iTunes 8 = On the Verge of Bloatware

So I've spent the past 2 or so days playing around with iTunes 8 and the new Genius Sidebar. Apple describes the Genius sidebar as a sidebar that "appears right in iTunes and recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have, based on the songs you select." Sounds harmless and simple, right. Wrong! After just 48 hours with it I have to say, I'm not a fan of it.

To enable this new feature you have to log into your iTunes account and give it permission to anonymously send Apple information about your music library. That way the Genius sidebar can pick songs that you don't already have in your library. Ok, that makes sense. But in order for the Genius sidebar to work, you must remain logged into your account. Here is where I really start hating the Genius Sidebar. See, if your account is set to 1-click shopping, the Genius Sidebar makes it dangerously easy to accidentally buy a song you don't want from the iTunes store. The sidebar itself isn't that big, but on average it gives you 20 or so "matches." That means you'll see 20 "Add" buttons. And it not only recommends 99-cent songs, it also recommends full CDs, compilations, you name it.

Another thing I hate — once you turn the GS on, you can't resize it. It's default size is its permanent size (which is odd considering you can resize any other column in iTunes). Personally, the Genius Sidebar feels and looks like a giant banner ad within iTunes subconsciously encouraging you to buy more music from the iTunes Store.

Sure, you can turn this feature off (which I did), but I'm gonna guess a lot of people are gonna try it and not know how to turn it off and like blind sheep, buy more and more music from the iTunes Store. That's awesome for Apple. Kudos to them for their slick/aggressive marketing techniques, but that screws up my personal opinion of iTunes.

I used to love iTunes 'cause it kept all my music, made it easy to import other CDs/music, and 'cause it was lightning fast on my Intel iMac. But now, I'm not a fan of it anymore. I need it 'cause I (like most people) own an iPod, but it's starting to feel bloated. If Apple continues making these kinds of "features" it's gonna turn iTunes into a fancy banner ad.

Oh, and that whole thing about the Genius Sidebar not recommending songs you already have. There's a loophole in there (as I quickly found out). For the most part, it doesn't recommend songs you already have. But if there's a song that can be found on more than one CD — it'll recommend it, even if you already have that song. Example: Feist's song "I Feel it All" is on both her CD titled "The Reminder" and on the Music Soundtrack to "The Women." I have "The Reminder." The Genius Sidebar recommended I buy "The Women" soundtrack so I could have the same song twice. Sneaky.