Is cover flow gone in iTunes 11?

Guys, this is a thread about the removal of Coverflow.

Songbird doesn't have an acceptable plugin that will work for me. I tried Mediaflow, and it doesn't meet my needs. I've tried out virtually every alternative I could, both current and EOL, because I really don't care, just need a solution. Beatunes, CoverJuke, Evernote, EZ Play DJ, there are several others that are not coming to mind right now. Some of them came close, but nothing is a enough of match for me to ditch iTunes 10.7. I have to have CoverFlow for my own personal uses.

Having said that...

Whether or not Songbird is available, stable, has problems or works like a charm is all completely irrelevant. Can we move on? That aspect of the discussion is really starting to bore me 🙂

Ok. Let me post again my work around solution to Cover Flow being gone in iTunes 11. First, I was as disheartened as anyone that CF was removed because I created my whole music library/ jukebox player around it. CF was a great video jukebox as I was able to project the artwork on my large monitors throughout my house. Now, the artwork is pathetic.

And I am about as anal as anyone having an 8000 song library categorized into various genre playlists and then subcategorized further into playlists with 1-5 stars. Each song had its specific customized equalizer preset to compensate for the quality of the original CD or the inability of iTunes to properly play bass (IMHO). So migrating to another player was not an attractive option.

AND I AM TIRED OF READING PEOPLE'S COMPLAINTS ABOUT CF BEING GONE. SO, I DECIDED TO LOOK FOR AN APPLE ALTERNATIVE. AND I FOUND IT.

And the solution was already something I had. APPLE TV. YES. APPLE TV

I configured Apple TV to Home Sharing with my iTunes music library. Then when I play a song in iTunes, I select the Music icon on Apple TV. Then select the 'Now Playing' icon on top left. What then displays on my 65" TV is the full screen artwork of the song playing. It is impressive.

So let's review the following:

1.) What I lost with iTunes 11 and using Apple TV:

a.) The ability to see a panoramic view view of all the artwork in my now playing playlist. I only see the artwork now for one song at a time. Do I miss what I had before,,,,yes,,,,but ,,,,

b.) The ability to quickly change functions in iTunes as I now have to change sources on my tv to see iTunes and not the Apple TV artwork displaying. See later advantage.

2.) What I was able to keep

a.) all my songs, playlists, artwork etc with having to migrate to another platform

b.) the ability to continue to connect my Apple devices to my itunes computer so I can get system and app updates.

3.) What I gained by switching to Apple TV

a.) HD quality artwork on all screens. Previously I was only able to connect two monitors to iTunes. The second monitor had a washed our display because I was splitting a VGA signal. Now I have high quality video on all 3 monitors.

b.) The flexibility to connect my other stereo receivers via wifi using Apple TV instead of toslink. But since I already had the toslink run throughout the house and I perceive it to be higher quality, I stayed with digital toslink and use the Apple TV for video display only.

c.) a more stable iTunes application. Say what you will but my computer locked up from time to time because I think CF was a memory hog. That problem is now gone because all the artwork runs through the Apple TV and not my computer.

And the best part:

d.) I can now use Apple Remote on any of my devices to connect to My Library in iTunes. I can switch playlists, stop play, control volume, etc with my iPhone or iPad as I walk around the house. Even better, a guest can now use one of those devises to browse and control iTunes just like they would if they were standing at a jukebox. It has made iTunes an even better video jukebox (IMHO).

Yup,,it will cost you $100.

So people can complain all they want about what they no longer have. And I'm tired of waiting for Apple to fix the problem.

I've moved on!

Are you being serious ? You think a fix is to buy an Apple TV ?

Well done you for having a nice big 65 inch TV screen...

The only solution is to downgrade iTunes. It's that simple.

You can post as many times as you want. Apple TV simply isn't a solution for most of us. I think there is plenty of explanation here as to why not.

Norge4Him wrote:

... AND I AM TIRED OF READING PEOPLE'S COMPLAINTS ABOUT CF BEING GONE. SO, I DECIDED TO LOOK FOR AN APPLE ALTERNATIVE. AND I FOUND IT.

And the solution was already something I had. APPLE TV. YES. APPLE TV

Sorry, but I read your original post a long time ago, and let me just say, in all caps if that helps: THIS IS NO SUBSTITUTION FOR COVER FLOW.

