Where is iTunes DJ in iTunes 11?

George Worley wrote:

bushranger99 wrote:

If you go to Control -> Turn Shuffle On, then select one of the options - by song for example, and then press play. The tracks will be played randomly.

The Up Next feature will display the next tracks selected, and you can move them around or delete them. To add a track to the list you just hover over a track and then click on the arrow that appears.

At the moment I'm missing my iTunes DJ. I can work with the new method, but with Coverflow missing as well, this is really taking away from my playing pleasure.

And when it runs out of things to play it just stops... with iTunes DJ it never run out things to play.

So if, for example, you have 1000 tracks in iTunes, what does iTunes DJ do when it reaches the end of the list? If it simply loops back and starts playing them again, and you can accomplish the same thing by turning on Controls -> Repeat.

I prefered iTunes DJ and I liked Coverflow, and now both have disappeared. I can still accomplish playing tracks randomly as I did before, just not in the same way.

bushranger99 wrote:

George Worley wrote:

bushranger99 wrote:

If you go to Control -> Turn Shuffle On, then select one of the options - by song for example, and then press play. The tracks will be played randomly.

The Up Next feature will display the next tracks selected, and you can move them around or delete them. To add a track to the list you just hover over a track and then click on the arrow that appears.

At the moment I'm missing my iTunes DJ. I can work with the new method, but with Coverflow missing as well, this is really taking away from my playing pleasure.

And when it runs out of things to play it just stops... with iTunes DJ it never run out things to play.

So if, for example, you have 1000 tracks in iTunes, what does iTunes DJ do when it reaches the end of the list? If it simply loops back and starts playing them again, and you can accomplish the same thing by turning on Controls -> Repeat

I prefered iTunes DJ and I liked Coverflow, and now both have disappeared. I can still accomplish playing tracks randomly as I did before, just not in the same way.

I have over 150,000 tracks and it stopped after playing about 30 tracks even with the repeat on. I went back to the 10.7 not to ever go back to 11 unless key features that I use all the time are restored.

bushranger99 wrote:

George Worley wrote:

bushranger99 wrote:

If you go to Control -> Turn Shuffle On, then select one of the options - by song for example, and then press play. The tracks will be played randomly.

The Up Next feature will display the next tracks selected, and you can move them around or delete them. To add a track to the list you just hover over a track and then click on the arrow that appears.

At the moment I'm missing my iTunes DJ. I can work with the new method, but with Coverflow missing as well, this is really taking away from my playing pleasure.

And when it runs out of things to play it just stops... with iTunes DJ it never run out things to play.

So if, for example, you have 1000 tracks in iTunes, what does iTunes DJ do when it reaches the end of the list? If it simply loops back and starts playing them again, and you can accomplish the same thing by turning on Controls -> Repeat.

I prefered iTunes DJ and I liked Coverflow, and now both have disappeared. I can still accomplish playing tracks randomly as I did before, just not in the same way.

I used to be able to walk downstairs to my mailbox that was inside my building. Piece of cake.

Now I have to go outside (in the middle of January in Vt), walk halfway across the parking lot to get to it. Freeze my tail off to get to it, and fiddle with keys and such in below freezing weather....then walk back to my apartment half frozen.

I can accomplish the same thing.....but one was super user friendly and easy to do....the other is....well...less than an enjoyale experience.

I think that's the ongoing point of this discussion. Beyond that....there are PLENTY of things that have already been pointed out that you just CANT do, now that iTunes DJ is gone.

With iTunes DJ, anyone at a party with an iPhone or iPod touch could sign on and participate, voting songs to play. It was simple, and any non-techy could do it immediately. I'm sure it sold an iPhone or two among my friends.

This is the way of the new Apple. If a great feature makes it to release, it will be gone eventually if not enough people use it. They will kill it in the name of "simplicity". There is a fine line between simplifying and dumbing-down. Make an icon out of a list, to **** with being able to read more than a word or two of a title. Why can't I see what's playing in the new "mini-player?" Instead, a tiny icon, which displays a generic iTunes symbol half the time.

