Windows Media Player 11 beta thoughts
I'm apparently installing all the new Vista-ish Microsoft software I can get these days. I've got the new Windows Live Messenger, the new IE7 beta, and the new Windows Media Player 11 beta. I won't bore you with what the new Media Player looks like as there are dozens of reviews and impressions out there on the net. Instead I'll provide the feedback I have about it that I will eventually be sending to the WMP team.
I personally like the new player and the new interface. I've got a fairly large collection of music CDs and I like that the new player focuses more on the album art - that's how I recognize the album when flipping through my collection and it simply makes for a better experience. Want to make it even cooler? Integrate a flipbook UI!
Suggestions for the team:
1) I like the Urge/music store integration on the media guide tab but how's this - when I'm playing an album and I'm looking at Album Art as my visualization (or perhaps a new tab) I'd like to see more information about the album I'm listening to. For example, when I listen to an AudioSlave album, it would be useful to show the kind of information about AudioSlave that can be located on the Ultimate Band List (www.ubl.com). Perhaps take me to the store and show me some Amazon.com-like "you may also like these" suggestions. Isn't this how the long tail of the digital economic world is supposed to work? I pick the popular track from the popular album and my connected tool shows me more from the same artist or what other people with similar tastes to mine like? You CAN get this information from Urge when you click the Buy link next to the album in the upper right corner of the Now Playing screen, but I'd like to see this kind of detail for EVERY albumn, whether I'm interested in buying it or not. The current process is 1) pick an album, 2) go to Now Playing, 3) Click the buy link, and finally 4) resize the two panes on the "Buy Music" page to give more room to the album details on top. That's about 3 steps too many.
2) I personally like to have my music in CD format when transporting it. I'd love to see a buy it option that takes me to a vendor like Amazon who can ship me a real, physical CD.