Apple Tags on Windows 10

The current solution in iTunes
iTunes currently applies playlists in which the user can organise their music. This feature is only one-sided and therefore, insufficient for a categorisation of a large number of music tracks. It is not noted in the tracks’ metadata to which playlists they belong. Thus, the user can see the tracks of the playlist but cannot see in the data of the single tracks to which playlist they belong. Further, it is not possible to filter the data by their playlists, for instance, in order to find an overlap between two playlists. The genres included in the metadata of the tracks are often not clearly defined and their names can differ although they cover the same meaning (e.g. Rapp and Gangsta Rapp; or Hip-Hop and hiphop).

The approach of Apple Tags
Apple Tags enables an individual categorisation of the music tracks and a quick access. The user creates the tags on his/her own and assigns them to music tracks. In turn, the data of the single tracks reveal to which tag they belong. The user can assign a track to a tag or a tag to a track or to a whole music album through drag and drop. Tags can be integrated with each other. The tags facilitate to find the music by filtering them through search options. For instance, if the user puts two tags in the search box all tracks appear which have been categorised with these two tags. The tags are individual and more precise than the definitions of the genres in the metadata of the music tracks.

Album view

Filtering for tags

Searching

Adding track to tag