How do I remove "biography" from the right pane

50 people (plus the original poster) want to know how to remove the info panel iTunes now forces us to see, and no one has any suggestions on how to remove it?

If I wanted additional information on a band, I'll use Wikipedia (or read the album inlay).

I only use iTunes for a convenient media player with good cataloguing and sorting options.

I have never purchased, nor do I expect to in the future, any music from iTunes. I only use it to import CDs, previously purchased music from other sources.

I wished they'd stop messing things up at Apple.

If it works, leave it alone. We don't expect changes all the time.

And adding useless and inconvenient changes, as the last few updates have, proves that they've reached the pinnacle this program will ever be, and are only degrading that perfection every time they try to make changes.

My previous rant aside; I think I may have found a solution to this.

The first step is to change the 'Import' settings of iTunes.

Change the "Import Using" to "MP3 Encoder", if not already done so.

Edit the import options to your preference.

Contrary to what the option descriptions lead you to believe, this setting governs all format conversions in iTunes, not just when importing tracks from a CD.

Once thats set to your preference.

Close all options and settings windows, making sure to save any changes by selecting "Okay".

Once you're looking at your iTunes again, select the artist affected by forced the biography panel.

To my experiences, the reason this panel is showing is because there is at least one '.m4a' file in the affected artists library of tracks.

And you have two options here.

First option is to manually inspect every track, checking to see if it is a '.m4a' file.

and following the procedure I'll describe below for the affected files.

Or, the second option is to batch process the entire artists library of tracks using the same process.

Personally, I only had to process one album as it was only some bonus tracks I'd added afterward.

Once you've decided on what you want to do (selective or batch processing), select the tracks, album or entire artist and right click.

Then, select "Create MP3 Version".

This may take some time to complete, depending on how many tracks you are processing, and to what quality you chose in the settings.

Once done, iTunes will have doubled the selected tracks.

Unfortunately, on a quick glance, both the original offending tracks and the new clones will appear to be identical.

So, we need to sort them out.

Right-clicking on either one, and selecting "Show in Finder" (I'm a Mac user, Windows will be called something else), will open a window showing you the actual file on your computers drive.

If you have iTunes set to sort your files automatically (as I do), then both the original and the clone file will be in the same folder.

If you manage your iTunes folders manually then doing this to the original file will open where you placed it. And doing it to the cloned file will open a new folder iTunes created.

Either way, the way to identify the new clone is to check the creation date of the file. It will obviously be timestamped as the day you made iTunes "Create MP3 Version".

This new clone, is the one we want to keep.

If there are only a few files you cloned, then you can select the file in iTunes and use the "Get Info" to identify the files.

And then delete the original, both from the iTunes library and your computer.

Once this is done, you need to completely close iTunes.

Then restart iTunes.

Once re-started, and your library loads, the "Biography" panel will be gone.

You can either leave the new files where iTunes put them, or if you prefer to manually manage your media folders relocate them to wherever you like, jut making sure to re-import or update the new location in iTunes.

And now you can enjoy iTunes free from visual blights of forced advertising disguised as the "Suggestions" section of the offending "Biography" panel.

I know Apple is know for it's anti-confirmative technologies, and their 'against-the-grain' attitude.

But, in my opinion in regards to proprietary file extensions, it's the equivalent of urinating in the corners to mark territory.

I thought as human beings this species was above such primitive and immature acts.

It's discussing when pets do it, and no more acceptable in a digital form.

Apple's innovations are their strengths, and the reason I chose to back them as a company over Microsoft.

But, recently they're taking their compulsive need to innovate in everything too far.

Change happens over time, I accept that.

But it should come naturally as it is needed, not be forced upon us.

iTunes is a prime example of Apple taking far too many liberties.

Almost everyone references iTunes when talking about digital music, and rightly so.

The program reached a pinnacle, drowning out all competition at one point. And cemented itself as a household name.

But, ever since then, Apple has been trying to improve that already 'perfected'.

As such, the only result is ruining the experience for the users.

Natural evolution of change is good. Forcing people to change the basic way we use or access functions just because they feel the compulsion to change something noticeable is very bad.

Not all updates have to have a noticeable difference.

As long as my iTunes continues to function as I expect, I don't care what number you keep assign to the title.

But making it less user friendly for everyone is an atrocious business decision, and that person should not be allowed to make future decisions in regards to the user interface.

My ranting aside;

I hope the information above is useful.

I can see this working, although I haven't tried.

An alternative, if you only have a few .m4a files in your library, convert the files using 3rd party conversion software. Then delete the m4a's from you library and import the converted mp3s.