I've been trying to get my iTunes in order recently. I have a storage server at home and a mac mini on top of it and that's where the house iTunes live.

It's tough though, because I hardly ever put any music on there first. I import from CDs or download my emusic subscription on my laptop or even my work machine, and then eventually I try and get it on the storage server, but it's ad hoc and a pain in the rear.

The new iTunes 9 "home sharing" feature starts to get good. It gives you a small (up to 5) grouping of machines on your local network, tied together by a single iTunes account, and you can do the regular network sharing BUT you can actually transfer files between them, rather than just listening to tunes from another machine. Now we're getting somewhere!

Also, since we're also an iPhone house, you can share your iPhone apps which is a big win. I guess Apple figures that only families live together since I'm not sure you're really supposed to be sharing apps otherwise..

It still could be better - you can only PULL files from a remote machine to the one you're on. Additionally, you can't actually manipulate the other iTunes libraries - make a new remote playlist or refresh the genius playlist. Bummer. No matter - the new home sharing feature is a big step forward!