That makes sense. My one question remains, though: what advantages are there to copying music to the library versus pointing iTunes to my existing folders (f, in fact, you can point to folders)? I have so far heard that you can tell iTunes where to find music and it will not copy it, and that you must let iTunes make a copy. Once I get this sorted, it sounds like playlists will be useful. Incidentally, what is a "smart playlist" versus what I suppose one would call a "normal playlist"? On Oct 4, 2012, at 9:10 PM, Tim Kilburn <kilbur...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, > > Brandon has answered most of your questions, but I'll chime in here with some > clarifications if you don't mind. > > I believe that you need to understand the difference between the iTunes main > Library and Playlists. The main iTunes music Library consists of all your > imported music, no matter what genre, artist, or album. You create playlists > to organize music in whatever fashion you wish. Music can belong to multiple > playlists so you can create a playlist with all your practice music in it and > you'd simply select that playlist when you wished to access that group of > music. > > If you allow iTunes to copy items into its directory, iTunes will organize > its folder structure by looking at the tags. It will then place the items in > its Music folder by first creating a parent folder with the Artist name, then > placing another folder with the Album name within that folder and then the > actual song file within the Album folder. When iTunes encounters another > item by the same artist, it will place it within the same parent folder and > either create a new album folder or place it in the existing album folder if > one already exists. > > All this is done for iTunes purposes only. You create your own Playlists > within the UI and organize them however you want. The organization of the > playlists does not affect the folder structure behind the scenes. All that > is happening in these multiple playlists is done within the iTunes database. > So, the database simply points the player to whatever songs it needs to play. > Therefore, having a song in 20 different playlists does not cause you to > have 20 copies of the song, there is just one copy of the song pointed to 20 > times. In this manner, you can put the Beach Boys, Surfin' USA into a 60s > playlist, a sunshine playlist and anything else you wish but only one song > was ever imported into your Library. > > For all the noise that I hear on this list about the pitfalls of iTunes, I > think its simply a preferential thing more than a usability thing. I use > iTunes for all my media including Movies, TV shows, music, Podcasts and more > and find it to be an awesome application for managing and playing my media. > > HTH. > > Later... > whatever else you wish with only one > Tim Kilburn > Fort McMurray, AB Canada > > On 2012-10-04, at 4:21 PM, Alex Hall <mehg...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Okay, I think I'm still a bit confused as far as importing into the library. >> So, I can either copy it all, or just point iTunes to my music folders? If I >> do the latter, are there any risks or concerns I should know about, such as >> album art popping up all over the place or files getting moved around t be >> auto-sorted into artist/album folders? I don't sort by album, I just put all >> music in a genre into a single folder and leave it at that. As I said, I >> think iTunes will give me the best of both worlds, being able to just sort >> by genre, album, or whatever, but I don't want my actual directory structure >> changed around if iTunes thinks it knows best. I realize I can just tell it >> to copy into the library folder, but, as I said, that would take up a lot of >> hard drive space and would mean any new songs I download from sources other >> than iTunes would have to be manually added. Thanks for your help so far; >> this is the first time I've ever used a media player's library feature and I >> am, as you can tell, unsure of how it all works. >> On Oct 4, 2012, at 6:13 PM, Brandon Olivares <programmer2...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> You could put it all under a particular playlist, but you'd still have to >>> exclude it from the rest of your music. Honestly, I'd just not put that >>> practice music in iTunes at all. >>> >>> Although, now that I think of it, you can set the genre to something like >>> Speech or some other rarely used genre, and have a smart playlist exclude >>> that genre. >>> >>> Also, you don't have to select the option to import it into the iTunes >>> library folder. I prefer it because you always know where to find it. >>> >>> Regards, >>> Brandon Olivares >>> Azavia Technologies >>> New: ZCaptcha — The Captcha Reader >>> On Oct 4, 2012, at 5:50 PM, Alex Hall <mehg...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Okay, that's good and bad in a way. I have so much media that duplicating >>>> it all will take up a lot of room, but I suppose it beats having to worry >>>> about messing up my original copies. >>>> >>>> You said it will not touch any directories I have. So, then, how could I >>>> tell all my practice music to be classified as some special music? I >>>> suppose I could use an id3 editor to force all songs to be part of a >>>> certain album or something, but is there a better way? >>>> On Oct 4, 2012, at 5:42 PM, Brandon Olivares <programmer2...@gmail.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hello, >>>>> >>>>> iTunes will not do anything to your music. It is all configurable with >>>>> the options in preferences. >>>>> >>>>> 1. No, it will not be converted. >>>>> 2. It is an option to copy it to the iTunes library and organize it under >>>>> there, but even if it does so, it does not touch your original copy. >>>>> 3. It doesn't care about folders nor will it touch any file or directory >>>>> you create. If it copies it to its own library, then it is in charge of >>>>> organizing that folder obviously. >>>>> 4. You can delete songs from iTunes without deleting the file itself. >>>>> 5. The grid view will allow you to browse by album, artist, genre, etc. >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> Brandon Olivares >>>>> Azavia Technologies >>>>> New: ZCaptcha — The Captcha Reader >>>>> On Oct 4, 2012, at 3:54 PM, Alex Hall <mehg...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Hi all, >>>>>> I'd like to be able to add all my music to iTunes (and there's a whole >>>>>> lot of it), but I have some concerns. >>>>>> 1. Will it all be converted to m4a or aac? What about unsupported >>>>>> formats, like wma or ogg? >>>>>> 2. Will it be copied to the iTunes library, or will iTunes just look in >>>>>> the folders to which I point it? >>>>>> 3. Will it honor folders I make? Some music is ripped from CDs I use for >>>>>> practicing songs on bass or guitar, so it has no artist or album meta >>>>>> data. However, I keep it separate from my other music as most of it is >>>>>> shifted to new keys and so sounds rather odd. In other words, I need to >>>>>> keep it separate, or at least flagged somehow, so it does not play with >>>>>> my normal music. I categorize a lot of music like this, such as putting >>>>>> it in a comedy or country folder in my music folder. What will iTunes do >>>>>> about that? >>>>>> 4. If I decide I want to get rid of music from iTunes, can I do so with >>>>>> no erasing of anything? >>>>>> 5. In iTunes, can I view by song, artist, album, and so on like I can on >>>>>> my iPod? I tried this with the few songs already in the library, but >>>>>> could not see a way to do it. >>>>>> Thanks for any help. I'm normally no fan of iTunes, but I must say I >>>>>> like the remote control on the Apple earbuds and being able to sync >>>>>> certain songs with my iPod to have them with me, particularly with the >>>>>> wifi sync option. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Have a great day, >>>>>> Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini) >>>>>> mehg...@gmail.com >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>>> Groups "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>>>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Have a great day, >>>> Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini) >>>> mehg...@gmail.com >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> >> >> >> Have a great day, >> Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini) >> mehg...@gmail.com >> >> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. Have a great day, Alex (msg sent from Mac Mini) mehg...@gmail.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