I understand that it meets your needs, and it may meet other people's needs (so thank you for sharing it with us), but it has nothing to do with how I use iTunes and why I love Cover Flow for searching and browsing through my song/album library.

The only real substitute for iTunes is the Mac version of JRiver Media Center. This has long been the best Windows media app, and now they make a Mac version. It has a nice, if unoriginal, 3D cover view. I find Apple's Cover Flow to be more useful, but JRiver is trying to create a cross-platform media center with better features than iTunes. The JRiver people should be applauded for competing against Apple (more specifically, against the lazy, clueless, unresponsive iTunes team).

I am in agreement. I went back to version 10.7 and will hang on to it as long as possible. I don't want to sound like a Luddite here but my gripe with digital music has always been the disconnect between performers and their music. Not having an album cover is just another step in that direction.

Absolutely agree.

Album covers were really important. Those of us old enough will remember the artwork of Roger Dean for Yes, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Pink Floyd.... through to Flaming Lips, Beck, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (sorry I'm getting opinionated).. some great album covers, which to many of us are still important. A year ago we could get digital copies of those seminal pieces of artwork straight onto our desktop as we listened to the music.

Then it all changed into a dull database.

The artwork is shrunken and inflexible at best, missing at worst.

In my opinion, there is nothing more to say on this thread. I don't want a workaround, or some app by a third party pretending to be Apple.

If I did I might as well go out and buy a proper iPhone copy, by Samsung or... Nokia ?

Apple have been the innovators for years, either creating, or scooping up the great creations of little guys and making it mainstream. Computers that are not grey. The Graphical User Interface (massive). The PDA. The iPod (massive). The iPhone (massive!). And right in there, iTunes (MASSIVE!).

And most important of all, the beautiful, elegant design of the user interface in everything they did. Everything was so, SO user friendly.

But that came to a very abrupt halt with iTunes 11.

I've been using Macs for 20 years and tonight i struggled to add a song to a playlist. (honest!).

My guess is that all the good developers have moved over from iTunes, to the iPhone and iPad. That's where Apple make money.

Shame.

Since 3 weeks I had to install a new Mointain Loin on my MacBook Pro coz I've exchanged my HD with bigger one SSD HD. So with a new Moutain Lion installation Apple reinstalls iTunes 11. I thought: "come give iTunes 11 a chance".

I agree totaly with Paul: user friendlyness is a foreign word with iTunes 11!

Nothing compares with iTunes 10.7 in terms of user friendly (beside cover flow)!

Paul Richards4 wrote:

Absolutely agree.

Album covers were really important. Those of us old enough will remember the artwork of Roger Dean for Yes, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Pink Floyd.... through to Flaming Lips, Beck, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (sorry I'm getting opinionated).. some great album covers, which to many of us are still important. A year ago we could get digital copies of those seminal pieces of artwork straight onto our desktop as we listened to the music.

Then it all changed into a dull database.

The artwork is shrunken and inflexible at best, missing at worst.

In my opinion, there is nothing more to say on this thread. I don't want a workaround, or some app by a third party pretending to be Apple.

If I did I might as well go out and buy a proper iPhone copy, by Samsung or... Nokia ?

Apple have been the innovators for years, either creating, or scooping up the great creations of little guys and making it mainstream. Computers that are not grey. The Graphical User Interface (massive). The PDA. The iPod (massive). The iPhone (massive!). And right in there, iTunes (MASSIVE!).

And most important of all, the beautiful, elegant design of the user interface in everything they did. Everything was so, SO user friendly.

But that came to a very abrupt halt with iTunes 11.

I've been using Macs for 20 years and tonight i struggled to add a song to a playlist. (honest!).

My guess is that all the good developers have moved over from iTunes, to the iPhone and iPad. That's where Apple make money.

Shame.

Hear, hear.

That absolutely sums it up nicely.

Paul Richards4 wrote:

...

In my opinion, there is nothing more to say on this thread. I don't want a workaround, or some app by a third party pretending to be Apple.

If I did I might as well go out and buy a proper iPhone copy, by Samsung or... Nokia ?

...

I've been using Macs for 20 years and tonight i struggled to add a song to a playlist. (honest!).

