Networking iTunes

Fred Wilson wrote a solid entry on how DRM doesn’t scale, targeting essentially the problems with trying to share digital music throughout a family—something that ought to be easy to do. He runs into difficulties with the number of computers sharing music—for a family of five, it can get tricky to buy music only once.

The main problem I have with using iTunes as a jukebox for several locations throughout the house is that I’m a playlist oriented person. I’m not sure if you’ve figured a way around this but even if you have a number of computers with access to all of the music files available, I can’t access playlists in the living room that were created in the kitchen…

I really do think that iTunes needs to offer better networking options — maybe apple should create an “iTunes server app” that would take all your music, playlists, and podcasts, store them in a central location, and then allow you to access that music (via password) from any number of other iTunes client apps.