Apple iTunes has been Updated

As many are reporting (/. and iPodHead.com amongst them), Apple has released iTunes version 4.5. I don't see many new features that I've been lusting after, but there are some great additions: a "wishlist" in the iTunes Music Store, a Party Shuffle Smart Playlist, and an Apple Lossless Encoder. I doubt that I'll use the Party Shuffle playlist much, nor am I likely to re-rip our entire CD collection into the Apple Lossless format (though I'll likely rip newly-purchased CDs into that format) but they are good additions nonetheless. Gobs of other improvements, too.

The biggest addition, though, has got to be the weekly free download. Every Tuesday a new single will be available. Supposedly from an "emerging artist." Yesteday, when iTunes 4.5 first became available, the "emerging artist" free download was the Foo Fighters' My Hero, a song from 1997 from an emerging artist in 1995. Huh? Today I was happy to see that they changed the emerging artist to Avril Lavigne and her song Take Me Away. I downloaded it, and it's pretty good.

Along with the iTunes update comes a new version of firmware for the iPod and an updated Quicktime, though I find those to be less exciting.