My Library vs My Kid's

[HungryWolf]

I've read a bit about this but nothing seems to fit my situation exactly. I'm going to give a quick rundown of my situation and describe how I "think" this will work out. I hope to piece together a plan based on the replies I get.

My kid is about to turn three and I want to start a library of some sort for him. This will consist mainly of kids music and movies that I burn/rip myself.

I definitely want my music in iTunes separate from his because I have quite a bit(100 GB) and I don't want to sift through his stuff to find mine. I don't have much of a movie collection, so mixing movies doesn't bother me much. However, it seems like the best direction to go with this is to create an OS X user account for him and make a separate library there.

One thing that may make this weird is that I'd like to occasionally load both my music and his onto my iPod for car trips. As far as I know, this won't be possible with separate libraries...correct me if I'm wrong. If I can't do this, it isn't a deal breaker, it just kind of sucks.

These libraries will reside on the same machine, different OS X user accounts.

I am also open to ideas of using my library that may work. Although, my idea is that I will be saving myself work later when he starts to use his OS X user account and his library will already be there and ready.

For reference, I have a Mac Mini for our main computer, shared iPad 3, 6th gen iPod Nano and plan on adding an Apple TV soon.

Feel free to post any personal experiences and/or recommendations.

 

[sonicrobby]

One thing that may make this weird is that I'd like to occasionally load both my music and his onto my iPod for car trips. As far as I know, this won't be possible with separate libraries...correct me if I'm wrong. If I can't do this, it isn't a deal breaker, it just kind of sucks.

When the iPod is connected to one of the libraries, you there is a checkbox at the bottom of the main iPod page in iTunes that says "manually manage music". With this selected, your music wont automatically sync anymore for this iPod, you will need to drag and drop the music to the iPod in iTunes. Then log into the other OSX account, do the same thing, and drag and drop the music. Both should be on there with no problems, just make sure you keep "manually manage music" because otherwise it will sync to one of the libraries and erase the music from the other.

I am also open to ideas of using my library that may work. Although, my idea is that I will be saving myself work later when he starts to use his OS X user account and his library will already be there and ready.

With this option, I was thinking you could maybe just add somekind of "tag" to his songs. Such as putting your kid's name in the "composer" section, or any other section that you want, of all of his songs. To do this highlight all of his songs, click "get info", and just add his name, or whatever you want, to the composer section. Then to distinguish the files, just have iTunes show the composer column in iTunes, click it, and it will group all of his songs in a section of your library. That way you can easily distinguish between yours and his. Though I have no idea how all your other songs will be organized, and whether or not they actually have composers will definitely affect how those are arranged.

Hope some of that is helpful, if not, lets hear with others have to say to help you

 

[Bear]

...
I definitely want my music in iTunes separate from his because I have quite a bit(100 GB) and I don't want to sift through his stuff to find mine. I don't have much of a movie collection, so mixing movies doesn't bother me much. However, it seems like the best direction to go with this is to create an OS X user account for him and make a separate library there.
...

Since your library is so large, you probably want to manage music manually anyway, so that's probably the best way to go and that way your kid's library is all set up and ready to go.

 

[HungryWolf]

When the iPod is connected to one of the libraries, you there is a checkbox at the bottom of the main iPod page in iTunes that says "manually manage music". With this selected, your music wont automatically sync anymore for this iPod, you will need to drag and drop the music to the iPod in iTunes. Then log into the other OSX account, do the same thing, and drag and drop the music. Both should be on there with no problems, just make sure you keep "manually manage music" because otherwise it will sync to one of the libraries and erase the music from the other.



With this option, I was thinking you could maybe just add somekind of "tag" to his songs. Such as putting your kid's name in the "composer" section, or any other section that you want, of all of his songs. To do this highlight all of his songs, click "get info", and just add his name, or whatever you want, to the composer section. Then to distinguish the files, just have iTunes show the composer column in iTunes, click it, and it will group all of his songs in a section of your library. That way you can easily distinguish between yours and his. Though I have no idea how all your other songs will be organized, and whether or not they actually have composers will definitely affect how those are arranged.

Hope some of that is helpful, if not, lets hear with others have to say to help you

Good to know on the "manually manage music" info. I've always used that since I have more music than my iPod can hold, so I'm good to go on that one.

As far as his stuff in my library, my biggest beef is that I like to play my music alphabetically by song sometimes and this would include his stuff in it. I do this because I feel that the shuffle feature sucks...so I just choose a random song and play it from there.

I'll probably roll with the separate user accounts and see how it goes. Thanks for the input!

 

[Pharmscott]

There are other ways to accomplish this too. You could use playlists. You could even make them smart playlists that automatically add all of the kid's music (use a specific genre, i.e. Children's Music).

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I tag music like the with "childrens music" as suggested above, and a smart playlist of course instantly groups them.

Teach the kid which list is his/hers, and dont get afraid that one time of the year when he/she accidently starts playing your Britney Spears.

 

[HungryWolf]

There are other ways to accomplish this too. You could use playlists. You could even make them smart playlists that automatically add all of the kid's music (use a specific genre, i.e. Children's Music).

I've got quite a bit of work to do importing music but I'll definitely play around with it the playlists.

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i tag music like the with "childrens music" as suggested above, and a smart playlist of course instantly groups them.

Teach the kid which list is his/hers, and dont get afraid that one time of the year when he/she accidently starts playing your britney spears.

:d

 

[davedev100]

Kudos

Wow. What a lucky kid to have a parent like you.

 

[Dannel]

You are a good parent and I can image how happy you are