Why is iTunes11 against classical music?
As someone involved in the international regulation of cyberspace and the standards that enable it to function, I have watched Apple recently make a number of mistakes that are increasingly isolating it from governments and the commercial, particularly business, marketplace. Their non-participation in many of the key international committees in our collaborative world is a pity, not just for Apple, but for its customers - including me. In particular, they aren't participating in key cybersecurity groups, so there is a real possibility in the future that Apple's hardware will be physically unable to connect to any trusted network for the handling of sensitive information, such as your patient record. Their folly is breathtaking. I am discovering more shortcomings in Apples latest products, which is a pity. Most of these affect me professionally.
However, this one affects me personally. It is their refusal to engage with loyal customers that is the most frustrating issue - you can tell by the mood in these support communities. What has really got me is the way in which Apple has really gone to war on classical music folks in iTunes 11, by removing a wide range of controls for managing and listening to tracks (not songs, these are (media) tracks, Apple, not all musicians are singers!). In iTunes 11, Apple has completely failed to understand that Albums have Artists (as well as Album Artists) and Composers. And Composers are at least as important as Albums or Artists.
In iTunes 11, when I click on an Album, I cannot get it to show a composer for the tracks on the Album under any circumstances. Worse, when you search on a composer using keywords, it doesn't find all the tracks for that composer (so there is a problem in the search engine, which worked fine previously). So my/our ability to sort our music to listen to albums or tracks by a specific composer, which has been in iTunes for as long as I can remember, has gone in iTunes 11. So too has reliable, accurate searching. What a shambles. It lays bare Apple's failure to test products properly - I regret to say this is happening elsewhere with an increasing frequency.
Has anyone found a way to correct Apple's massive errors and restore the flexibility of iTunes10 in iTunes11 to:
- reconfigure the Album window so that it displays attributes that the user requires, not what Apple's uncultured nerd limits the user to seeing.
- extend the View options which are far too limited. This is a database, so I should have enough controls to manage and view the data
- configure the Bar that has Songs, Albums, Artists, Genres, Videos and Radio to add other attributes, particularly Composers and Album Artist
- find ways to sort by any attribute in other views. I can only get the attribute list to show when you have Songs selected.
??
For Apple. Pay attention - I want my flexibility back!! Remember Apple - the Customer is Always Right!
Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)
