Your solution for itunes music on the MBA

Separate itunes onto a harddrive

As a DJ, I have over 20,000 songs and music videos that I use on itunes. I keep all the files including the itunes folder on a Seagate 1TB hard drive (usb powered).

By having the itunes library file on the hard drive (and having the itunes preference set to find the "Library" file on my external) itunes won't create a new library or put any media in the Macbook air's Music folder. This way there is no confusion should you open itunes but forgot to connect the hard drive.

I found that having any music split between laptop and external get's very messy and having everything on my laptop won't fit. So, I recommend keep it separate and have a second external as a backup (should you one day drop one or lose it).

I think there are only two answers. Use an external or put a bigger HD in : )

Moodikar said:

As a DJ, I have over 20,000 songs and music videos that I use on itunes. I keep all the files including the itunes folder on a Seagate 1TB hard drive (usb powered).

By having the itunes library file on the hard drive (and having the itunes preference set to find the "Library" file on my external) itunes won't create a new library or put any media in the Macbook air's Music folder. This way there is no confusion should you open itunes but forgot to connect the hard drive.

I found that having any music split between laptop and external get's very messy and having everything on my laptop won't fit. So, I recommend keep it separate and have a second external as a backup (should you one day drop one or lose it).

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I agree. I do exactly the same thing. I use a 640Gb Toshiba USB powered portable drive for my movie and music libraries. I back it up by connecting it to my Time Capsule from time to time. When the 640Gb gets close to full, I'll simply buy a 1Tb drive of the same sort.

tepinvic said:

Hi guys I recently got a used MBA and everything is great, although i am still adjusting to the 80gb hdd. So my question is how do you guys handle the storage of your itunes libraries.

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For me it's simple - I don't keep any music on my Air's 128GB SSD drive. For listening on the go - I keep all my music on my Android phone (32GB MicroSD card I just bought comes very handy!).

For when I am at home - I can stream music from my server to my MBA via iTunes remote library streaming. And I also have AirTunes speakers throughout my house.

tepinvic said:

Hmm, I can see how that would work but for me personally i find myself sitting on the couch or bed and it would be kind of inconvenient to have to have my harddrive plugged in to listen to music. If I had 20,000 songs i might look at it differently though

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I assume when you're doing this you're using headphones?

Do you have an iPod? that would solve the issue, as you can listen through that when not at a desk, then store your music on an external drive. Although you'd need a USB hub and a powered external drive to get the songs from the external to the iPod!

hitekalex said:

For me it's simple - I don't keep any music on my Air's 128GB SSD drive. For listening on the go - I keep all my music on my Android phone (32GB MicroSD card I just bought comes very handy!).

For when I am at home - I can stream music from my server to my MBA via iTunes remote library streaming. And I also have AirTunes speakers throughout my house.

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How do you stream from your Server? could you give me any advice as to streaming music from my Time Capsule to my MBA via iTunes? thanks, skate71290

skate71290 said:

How do you stream from your Server? could you give me any advice as to streaming music from my Time Capsule to my MBA via iTunes? thanks, skate71290

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Standard feature of iTunes: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2688

hitekalex said:

Standard feature of iTunes: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2688

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Thanks for that heads up. I guess mine's been in the sand!

I have found that this is the best option for dealing with large amounts of iTunes media files on my Air with 128GB SSD . It may take a little bit to set up but it will allow for streaming of your music library as long as you have a wifi connection.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/429956/

if ur not a audiophile, you should really convert ur songs to AAC through itunes it self, i have my songs at 64 kbs aac, it has saved over 4 gigs and i seriuosly cant hear ANY difference in sound, and i do listen close i have a pair of igrado so i do care about how my music sounds.

MacRuler said:

if ur not a audiophile, you should really convert ur songs to AAC through itunes it self, i have my songs at 64 kbs aac, it has saved over 4 gigs and i seriuosly cant hear ANY difference in sound, and i do listen close i have a pair of igrado so i do care about how my music sounds.

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64k & hears no difference. No offence, but that hurts me.. some pity left here.

MacRuler said:

if ur not a audiophile, you should really convert ur songs to AAC through itunes it self, i have my songs at 64 kbs aac, it has saved over 4 gigs and i seriuosly cant hear ANY difference in sound, and i do listen close i have a pair of igrado so i do care about how my music sounds.

