Microsoft gets a lot of stick for producing clunky software. But even during the dark days of the animated paperclip, or the infuriating ".docx" Word extension, they never shat out anything as abominable as iTunes – a hideous binary turd that transforms the sparkling world of music and entertainment into a stark, unintuitive spreadsheet.

And I think that's pretty accurate, although I'd never really thought of it that way before. iTunes is just a big spreadsheet, and it's part of the reason why downloaded music, added to your big ol' list of other music, can never replicate the physical package: the atmosphere and mood that artwork can convey, or the very fact that you own that package. But I digress. This isn't a piece about how digital music sucks, because iTunes being a spreadsheet does have one major point in its favour: it means that I can easily track down the songs I want to include. And, if I'm going to be using a spreadsheet, what better way than in alphabetical order?