The success of the iPod is creating new problems for many iPod and iTunes users. If you are a multi-iPod family, which is becoming increasingly common, you can no longer simply connect an iPod to your computer and sync your music automatically. If you have multiple iPods, you need to jump through some hoops to manage them. You can either create separate user accounts, each with its unique iTunes library, but end up with duplicate songs and waste space, or you can set one iPod to sync automatically, and the other(s) manually, which requires you to choose which music you want to put on the manually-synced iPods.
There is, of course, a solution to this, and Apple would be wise to introduce such a feature in iTunes: multiple libraries.With multiple libraries, iTunes would be able to manage different selections of music from the same set of song files. Say, for example, I want to have my 40 GB iPod copy all of my music. (Well, in my case it’s not all my music, since I have enough to put on three iPods…) I create one library, containing only the music I want to put on that iPod, and link the iPod to that library. iTunes should allow the creation of separate, named libraries, and the iTunes preferences should allow you to choose which library gets synced to each iPod.
I have one 40 GB iPod for classical music, and another for the rest of my music (jazz, rock, audiobooks, jam bands, etc.). So I’d create one library for my classical music and another for all the rest; when connecting each iPod, iTunes would be able to sync its music easily.
And if I then want to sync music to my iPod shuffle, without the Autofill feature or creating a special playlist for my shuffle, I’d simply switch to the library I set up for that iPod, and let it sync automatically.
Now, this scenario is rare – not that many people have several iPods for themselves, but it is common to have multiple iPods in a family. So each family member could create a library in iTunes, without having a separate user account (which most families don’t use anyway), allowing them to easily manage all the music they want. Husbands and wives could have their own libraries, each using only the music they like. And kids could also have their own libraries, syncing easily when they want to.
There are two advantages to this: the first is obviously the easier syncing of music from a single computer to multiple iPods. But the second is just as important: using a single set of music makes it much easier to back up all the music at once, and avoids having doubles in different user accounts.
Apple is always striving to make their software easier to use and more practical, and this is a feature that would be a boon to many iPod users. Let’s hope we see it soon.