It's as if they're trying to chase us off to Spotify.

RookyJ wrote:

bushranger99 wrote:

George Worley wrote:

bushranger99 wrote:

If you go to Control -> Turn Shuffle On, then select one of the options - by song for example, and then press play. The tracks will be played randomly.

The Up Next feature will display the next tracks selected, and you can move them around or delete them. To add a track to the list you just hover over a track and then click on the arrow that appears.

At the moment I'm missing my iTunes DJ. I can work with the new method, but with Coverflow missing as well, this is really taking away from my playing pleasure.

And when it runs out of things to play it just stops... with iTunes DJ it never run out things to play.

So if, for example, you have 1000 tracks in iTunes, what does iTunes DJ do when it reaches the end of the list? If it simply loops back and starts playing them again, and you can accomplish the same thing by turning on Controls -> Repeat.

I prefered iTunes DJ and I liked Coverflow, and now both have disappeared. I can still accomplish playing tracks randomly as I did before, just not in the same way.

I used to be able to walk downstairs to my mailbox that was inside my building. Piece of cake.

Now I have to go outside (in the middle of January in Vt), walk halfway across the parking lot to get to it. Freeze my tail off to get to it, and fiddle with keys and such in below freezing weather....then walk back to my apartment half frozen.

I can accomplish the same thing.....but one was super user friendly and easy to do....the other is....well...less than an enjoyale experience.

I think that's the ongoing point of this discussion. Beyond that....there are PLENTY of things that have already been pointed out that you just CANT do, now that iTunes DJ is gone.

The original poster that I responded to stated that he could no longer play tracks randomly because iTunes DJ was gone. I showed a method for accomplishing that. It ain't perfect but it does work.

Now as for your mail collection problem. It's a little off-topic for this thread, but have you ever thought of maybe collecting it in the middle of May or June?

I did a little experimentation: I actually counted how many times different songs of different ratings appeared and, although I'm working with small-number statistics ( N = ~400) it appears that in fact iTunes 11 does automatically bias its sample in favor of highly rated songs. My guess is that the 5-star rated songs get played about 3 or 4 times more often than the 1-star rated songs. Since this was my primary concern, I'm willing to live with it.

However, there is one other difference, an irritation rather than a deal-killer. If I change the name of the composer or artist, iTunes goes away for about 10 seconds. If I change the star-rating, there is no delay. There were no such delays with iTunes 10. I'm guessing that they've either compressed or encrypted the records for each song, requiring lengthy recalculations when a small change is made.

Fascinating thread! I'll be downgrading back to 10 until 11 includes iTunesDJ or UpNext receives the same functionality. The workarounds won't work for me. I actually used iTDJ to play mostly my own song choices which vary on a daily basis. Load about 20 to 30 songs, add songs, move them around all on the fly and let it play. Can't do that simply now with UN. iTDJ was the main reason I use iTunes at all anymore. That and the equalizer. Good thing Apple didn't lose the equalizer.

As an Apple user since 1985 I cannot say that this or other recent events, i.e. Maps, are the end of the Apple that we know and love. Progression is not always progress that we would like it to be, but it has always been that way. Many hardcore Apple fans wanted to crucify Steve Jobs for eliminating floppy disks and making USB the only hardwire interface on the original iMac. The rest is history.

I actually like most things about the iTunes 11 except for the MIA iTDJ. It's cleaner, no coverflow is ok by me, more gingerbread than functionality there. Bring back iTDJ is my only beef. Sending feedback and then downgrading.

Please all of you file a request at http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Maybe if they'll hear us, they'll do something...

Well, it's certainly worth a shot.

I did so yesterday, not that I was actually expecting any sort of response..😁

In the meantime, I'm really pleased I managed to salvage 10.7 and have just spent a large part of the last 24 hours re-jigging my playlists as a result, but IMO better that and have D.J. function missing.

I won't be taking any more "updates," in future till there's a resolution to this and I've checked out "what's new," online in any futher planned "improvements."

