iTunes - help for beginner...

Zascar

I've avoided it for a long time but now I've finally decided to give iTunes a proper go. I actually quite like the new version its much better... However I'm still having some issues.

So, the reason I have not liked iTunes in the past is I found it dealt very well with a bunch of albums you have ripped from cd or downloaded, but it is not so good at managing the large collection of individual tracks I have. I have several directories of just single tracks from a band or album I really only like that one track. Finding it hard to work out how to manage these and keep them separate.

In the Album view it seems to duplicate a lot. For example, I have the "Drive" soundtrack, and it seems to think that 5 of the tracks are their own album. So there is one entry with 8 songs on the album, then another 5 entries all with the same art, but just one song per album. Any idea how to fix this?

It also does not deal well with the many "Greatest Hits" albums i have - it will split the cd into several other albums in its directory. If there any way to manually correct these?

How do I get around this, and also manage a load of individual songs without them clogging up my "albums" view. Can I hide them from this view?

Any advice appreciated..
Thanks

Sad Professor

Zascar wrote: »

In the Album view it seems to duplicate a lot. For example, I have the "Drive" soundtrack, and it seems to think that 5 of the tracks are their own album. So there is one entry with 8 songs on the album, then another 5 entries all with the same art, but just one song per album. Any idea how to fix this?

The ID3 tags for those tracks are different from the others. Usually it is because they don't have the same Album Artist set. This tends to happen as a result of the tracks coming from different sources. Right-click, Get Info and modify the tags so they are consistent. Set the Album Artist of all the tracks to same artist or else make it blank.

It also does not deal well with the many "Greatest Hits" albums i have - it will split the cd into several other albums in its directory. If there any way to manually correct these?

Select all the tracks in iTunes, right-click Get Info and mark them as being part of a compilation.

Zascar

Thanks for that, I did try it, it sort of worked but not perfectly. However now I have found myself in another dilemma. I loved some folders around and now they are unlinked with iTunes. This is annoying. I now learn I either need to keep them all exactly where they are, or allow iTunes to manage it for me and copy every directory into its own folder where it will manage them in its own file system. Is this what everyone does? I tried last night but it takes quite a while to copy & import. Also annoys me how long it takes to rewrite ID3 tags and album art especially..

I'm told there are programs that can help update missing album art and names etc - can anyone recommend any good ones?

So far I'm only putting in full albums as I have yet to find a solution that can manage individual tunes - I don;t see why my album view should be clogged up with dozens of albums which will only have one song..

Sad Professor

Yes, you should let iTunes organise your music for you and copy files to the library when importing. This is how iTunes is meant to be used. The whole point of it is that you don't have to worry about the files, iTunes manages them for you. If you've got a lot of music files outside the iTunes library folder (but linked to it) you can copy them to the iTunes folder by consolidating your library (File menu > Library > Organise). This will copy all music linked with iTunes to the iTunes library folder, you can then delete the originals from elsewhere on your hard drive (just make sure they've been copied over first).

As for album view, it's supposed to show you all your albums, even if there's only one song in them. If you find that's too cluttered, use Artist view instead. In that view, compilations and artists belonging to an album with an album artist are grouped together. I spend most of my time in this view. Album view is really just for show and obviously requires a well organised music library with artwork, etc, to look good.

Zascar

Ah ok, fair enough. However just an idea, could I give all the individual tracks an album name and have them all appear under an album I'd call "Random tracks" etc. Would that work?

Sad Professor

Zascar wrote: »

Ah ok, fair enough. However just an idea, could I give all the individual tracks an album name and have them all appear under an album I'd call "Random tracks" etc. Would that work?

Sure. Just set all the tracks as being part of a compilation.

I actually do this myself for some things. I have tons of Radiohead b-sides from various different singles and EPs which I have grouped together under the same album name.