Music App Basics

[Huntn]

Despite all of my talk back in 2018, about moving music from an old iPod, I finally got around today of actually buying a 7th generation iPod, and should have it by Monday. I've got my click wheel iPod , which I believe is a 4th generation iPod A1059 Model, hooked up to my MBP running Catalina. It is now recognized, where before Catalina, or an older version of iTunes, it was not recognized.

I also located an my last iTunes library in one of my back up Drives, which is a duplicate of the songs sitting on this iPod, and I exported that into the Mac Music App (Catalina). I believe this saved me from having to buy third party software to move the music off the old iPod. Of note, all of these songs came off Music CDs that I purchased.

In preparation to moving these songs onto the new iPod, I've noticed that all of the songs while listed by artist and album in the Music App, they include no meta data, and if I select the "album" category, the albums are not recognized. I'd like these songs linked together by Albums.

Dealing with Music App
I found this article: https://www.technipages.com/how-to-organize-your-itunes-music-library. Note this article references working with iTunes to fix your iTunes library, not your Music Library. So I'll have to experiment and see if this info works with Music (the Mac App) It suggests download and using MusicBrainz to help organize these songs into albums and find meta data/alubm artwork to attach to them.

• Has anyone done anything like this?
• Does anyone have experience with MusicBrainz or software like it? Reccomendations?
• Is this a good way to go? Or is there a better way to easily accomplish this chore?

Also I'm considering the best way to manage this music. To free up disk space on my MBP I'd like to keep the Music Library on a backup Disk (which is backed up to a second disk) and if I do that can I still backup the library to the cloud via Mac?

Thanks!

 

[Huntn]

After having located an old ITunes music library backup, resurrecting it, and working with the Music App, I’m realizing I don’t need to mess with the software mentioned above, at least not yet. For the music already there, and the CDs I am importing, in many cases I can tell music to add the Artwork (right click on the album in album view) and it’s about a 70% chance it will. And if it does not, I search online for the particular album cover, download it, then right click on the album, select Get Info, and there is a choice to add artwork, from a file. So far so good!

 

[Huntn]

Just figured out how to Airplay music from my Mac to the TV.

 

[mikzn]

After having located an old ITunes music library backup, resurrecting it, and working with the Music App, I’m realizing I don’t need to mess with the software mentioned above, at least not yet. For the music already there, and the CDs I am importing, in many cases I can tell music to add the Artwork (right click on the album in album view) and it’s about a 70% chance it will. And if it does not, I search online for the particular album cover, download it, then right click on the album, select Get Info, and there is a choice to add artwork, from a file. So far so good!

I agree - Using a third party to manage iTunes or "Music.App is more work than just doing everything within iTunes /Music - and despite all the compliants (i am guilty 😇) iTunes and Music.App are probably the best tool for editing meta data, artwork, also great to access from apple TV where you can play your playlists and and albums with a sound system etc

I keep all my music on a WD external drive and also back that up to a second drive - exactly like you describe above with Carbon Copy Cloner (fantastic software) - with the exception of using iCloud for music back up.

For missing Artwork I prefer to use Discogs to search for album versions, artwork, dates etc - All Music and Wikipedia are also great for getting info about the albums and tracks.

 

[Huntn]

I agree - Using a third party to manage iTunes or "Music.App is more work than just doing everything within iTunes /Music - and despite all the compliants (i am guilty 😇) iTunes and Music.App are probably the best tool for editing meta data, artwork, also great to access from apple TV where you can play your playlists and and albums with a sound system etc

I keep all my music on a WD external drive and also back that up to a second drive - exactly like you describe above with Carbon Copy Cloner (fantastic software) - with the exception of using iCloud for music back up.

For missing Artwork I prefer to use Discogs to search for album versions, artwork, dates etc - All Music and Wikipedia are also great for getting info about the albums and tracks.

Thanks for responding!

My new iPod arrives on Tuesday. I ordered a 32GB version, then I looked at the existing library which with a ton of my music not in it was already at 12GB. I cancelled it and opted for a 128GB version. Right now I'm adding CDs to my Music Library on my MBP, and then will transfer it over to the iPod. I'll probably use iCloud to back it up, but I also plan on sticking it on the external drive with local backup as previously described. I literally have a drawer full of CDs in plastic cases, which are just not that convenient to access so I've ordered a 128 disk holder. I'll probably keep the album art from the CDs and get rid of the cases, or most of the cases.

I'll emphasis that this music has been sitting in the drawer for 10 years, and we had an old 4th get click wheel iPod that we never used cause the Bose sound machine broke. Getting this stuff into Music App and streaming it to the TV is quite liberating to be listening to this library again.

 

[mikzn]

At one point I had over 200 vinyl LP's and many more than that in CD's in cases stored in a book shelf in each jewel case

It was always a chore to find an LP or the CD of interest - but on the plus side it forced me to listen to albums more and not just favorite tracks or playlists.

Spent many hours ripping most of the CD's into Sound-Jam or later when it became iTunes into digital

Unfortunately back then, hard drive space was more limited and costly so I chose to rip many CD's in low bit rates 128 kbps and only ripped "my favorite tracks" to save space thinking I could always pull out the CD again and also because I was still using a CD player for serious listening with my sound system and also in the Car.

Now - I am slowly re ripping all my Older CD's with a higher bit rate 320 kbps and including every track from every CD - but am finding the artwork does not always show when re ripping the CD's

During a move about 12 years ago I threw away my vinyl collection (in one hasty decision) along with my beloved Technics Direct Drive turntable 😢 and put all the CD's into CD binders (less art work and jewel cases) and threw away all the cases with all the enclosed artwork and sleeves etc.

Unfortunately classical cd's are not easy to find info for now and I have many classical CDs' with track names and dates but not the more interesting info and details like < composer < orchestra < conductor < movements < featured artists etc. that was usually supplied in the CD sleeves 🙁

anyway i digress, sorry, have fun with your "Music Migration" 🎶🎶

 

[Huntn]

Ok, what happened to iTunes since it became Music? Can you buy MP3 music there? Maybe I am not remembering correctly, but I could swear at one point, I could go to iTunes, pick a song, any song, old song, buy it and download it. Recently I went to the Music Store thinking I could find Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and a Kiki Dee, and it’s not there as a single, and on the Chicken Little Movie Sound Track, it’s the movie version with the characters singing the parts, which is not what I wanted.

Here is my question: If I buy this: Shake It Up, a song featured on both Chicken Little and Beverly Hills Cop, can it be downloaded or streamed only? I’m guessing download, but are there digital rights issues?

 

[mikzn]

Yes you can still buy individual songs on the "iTunes Store" - it is not very easy to figure out - IMHO

Everything is hidden and only shows if you select everything in the proper order - not what I would call "user friendly" - see screen shot

 

[Huntn]

Yes you can still buy individual songs on the "iTunes Store" - it is not very easy to figure out - IMHO

Everything is hidden and only shows if you select everything in the proper order - not what I would call "user friendly" - see screen shot


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Thank you! I’ll try this. Something happened to my Best of Elton John disk, and I ended up ordering the Diamonds disk.