Ads have invaded iTunes 8 and I hate it. Suddenly, on the right side of iTunes, the Genius Sidebar now displays at least 23 one-click buy links for me to spend my hard-earned cash through. What Apple calls a friendly recommendation is more like impulsive music buying. 

Back in iTunes 4.x, the software was a music jukebox. It correlated and organized all of your tunes in a nice, light package. Overtime though, Apple added the iTunes Store, the TV shows, followed by movies, audiobooks, and thanks to the iPhone, ringtones. My light music organizer is now a bloated, resource whore.

But, just like any true Apple fanboy, I downloaded the latest iTunes right out of the gate only to discover that this latest flavor is the slowest of them all. It took over an hour to generate all the Genius data and that’s when the horror sunk in.

To the right of the music, sits a recovering compulsive buyer’s nightmare: a bunch of $.99 one-click buttons. Stevie claims that these are here to help us, but we all know they are there to help him; to help pad the deep coffers that is the iTunes Store. He claims they are there to recommend new music and I am stating that they are there to help pay 1 Infinity Loop’s energy bill.

Thankfully, the sidebar can be turned off. I can only imagine the amount of impromptu purchases that these ads are going to create. Unknowing ‘rents are going to leave their account signed in, only to have their kids purchase more Hanson – or whatever crap kids listen to.

Prediction for iTunes 9: subscriptions service paid for in pancreas donations.

I’m diggin it. Someone pass me a smoking apparatus of some sort. I would love it if Apple deployed this to the iPod/iPhone line.

Just plugged in my first-gen iPod Touch to the new iTunes 8 and was notified of a software update to version 2.1, which adds the Genius playlist creation feature. So there’s that, I guess. There also seem to be some speed improvements all around. It’s still downloading and updating, though, so I haven’t actually tried any of it out yet. If you don’t hear back from me, assume everything went swimmingly.

UPDATE: iTunes 8 is now available for download.

Apple just announced iTunes 8 and confirmed some features we’ve been hearing about, plus throws a couple more into the mix. You can download iTunes here.

Features:

• “Genius” automatic intelligent playlist feature
• “Genius” sidebar recommends iTunes songs based on your listening preferences
• New “grid” view
• New visualizations
• HD TV shows for $2.99
• NBC shows are returning
• View albums by album cover
• iTunes store is in the cloud and will use new Genius algorithms
• Anonymous user info uploaded to help make Genius better

Full release:

Apple Announces iTunes 8

Features Apple’s New Breakthrough Genius Technology

SAN FRANCISCO—September 9, 2008—Apple® today announced iTunes® 8, the next major release of Apple’s ubiquitous music and video player for Macs and PCs which is seamlessly integrated with the most popular online content store in the world (www.itunes.com). iTunes 8 includes the new breakthrough Genius feature, which lets you automatically create playlists from songs in your music library that go great together—with just one click. Genius helps music fans rediscover favorite songs in their existing music library and suggests related music on the iTunes Store they might want to add to their music collection. iTunes 8 features new ways of viewing your music and video libraries, and adds television programs in stunning high definition for sale on the iTunes Store.

Using Apple’s breakthrough Genius feature is easy—select any song, click the Genius button, and iTunes instantly creates a playlist of songs that go great together from your own library. You can preview the playlist Genius creates, refresh the list to choose different songs and save Genius playlists to enjoy again later. You can even create Genius Playlists on-the-go with the new iPod® classic, iPod touch, iPod nano and iPhone™. The Genius sidebar appears right in iTunes and recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have, based on the songs you select.

When you turn on iTunes 8’s new Genius feature, information about your music library is anonymously sent to the iTunes Store, where it is combined with the anonymously-gathered knowledge from millions of other iTunes users and processed through Apple-developed algorithms. The Genius results, specifically tailored to your personal music library, are sent back to your computer to enable users to automatically create Genius playlists in iTunes and on your iPods, even when they are not connected to the Internet.

iTunes 8’s new visual browsing interface displays your music and video libraries using your album and video covers, and also provides a great way to navigate your movies, TV shows, iPhone apps, podcasts and audiobooks.

The iTunes Store has become the world’s most popular online TV store and features an incredible selection of over 30,000 episodes from ABC, CBS, The CW, FOX, NBC and over 70 cable networks including Bravo, Comedy Central, Disney Channel, ESPN, FX, HBO, MTV, Nickelodeon, Sci Fi, Showtime and USA. With iTunes 8, television fans can now watch their favorite programs from ABC, NBC and Showtime in stunning HD for just $2.99 per episode, perfect for viewing on their Mac® or PC, or on their widescreen TV with Apple TV.

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of 8.5 million songs, over 30,000 TV episodes and over 2,500 films including 600 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 8 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from (www.itunes.com). Purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Video availability varies by country.

Yesterday we posted about the possibility of Magnetosphere being the visualizer that Rose mentioned a week back and last night via Twitter, Rose confirmed this.

Confirmed: This was visualization I saw in a build of iTunes 8.0 – http://tinyurl.com/67m3pv

Could the work of artist Robert Hodgins be what Kevin was talking about the other day? The Magnetosphere plugin was available up until a few months back. I can’t remember the last time I used a visualizer. Maybe when I was on a Windows machine.

Oh, that Kevin Rose. Seems he was right about that whole September 9 Apple event thing, so now we’re a little more confident about his other predictions. Remember, iTunes 8 is supposed to be a true-to-life point release, and not nearly a bug fix or anything. Juciy rumors circulating the likes of Twitter and Tumblr (follow me if you want to be extra bored throughout the day!) suggest a Pandora-like playlist suggestion system that’s based on things like star ratings (which I never use, but whatever) and number of times played.

Less interesting but still worth mentioning, Rose called iTunes 8′s new visualizations “really trippy” and that there’s one with “planet like objects wrapping around each other w/stars/light streams.”

Tuesday, folks. Get ready to be totally not shocked because everything would have leaked by then.

Update: Mr. Rose just updated his blog with the following comments on iTunes 8.

What’s new in iTunes 8

iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.

With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (2nd generation), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.