Q: iTunes 11: No more album art preview for selected track??? :(

Hello Rythmdevils,

I really want to understand the way you use iTunes. So it is not my intention to offend you!

But for instance for me personally It's now much better to choose a playlist, select a song, than maybe switch to album view see all the other cover of the playlist, click one, maybe go to "return to album" to see the rest of the album, find out that there is another song of the album which is worth listening, select this -> up next and then continuing with the playlist. This is much easier then before.

This is only an example! At the end there will be different opinions about usefull and useless. But new things are new! Sometimes things are deleted because they (Apple) think nobody uses this. This also seems to happen with coverflow. I was such a user. It's nice but never used it.

I usually stream my music to my stereo via Apple TV with I think pretty artwork at my TV.

But nevertheless, If I understand what is your way of listening or managing your iTunes library and I know some tricks... I will try my best to tell

regards

Gerhard

How many albums do you have in your library? 

I've been pretty clear about how I use itunes, maybe you should read posts more carefully. 

I will repeat myself about my other main point AGAIN. 

All other views but song view are useless to me because I cannot scroll through a list of 2,600 albums trying to find the one I'm looking for.  It is beyond ridiculous. 

I need a library browsing  interface that allows me to reduce the length of the list in more than just 1 way.  That's why I have to use song view, so I can break the list down with genres, and artists.  Not just a list of a million albums.  The artist view, album view, and genre view are all useless to me because they don't do enough to break down the list and require too much scrolling.  In genre view, there are way too many albums by each artist.  I shouldn't have to plow through 30 grateful dead albums to get to the next artist.  In artist view, there are way too many artists.  I shouldn't have to plow through hundreds of jazz artists and classical albums and motown artists and reggae artists to get to the Grateful Dead.  It's just not useable. 

Song view is the only view that is manageable for a large music library, and they removed artwork from it for no reason.

That is my main complaint here. 

I spent 10 minutes and designed a mockup that works wonderfully wtih the new features of itunes11, includes large album artwork as well as the new look, by combining the new artist and genre view into one, with multiple columns.  If it worked like this, it would be fantastic.  I will be sending it to Apple so they can ignore it. 

Apple. Bring the art work option back to the lower left window!!!!!!

Where the artwork goes is not the problem.   That can be an optional function that can be built in.  

The problem is that they have the original albums but they won't relate them to the original music.

I hope no-one will think I'm thick for going on like this but where is the technical problem in linking that artwork to whatever song someone plays. 

They must have the biggest musical library on earth; they know which songs I have in my files.   It should be automatic; it is what computers are for.

This *****.  Part of my ritual for downloading music is the artwork.  Now I can't even SEE IT?!!! ***??  The fat cats at Apple make so much money they thought it would be fun to screw with the little guy?  They better put it back or no amount of iPad sales can fix the amount of unhappy customers and bad PR they will be getting.

"I shouldn't have to plow through hundreds of jazz artists and classical albums and motown artists and reggae artists to get to the Grateful Dead.  It's just not useable. "

I don't get this. If you are in Artist mode, you can start typing the name of the artist (Grateful Dead) and iTunes will immediately go there. Once there, it shows all the albums, with cover art and track list. I can also do this in Album mode. So if I wanted to find all albums by Pink Floyd, I just start typing the name. You can also use the search box in the upper right (as usual).

I guess I just don't understand what it is you feel is lacking. You say you cannot scroll through thousands of albums trying to find the one you are looking for? If you know the artist, song or album why don't you just type the name? Are you saying that you really don't know what you are looking for, but you'll know when you see it? What's your work-flow?

I have no problem finding whatever I wish. Also, I will point out to you that the number of albums you have in your library matters not, and is irrelevant.

"Part of my ritual for downloading music is the artwork." -- what is meant by this? The artwork comes with the music, does it not?

I'm not sure why some of you are not understanding the issues that many have enumerated here. Let me repeat my specific issue as clearly as possible.

I am ripping my vinyl collection to MP3 and importing the .mp3 files to iTunes. After importing, I need to set the album art. Under iTunes 10, this was (at most) a 2-click process:

1. Click the album in iTunes (the blank album art appeared in the lower left corner)
2. Drag and drop the .jpg file from Finder into the album art window.

In iTunes 11, the best I've found is a 3-click process:

1. RIGHT-click on the album and select "Get Info" before releasing the button
2. Drag and drop the .jpg file from Finder into the album art window of the Info dialog
3. Click OK.

Let me emphasize the main problems here: By making it impossible for me to keep a functional album view window open, iTunes forces an extra click, essentially increasing my workload by a full 50%. For several albums, it is a genuine pain in the butt. Why Apple decided to force me to close and re-open the Info window for every album art import is just beyond my comprehension.

