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Apple begins rollout of redesigned iTunes Store ahead of OS X Yosemite launch

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Apple has started rolling out a redesigned version of the iTunes Store for users running iTunes 12 less than a week ahead of what’s expected to be the launch of OS X Yosemite. The new storefront takes design cues from the iTunes and App Store home pages on iOS devices, featuring a flattened, side-scrolling carousel at the top of the page in place of the old “card”-style header. This new header can be scrolled horizontally using two fingers or even dragged around with a mouse.

Individual pages for albums, TV shows, and iOS apps have also been redesigned and now feature more iOS-like controls throughout. Download buttons have been reduced to simple outlines. Shadows and textures have been removed throughout the store, putting the content directly on a stark white or dark gray background.

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The sidebar on the home page now features lighter typography that more closely blends in with the design of OS X Yosemite, and the font across the entire store has been changed to match the new look. The sidebar itself has been flattened quite a bit ad the content has been slightly rearranged.

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Some stores, such as the App Store and the Podcast store, have quick filter options at the top of the page that allow the user to quickly shift from one type of content to another. In the case of the App Store this is useful for switching between iPhone and iPad apps, while the Podcasts side of the store allows you to decide whether you’d rather see audio or video podcasts (or both together).

This updated design doesn’t seem to have been implemented everywhere yet, as some pages (such as the gift card redemption screen) still use parts of the old design.

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The “playing” indicator on music previews has been redesigned, though it doesn’t seem to work very well on Retina displays in its current form.

One key feature does seem to be missing from the redesigned store: app previews. With iOS 8, Apple started allowing developers to upload short video clips to demonstrate the functionality of their apps, but those previews are currently only available directly on an iOS device. Hopefully this feature will be brought to the desktop store in an update soon.

OS X Yosemite is expected to be discussed (and possibly launched) during next week’s Apple event. You can catch a live stream of the event on Apple’s website and full coverage of everything that’s revealed right here on 9to5Mac.

A full gallery of screenshots is below:

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Comments

  1. Ken Copen (@KenCopen) - 9 years ago

    How about rolling out a redesigned iTunes? And this time hire a UX designer!

  2. patstar5 - 9 years ago

    When will apple update iTunes for windows to support high res screens? Looks horrible on my 1900×1200 windows tablet. All pixilated while my other apps are clear

    • Max Mars (@devianter) - 9 years ago

      they don’t care about windows. you widows media player or something

      • patstar5 - 9 years ago

        So I should just stop using iTunes? I don’t know why apple doesn’t bring it to other platforms. I don’t want an iPad, I don’t want an iPod, I don’t want an iPhone. But I want iTunes! Make iTunes for android!

      • Exactly. Kind of like Microsoft Word only getting Mac updates every 3-4 years. If you want the most up-to-date and best-working Apple software, people should just use Apple products.

    • Well, you should buy an iPad instead :D JK, you can put a feedback here https://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html and I will too just to support you :) and they might do something who knows :D

    • chrishill - 9 years ago

      Apple will put as a first priority Mac computers but they should eventually update the PC version. Maybe with the redesign they’ll update it for you.

      • Giacomo Conte - 9 years ago

        is there any plan to update win version to 12? I have yosemite on mac air and it looks great but when I use win on desk pc it’s horrible!
        no beta yet for win?

      • chrishill - 9 years ago

        I don’t know if there is but I’d imagine there will be. I noticed that this reply is very late, but recently I believe I saw 12 on a friends Windows 7 laptop earlier this week.

    • Gabriel Moura - 9 years ago

      Thanks God you have iTunes on Windows kkkk

    • tdeguara - 9 years ago

      Get a mac if you like apple software

  3. Can’t wait for Yosemite

  4. hmurchison - 9 years ago

    Major updates are needed but i’ll take some decent iterations.

    I want, what I consider some basic things from iTunes and the store.

    1. The ability to connect any iPhone to iTunes to do a system software update without a sync and backup.

    2. Unified store backend (Mac App. iBooks and iTunes together at last)

    3. Wishlist across all stores with notification of price changes

    4. More creative bundles (Books with apps i.e The Human Face of Big Data) Mac apps+iOS apps, Music+apps and more.

    5. Ability to buy ANY iTunes content from iOS (let me register my devices and push content to the appropriate device[s]

    6. iTunes Match for the family

    7. Gift by Apple ID (pre-registered Apple ID that I can gift content directly to without the need for a redemption code)

    8.Beats Music integration with easy playlist management.

