Using an alias in iTunes library?

[c-Row]

Is it possible to use an alias/a link to another song within the iTunes library?

Say, you have an album and various singles from that album. You don't want to store all the single versions within your library, so you delete duplicates unless they are different from the album track. However, you want to maintain the complete tracklist of the single, or otherwise you might end up with entries that only consist of track #3, which doesn't look nice.

 

[swiftaw]

I've been wanting this for years, but no, you cant.

 

[c-Row]

Incidentally, it seems that matticus008 has posted a possible workaround here.

Copy the songs to your desktop and then drag them back into iTunes. Rename the new copies to a different artist, and then delete the copied files. It'll put that little "!" not found icon in front of them, and just update the location to the original file. Now you have two entries, one labeled for each artist, pointing to the same file.

Can't check this right now at the office, but it seems to do the trick - two entries pointing to the same file it exactly what I need.


[edit] Hm, tested this on a Windows machine, but it doesn't seem to work right. As soon as I update the location to the original file, iTunes read that file's ID3 tags and updates them accordingly, so instead of two entries for different artists, I ended up with two identical entries. Might be a Windows or MP3 issue, though... I will test it on my MBP later.

 

[Bob-o-Link]

Has this changed - 2 1/2 years later?

Hi,

I found this 2 1/2 year old thread in a search. I have the same question as the thread starter. I'm importing a lot of jazz CDs into iTunes, including a lot of compilations, so I get lots of redundant tracks. I'd really like to keep all the titles (so that all the albums are "complete") without redundant copies of the actual track taking up space on my hard drive.

Is the answer still "No", or is iTunes now able to do this? If not, Is there a more "professional" iTunes like program (like Aperture being a "professional iPhoto") that could do something like this?

 

[bakshi]

symbolic link

rather than create an alias to your file, create a symbolic link. This worked when I moved my movies to an external drive and created a symbolic link of the Movies folder in my iTunes library.