SiriusAddict.com

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been exploring the reviews for certain songs on iTunes and in general, I am really frustrated and disappointed. Well over 50% of the reviews on iTunes are from people that sound a bit like this: “OMG!!! THIS IS THE BEST SONG EVAR! BUY IT NOW!!!!!”

Insightful? I think not. You’re welcome to have an opinion, but support it with reasons. You’re not going to get me to buy a song if you just say it’s the best song ever. For example, I can think of a conversation with a friend last week where we were discussing Nickelback. Grant Random (if I remember correctly) on Squizz wasn’t so thrilled with Nickelback. I personally like them and think they are a decent band. So if I said there songs were good and you should buy them, would Grant Random or other anti-Nickelback fans jump ship and say “Well, this person likes Nickelback and this song, so I should definitely buy it!” Of course they wouldn’t.

iTunes has become flooded with spam and inappropriate reviews as well as iMixes. Most of the top-rated iMixes are now “Vote 5 start if U ThiNk dat (song name) should b On ITUNES!!!!” So let me rip this one apart now. First off, the point of iMixes is to share good mixes of music. It’s the 21st century version of mixtapes from the ’80′s. It is not a place to tell Apple what to put on iTunes. I can assure you that Apple wants to get music out there before it hits the shelfs, but there’s a problem sometimes. For those teens that aren’t intelligent enough to understand me, it’s called licensing. iTunes can’t just sell any song they wish. They are regulated by the music industry, like it or not, and are actively pursuing new songs all of the time. But when they go to get it licensed for sale online, sometimes the label says “No” or “Not just yet.”

To all of you people out there spamming iTunes with inappropriate comments, posting reviews that aren’t worth anyone’s time or give any insight into the song/album, or posting iMixes telling iTunes what to get and what to rate your iMix, just stop. People that know me will tell you that when someone tells me to rate something highly, I often rate it the lowest I can simply because no one tells me what to like or what to do to make them happy. It’s not that I am anti-happy people, it’s just I don’t like certain people telling me what to do. If you ask nicely, that’s a totally different story, you know?

So my solution to Apple and the iTunes team is to allow end users to turn off iTunes reviews and iMixes. This will at least hide the “reviews” and stupid iMixes. While rating an iMix or review will push it down further in the queue of what’s seen first on the artist or iMix page, it’s not enough at times since people are so feeble minded and will often rate things because they are told to rate them as such. I’ve submitted the idea to Apple and they’ve heard it at least. Maybe when Leopard (10.5) comes out, it will see an iTunes update with this feature. It’d certainly make me happy.

For the record, yes, I could just ignore the reviews and iMixes but often I am curious if I should buy the song when I am on the line. There are times the reviews are helpful, but finding those reviews are like finding a needle in a haystack, so to speak. Attached is the “Top Rated iMixes” section to prove how absurd this is becoming.