    9. Shazam plugin that can listen to tracks and update Tag information

    10. Multi-user ability for families to share one iTunes DB.

    iTunes has stagnated and stores have become pretty balkanized. I can visit a Brick n Mortar store and buy electronics, fruits/vegetable and more and magazines/books all in the same store. Why is it I read about tech companies being so innovative when they cannot even accomplish the same feat virtually?

    • J.latham - 9 years ago

      While I think iTunes Match for the family is definitely needed and Music/Beats Music integration is on its way, this idea of taking all the stores and throwing them in to one is ridiculous. If anything iTunes should be got rid of entirely and be replaced with Music, Video, Books, Apps, and Game apps all with their own store. The only thing that needs to be unified is how to access these types of content across iOS and OS X.

      • hmurchison - 9 years ago

        Thanks for the feedback. What you’re talking about is more of a UI/Customer facing issue. A unified backend doesn’t necessarily mean you have to present a single window UI for the store. You could still have a unified backend that displays through seemingly separate apps. The advantages are numerous for linking the backend. For instance the app 8Tracks has IAP for the iOS app and now they’ve got a Mac app but that requires yet another IAP. Ditto for the contact app Cobook which has IAP for their iOS app and Mac app.

        This is about selling the platform. Again my analogy is spot on. When you go to your local supermarket they are selling a wide range of products so that you only need to make 1 trip.

    • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

      1. Crazy Talk
      2. The opposite of what most people want
      3. Agreed. long, long overdue
      4. Don’t care. (probably another marginal want for a limited group).
      5. Supposed to exist already, yet mine is broken too
      6. Don’t care. Kids are monsters.
      7. Coming
      8. Not this year
      9. Shazam sucks
      10. Never happen.

      All I want really is the reverse of your number two. I want the ability to go to the store and search for an App, OR a movie, OR, a show etc. I hate having to type in a few random words into the search and then search manually through the long list of results on the page. If I’m searching for an App, I don’t want to be presented with long lists of movies, tv shows and music.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

        Oh, and also … the ability to actually edit the iTunes database, to either put in the meta tags that they use in the store or have the ability to do it for local content in some other way.

        I mean they don’t even let you edit the genre icons anymore, and woe be unto you if you decide that you want a movie in your “sci-fi” category instead of “action and adventure”. It takes a lot of work to keep Apple from automatically changing it back. It’s as if you don’t’ even have control over your own video library.

        I suppose that’s intentional on their part though.

      • hmurchison - 9 years ago

        1. I left it out for brevity’s sake but iOS 8 was a painful upgrade because OTA required the removal of so much content on many people’s iOS devices. When you connect an iOS device to iTunes it immediately wants to do a sync and backup when it should allow you to present a UI that checks for your last iCloud backend and lets you do the tethered update without the sync/backup. iOS 8 upgrades have stagnated precisely because Apple moved consumers away from tethered upgrades and then subsequently have made the OTA process a major PITA.

        2. No they don’t articulate it from a technical standpoint but what they say is why do I have to pay for another IAP on the Mac version of a game I bought the IAP for in the iOS version. People have already wondered why App Store bundles cannot contain iPad and iPhone only pairings. So the value is in Universal apps but many developers don’t have Universal apps and cannot bundle. With the platform there’s no reason why a developer should not be able to sell “their” platform. I should be able to buy an Omnifocus bundle that contains the Mac app, iPhone app and iPad app. Balkanization is never a move towards simplicity it’s a move towards complexity.

        3. I live in Appshopper. It’s saved me a bunch of money and I love the pricing history it shows so I can gauge when an app is likely to go on sale again.

        4. This kind of links into #2. Consumers don’t care about the backend/frontend of iTunes but what they would like is the ability to buy a book like The Elements and potentially the iOS app as well. Consumers are about saving money.

