Loved and loathed in just about equal measure, iTunes is installed on a huge number of computers around the world. It has been a while since the last update, but now iTunes 11.0.3 has been been unveiled and there are a few important changes that make it worthy of installing including new MiniPlayer views.

In the initial update to iTune 11, many users were disappointed to find that the progress bar has vanished from the MiniPlayer. In the most recent update, this has been reinstated and it is also possible to have album art displayed while playback controls are hidden.

iTunes 11.0.3 improves MiniPlayer mode and performance

Album art can also be displayed in songs view and improvements have been made to the handling to multi-disc albums. To make those compilations, concept albums and other multi-parters easier to manage, iTunes now treat them as a single album rather than two or more.

These are the most obvious changes, and all of them are cosmetic ones that should be immediately apparent. Apple also claims that this latest update helps to improve performance for people with large music libraries. There are no figures to elaborate on what constitutes a large library, but faster searching and sorting is promised.

You can find out more and download a copy of the app — which is available for OS X and Windows — by paying a visit to the iTunes review page.