003 debut, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter,” Adam Satariano and Andy Fixmer report for Bloomberg.
“Apple will unveil the changes by year’s end, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public,” Satariano and Fixmer report. “The company will more closely integrate its iCloud file-storage service with iTunes so users can more seamlessly access and manage their music, videos and downloaded software apps across different Apple gadgets, the people said. Apple also plans new features for sharing music, the people said.”
Satariano and Fixmer report, “With an increasing amount of content available on the store, the overhaul is intended to improve how people manage all their files, one person said. That includes changes to how users find new material and how they access what they already own on different Apple devices, said one person. One of the main ways Apple will attempt to improve discovery is by making it easier for people to share songs, a popular feature of Spotify Ltd.’s music-subscription service. Apple has been negotiating with major record labels for rights that would let a user listen to a song sent to them from a friend for free, one person said.”
Read more in the full article here.
What I would like to see:
A family account tied to one email of course.
A member of the family identified by a “me” account that can be set to several devices, iPhone, iPad, MacBook and desktop.
This would tie all the email and bookmarks to a family member not all in the family. So if Dad has a job and Mom has a different job some things can remain separate. Also a few more devices need to be able to share the account.
My family does this now.
Everyone has their own Apple ID for email, iCloud, etc, but we all use my account for downloading content.
Just go to Settings -> Store, and enter the ID you want to use for downloading.
You understood about 93% of what I said. So if all purchases are on your account, what happens when one off your children desides to move on? Do they start over and re-purchase the downloads that are sitting in “your account”, or can they move them over to a new family account.
One other thing, when one of the kids finally moves out of the house there should be an option to move or purchase at a reduced rate some of the items from the family account to a new family account. People grow up and move on.
That would also make splitting purchased content during a divorce easier, too.
I have had a difficult time with my kids moving on. Some of them are still using content purchased under my account from years ago and as they purchase new equipment they need my password. The problem with that is the same password gives them access to my email.
I feel for Apple having to try to accommodate everyone’s special circumstances…. I am sure they will try but there are sure to be those who will bemoan the changes because by necessity account setup will be more complicated.
I for one am happy to see iTunes overhauled… For me, managing all my devices and an iTunes media server is very frustrating with the current state of iTunes… Also I’m sick of always getting error messages all the time
How about just giving us a font size that’s large enough to read? That would be a good thing after, what, 10 years or so?
Sell your children while the market for them is still good. Use the proceeds to by new Macbook Pro with Retina Display