No, wtf? No need to get rid of perfectly good features that set it apart from the competition. They need to stop neglecting it and start bringing stuff like Smart Playlists or ratings to the other clients (and for those two I guess I mean the web client specifically)
If you're not using iTunes it's garbage. I don't want a library that's separate from Apple Music. Every time I want to get to an artist from an album that I added to my library (so I can access it quicker). If I click the artist there I only see a list of tracks from that artist I have saved. I have to click on a tiny button "show album in Apple Music" and there I can click on the artist to see everything that's available. Somehow it's not that complicated on iOS. On Mac it still feels like two apps stuck together with ductape.
Oh, that's what you mean, yeah I agree that's kinda annoying. I'm sure it can be improved without having to completely rewrite the app though. It just seems like they're barely maintaining it so nobody is doing that.
iTunes didn't start life as a first party app though. They bought a third party app (SoundJam MP) and hired the entire development team. That team shipped iTunes shortly after and at least one of them still works for Apple today.
While iTunes 1.0 was quite different from SoundJam, it's likely they were working on a major redesign when Apple bought them and they simply finished it off - I'd guess Apple's only real contribution was the "glass" user interface elements which eventually became systemwide.
iTunes got progressively less logical/intuitive with every release after the initial purchase.
Here's SoundJam MP, iTunes 1.0, and iTunes 10.0 which was either the best or worst version (best, because it had the most features, worst, because do you really want a social network and movies/tv shows in your music player?) — from iTunes 11 onwards they finally cut features, but threw out the baby with the bathwater.
Also when I went from iTunes to Music I lost over 1000 songs that apple decided I shouldn't have. terrible. Most of these were ripped from CD and from files shared on the internet.
The vanishing music might be a corrupted library file or a library syncing issue. It’s not an uncommon bug. You should search your computer for MP3 and AAC files to see if they’re still available. And this isn’t just an Apple Music issue. This is something that has been an issue with iTunes forever.
As for the UI, what is a “total disaster?” I feel like it is basically the iTunes classic UI these days, sans video and phone syncing.
@bici@apple_enthusiast not to mention Apple Classical. Reinforcing all prejudices Europeans might have against American companies and classical music. I know these are prejudices but Apple really didn’t get, and doesn’t get classical music categorisation. This issue is dragging on for 20 years now.