Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Andrew83Ga

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2009
178
14
I apologize if this has been discussed before, but it is something I have wondered for quite some time. As an iphone 3g owner, it is harder and harder to fit everything I want onto my phone's 16gig space. Is there a way to save space by having only one version of a song, but having it show up under multiple albums? For example, one song that is on the studio album, a greatest hits album, and a soundtrack requires 3 of the exact same files, but if there were a way to keep only one file, and not have it mess up the continuity of the albums, it would save me a lotttt of space. I had trouble putting this into words but I hope you understand what I'm asking. Thanks!
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
979
New England
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

You can mimic what you want by using playlists instead if albums. A single track can be in lots of different playlists.

Still doesn't sound like a great way to save tons of space. Do you really have more than 5-10% of such duplicated tracks on your library?

B
 

minlshaw

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2009
35
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

You can mimic what you want by using playlists instead if albums. A single track can be in lots of different playlists.

Still doesn't sound like a great way to save tons of space. Do you really have more than 5-10% of such duplicated tracks on your library?

B

You'd be surprised how quickly a larger library can run into this problem. For instance, I have George Strait's entire catalog. This means that I have, just offhand, "Baby Blue" on his album Beyond the Blue Neon (where the single originated), the Ten Strait Hits collection, his boxed set Strait Out of the Box, his entry in the 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series, and on his career-spanning 50 Number Ones collection. That's five copies of the same song. Even if I leave out the 20th Century Masters and Ten Strait Hits (because neither includes any new material), there were only 11 out of 72 tracks exclusive to the boxed set and only one exclusive to 50 Number Ones.

Let's say I created playlists instead of syncing whole albums. Then the problem I run into is the variances in mastering. Who wants to hear a 1990s master of a song right before or after a 2008 re-master? Only the singles from the earlier albums have been re-mastered over the years, meaning I'd either have to stick with the earliest version for consistency's sake with the original album, in which case the more recent hits compilations would fluctuate, or vice versa.

And don't even get me started on being a Johnny Cash fan...!
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
979
New England
You'd be surprised how quickly a larger library can run into this problem. [/I].

Let's say I created playlists instead of syncing whole albums. Then the problem I run into is the variances in mastering. Who wants to hear a 1990s master of a song right before or after a 2008 re-master? Only the singles from the earlier albums have been re-mastered over the years, meaning I'd either have to stick with the earliest version for consistency's sake with the original album, in which case the more recent hits compilations would fluctuate, or vice versa.

And don't even get me started on being a Johnny Cash fan...!

I understand the problem, I have a large library myself. However my tastes are so varied that it isn't even a 1% problem despite having 6-10 versions of certain songs.

The OP doesn't seem to differentiate between masterings/mixes since he says they are "the exact same files".

I use Smart Playlists to get a good selection of music that will fit in my 16 GB. I tend to avoid syncing box sets for this reason, and will uncheck many of the tracks taht I would otherwise have on an album.

B
 

Andrew83Ga

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2009
178
14
yeah that's my problem. I have the entire catalogs of, The Beatles, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Doors that I just want to have everything with me EVERYWHERE in case the mood stikes for a particular song. I've weeded out all those songs from other artists that I like, but won't realistically listen to enough to justify it's space on my phone, but even after all of that weeding out, I don't have the room I need. It would honestly save me a few hundred songs I think if there was a way. And yes I'm only talking about the studio versions that also appear on greatest hits, soundtracks and other types of compilations. Obviously the live versions are unique and not what im talking about.
 

Andrew83Ga

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2009
178
14
it's admittedly solely my desire to not just have "most of" or "what I can fit" of a certain catalog, but to have it all at my disposal. I guess I'll just have to get rid of some of the lesser albums and compilations until I get whatever iphone apple comes out with next summer
 

thunderboltspro

macrumors regular
Oct 4, 2009
138
0
Midwest
it's admittedly solely my desire to not just have "most of" or "what I can fit" of a certain catalog, but to have it all at my disposal. I guess I'll just have to get rid of some of the lesser albums and compilations until I get whatever iphone apple comes out with next summer

So im thinking what your trying to say is how do you remove duplicates of a song. but the easiest way to do that is in itunes. by going to file and clicking show duplicates it will give you a list of them. you can remove it from itunes but still keep the file.

or just make a playlist.
 

devburke

Guest
Oct 16, 2008
1,190
0
So im thinking what your trying to say is how do you remove duplicates of a song. but the easiest way to do that is in itunes. by going to file and clicking show duplicates it will give you a list of them. you can remove it from itunes but still keep the file.

or just make a playlist.

Well the problem with doing that is that if it’s a duplicate in that the same recording of the same song appears on multiple albums, removing one album’s version ruins the continuity, as it won’t be listed in that album any more. The OP wanted to know if it was possible to make the same file appear on multiple albums.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.