How to View How Many Downloads a Song Has on iTunes

iTunes is a vastly popular music app from Apple. As everybody probably knows, it’s used for buying, streaming, and playing music. However, the app comes with a variety of additional features that you may not have known about.

If you’ve been using iTunes solely for putting music on your smartphone and playing it, here are some cool things that you can actually do using this renowned app.

Stats

Whether you’re an artist who wants to gain access to important stats, such as how many times a song has been downloaded, or simply someone who’s interested, you can get this information and more on iTunes.

Unfortunately, iTunes itself doesn’t offer an extensive range of stats. If you go to an artist’s page, you’ll get to see the song name, its parent album, the artist’s name, its duration time, popularity, and price. Popularity is pretty much the closest that you’re going to get to a song’s stats – like how many times it’s been downloaded. Well, at least using iTunes.

There are third-party apps out there that will help you gain more information regarding how many times a song’s been played. However, none of them will show you the exact download stats you may be looking for.

That said, Apple Music does offer this sort of info. This service shows the exact number of current plays, purchases, spins, and album downloads. In fact, the service offers an insights panel that will feature key milestones, such as individual track purchases and cumulative plays. Additionally, using Apple Music, an artist can gain access to a global map to see the popularity of their content by country, which is very useful indeed.

So, iTunes can’t show you how many times a song has been downloaded. However, Apple Music offers this info and much, much more.

Books and Audiobooks

On your Mac, you can gain access to the iBooks store and other third-party apps to download books to your laptop. To access this through the iTunes Store, navigate to the Books tab to see what iBooks Apple has made available.

Audiobooks are, naturally, accessed through the iTunes store. After all, audiobooks are listened to. There’s an option of listening to 30-second previews. The audiobook prices, naturally, vary.

Podcasts

We live in a world where radio shows have evolved into podcasts, an audio media type that’s streamed live, sometimes even featuring video footage. Podcasts actually cover a wide variety of topics like sports, politics, business, film and TV, technology, etc. and can be both amateur and also very professional. Mainstream outlets and experienced broadcasters from widely-known news agencies can be found on iTunes.

The best thing about iTunes podcasts is that they’re free, downloadable, and don’t feature commercials. Naturally, samples are also available for podcast episodes. To get into the world of podcasts on iTunes, select Podcasts from the Library menu.

Movies and TV Shows

Yes, you read that correctly. Even though iTunes is all about audio, you can actually gain access to movies and TV shows through the platform. In fact, you can even rent both movies and TV shows using iTunes. Buying films is, of course, more expensive, and will give you unlimited access once paid for. Rented movies are much cheaper but come with certain restrictions. For instance, there’s a 30-day limit to start watching. When it comes to renting TV shows, you have 24 hours to watch a rented episode.

iTunes even gives you access to movie and TV show trailers, as well as credits, reviews, and plot summaries. This means that you can watch your favorite video content on your Mac. If you want to watch it on a bigger screen, you’re going to have to get the Apple TV box, which is compatible with all modern mainstream TVs.

iTunes U

Never heard of iTunes U? Well, it’s a learning content feature on iTunes. Maybe you didn’t know but there are some fantastic lectures available on iTunes from renowned professors and experts. Everything from history to chemistry lectures by experts from universities such as Berkeley and Yale are available. This educational content features audio and video files from colleges but also global organizations, museums, etc.

App Store

You’re probably well-aware of Apple’s App Store, especially if you own an iPhones, iPad, or an iPod touch. It’s an app that’s completely separate from iTunes which features a wide variety of apps and programs that relate to productivity, news, games, social networking, and so on. Some of these apps are free, some are paid, but all of them are on the App Store, which is accessible through iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.

If you want to install an app on your Mac, you won’t be able to do it through the App Store. Of course, every Mac comes with its Mac App Store, but the two aren’t identical. If you really want to download an iOS app on your macOS, you can access the App Store via iTunes. However, the newer iTunes versions don’t feature App Store app access on iTunes, so you’re going to have to download the version 12.6.3 if you want to do this. Don’t worry, the version isn’t too outdated.

More to It Than Appears

As you can see, iTunes has much more to boast about than just its shows. Audiobooks and podcasts are apparent and to be expected but things such as renting and buying movies and TV shows are brilliant, useful features. Add App Store access, iTunes U, and books to the equation and you’ll see that there’s a lot that you didn’t know about the famous app from Apple.

Did you know about these ‘hidden’ features on iTunes? Have you checked them out? How do you like them? Do you find them useful? Hit the comments section below with all thoughts, tips, and questions you might have.