Two Suggestions for iTunes
I’ve been using iTunes for quite some time now, and I must say that I’m pretty pleased. It’s easy to control, it’s automatic file organization is fantastic, and the Party Shuffle is very intuitive and flexible. There are a few things, however, that I think could make it an even better product, while not taking away from it’s ease-of-use.
Prompt on Duplicate Songs in Playlists
I manage a few playlists that are pretty large, and when I’m updating them, occasionally I’ll drag something into the playlist that’s already there. iTunes doesn’t tell me this, it just creates a duplicate entry. While I am flattered that iTunes thinks that I always know exactly what I’m doing, it would be nice for it to double check every now and then. I can see why one might want multiple instances of the same song in a playlist, but I wouldn’t.
I would like to see iTunes prompt me if I’m adding a duplicate and ask if I want to create a duplicate entry, or just use the existing song. Perhaps a “Do this for the rest” checkbox could be added so you wouldn’t have to verify each duplicate separately.
Playlist Specific Track Timeline
iTunes already gives you the option of specifying the track starting point and ending point using the “Get Info” section. I would like to be able to specify unique starting and ending points on a per-playlist basis. I have several live albums in my collection, and when I’m listening to the album as a whole, I like the dialogue and additional running-time of the songs. But when I’m listening in a playlist where the songs are not in sequential order, it seems awkward to have Lindsey Buckingham introducing the next song, giving some background history on it’s creation, segueing directly into Franz Ferdinand.