Initial iTunes 5 Observations

September 7th, 2005
Categories: Interaction, Interface, Meta-data, Music, OS X
  1. Lyrics are not searchable in iTunes. Remember a few words from a song but not the song name, album, or artist? Good luck locating it!
  2. Song lyrics are only displayed in the Info pane. Why not in the visualization mode?
  3. Song lyrics cannot be simultaneously added to multiple recordings of the same song.
  4. The “Reveal In Library” arrow widgets’ Option-modified behavior doesn’t work anymore. Update: the Option-modifed behavior works if you revert defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks to the normal setting, then switch it back.
  5. It is no longer possible to search by Composer. Commenter Sven S. Porst informed me that the Composer (and Song) search filters become available when the “Music” group is selected. Mea culpa. Perhaps I should re-title this post “iTunes 5 Lyrics: Nearly Useless”.

The new paint job is nice (still visually distinctive in Exposé, though not as heavy as the metal), but I’m not impressed thus far. With regard to lyrics, the lesson is: if you are going to implement a feature, do it right or don’t do it at all.

4 Responses to “Initial iTunes 5 Observations”

  1. Matthom, on September 7th, 2005 at 4:41 PM Said:

    >The “Reveal In Library” arrow widgets’ Option-modified behavior doesn’t work anymore.

    I tried this, and it still seems to work.. maybe I’m doing it wrong? Acutally, I never even knew of this feature until now. Often times, I’m in a playlist, and I want to see the song in the Library view…

  2. Michael Tsai - Blog - iTunes 5, on September 8th, 2005 at 7:25 AM Said:

    [...] Daniel J. Wilson [...]

  3. ssp, on September 8th, 2005 at 7:55 AM Said:

    For composer search do a Command-Shift-B, select Music in the bar and then the tag will appear.

    A bit hidden, perhaps.

  4. Membranophonist, on September 8th, 2005 at 11:31 AM Said:

    Thanks, Sven. That’s what I get for not clicking around more!

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