Unlike my posts here so far, this post will not be a direct copy of a Radio Crytic post with only a few minor edits, but rather an updated version of a page on that site. I can’t remember why I even went with a page for this content, but my guess is that because I would have updated thoughts on the topic every once in a while, my thought was to update that page rather than make a new post.
The topic in question is iTunes Tagging. About 15 years ago, this was supposed to be the next big thing. Believe it or not, I didn’t get my first iPod until 2010 when I was 16. I actually bought it with some of the money I earned from my first job. Because I was and still am a radio person, I had to have one with a radio in it, and my friend had just gotten the fifth generation Nano, which was just on its way out when I got mine. For the first year I had that device, I figured iTunes Tagging would be extremely useful, and I did buy a good number of the songs I bought in that first year via that process. Unfortunately, it was only available on a limited number of stations in my market, so I didn’t get as much use out of it as I probably could have. I’m not even sure whether iTunes Tagging is still a thing, as many music players sold today don’t have radios in them anymore. I largely quit using my iPod when I got my first iPhone only 15 months later.
In April 2024, here’s where I think the technology should have gone. I continue to be unclear as to which stations actually supported the technology. Even if only a few radio geeks like myself knew about it, there should have been a directory somewhere of which stations supported the technology and how. I also continue to be unclear about whether it was available on more HD stations than analog only stations. I think a station should have had it or not, meaning that if it was available on the HD signal, an analog only radio such as the iPod should have been able to tag songs as well. For some reason, I only tried to tag one song when I had my HD tuner for my phone, I think because I had learned to use the iTunes wish list feature by then. That, however, was on a station that never worked in analog though.
Next, I think there should have been some standardized version or format. Sometimes something would pop up on iTunes with a different version than was actually played on the radio, others the song title and artist would come up without actually linking to a song. I’m not sure these small improvements would have changed the course of where the technology ended up, but it would have been an improvement over where things were.
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