It’s survival of the fittest in the music scene, and iTunes must evolve to stay relevant. Here’s where we hope Apple’s heading with it…

It’s do or die for iTunes. The world-famous music program burst onto the scene over a decade ago, completely reinventing the way we buy music. But in that time, the scene has evolved, and while iTunes’ never-ending sales have, well, never ended, it’s clear that iTunes needs an overhaul -- especially since serious, impressive competitors like Rdio are making waves. While we wait for Apple’s much-rumored MobileMe-based solution to arrive, we put together five changes iTunes must make to take the industry by storm (again).

1. Modern Streaming

If iTunes wants to stay king, nothing shy of superpowered streaming will do. While Amazon’s Cloud Drive, which stores your media and gives you access to stored music from any computer, is a small step in the right direction, iTunes is going to have to do more than cloud storage if it wants to stay in front of the competition. Subscriptions are a must, but on their own they’re not enough (we’re looking at you, Zune Pass). On the other hand, we don’t just want storage lockers; we want access to all music all the time.

Sure, 90 seconds is a long time, but why not give us a single taste of the whole song?

And speaking of which, 90-second streaming was news when it was first announced, but wasn’t Lala (you know, that company Apple bought) doing full-song previews years ago? Why can’t Apple allow a full-song stream, say once per account, and then revert to those 90-second previews?

2. A New App

Could the iPod app have both our library and the ability to stream music?

This one’s so obvious, it almost doesn’t deserve a spot on the list. Of course Apple would make its streaming services available in an app, right? But take a good hard look at the feature-fest that is iTunes on the Mac and PC. Yes, it’s possible a streaming service could be tacked on to another app, like the iPod app in iOS, but too many features can turn any app into a tap fest, and all those features would just slow down whichever app it was added to. A new, dedicated app would be a cleaner, more elegant solution.

3. Cut the Bloat

iTunes could stand to pinch an inch.

Plenty of people have abandoned iTunes as their primary music player, and who can blame them? iTunes is terribly slow and struggles with large libraries. It doesn’t even have an effective duplicate finder. Yet instead of fixing features and trimming fat, Apple just keeps adding new features to iTunes and feeding the colossal beast. Worse still, anyone with an iOS device doesn’t have a choice but to put up with it. We all come crawling back when our phones need updates or our iPods need new songs. In other words, we’re stuck. If iTunes wants to beat out its competitors, then faster, streamlined software will be an important step.

4. Make Ping Worthwhile

So boring not even Robbie can save it.

If our brief time with Ping has indicated anything, it’s that nobody cares about Ping. That’s likely because Ping focuses on what music people are buying, instead of what they’re listening to. We want to share recommendations, we want to share playlists and songs, and we want a mix of Rdio’s social networking and Last.fm’s charts. And that’s the kicker--its competitors have already implemented all the features we want from Ping. If Ping’s going to stick it out, it needs to be completely reinvented.

5. Aggressive Pricing

Honestly, none of this matters if an iTunes subscription (or cloud locker) service costs, say, $15 a month, the price of the Zune Pass. If we can get streaming music for $5/month on Rdio, what compelling reason is there to spend three times that (or…heaven forbid…more) to get the same service? Apple might be able to buy the competition outright, but if it wants iTunes to beat them fair and square, it’s going to have to win our wallets.

Learn from the Competition!

Mac|Life’s editors share their favorite features from iTunes’ competitors

ROBERTO:

“Lala let you listen to a complete song once before you had to sign up for an account or add it to your collection.”

FLO:

“Winamp does Wi-Fi syncing with my Android phone, so as long as I’m on the same network, all of my on-the-go tunes are up to date with what I’m currently listening to.”

NIC:

“Rdio syncs with Last.fm without annoying secondary programs running. Why can’t iTunes do that?”

PAUL:

“Pandora might be old news, but nothing has introduced me to more music than stations started by a specific artist. If subscriptions do happen, iTunes Genius should take notes.”

SUSIE:

“Every single time I want to get an album on iTunes, bam, there it is on Amazon for around $2 or $3 less. And since I eat a lot of Mexican food, saving $2 or $3 is almost like getting a free taco. Just not from Amazon. Because I don’t know how you’d download a taco.”

RAY:

“Record stores sell me vinyl that I can hold in my hand—and browsing is one of the best ways to discover new stuff. Plus practically everything comes with a download code anyway.”