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Written by Russ Crandall
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Thursday, 15 July 2010 18:50 |
I have maintained a digital-only music library since 2003 (which currently boasts over 22,000 songs), and have used iTunes every step of the way. And as much as everyone likes to complain about iTunes - myself included - there are a few simple ways to tweak iTunes and turn it into something much more useful than you'd think. Here is how I organize my iTunes library, which significantly upgrades its functionality and ease of use.
simple steps to a perfectly crafted music database
Clean up your artist names:
Make sure that spelling and capitalization is correct for every song by one artist - does your library really need separate artists for "Iron and Wine" and "Iron & Wine"? This will make sure your iPod won't have those pesky artist duplications. Secondly, consider changing artist names like "The Decemberists" to "Decemberists, The" - although this doesn't really serve a purpose within iTunes (I still think it looks nice), it will help you find your artist's folder more easily on your computer's hard drive when browsing your music library:
Artist associations:
I use the composer field to list bands or band members that are associated with the artist. For instance, in the White Stripes' composer field, I can type Jack White, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather, and do the same for the other bands. That way, when I do an iTunes search for any of those band names (or just the name Jack White) their associations will also appear. I tend to be very methodical about my composer field. For instance, in The Beatles' composer field I have John Lennon listed, but in John Lennon's composer field I don't write The Beatles; because when I'm in the mood for The Beatles, John Lennon will suffice, but not the other way around.
Get rid of those pesky compilations and soundtracks:
Compilations and soundtracks are fun, but they can really mess your iTunes up; a soundtrack with 20 different artists will have 20 different artists on your iPod, and I've never been convinced that the newish iTunes feature of "Album Artist" is worth the effort. Instead, I have only two artists - "Various Artists" and "Official Soundtrack". I put the artist's name in the song title with a dash between them (MC Hammer - Can't Touch This) and leave the album as the name of the soundtrack or compilation. It cleans up the whole album while remaining searchable in iTunes.
cleans up nicely, doesn't it?
Album release dates:
Getting accurate album/song release dates is crucial for setting up playlists. I love creating playlists based on a certain year; it's an instant way to transport yourself to a time period, and subsequent nostalgia. Another great idea is to create a playlist for albums that are from a certain year that you didn't add to your iTunes library at the time. It's a great way to play catchup:
A better way to rate your music:
The iTunes rating system is seriously flawed - five lousy stars are no way to give you an accurate rating of your music. Instead, I use the BPM (Beats Per Minute) field, and rate my albums 1-100. If you're not up for rating your music yourself, this system still works because metacritic.com's metascores are from 1-100 as well. Or you can use pitchfork.com's rating system (9.1 = 91). Either way, you can kiss those five stars goodbye. Better yet, you can use them to create a mood.
Create better moods:
Although I'm a fan of iTunes' "Genius" feature, I've been creating my own atmospheric playlists well before its appearance. Since I have no use for the simple five-star rating system embedded in iTunes, I use it in another way: I use it to refine the intensity of my music. This helps me to create playlists that are friendly to whatever situation I am in. One star would be acoustic music fitting for a card game with my wife's parents. Two stars would be dinner-friendly music. Three stars would be your average rock band (the majority of my music is three stars). Four stars would be punk rock or aggressive rock. Five stars would be heavy metal and hardcore. That way you can set up a shuffled playlist based on intensity level that won't kill whatever mood you're looking for.
Organize your B-sides:
A common annoyance is getting a bunch of random songs from your favorite band, only to flood your albums field with a bunch of CDS titles and bonus tracks. I solve this by making a "Singles" album for those bands that have several non-album tracks. I then remove the track numbers so that it's sorted alphabetically. I also leave the album art and year so that I can narrow the track down in the future, if needed:
Geography:
I'm very geographically-minded when it comes to music. Therefore, I use the comments section to list the location of bands (city, state, country). This allows me to set up Smart Playlists based on location - all Canadian bands, all NYC bands, etc - which creates an interesting variable when selecting music. This may seem like a lot of work, but it becomes second nature to check on a band's location while checking Wikipedia for accurate track listings or album release dates.
Create a constantly-interesting playlist:
Here's a sure bet, using all of the features found in this article. Make a playlist of songs with a BPM ("rating") over 80, and hasn't been listened to in the last two months, and hasn't been skipped in the past six months. After that, you can set other variables (location, intensity) as you see fit:
That's it! With these simple steps (and ensuring you have accurate tags every time you add new music to your library), you'll soon have an iTunes library that's worth its weight in gold.
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The stuff about compilations and soundtracks is critical. I don't like the default behavior and files/folders that come along with those. So good stuff, yeah.
I know a lot of people don't care about years and stuff but that can be really fun to have specific smart playlists related to release date. One annoying thing is how a lot of Greatest Hits albums automatically just put the release date of that disc. Totally lame, so I hafta take the time and go track by track to set the record straight.
It's truly a labor of love.