A previous poster implied I use the album art thumbnail from the title bar. I have been unable to get this to work, It shows the art for whatever is currently playing. Let me be clear about this: I am not playing music. I don't use iTunes on my Mac to play music. Ever. Regardless, I fail to see how the album art thumbnail gets me back to my 2-click process, since it adds at least one step: play the album I just imported.

(On a tangential but related note, iTunes 10 used to recognize some of the vinyl albums I had ripped and were importing, apparently just by artist and album title, and would automatically get the album art. This only worked about 50% of the time, but it was a truly useful feature and made my 2-step process a zero-step process. Well, I've imported about 20 albums into iTunes 11 now, and it hasn't recognized and automatically imported art for a single one of them. So this too appears to be broke in the new version.)

If I am wrong on any of the above, if someone knows of a 2-click process for adding album art -- or even better a way to get iTunes 11 to recognize the album and automatically retrieve the art -- please correct me and I will thank you profusely. But for now, personally, I feel that the changes in iTunes 11 were intended for other users, and I feel Apple doesn't value me as a customer.

I select the album, then hit command-I, and drag the image to the artwork box - then click okay.  This is slightly easier than the method you are using.

SkewMatrix wrote:

 

 

If I am wrong on any of the above, if someone knows of a 2-click process for adding album art -- or even better a way to get iTunes 11 to recognize the album and automatically retrieve the art -- please correct me and I will thank you profusely.

But really it's that simple. select the album (album view) drag the cover to the grey title bar, where usually the track time counts down. There will appear a blue frame around it. Drop it. Thats it. just one click!

yes - but it WAS so much easier before.. why did that aspect of the application have to be changed? How has that aspect been improved?

that's what the thread is about...

It is not easier to drag a cover to the lower left than to the top! Are you serious?

The only point, as far as I can see, reading the thread is a lack of possibilities of structured search. Boolean search would solve this. But I don't know if this was existing in iTunes 10. -never used this

all other points in this thread are solved or did I missed something, beside some complains about design changes, which are usual, otherwise it would not be a new version... IMHO

here's what you "missed"..

we don't LIKE it.. it's NOT an improvement for a great many of us and, in fact, for many of us it adds unnecessary faff to what used to be a simple process.

with YOUR system, (since I no longer have the update installed I cannot check myself), how can I view "selected" rather than "playing" in something larger than the thumbnail at the top....and can I hilight, say, twenty different tracks and drag art to them in one move?

and, AGAIN, why was it necessary to change it, since it ha clearly upset som many users of the application. Your attitude seems to be as uncaring as Apple's "just get used to it - it's better 'cos we SAY it's better."

I didn't have it installed any more than a week or so and didn't find even one "improvement" that meany anything to ME - the end user.

Please send your feedback to Apple using the Feedback option as they do not (usually) read these posts. I would like to think of them currently being overwhelmed by the negative feedback of iTunes 11. I am not a fan of iTunes 11 and to me the biggest problems with it is the lack of Artwork and view options. There are other problems with it but I've already posted about them in the forums and sent my feedback to Apple.

Just a thought regarding adding Artwork by dragging to the top playback window: would you be able to drag Artwork for multiple items this way or is it one at a time? I no longer have iTunes 11 on any of my computers and don't have a way to test it out (you almost need a manual to figure out the redesign -- not a very Apple approach).

As for iTunes, for now I have version 10.7 but have been browsing around for an alternative. After some very technical work I exported my library from Mac to Windows (to keep playlists, play count, and ratings -- don't try this at home, kids, it's very difficult). Windows isn't my favorite platform (OS X is my fave, still), but the music player alternatives are much better there than on OS X. There are synching issues to iron out with my iPhone, among other details. I am uncertain as to whether I will drop iTunes. But the current redesign has got me checking out the alternatives.

Losing cover flow is a huge disapointment to me, it was such an easy and enjoyable way of browsing. Ive just been having a try to adjust to the new styles and just can't get on with them! As I was running through I wished to have a quick look at the artwork to an album (while something else was playing) what a palava! Previously on song list with cover flow displaying, one click and there it would have been to view.....Now? I have to play the track (I don't ****ing want to!!!) or change to a different view, type in the info into the search bar again and after faffing about eventually I can see it. Well done apple, you've vastly improved things here...Or at least you tell us you have.

Also, when I type into the search bar now, why, why, why doesn't the player eliminate as we type? I'm no luddite and am always open to change, but not at the expense of ease of use or funtionallity.

One more point..I'd be interested to know if anyone else has experienced this. Occasionally when I decide to play a song I double click on it and it plays..not the one I clicked on, but one four or five down the list from my intended selection.

Ok so your up next feature is quite decent, but this is for me a huge step backwards, trust in you is wearing thin Apple..........