        5. I hope so. I’ve missed some deals before because my iPad was at home and the deal was off by the time I got home from work. I know 1st world problems but in a virtual world I’m about reducing obstacles. There’s nothing wrong with giving me a popup that says “This app is only available for purchase on the iPad but here is the information about this app” Today iTunes says for example “Sun by KIDS DISCOVERY is only available on iPad. You can download Sun by KIDS DISCOVERY for you iPad in the App Store”

        No Shit Sherlock. I just want some information that you could have given about the app.

        6. LOL at least give us a 50k limit on songs them.

        7. I’m not sure how useful the feature but I’ve gifted my mother some apps and then had to spend 10 minutes helping her search her email and properly redeeem the code.

        8. Yup. Initially I thought Beats would added on as a tab but the more I think about it the Beats music should just integrate right into you local music with some sort of icon or identifier that it’s streaming/subscribed music. That way really nothing changes.

        9. They annoy me too but I had to eat crow when my wife challenged me over Shazam vs Soundhound accuracy and I went down in flaming defeat.

        10. Yup. Totally pie in the sky. One can dream lol

      • hmurchison - 9 years ago

        I’ve felt like iTunes has been fighting my wishes for so long. I keep a narrow set of Genre. I often wish there was an truly advanced area in Apple consumer apps that enabled more granular controls and scripting. I almost get OCD with my music library but often I end up quitting my projects because iTunes is just not the tool for massaging music library in custom ways.

  5. Avenged110 - 9 years ago

    Looks gross…as expected.

  6. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

    The thing I will never understand about iTunes is the “playing” window in the middle of the top bar. It’s absolutely f*cking useless, it’s bad design, it’s ugly, and they have to violate all their UI guidelines every time they redesign iTunes just to include it. As if it had any real value.

    Why is it even there? It just shows you the last song you played, even if you played it three months ago.

    The display is supposed to be “multi-purpose” so if you are doing something like importing a song, it also shows up there, but instead of showing the current activity (the import) it just puts up those stupid double arrows, because is Sooooo f*cking important of course to put up the play information for that song you were listening to three weeks ago. Yes that’s waaaay more important than the activity that you are currently performing.

    It’s the same with search on iTunes. Why is it important to save what I typed in the search box last? Am I an idiot? I can’t remember? And even if I can’t, what value is there to saving the last search? I already did that search, I am not going to do it again. It bothers me to see that text up there all the time. I’m constantly clicking to delta it, but then of course it comes right back. It’s infuriating and serves no real purpose.

    All these automatic “handy” features are ridiculous when you consider that iTunes is used by millions of different kinds of people. Not everyone is going to want the same thing.

    Isn’t Apples customer base finally big enough that we can assume that everyone is not the same, and instead have Apple give us some *control* over our software, and some options to make it work the way WE want it to work? Apple making all the decisions might have made sense in the 1990s when all their customers were tech-heads and teachers with basically the same aesthetic. But not today.

    • webzpinner - 9 years ago

      Apple has a huge base, and MOST of that base have no issue with the “keep it super simple” philosophy of apple products. The unity is welcomed. I consider myself a huge tech head… I had an android phone and HATED it… Why? Too many cooks in the kitchen, and it got really unusable. Switched back to apple, and I love that it does what I need it to do, without a million options for customizing. I also love apple’s unity coz most of my family have apple product, and they look to me for all of their tech needs, and I can easily walk them through apple products. Family members with android products are a headache, since every unit has its own version of the Operating system, with its own skins, and it’s got a dramatic learning curve to do anything on it… Not everyone on this planet is a gear head nerd. Many of us have real lives.

      • True. Apple products are for people who actually want to work and keep it simple, clear. OSes like Android are for people who rather deal with system problem than the work they want to do.

  7. I like it. It goes hand in hand with the system design. iTunes has a very intuitive design, easy to understand and looks good. No problem on my side.

  8. thinkman12345 - 9 years ago

    If the picture above, showing iTunes without the 3D “turntable” is one step to far. I don’t see this as Skeuomorphism, as it really doesn’t emulate anything in the “real world”. I won’t make any rash judgements on something I haven’t seen in action or used, but if my assertion is correct, Jonny is turning this “flat OS” into a visually boring OS.

  9. F***ing U2 in the screenshots ruined it for me…