Recently i made a post about the features that Apple could implement into the next iTunes to make listening and purchasing music a more social experience. I talked about social networking features and public features that would allow your music tastes to be shared with the world or just your friends, i did not however talk about iTunes features that would affect you in the physical world.

In this article i will discuss some features that i believe would make iTunes a more enjoyable feature in a real world social environment. Once again this are only a suggestion and ideas and are not features that have in anyway been rumoured or created already.

iTunes is a massive product and has millions of users and the iTunes experience is quite enjoyable for home users, but once you leave the home you leave behind your library and your taste in music. So if you go out to a bar, club, party or restaurant you listen to what the DJ wants to play, which is not always what you enjoy.

iTunes DJ

iTunes DJ is a relatively new feature to iTunes and replaced party shuffle in the playlist section, the feature has a simply concept, it choses a number of random songs that are played, then users with iPhones or iPods request songs from that persons library and these are added to a queue to be played.

This feature could quite easily be expanded outside of the home and be incorporated in different venues to give a more social music listening experience.

Lets say i go to a nightclub and they have DJ playing a selection of popular songs, but he hasn't played the song i want yet, instead of going over to the DJ booth and requested the song i could whip out my iPhone, find the venue i'm at and then request the song i want, then this is added to the queue and the more people that vote for song the quicker it moves up the queue.

The problem is iTunes DJ is not a very published feature, if Apple did more to promote the feature with venues playing music then we could whip out our iPhone or iPod anywhere we go and request songs to be played, think of it as a juke box remote in your pocket.

iTunes DJ - Now Playing

If venues used specifically design iTunes DJ software then users could connect to a venue's DJ via WiFi and not only request tracks but also see what music is playing and buy that music through iTunes wirelessly or save the song for purchasing later, comment on the music or rate the song. All this information can then be passed back into your iTunes social account where your friends can see the music you have rated, saved or commented on as well as the venue you heard to music.

iTunes DJ - Mobile

Currently the only way to request songs through iTunes DJ is using an iPod or iPhone running the iTunes Remote application which causes a problem for people who don't have an iPod Touch or iPhone and want to take part.

So in order for these users to take part a venue could setup new ways to take requests, maybe via text messages or e-mail sent from a users phone. This would mean Apple would create a service that allowed incoming text messages be routed to the current venue using the text message short code, a service that would cost the venue little to run but could also prove a to be a money maker as venues could charge for the text messages.

iTunes DJ - Terminals

Many bars have touch screen terminals with massive catalogues of music which are streamed over the internet and all the user needs to do is make a request and pay a small fee to request the track, these could be considered as the modern juke box.

With the iTunes DJ software venues could have these terminals placed around that would allow users to pay a fee to request a track, these tracks will then be added to the queue and these terminals would allow the venues to make some money from requests like they do with jukeboxes now.

The Future Of iTunes DJ

I would love to see the feature expanded on more as it has some serious potential to become not only a gimmick feature of iTunes but instead a stand alone application for venues wanting to let users request music wirelessly from mobile devices.

Apple should realise by now that a feature like iTunes DJ has the potential of making them more money if it expands into venues like nightclubs, pubs and restaurants who could host "Your The DJ" nights using the software.

Keywords: itunes, apple, music, technology, mobile, music requests, jukebox, dj, itunes dj, nightclubs, live music, ideas