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to the OP, please do not follow this advice, or follow this advice but keep your source files
seeing this hurts, I have mine from 192kbps+ and currently in the progress to migrating over to m4a

seriously, 64kbps aac?

You could use a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device to host your iTunes library, which would then stream your music to the MacBook Air.

A good tutorial: theappleblog.com

ok well 64 kbs aac is a huge extreme i admit, but i have all my music (3,000) songs on my imac, at original format never converted them, but on my macbook air i have the converted songs. So what im saying is that if u have an external hard drive or another computer you could keep the songs on that hard drive or computer, and u could move converted songs to your mba, either 128 kbs, 96 kbs or what ever you choose. you will have the original files and you will be able to save space on your macbook air. i just think that wireless storage should be the very last option.

Balty said:

You could use a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device to host your iTunes library, which would then stream your music to the MacBook Air.

A good tutorial: theappleblog.com

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Not really knowledgable when it comes to Networks and what-not, but as you can see in my Signature i am getting a 2TB Time Capsule (Dual Band). Are Time Capsules NAS devices?

skate71290 said:

Are Time Capsules NAS devices?

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They are. You can use your Time Capsule to host your iTunes library.

I had my Itunes library on a NAS, a high performance one.

I had G standard Wifi, so that wasn't the fastest but it made Itunes really sluggish, even when playing local files.

In the end I moved everything back to the local drive and am using a different solution for movies, which made my Library so large.

I use an ubuntu server with linux md raid 5 4x1.5TB and netatalk for AFP shares. The network is all wireless N and gigabit. You simply aren't going to get a large enough laptop drive to hold all your stuff so you pretty much have to go network storage of some type. External hdd is an option but a pretty clumsy one.

64k AAC are you kidding my thats stingy as hell my as well convert them to mono to. I keep all my music in ALAC today with the price of storage so cheap my as well keep exact copies.

MacRuler said:

if ur not a audiophile, you should really convert ur songs to AAC through itunes it self, i have my songs at 64 kbs aac, it has saved over 4 gigs and i seriuosly cant hear ANY difference in sound, and i do listen close i have a pair of igrado so i do care about how my music sounds.

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I had a 38 GB iTunes library last week. At the end of the week I converted anything with a higher that 96 kbps bitrate to 80 kbps AAC High effiency. I now have an 18 GB library and do not notice any difference in quality.

I have a backup of my library in case I notice a quality drop in some songs. I was skeptical of the low bitrate, but it really is impressive.

MacRuler said:

if ur not a audiophile, you should really convert ur songs to AAC through itunes it self, i have my songs at 64 kbs aac, it has saved over 4 gigs and i seriuosly cant hear ANY difference in sound, and i do listen close i have a pair of igrado so i do care about how my music sounds.

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Not trying to be audio-elitist in my tone (I'm really not), but in all seriousness, you can't hear the differene in 64kbps and 128/192/256/320? Really?

I can hear a massive, massive difference between 128 and 320.

jamesryanbell said:

Not trying to be audio-elitist in my tone (I'm really not), but in all seriousness, you can't hear the differene in 64kbps and 128/192/256/320? Really?

I can hear a massive, massive difference between 128 and 320.

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It depends on what you have recorded and the equipment you are using to play it back. If you are ripping movies with DD 5.1 soundtracks and copying them to iTunes for playback in a home theater that has a first class audio system, then a lot of compression may cause a noticeable degradation in the sound. But if you are copying popular music CDs to iTunes for playback on an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, then, it seems to me, uncompressed audio is an unnecessary waste of storage capacity. In any event, if you have much recorded music stored, even in compressed form, you are going to need supplemental external storage to take the strain of of the MBA's small hard drive.

all i was suggesting is what jahala is doing, give it a try and if you dont like it then go buy a nas and have a slow sluggish itunes.. . ...

External or Server or Compression

So I think the choices are clear.

You can go with an external hard drive.

You can go with a Server and stream your music (if you have another computer).

You can go with a higher compression too (if you don't notice the difference) but if you do collect a lot, chances are that this still won't be a solution as the Air's current internal hard drives aren't great for bulk... not if you add movies and tv shows to the mix.

I think we've covered all the possible choices to help you. Anyone have a fourth suggestion?