The old iTunes DJ function seems to work for my by using the song view, selecting to shuffle the songs, and then just picking one random song and playing it. The Up Next then populates with randomly selected songs and off it goes.

I used iTunes DJ all the time to DJ at events. I have two events coming up next week. I'm not sure what to do now as the current version of iTunes just does not have the same level of function. I don't care about the voting feature, it's the ability to feed from a playlist and edit what is feeding in that I can't seem to figure out.

I'd love to downgrade to 10 for all the reasons mentioned. BUT the reason I stupidly updated as that my apple tv was not working. Had to do an update, and then going through to the mac I noticed that 11 had arrived. THUS can anyone tell me if I have updated Apple TV but go back to itunes 10 I will still be able to stream to tv? (Bet I cant). Have sent the feedback re how awful it is not having coverflow and dj. TERRIBLE!!

Wow. A long thread... That in itself should tell someone up there that this is something people take seriously.

Anyway, like so many others I found this thread after i upgraded to iTunes 11 and became upset.

For all the people offering solutions I have only this to say: shuffling is not a solution for people missing DJ. Shuffling existed already in previous versions, and it solves a different problem. Anyone who have been using DJ only to get their tunes shuffled have not really understood what DJ can be used for, and for these people shuffle will work just as well, as it also did in 10.

Next is what I assume is the replacement for DJ, but it solves one half of what DJ does, but not the other. Next lets you see what will be played, but don't give you the control that DJ had. (Not to mention how clunky the interface to Next felt for me, being used to DJ).

The points of DJ is that the music selection was *not* random, nor was it a shuffle. It is/was a weighted random. Shuffle is what you do with a deck of cards. Each card shows up exactly once, in some random order.

A pure random function will give you a distribution that is random, and can repeat things.

DJ let you both do random selections with weighting, giving preferences to song you like, and also let you change the *planned* playlist. You can reorder the planned playlist while it is playing. Add songs to play next, or at the end of the current list, remove songs, and extend it way beyond the programmed list. DJ simply keeps a playlist of a certain length. When it is currently short, DJ will pick songs to add, based on the rules it has. If the list is longer, DJ will just keep playing through the list until it becomes shorter. And with voting, you can also have it automatically reorder what is currently on the list dynamically.

To claim that shuffle, in any form, can replace this is a joke.

Next is somewhat closer to DJ in that it lets you have a list of upcoming songs, but it totally lacks the functionality of DJ for how to pick which songs to add. Instead it has just two stupid modes. 1) Add the next song in the current selection (be that artist, album, genre, or whatnot) 2) Add a random song in the current selection.

Neither is obviously any good if the DJ functionality is what you want.

Not to mention that having the last few songs that played still in the list is sometimes very good, as you might realize you want to check what that song was that you just heard.

(Happily downgraded my MAC to 10.7 now)

Just getting going with the new version today and I agree with most of the comments.

But one thing I haven't seen touched on precisely in scanning this discussion (apologies if I missed it). One thing I liked about the old versions of ITunes was that in fact had two systems of randomizing the play of songs. I liked the DJ feature for reasons lots of folks have said. But I also liked the fact that the Shuffle feature for playlists offered a second way to randomize. Specifically, DJ randomized "with replacement" while Shuffle randomized without replacement.

In the latter case, this allows you to listen to an entire playlist, or as far as you wish to go in one sitting, without hearing a duplicate song. I used DJ a lot, but sometimes I wanted to be assured of not hearing the same song right away again, or even an later the same afternoon. This is especially true for randomizing shorter playlists -- e.g., today we're decorating and playing holiday songs. This is much shorter than my other playlists (only ~300 songs). So already in the first hour or so, the Up Next list has repeated three of the songs (one of them three times).

It seems like it would be quite simple to have a setting that let you choosed which random play rule you wanted, but I do not see such an option anywhere. I fear this option too has gone away, though I've seen no discussion of it. Has anyone else discovered a way to do this with a playlist? I'd be happy to find out that I simply haven't discovered the option yet.

So true

iTunes and iTunes DJ are the center of my musical existence

Up next is not a substitute

I can't upgrade without it

Please put it back!