One of the perpetual complaints levied at Apple over the years is the fact that iTunes is a bloated mess of an app that tries to do too many things at once to maintain Apple-style elegance.

No doubt Apple would love to address these concerns, but what it would take is a complete overhaul and rewriting of the software from the ground-up. Give how much of Apple’s business links into iTunes — everything from apps, to music purchases, to iBooks, to iPhone, iPod and iPad syncing — that’s a prohibitive task.

A prohibitive task, according to reports, that Apple’s already in the thick of.

According to a “reliable source” speaking to iDownload Blog, September will see the debut of iTunes 11, a version of iTunes that will have been rewritten from the ground up with an updated UI and better iCloud integration.

From what we’re hearing, the UI would be much more cleaner and “slick.” iCloud is also going to be more closely integrated with iTunes. Rather than the iTunes Store being essentially a web browser, the Store will actually be integrated into the entire app— much like Spotify is currently. We’re also hearing that iCloud backups will be integrated into iTunes. This means if you back up your iDevice to iCloud, that same backup will be stored locally on your computer. Also, app data from iCloud will be synced closely with iTunes. For example, if you beat a level in Angry Birds, that level data will be synced to iCloud and then to your iTunes library.

It sounds plausible. Right now, devs are using iTunes 10.5 to test iOS 5 Beta, but much of the iCloud functionality hasn’t been rolled out to that version of iTunes yet. It’s possible Apple is holding back a big update to iTunes until the September iPod event, and certainly, the addition of iCloud could certainly warrant a total redesign.

That said, I’d want to see the credentials on iDownloadBlog’s source before betting on this one.