Itunes is one of the most popular music players on the market. With an impressive 40 million downloads, it is clear that this app has struck a chord with users. However, not all of its features are created equal, and it is important to understand the app’s various limitations before spending any money on it.
Why Is Itunes So Limited?
Thanks to iTunes’ extreme popularity, the amount of features it offers is incredible. In addition to holding music purchases, the app also allows users to buy and download songs, playlists, and albums from within the app itself. But this feature is incredibly limited compared to other streaming services like Spotify or Pandora, which offer far more flexibility.
The reason for this is simple. As a streaming service, Spotify and Pandora are optimized for mobile use, whereas iTunes is more of a desktop or laptop app.
How Is Itunes Different Than The Rest?
iTunes is more limited than the majority of its competitors because it was designed with the Mac platform in mind. Back in 2001 when Apple first launched iTunes, the company had already made major inroads into the PC market. This is likely because most modern PCs were compatible with Apple devices at the time and could run software designed for them. As a result, iTunes was one of the first apps available for download and uses Mac-like features like a dock for storing and organizing content.
The simplicity and familiarity of using iTunes means it is easier to consume for users new to technology, but this comes at the cost of missing out on some essential features. For example, while the app does offer some limited voice recognition for searching content, it does not natively support searches based on acoustic patterns like the ones used by Amazon’s Echo or Google’s Home. Also, iTunes does not offer any sort of multi-user support, which is a huge detriment to those looking to use the app with others.
Features We Missed
While iTunes is a great tool for storing and organizing music, we mustn’t forget about the features it doesn’t offer. Specifically, we need to talk about the ones that make it different from Spotify and Pandora.
The first and most obvious difference between iTunes and its competitors is the app’s UI design. While most music players are clean and tidy affairs, iTunes is cluttered and busy, making it hard to quickly find what you’re looking for. Additionally, you’ll rarely find album art in the app thanks to the emphasis Apple places on simplicity and UI design.
Because of these design choices, iTunes has a pretty poor track record when it comes to syncing music between different devices. In order to get all of your music to play nicely on all of your devices, you will need to connect to your Apple ID from every other app and device and then manually sync your collections. This process is extremely cumbersome and sometimes leads to errors as well, creating additional work for you.
The second major difference between iTunes and its better-designed competitors is the sheer number of features they offer. It would be one thing if iTunes were lacking in the features department, but the opposite is true. In fact, it boasts some pretty impressive apps features, the most prominent of which being a Netflix-like media streamer that can hold hundreds of movies and TV shows. But, again, this comes at the cost of a less refined experience due to the overwhelming number of features.
iTunes also offers a podcast app, which is great if you’re looking for news and information on current events. It also has an app to help aspiring songwriters and musicians find success. But, for the most part, these features pale in comparison to what Spotify or Pandora offer. The bottom line is that if you’re looking for a simple, clean, and easy-to-use music app, you should look no further than Spotify or Pandora. But if you want a fully functional media streamer with all of the latest movies and shows, go with iTunes.