Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ
Hot off the digital presses, the first book about iTunes that’s up-to-date for the recently released iTunes 10: Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ.
Find answers to all your questions about iTunes 10
Join iTunes expert Kirk McElhearn as he helps you think like an iTunes power user so you can get the most out of your audio, video, and book collections in iTunes 10. You’ll also learn the best way for you to transfer media to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod.
In question-and-answer format, Kirk helps you appreciate and understand the process of bringing media into iTunes, tagging it, adding album artwork, and organizing it into playlists. With that setup completed, you can enjoy your music, movies, audiobooks, ebooks, and more without hassles on your Mac or Windows computer, and on all your Apple devices.
Questions answered include:
- How do I use the new Album List View in iTunes 10?
- What can I do with Ping, the new musical social network in iTunes 10?
- How do I control the sound quality when I import (rip) a music CD?
- What should I consider before I rip an audiobook CD?
- How do I turn on Genius?
- Where are good places to shop for digital music besides the iTunes Store?
- Which tags should I worry about?
- How do I add lyrics to my tracks?
- How can I locate music that I haven’t listed to in a while?
- What special things can I do with smart playlists?
- How do I share my iTunes library over a network?
- What can I print with iTunes?
- What’s the best way to deal with my huge music library?
- What are Kirk’s favorite AppleScripts to extend iTunes’ functionality?
This 146-page ebook is only $10. Available now in PDF, epub and .mobi (Kindle) formats from Take Control Books. Also available in epub format from Apple’s iBookstore and Kindle format from Amazon.com.
I’ll likely get the book (I’ve enjoyed your posts on music and literature), but I am very hesitant about upgrading. I’ve used iTunes with Logitech’s Squeezebox for some 500 cd’s I’ve ripped to my Mac+ext. HD. I am concerned that Apple’s sometimes dramatic “improvements” risk damage to this chain.
Any thoughts?
Hmm, I wouldn’t worry too much about the Squeezebox getting superseded in the immediate future.
Well, my worry is less about Squeezebox disappearing than its refusing to play with iTunes 10. That seems to have been a reality with some SB users — see the users’ forum posts:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?p=575695
I wasn’t aware of that. Some people in that thread say it works fine.
It is certainly updating the XML file, because this file is used by a number of apps, not only music apps, but also other Apple apps. If they stopped doing that, they would have to replace it with something else, and this information would be published.
I guess I have an *in*frequently asked question.
Which is…?
Does the book go into the differences between the different sorting options? Artist, Album Artist, Sort Name, Sort Artist, Sort Album Artist…these have always confused the heck out of me. For example, Willie Nelson has a number of albums he recorded with other artists…I’d love to have the artist as “Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel” and “Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash”. etc without each of them having their own listing in the artist column browser – they should all be just listed under Willie Nelson. If your book sheds any light on exactly what each option does, you’ve got a sale. There’s nothing in-depth on Apple’s website regarding these options.
Yes, it does. All that’s quite simple: just put the name of the artist you want to see in iTunes in the Sort Artist field. In your case, enter Willie Nelson as Sort Artist for those albums.
But you can still buy the book if you want. :-)
I am always a lte adopter on iTunes, I liked V7 best but was forced to upgrade in order to purchase, and again to “rent” videos for Mad Men. I don’t use iFonies or other modren devices (sic).
So what *I* would like to see is an honest assessment of what has changed, and why an old fashioned user might not want to upgrade. Or why it would actually be a good thing!
But then, I was also very happy with OS9 and still get annoyed at some of the behaviors built into X…
The book is missing the most important section: How to remove/disable each of the new features as they’re added, whether officially or by third-party modifications. Right now, I’m stuck at version 9 because of Ping. I’ve been able to remove the arrows on the song titles, but removing it from the left sidebar would justify the cost of the book.
I’m currently finishing the update to the book for iTunes 10.0.1, regarding the new Ping stuff. The book will be updated regularly as changes are made to iTunes. And I explain how to nuke the Ping buttons. You do know that when you buy the book, you also get updates, right?
I will not, however, discuss third-party mods to iTunes, other than the use of AppleScripts. That just gets too confusing.
If there were a way to get rid of Ping from the left sidebar, I’d be posting it on my blog ASAP, and updating the book for that.
