I’ve been working on a very cool new idea for some music related Mac software. Yes, I’ve already made QuickTunes, but this is something that is slightly different and very cool. I’ve always liked iTunes, but there is something that we have lost in the transition to a digitally controlled music library: the album. These days, we pick and choose from various artists, albums and genres. I understand that this makes it extremely easy to listen to all kinds of things, but have we lost a certain part of the music experience?

A few days ago, I went over to my parents “old” stereo system. We have really high end speakers, a high end CD player, a turntable and a the usual amp and preamp. I sat down and rummaged through our collection of CDs and LPs. I hadn’t really ever done this. When I was young, I had maybe 10 cds, and I never owned a record. Even though I love music, I had never really picked a record and then have to load it on the turn table, and then when I wanted a different artist switch the record itself. It was so old fasioned, but I liked it.

This is what I mean, when I talk of this lost music experience. This connection with the album, with the record, with your turntable. iTunes has practically killed it.

My area being Mac programming, I thought hard trying to figure a way to bring this experience back into the digital music world. Now, I admit, my solution is not completely perfect. It would be senseless to make a little program where the user dragged a record onto a picture of a turn table and then music started to play. That’s just stupid. My idea, still germinal, can be seen below. I’ve tried to from a more three-dimensional, album oriented experience with music. The program is still being completed and the idea not completely finished, but I do have a working version that allows me to scroll through my music in this sort of interface. Ok, some pics:

As you can see, I am trying to offer a more in-tune with the actual album experience. Now to how it works. Its actually pretty simple and intuitive. It builds off of the idea of the Mac OS X dock. What you do is simply click the left and right arrows to see your music in sets of 4 albums (can be expanded or decreased in preferences). When you hover over the album, the artist is displayed in white above it (like the dock).

I will be working on this and refining it, and hopefully I can release a public version in a short while.

I would appreciate any comments, either on the blog, on digg, or in email.