My iTunes Widgets and Why I Won't be Installing Them!
So maybe you have heard the buzz and seen the goods, and if you are still wondering, i mean Apple's new iTMS related widgets. This article highlights a few of the points as to why I think that the new Apple widgets for iTunes, for embedding on your web site, blog or social networking profile are not good and why I won't be installing them, and encourage others to form their own opinion and to consider looking elsewhere.
Nothing Says More, Than What You Are Actually Listening To!
Okay, so you want to show your friends what music you are into? Well how often are you actually going to go out and buy new music? Definitely not as much as you are going to be listening to your music collection. And if you are into less than mainstream artists, how often are you actually going to be buying music from iTunes, versus a place, say like Aquarius Records in San Francisco?
Maybe Apple's "My iTunes" widgets are aimed at rich kiddies like Paris Hilton, who can splash money left right and centre on their iTunes account and show the entire world a revolving door of music on their "My iTunes" widget with music changing so often it will look like coverflow.
If it was me, I would much rather show people the artists, albums and tracks that I have been listening to from my music library, phone, ipod, vinyl collection and anywhere else, not just what I had purchased from one single place. And currently doing such things is more than possible, and embedding that information is also very possible, but it's certainly not offered by iTunes. What's more is that this kind of information is not static and will change on a very regular basis, if you are a frequent listener, something that will keep people interested and hook them into coming back repeatedly to your blog or profile.
The First Time User Experience is 
Awful
Imagine you click a link to find out more about an album or artist you have seen in the widget on someone's site or profile. You are on a Windows PC with no iTunes installed. Immediately you are snookered. You either have to return to what you were doing and not even bother looking or listening to the artist, or you have to go through the entire process of installing "iTunes + Quicktime", restart and then go back and find the page and click the link to take you into the iTunes Music Store, and then if you want to buy to have to register and go through the entire sign up process!
If I haven't bored you or completely lost you then, I think you will get the picture. Buying from Amazon or 7Digital are a completely different and entirely seemless experience for first time users, whilst Apple's iTunes Music Store experience definitely leaves much to be desired. What's more, if Apple doesn't function in your country, what do you do? It's all "look but don't touch". They will let you log in and view, but when it comes to buying, they lock you out - their legal obligation to do so.
Dark, Darker and Darkerer
On another note, the designs of the widgets, much like you would expect from Apple are slick, but the selection of color is awful. There are 5 different colours (original, light blue, basic, black and dark blue), 3 of which pretty much look the same on my screen and the other 2 of which also look pretty similar, if not a mix between one and the other 3. Whatever happened to the idea that variety is the spice of life? Did Apple not want to put in the time to generate more colors in case the whole widget thing was a flop?
Mac Zealot or Not?
Well you might be thinking, "Dear God! This guy just hates Apple and wants every single reason to bash them!" In fact you would be wrong, but in this instance I think the cold hard sell nature of the widgets completely turns me off. I do love Apple and the entire Apple product range, each and every one of the last 10 or more computers I have purchased has been an Apple Mac. My original 17" is a warrior, still going strong some 4.5 years since purchased, and i have iPods coming out of my ears going back some 5 or more years, but still. You have to draw the line somewhere. Don't you?
These widgets annoy me as much as the whole iTunes "Now Playing" iChat status functionality thing, which worked great with third party applescripts, but when Apple took over the idea, they commercialised it, without even the option to be able to switch it off. And I will never forget the furore about the iTunes Ministore, that got everyone hot under the collar. This isn't on the same scale as that, and is definitely opt-in, and won't be forcing Apple to produce any software updates, but it does hit some of the same chord of commercialisation and aspects of privacy. As other's have pointed out, Apple knows how to make money off your back, without even saying thanks, though you can't quite fault them for that!
That being said, and to be totally frank, if it was Amazon producing a similar set of widgets, called "My Amazon" I am sure that I would be typing the exact same thing, if not very similar things right now; but then again, maybe I wouldn't be as passionate about the topic, if it didn't combine as many as three of my main lovest: Apple, Music and the Interwebs.
Conclusion: Widget Overload
Anyhow, if you like the widgets and want to install them, no one is stopping you. Be my guest! All I can say is that I personally find them just to be a little bland, lacking and short on really giving people anything new, exciting and that doesn't exist already. For those who are really interested in showing people what they like in terms of music, then there are a plethora of music services, both paid for and free that people can use: Last.FM, iLike, Pandora, E-Music, Napster, iMeem, Lala... to name but a few. And some of these even have their very own brand of unique widgets, for facebook, myspace and just about every other site, blogging software or social networking website that exists online.