iTunes Aggregation - who has seen it work, which products do best? GENERAL DISCUSSION

[spaceballl]

Hi all, I searched the forums here for "itunes aggregation" and i really didn't get too many good results. Turning to google worked a bit better, but not well.

For those who aren't familiar with itunes aggregation, it works like this. You have a home network and some sort of home server or NAS. You have two adults and two kids, and everyone has a different iTunes library. Wouldn't it be cool to aggregate all of that music on a server somewhere and then be able to stream that music out to any location (around the house, PS3, remote computers in other cities, etc). That's where iTunes Aggregation comes in.

HP's Windows Home Server and MediaVault seem to be able to do this. See here.

That's all I really know. I'd love to hear general reports / discussion from people who are familiar w/ it or have used it. How does it work? Does it filter out duplicates? What kinds of settings are there, etc etc etc. Hopefully this thread is useful in finding out information.

Thanks!

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Why not just turn on iTunes sharing? Then all computers have access to all Libraries? You say the word aggregation a lot.

 

[spaceballl]

iTunes sharing gives the following limitations:

1) in order to access a library, that computer needs to be on
2) no remote access outside of the network
3) you see separate libraries, rather than one aggregate library
4) 3rd party music devices can't be used unless they support itunes sharing, and even if they do, they only have access to one library at a time

So yeah iTunes sharing is a nice feature, but it is not at all the same thing as iTunes Aggregation. here let me say it again.. iTunes Aggregation

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Now I feel compelled to use "aggregation" in future conversations.

You can keep your iTunes music on an NAS or shared drive (air disk) if you would like. Though separating all of the libraries for each computer would make it a little messy for total compatibility. Mainly, if you have iTunes libraries, then a PS3 would still have to rifle through the specific directories to get to the music. As would other non-iTunes hardware/software.

iTunes obviously only caters to hardware that uses iTunes, so no aggregation "option" is possible. If anything I would say that the kids and adults computers all use the same library on an NAS and then you could more easily direct any other hardware to the iTunes Music folder. Naturally, keeping this one iTunes library organized would require trial and tribulation I imagine. I used to keep iTunes libraries synced on my iMac by use of an Automator script. But I don't see that as being an end all solution for X and Y hardware that may want to use such a directory.

 

[spaceballl]

Hmmm not sure if you understand that "itunes aggregation" software currently exists. I have no interest in putting my music library on a NAS.

iTunes obviously only caters to hardware that uses iTunes, so no aggregation "option" is possible.

Also, this is not really true. iTunes just uses music library files and some XML. If you have an "iTunes Music" folder w/ a bunch of music, assuming it is not DRM'd, you can point any other piece of software to that music and it will be able to access it without problem.

I'm not looking for counter-solutions. I specifically want to speak about the functionality offered on products like the HP Media Vault MV2120. Can we please limit discussion to this "itunes aggregation?" For just storing itunes libraries on a NAS, or using iTunes sharing, there are plenty of things you can search for in this forum.

Here are some relevant links that describe the feature:

Support Link
Product Link
Review that mentions aggregation

Just wondering if people have experience with these products - not looking for alternative solutions - thanks!

 

[Galley]

Sonos?

 

[spaceballl]

Sonos?

Sonos plays music throughout your house - great product. But you need to point it at some MP3s for it to work. What if some of your songs are on your laptop, some on your wife's laptop, some on the family desktop, and some on your kids' computers. You need an iTunes aggregator to put all of that music into one place, so Sonos can play from it.