I was with you except for these comments. I'm not sure what you mean about the phones.

As to your difficulty adding a song to a Playlist, I think maybe you haven't set your View preferences to make iTunes 11 look like iTunes 10. I switch back and forth between iTunes 10 on my Mac Mini and iTunes 11 on my MacBook Pro every day, and I find that there is barely a difference in terms of user-friendliness or workflow. I just miss Cover Flow. The dirty little secret (to me) about iTunes 11 is that it's not much different than iTunes 10 except for the default Views. The defaults of iTunes 11 are BAD! Weirdly unintuitive and awkward for long-time users of iTunes. But Apple provides options for making iTunes 11 look and function almost exactly like iTunes 10. The highly-touted design simplification of iTunes 11 was simply a matter of taking away a few things in the defaults, but letting users put them back in if desired. Much ado about nothing -- except for Cover Flow.

The way I add songs to a Playlist is the same as before. WIth the Sidebar visible, I click and drag selected tracks to the desired Playlist. Alternately, I make track selections and right-click to choose to add the tracks to an existing Playlist or to a create a new one from the selection. The "New Playlist from Selection" option is also available through the File>New dropdown menu, and with a keyboard shortcut. In other words, Apple gives you otions.

Maybe I'm missing something. How were you expecting the Playlists to work?

Paul Richards4 wrote:

I've been using Macs for 20 years and tonight i struggled to add a song to a playlist. (honest!).

You mean almost 20 years...

Chris CA wrote:

Paul Richards4 wrote:

I've been using Macs for 20 years and tonight i struggled to add a song to a playlist. (honest!).

You mean almost 20 years...

??? Macintosh will be 30 years old next month.

i used macs in work for a couple of years, we had mac Classics, and then LC2 and a IIvi.

My first Mac at home was a Centris 660AV, I bought it in 1993.

I used to watch TV in a miniwindow in the corner and make phone calls through it to my mum when I was in college.

So i've probably been using Macs for about 23 years.

I'm not sure what you mean about the phones.

... there has been a lot of discussion in this thread about how to fix iTunes11. Many of the suggestions either involve workarounds, like yours, or using some other program instead - Songbird, Soundjam, whatever … I don’t want to use a different piece of software just so I can have a poor copy of Coverflow. In the same way I don’t want a Samsung Galaxy or a Nokia, or Blackberry Touch. iTunes and the iPhone are what I use. I don’t want a cheap copy of either.

I switch back and forth between iTunes 10 on my Mac Mini and iTunes 11 on my MacBook Pro every day, and I find that there is barely a difference in terms of user-friendliness or workflow.

I’m surprised that you find barely a difference between 10 and 11;-

Not being able to resize your album art, no mini preview in the bottom left corner, no artwork in list view, reduced size graphics on my phone, it now doesn’t recognise my old iPod, no ability to open a playlist as a separate window, a search facility that’s a complete fail, why does the progress bar now have to be in a separate window, blah blah.

And actually I synced my iPad and iPhone earlier;

go top left for the hard disk content i want to update (apps maybe)

bottom right to update apps

top left again to select podcasts

top left to update podcasts

top right to select my iPhone..

bottom right to sync it

top right to go back to my library

top left to see music

top centre for the content i want to check..

We all use these programs differently and I don't question that it works for you. But for me, user friendliness and workflow are a shambles.

As to your difficulty adding a song to a Playlist, I think maybe you haven't set your View preferences to make iTunes 11 look like iTunes 10.

I hate the fact that the iTunes 11 developers had so little confidence in themselves that they put workarounds in, so we could make 11 look like 10.

I don’t want workarounds, any more than I want a Samsung.

I want it to work. Out of the box. That’s why I ranted previously about Apple's most important strength - 'the beautiful, elegant design of the user interface in everything they did. Everything was so, SO user friendly'.

It seems that the new Apple way to add a song to a playlist is to right-click on the song title; so we've moved away from the intuitive drag-and-drop always favoured by apple, and adopted the right click as the default.

My post is not about solutions, I am just shocked and disappointed that iTunes11 exists.

Actually it’s worse than that. I’m shocked and disappointed that iTunes11 STILL exists.

Shame

Mark Block wrote:

??? Macintosh will be 30 years old next month.

DOH!

Back to math school for me...