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Who on this site has the biggest itunes library?
- Thread starter BeSe7enTeen
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Here is mine. By no means the biggest, but still a fair collection of music on here.
How do you all generally organise such a large collection for all those with really big libraries out there? Personally I have made a playlist for every album I have imported. Hard work but has worked well so far. Any other ways out there that people use?
How do you all generally organise such a large collection for all those with really big libraries out there? Personally I have made a playlist for every album I have imported. Hard work but has worked well so far. Any other ways out there that people use?
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A playlist for every album? Wow, at 11000 songs that means you have what 500-1000 playlists? What advantage does this have over, say, just searching for the album title or artist? How do you organize that many playlists?
It seems to me that you've added an unneeded layer of complication on the organization.
I've posted specifics about it elsewhere (maybe even in this thread), but with my library I have meticulous metadata for all my music, I fill in something like 15 fields for every album.
I also have about a couple dozen smart playlists set up which break up my music various ways, by decade for instance. I have genre folders made up with smart lists of sub genres (ie a Jamaican folder, within which lies smart playlists for ska, rock steady, reggae, dub, deejay, dancehall, etc.)
It seems to me that you've added an unneeded layer of complication on the organization.
I've posted specifics about it elsewhere (maybe even in this thread), but with my library I have meticulous metadata for all my music, I fill in something like 15 fields for every album.
I also have about a couple dozen smart playlists set up which break up my music various ways, by decade for instance. I have genre folders made up with smart lists of sub genres (ie a Jamaican folder, within which lies smart playlists for ska, rock steady, reggae, dub, deejay, dancehall, etc.)
Yeah around 500 playlists. I just started off that way with a small library and it grew. I used to think that everyone organised that way but obviously not. I find that if I don't have playlists then I tend to forget about music that I have. I have recently tried using the album search fields and coverflow but keep coming back to playlists.
15 fields per album?! Wow ok. So if you want to find something you just run a search I guess...
10605 items, 33.6 days, 68.40Gb - Music
191 items, 7 days, 79.51Gb - Movies
417 items, 8 days, 89.04Gb - TV Shows
638 items, 6.7 days, 42.31Gb - Podcasts
297 items, 13 days, 7.26Gb - Audiobooks
228 Applications
This is a library i've been building on various platforms for a long, long time... pre-itunes 1.0 even
191 items, 7 days, 79.51Gb - Movies
417 items, 8 days, 89.04Gb - TV Shows
638 items, 6.7 days, 42.31Gb - Podcasts
297 items, 13 days, 7.26Gb - Audiobooks
228 Applications
This is a library i've been building on various platforms for a long, long time... pre-itunes 1.0 even
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my itunes library is approx
64000+ songs
1400+ podcast
350+ TV shows
700+ DVD movies in mp4 format
340 apps
and i also have those 700+ DVDs ripped as Video_TS folders and being served up on my home network as a hard drive based DVD jukebox for all my other computers and home theater.
64000+ songs
1400+ podcast
350+ TV shows
700+ DVD movies in mp4 format
340 apps
and i also have those 700+ DVDs ripped as Video_TS folders and being served up on my home network as a hard drive based DVD jukebox for all my other computers and home theater.
there is a view in iTunes called Browse. it actually provides both an Aritst, and an Album list.
you can even enable a list called Genre along side the other two.
have you not seen this view before?! im willing to bet that making a playlist for each album doesnt accomplish anything that this view wouldn't already give you.
the keyboard is also active in this view. click in the album or artist list and start typing a name/title and it will jump to it immediately avoiding the need to scroll to it. hence it's not necessary to type it in the search field to find it.
I didn't know this was possible. Are you talking about just clicking on a heading such as "album" or "artist" and then just typing or something else? Not sure I follow exactly.
Browser View
kdum8
I think they're just referring to the browser view:
You can see all your genres, artists, and albums. I would think that would serve the same purpose as you creating playlists for every album. You don't even have to search, just scroll to the artist or album, or starting type while the window is selected and it will jump to matches.
kdum8
I think they're just referring to the browser view:
You can see all your genres, artists, and albums. I would think that would serve the same purpose as you creating playlists for every album. You don't even have to search, just scroll to the artist or album, or starting type while the window is selected and it will jump to matches.
Wow, can't believe I have never come across Browser view in over 5 years... yeah it does work really well. Thanks for the screenshot.
My browser view only has album and artist categories. I can't seem to right click the Browser view to add other categories such as genre. How did you do it? Probably I am being a little dumb but...
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browser view customization
There used to be a setting in the preferences menu but I don't see it anymore. However you can turn the Genre column on and off in the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.itunes show-genre-when-browsing -bool TRUE
That seems to be the only option for the browser view.
There used to be a setting in the preferences menu but I don't see it anymore. However you can turn the Genre column on and off in the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.itunes show-genre-when-browsing -bool TRUE
That seems to be the only option for the browser view.
yeah that worked perfectly. Thanks.
How did you get to learning terminal commands that influence iTunes??
No movies, audiobooks, podcasts, etc. ... only music ripped over many years. (Seems like a never-ending project! Now I'm working my way through my vinyl collection.) 100% legal. No iTunes purchases. Now adding lyrics (still have 8,874 to go)
Wow - some impressive collections in here! And to think I was doing pretty well with my measly 20 gigs of music, plus 8 gigs of podcasts!