In an earlier upgrade of iTunes, iTunes dropped the short pause between movements in my classical music. Now they are just run together. Does your book cover this anomaly and how to correct it?
What I think you’re saying is that Apple provided gapless playback, so those tracks that do run together play without an audible gap. This is what should happen – what would happen on a CD with similar tracks. You’re saying you want to add a pause?
On my CGs, there was a pause between movements (unless the composer had written the music so that it flowed from one movement to the next), just as the music is presented in concert. When downloaded into iTunes (a very early release, that was how they played.
But in one of the upgrades, that gap was systematically removed. most of my classical music mow plays with out gaps. I would like the gap back.
Will you book tell me how to do that?
No, because that’s not a “feature” it’s a bug with specific music files. I’d have to see the files to try and figure out why it’s happening. If you have a web server, and can post some of them, I’d be happy to take a look.
Does your book offer suggestions regarding audiobooks and iTunes? Converting WMA files, removal of DRM, joining tracks, ect?
Audiobooks, yes; quite a bit. Converting WMA, no; check the help in iTunes – it’s simple. Removal of DRM; no, that’s not legal. Joining tracks; yes. You can get a sample of the book including a table of contents at the link above.
Does the book offer help with organizing classical music in iTunes? I would like to rip my extensive classical music CD collection to iTunes but the trouble I’ve had with getting the fields right, keeping movements together and in the right sequence etc makes me hesitate. Since you enjoy classical music I imagine this is something you have dealt with for yourself.
Yes, I cover classical music a lot, mostly regarding tagging and organizing.
For those classical pieces, have you tried “Join CD Tracks” while importing? It will keep longer works together, as long as you don’t need to play one movement only some time…
I used to do that, before there was gapless playback. But I ended up re-ripping everything I had joined, because it’s easier to have the actual individual movements.
Kirk, I’ve been following your posts regularly and I want to learn all about iTunes. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your posts. I have a specific question, I want to go away for some time and I will take my MacBook. Currently my iTunes library is on my MacPro and it has about 35000 items, about 1TB. I want to move it to the laptop so I can continue to sync the iPods and iTouches (we are five) and keep updating the play count and the stars. When I get back I will want my library back on the MacPro. Obviously most of the tracks, podcasts etc. will never fit on the laptop. I know how to move the library, I don’t know how to move a part of it. I imagine I would need some sort of split and merge function for the library for when I leave and when I get back. I’ve never heard of such thing, did you? Any suggestions?
I would put it on an external hard disk, if you can take one with you. On each computer, point iTunes to the disk, and it should work.
I have an iMac (at home) that is shared by my wife and I. I placed our iTunes Library in the Shared folder, aliases in each of our Music folders, and changed the permissions on the Library to include Read and Write for each of us. Yet, this doesn’t seem to be the best way to have a single library for multiple users on a single Mac. A friend suggested a symlink (he said use Cocktail to create it) rather than an alias. Does your TC book speak to strategies for having a single library for multiple users (and multiple users’ iPhone/iPads connected to it from their respective logins)?
Apple’s user interface has always tried to follow the non computer analogies to make things easier for us. Just like we purchase one CD, or one book, or one video and those resources sit next to each other on a shelf at home, I’d like my iTunes library and its resources to follow this path. Will your book help me wade this swamp?
Have I asked the right questions?
I hesitate to really recommend any shared strategy. While I do discuss this in my book, briefly, it’s something that’s fraught with too many problems for it to be truly a safe solution. As you see, there are permissions issues, and what will eventually happen is that you’ll need to reset the permissions, if you use the Shared folder (which has some very odd properties).
I wrote a Macworld article about a hypothetical iTunes server, which points out the many issues in such usage:
http://www.macworld.com/article/154570/2010/10/itunes_server.html
In your case, I’d strongly recommend either a separate partition or even external HD for the iTunes library. You can set that disk to ignore permissions, and it will be much easier to deal with than the Shared folder. But the problem remains that each user’s iTunes library file will not be up to date. There’s really no easy way to do this, alas. With multiple Macs, it’s much easier, as you can simply use Home Sharing to transfer files.
In short, buy my book, but not for that. :-)