Thoughts

On the iTunes library, revisited

June 7, 2019

First, read the original post if you haven’t already, then read the news. tl;dr: Earlier this week as I write this, Apple finally laid iTunes to rest with the next macOS release. Mostly. It’s now split into its individual parts, with sync becoming a Finder function—that makes so much sense and I hate that I didn’t think of it—and, while it remains mystic right now, it seems as though the libraries are also being split up.

Problem is, the problem remains. You, the user, still have poor options for your source of truth, the home of your library. Apple still wants it to be either your Mac, or iCloud (which is really more like having no library). Your iPhone or iPad is still not an option as long as you have a Mac; and, thus, your library across multiple devices is still going to be prone to not having any real synchronization or symmetry or symbiosis.

Sure, I’ll admit that I—at my ripe old age of fucking 30—am an old fogey who still likes the idea of possessing my own copies of music files, and even occasionally a physical disc. I can’t just live automagically in the cloud and give up control, not when iTunes-soon-just-Apple-Music has middling to abysmal album art and little to no knowledge of all my obscure imported Foo Fighters single CDs, or rare recordings of Foo Fighters shows, or leaks of little-known Foo Fighters sessions, or…

Point being, you know what would be really cool and automagical? If the library directory lived in the cloud and played coordinator. But Apple hasn’t been led to that particular water dish yet.