There are some serious collectors present! I have 34,300+ songs, but that is a mixture of Apple Lossless files and mp3. Recently I have decided .aiff is the way to go instead of Apple Lossless for the archive copy. I gave up being a Lossless only snob and have embraced the universality of good quality Mp3 196kbs+ for mobile usage.
I have 19,000 (475GB) of duplicates.
A few questions and comments... When I started amassing a large music library, storage space was a LOT more expensive, that's one reason I think straight aiff files are viable now. That and apple Lossless files need to go through a conversion if I am going to burn them to a CD, which slows the process down quite a bit. So I'd rather waste space than conversion time presently.
I had a whole bunch of play lists just disappear, from the top of the list, several times. I have know idea why or where they went, but I thought I might have run into some kind of limit, since I was making a Lot of play lists. Not sure how many but it takes some time to scroll through them all.
Play lists are very important and my focus is on putting a lot of really good music together, for specific moods or effects. It's the artistic "Gems" I look for most across many music styles.
I have found that when I erase some songs from iTunes on an album I don't like, that it interferes with ability to automatically get track info and art work later on. I don't always record a complete album but I keep all the songs just so I can reproduce the track list automatically. It seems like all the tracks on a CD are needed by itunes to identify the CD accurately or when burning a copy. I often use Toast and save a disc image of any great mixes.
i also scan the artwork and makes copies of the front and back artwork album titles, eventually cloning many of the best albums along with printing similar artwork on the CD and case using DISCUS. Taiyo Yuden water shield CDs and glossy paper. Looks like the original! Normal, Ink jet printed CD-R surfaces, don't hold up well to water.
Then I just carry the copies where I can beat them up, instead of the ruining the originals, in the car on trips, vacation etc. I have begun to make long MP3 mixes for trips or put them on a 8 GB micro flash chip and play them in my $20 MP3 player (Sansa SLot Music Player with no display).
I have 19,000 (475GB) of duplicates.
A few questions and comments... When I started amassing a large music library, storage space was a LOT more expensive, that's one reason I think straight aiff files are viable now. That and apple Lossless files need to go through a conversion if I am going to burn them to a CD, which slows the process down quite a bit. So I'd rather waste space than conversion time presently.
I had a whole bunch of play lists just disappear, from the top of the list, several times. I have know idea why or where they went, but I thought I might have run into some kind of limit, since I was making a Lot of play lists. Not sure how many but it takes some time to scroll through them all.
Play lists are very important and my focus is on putting a lot of really good music together, for specific moods or effects. It's the artistic "Gems" I look for most across many music styles.
I have found that when I erase some songs from iTunes on an album I don't like, that it interferes with ability to automatically get track info and art work later on. I don't always record a complete album but I keep all the songs just so I can reproduce the track list automatically. It seems like all the tracks on a CD are needed by itunes to identify the CD accurately or when burning a copy. I often use Toast and save a disc image of any great mixes.
i also scan the artwork and makes copies of the front and back artwork album titles, eventually cloning many of the best albums along with printing similar artwork on the CD and case using DISCUS. Taiyo Yuden water shield CDs and glossy paper. Looks like the original! Normal, Ink jet printed CD-R surfaces, don't hold up well to water.
Then I just carry the copies where I can beat them up, instead of the ruining the originals, in the car on trips, vacation etc. I have begun to make long MP3 mixes for trips or put them on a 8 GB micro flash chip and play them in my $20 MP3 player (Sansa SLot Music Player with no display).
yeah that worked perfectly. Thanks.
How did you get to learning terminal commands that influence iTunes??
Searching with Google for your exact words "terminal commands that influence iTunes", these are the first 3 results:
Controlling iTunes from the Terminal
Top 15 Terminal Commands for Hidden Mac OS X Settings
Run iTunes from Terminal
Top 15 Terminal Commands for Hidden Mac OS X Settings
Run iTunes from Terminal
Google is your friend!
Some serious library here at 400 gigs odd of music alone. Lol. I have about 60 gigs of music. 300 of movies. 150 of series n episodes.
I used to have more music but I didn't listen to half of it. So stripped it out to 45. Now it's back to 60. I don't use iTunes to organise my movies n series. I have them on an external hooked upto my mini. 2 partitions one for each then alaises into a folder in the movies root on the internal. So I can use it with front row. My laptop holds all my music so a 6x1tb raid isn't an option really lol
PTP
I used to have more music but I didn't listen to half of it. So stripped it out to 45. Now it's back to 60. I don't use iTunes to organise my movies n series. I have them on an external hooked upto my mini. 2 partitions one for each then alaises into a folder in the movies root on the internal. So I can use it with front row. My laptop holds all my music so a 6x1tb raid isn't an option really lol
PTP
My itunes library is quite small. I have been even thinking about trimming it to even smaller. There are some artists I like but havent listened to in over a year since I bought them. If its been that long why even bother keeping them you know. You dont have to have a huge library imho to have a nice mix. Plus if you have an iphone you can just stream one of apps that allow you to create your own station based on what you feel like listening too. so imho its not necessary with that type of app available to own every song under the sun you like.
music only: 11052 items, 216,86 GB, mostly lossless, ripped from cd's I own, about 1000 songs from netlabels and other freely available music.
Less than 1% of my library is illegal.
~22,000 songs, all lossless, and all from CDs that I own.
Pic of your ~1,833 CDs, please.