[MereKatMoves]

iTunes is actually SoundJamMP under the hood. That app was (if memory serves) released 16 years ago and subsequently bought by Apple. AFAIK the core of iTunes is still unchanged from then and all Apple have done is simply bloat the UI and bolt on additional functionality (eg AAC playback, videos and iCloud etc) without ever re-examining the underlying engine.

SoundJam was great for me in 2001 playing mp3s and as most of the tone of this thread seems to confirm, everything else since then has simply given users extra grief to cope with when wishing to play a simple music file in a simple manner.

I've stuck at OSX 10.6.8 and iTunes 10.6.1 (which is still 239MB of bloat) rather than upgrade. That's where I'm staying as Apple only ever seem to make stuff worse these days.