Music Library Consolidation
EE Pros,
I have a Win7 installation running Apple iTunes. Over the years I have added many different music files (different formats). I've decided to "bite the bullet" and spend the time to finally consolidate all my music libraries. What is the simplest way of finding all of the music files on my computer, putting them in a single file, accessable by iTunes? I'm also putting the music in a directory that is not the primary iTunes directed Library (Drive D vs. C) due to space constraints. Any advise would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
B.
I have a Win7 installation running Apple iTunes. Over the years I have added many different music files (different formats). I've decided to "bite the bullet" and spend the time to finally consolidate all my music libraries. What is the simplest way of finding all of the music files on my computer, putting them in a single file, accessable by iTunes? I'm also putting the music in a directory that is not the primary iTunes directed Library (Drive D vs. C) due to space constraints. Any advise would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
B.
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Two file types to serach for
*.MP3 (MPEG Layer 3 Audio files)
and
*.M4A (Mpeg 4 audio files)
They M4A files are what Itunes uses Itunes converts MP3 to M4A and stores those files in the Itunes Library if you chose that option in Itunes.
I created a folder named Music on a D Drive.
Under Music I created folders by the name of the group artists of the songs
Then created the album folder for each album and placed the songs there.
Took a lot of work in the beginning but now I can look up my music very quickly.
Have over 500 hundred alblums and about 10000 songs.
After you have your folder structure setup then you can start to add songs or albums to you itunes music library.
*.MP3 (MPEG Layer 3 Audio files)
and
*.M4A (Mpeg 4 audio files)
They M4A files are what Itunes uses Itunes converts MP3 to M4A and stores those files in the Itunes Library if you chose that option in Itunes.
I created a folder named Music on a D Drive.
Under Music I created folders by the name of the group artists of the songs
Then created the album folder for each album and placed the songs there.
Took a lot of work in the beginning but now I can look up my music very quickly.
Have over 500 hundred alblums and about 10000 songs.
After you have your folder structure setup then you can start to add songs or albums to you itunes music library.
That all seems very complicated. Why not just use iTunes built-in consolidator?
File/Library/Organize Library/Consolidate Files
This will organize all your media in a single directory structure, making copies of anything that's outside that directory structure...then all you have to do is delete the copies in locations outside that directory.
File/Library/Organize Library/Consolidate Files
This will organize all your media in a single directory structure, making copies of anything that's outside that directory structure...then all you have to do is delete the copies in locations outside that directory.
akahan,
Does it give you a choice of where (which drive) you may consolidate to? It says, "all files used by itunes".....does that include all of your w3 files?
B.
Does it give you a choice of where (which drive) you may consolidate to? It says, "all files used by itunes".....does that include all of your w3 files?
B.
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I'm not sure what you mean by "w3 files." Generally, if it's a file with a suffix that iTunes thinks it can play or read (mp3, aiff, aad, wav, aa, jpg, tiff, gif, bmp, psd, mp4, etc. etc.), it'll put it in the consolidated directory structure.