iTunes folders organisation

[wctaiwan]

I would like to have my iTunes to organise the music as iTunes Music/AlbumName instead of Music/Artist/AlbumName. There was discussion about it at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/274726/, but the thread was locked due to the OP's intention.

The reason I want to do this is that the great majority of my music collection is classical music, and most of my classical music CDs are compilations of a category of work (e.g. a collection of music with trumpets in them) instead of a CD containing the work of just one single artist. So instead of having some nice and organised folders for the albums, I have a Handel folder, which contains 5 folders, one for each album I have with songs by him in it, each containing a couple songs - This doesn't make much sense at all.

I have a Mac and I use Mac OS, so the tagging method described in the thread I linked to wouldn't really work. And as I typed this post I thought of an idea - switching the contents of the Album and Artist fields, but then it would be quite a hassle and it isn't really correct. :/

Does anyone have a solution?

wctaiwan

P.S. Just another quick question, would I be able to copy music from my iPod to my Mac? I'm thinking about reformatting and my iPod contains a more selective collection of music, so I'm thinking about not backing up the iTunes Music folder and just copying music from my iPod. Would that work? (none of my music is from the iTunes Music Store)

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

For the iPod to iTunes part, use Senuti. It rocks.

Regarding the other question, you *could* manually organize all your music, instead of having iTunes do it for you. Then you could organize it however you want.

For me, it isn't a problem letting iTunes organize it. The idea is that you don't really ever have to enter into it's folder structure, since you're accessing everything from iTunes. If I ever need an .mp3 from my collection, I just spotlight it, or use the "Show in Finder"- no folder browsing necessary.

 

[spicyapple]

The reason I want to do this is that the great majority of my music collection is classical music, and most of my classical music CDs are compilations of a category of work (e.g. a collection of music with trumpets in them) instead of a CD containing the work of just one single artist. So instead of having some nice and organised folders for the albums, I have a Handel folder, which contains 5 folders, one for each album I have with songs by him in it, each containing a couple songs - This doesn't make much sense at all.

Does anyone have a solution?

Use iTunes' compilations feature. Select all the songs in the album, press Command+I (or Get Info), and checkmark Compilation - YES in the Multiple Item Information dialog box.

If you're tagging individual songs, checkmark the Part of a compilation checkbox.

Your tagged music will now appear in the folder Music/Compilations/AlbumName. You can browse the albums in the Browser window just by setting the preference in iTunes' General tab for Group compilations when browsing.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Use iTunes' compilations feature. Select all the songs in the album, press Command+I (or Get Info), and checkmark Compilation - YES in the Multiple Item Information dialog box.

If you're tagging individual songs, checkmark the Part of a compilation checkbox.

Your tagged music will now appear in the folder Music/Compilations/AlbumName. You can browse the albums in the Browser window just by setting the preference in iTunes' General tab for Group compilations when browsing.

Of course! spicyapple, why didn't I think of that? This solution should work for you, wctaiwan.

 

[Chundles]

Why are you bothering with the underlying folder structure anyway? Can't you just make playlists and folders of playlists in iTunes that fit your needs, you can even set up smart playlists and tag parts of the pieces appropriately - smart playlists can look at the comments field too so you can put any sort of information in that can be searched for and updated on the fly.


I've got plenty of different kinds of music and I don't think I've ever gone looking in the file structure.

 

[wctaiwan]

Why are you bothering with the underlying folder structure anyway?

Because I'm fussy and paranoid?

Wow, that solution mentioned by spicyapple works flawlessly! Thanks everyone.

wctaiwan