Lack of vison or lack of time - on iTunes sharing

Question

It has come to my attention that there are some serious gaps in Apple's apparent vision for iTunes, but is it just because they just haven't had time to implement it yet?
In this context any iTunes that is 'sharing' its Library is a SERVER and any other iTunes or TV that accesses this shared music Library is a CLIENT.
There is currently no way to satisfactorily share music across a network (to other Macs, PCs). Yes you can share, but it is seriously deficient. Let me explain.
If you 'Share' a library, other client devices cannot use the 'Sort' tag data you may have meticulously added to the main Library on the server. Neither other Macs, PCs nor even an TV (when streaming, don't know about when sync'd) can make use of this data. Sorting reverts to the old iTunes method, e.g. Sort Artist tag is ignored and the artists will be sorted alphabetically by the Artist tag (excluding 'The' 'A' etc).
Since this applies to all devices using iTunes sharing protocol (Roku Soundbridge also suffers) it occurs to me that this is a deficiency in the sharing protocol itself rather than the individual client devices.
It is also quite apparent that an iTunes client cannot use any Album Artwork that exists within the iTunes server Library. Is this again a lack of functionality in the sharing protocol? In this case I think not as an TV quite happily gets the Album Artwork from an iTunes server that is streaming the music (and also via AirTunes which is seriously cool:-).
So there are several problems that need fixing. Whether or not the problem is with the sharing protocol or just the client devices, iTunes sharing MUST be enhanced to include Album Artwork and the use of Sort data for ALL Apple's client devices.
Then there is the different problem of sharing the music data directly, i.e. not via iTunes 'sharing'. It is relatively simple to share the music and Album Artwork files across a network, but there are problems with this approach. Most notably that any music added via iTunes on one machine never becomes available on any other iTunes sharing this music data. They have to be manually forced to 'Add to Library' in order to pick up any new additions. You can choose to limit where to re-scan, but that requires knowledge of where the importing iTunes has actually added the files so re-scanning the entire music folder may be required.
OK, so it's not impossible, but having done this, any Album Artwork (i.e. iTunes downloaded) that was added by that first iTunes also fails to appear on any other iTunes, even after the new music has been 'Added to Library', so this has to be added manually at every other iTunes that shares this music. But how is this additional artwork stored? Is iTunes clever enough to see that the file already exists (in the shared Album Artwork folder) and so simply link the tracks to that, or does it download and store all over again and link to that. In the latter case that means every copy of iTunes sharing over this network will actually have its own copy of all the Album Artwork, even though they share the same main folder location. So 5 machines with iTunes sharing the same music, but 5 copies of all the Album Artwork:-(
Currently I get around this by simply copying the Library file from the machine on which iTunes imported the new music to the other machines and so they then get all the new music AND the associated Album Artwork. But, this takes careful preparation at each machine to ensure that the Library can be freely copied in this way (and actually work) and also it means that every machine has to use the same playlists because the Library file gets copied each time.
All in all, it's a mess.
Seems to me we should drop the whole idea of sharing the actual music (and Album Artwork) files and be able to rely entirely on iTunes in-built sharing protocol. But for this to be acceptable, the following needs to be addressed.
What we need is for iTunes sharing protocol clients to have access to (and make use of) ALL the data that exists on the server, in particular the Sort tags and Album Artwork.
Also, there needs to be the ability for different clients to be able to setup and maintain their own playlists, based on music in the server's shared Library. This is currently not allowed in iTunes, but why not? In a household with all the legitimate music stored centrally, why should individual users not be allowed to do this? iTunes can no longer share a Library outside its own local network, so I see no reason why this should not be allowed.
iTunes has such huge potential, it's frustrating for it not to be realised.
I guess I'm just sounding off here and not really looking for answers, although if I'm wrong about any of the above and it's already possible, chip in and let the rest of us know. Otherwise, we just have to wait for Apple to get its iTunes act together - but keep breathing in the meantime.

Answer 1

Hi cdeakin,
Welcome to the forum.
I am sorry to hear of all the problems you've had with this. If you could send in your details we'll be able to look into this further for you.
Please click on my username, and you'll be able to get our "Contact us" link.
Thanks,
Stephanie
Stephanie
BTCare Community Manager
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