Help Me Understand iTunes

Most of you know me as the guy that hates on iCulture… Well at work they’re trying to convince me to use iTunes because everybody shares their playlists here through iTunes. I fiddle-fucked around with it this morning and i have some questions now:

1) a. does every mp3 you play from your hard drive get copied into the iTunes music folder as an m4a?
b. doesn’t this pretty much DOUBLE the amount of space your music library takes up on your hard drive?
c. is there a way to turn that stupid feature OFF?

2) a. If i listen to music from someone else’s shared playlist, is it coming to me from their hard drive or is it coming to me from the iTunes store?
b. If you create a shared playlist and you have rare music that isn’t available at the iTunes store, do other people even get to hear it?
c. If you create a shared playlist and you have rare music that isn’t available at the iTunes store, do other people even see it on your shared playist?

3) Aside from podcasting, does iTunes offer any intrinsic value to anyone other than apple and the copyrights they are protecting?

Tags: apple, computers, music, pc

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 Uncategorized

1 Comment to Help Me Understand iTunes

17 Comments add a comment

Bo
287 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 2:22 PM
1) Redonkulous, no? It drives me nuts, especially when I want to go edit a song.
a) Pretty much.
b) If you find a way, tell me!

2) It’s coming to you from their hard drive, as far as I know.
a & b) They should see it, yes.
Note: In my experience, you need to “authorize” other computers to play music that you download from iTunes. You can authorize up to 5 computers, total. I’m not sure how it works with shared playlists, though. But, for example, when I share my music with my friend Dave, I have to authorize his computer to be one of the 5 that will play my purchase iTunes songs. LAME.

3) Not that I’ve noticed.
Note: I use eMusic.

calamity jane
337 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 2:25 PM
well, i can speak on the first two-parter – i used to upload my music into it’s own folder on the desktop, and then imported it into itunes. what i should’ve been doing all along was importing directly to itunes. if you consolidate your library (under advanced -> consolidate library), the music retains their original format and the songs move into an itunes music folder. then you can just delete the originals so you don’t double your storage.

i’m still going through itunes growing pains – i keep getting dupes whenever i import a folder, and most of what i just said before, i learned from matthew :p

Aaron
24 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 3:08 PM
m4a = Nazi internment camp for music
1) Deleted due to profanity

2) Deleted due to profanity

3) I’ve used it and found it ok, Amazon would be much better if they would just fix their damned flash player, so its a draw. Have you tried LastFm?

Evinrude
408 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 3:20 PM

Dude, I’ve NEVER had itunes turn my mp3s into m4as. I’ve never even heard of that. I drag my mp3s directly into the itunes window, and presto, they’re mp3s in itunes. Hmm.

I hear ya, though. Agree with above about m4as being nazi imprisonment for music. I’ve been a mac user for, let’s see… 18 years, and I’ve always loved pretty much everything about apple/mac (except the costs). Getting an ipod and having them tell me I can’t share my music and all that has made me lose MUCH respect for the company. And I don’t buy that what they’re trying to accomplish with putting restrictions on sharing music is something “good for the artists” or whatever. They must know that putting restrictions on the files you buy from them (as m4as) only makes people like me more willing and likely to steal / share music – because then I have the freedom to do with my tracks what I wish.

Swami
263 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 4:04 PM
so you’re on a mac and your mp3s aren’t copied into a different folder eh? good to know…

hmmm

Evinrude
408 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 4:48 PM

They do. They get copied into my itunes folder. So then I just delete them from wherever they were in the first place. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Haha.

They do not, however, turn into m4as, thank god.

Swami
263 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 5:27 PM
alright…. i don’t even know now. I keep trying but iTunes won’t do it anymore

I found the following with EvAnrude’s help:
- under edit/preferences/advanced, there is a box that says “Copy files to iTunes folder when adding to library.” … however this box was already unchecked when i got to it… really freaking strange.

so i checked the box again just to see… and yeah NOW it’s doing it again… but it’s copying them over as mp3s

so apparently if this box is unchecked, everything from question #1 is answered and solved, in my mind.

still doesn’t answer what changed on my computer since yesterday… or why the modeselektor album, my love infusion set, and some classical music track were in my iTunes music folder as m4as….

Forget it… onwards and upwards….

i still need answers for question 2

Ms.Dynomite
259 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 5:36 PM
i can answer a bunch of those for you, but I’m fried at the moment. I’ll pop back later and give you the scoop.

phoenix
113 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 5:41 PM
m4a is a fantastic music format
if you originally made the file in that format… otherwise it’s like when you rip your old VHS to DVD it doesn’t make it higher quality just a different format… not sure why itunes used to do that…

it shouldn’t be changing your format, that’s something they got rid of quite a few versions ago…
there is only protection put on the .99 songs you buy from itunes now. you can pay more for songs that have the property rights stripped from them (or do it yourself if you know how)

it might be copying your files over… not sure if that’s the default setting…
turn auto arrange itunes folder off or just tell it to take the songs from and put new songs into where ever you would prefer
Edit
Preferences
Advances
General Tab
C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Administrator\My Documents\My Music

but if you drag songs in… it will know where you dragged it from and keep that location for that particular file.
then it will play your mp3s from wherever they are… either in your music folder, desktop, usb drive…
unless of course you move them, then it will ask you to find the file for it…

phoenix
113 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 5:48 PM
oh yeah question 2 & 3
you need to be logged in for other people to see your playlists/library

and yes it is transferring from your hard drive to theirs & vice versa…

i don’t have too much experience in this, because, well it’s kind weird…
and i don’t want anyone to see my extensive 80s yacht rock collection…

um

i mean

90s boy bands

er um trance… yeah that’s what i meant…

question 3
personally it has made organizing my 90+ gigs of music a LOT easier…
and i enjoy the GUI it’s purdy and i like adding album artwork to everything… (yes your FACE is on all your music i have)
i used to use winamp… but it was too buggy and kept crashing on me…

friendly jen
162 Wed, March 19, 2008 – 6:31 PM
1) a. does every mp3 you play from your hard drive get copied into the iTunes music folder as an m4a?
b. doesn’t this pretty much DOUBLE the amount of space your music library takes up on your hard drive?
c. is there a way to turn that stupid feature OFF?

Depends on how you have it configured. You can turn off the feature of copying music into itunes library. You can also import files from elsewhere so they aren’t applesonglameness you can also change the format that WAV files are converted into when a cd is burned in itunes. The apple mp3 encoder is a little lamer than other mp3 encoders, but does the job. If you are a hifi snob use another player to convert your cds into mp3 and then import them to itunes.

2) a. If i listen to music from someone else’s shared playlist, is it coming to me from their hard drive or is it coming to me from the iTunes store?

Their hard drive.

b. If you create a shared playlist and you have rare music that isn’t available at the iTunes store, do other people even get to hear it?

Yes

c. If you create a shared playlist and you have rare music that isn’t available at the iTunes store, do other people even see it on your shared playist?

Yes

3) Aside from podcasting, does iTunes offer any intrinsic value to anyone other than apple and the copyrights they are protecting?

1) airtunes – playing the music on your computer from every set of amplified computer speakers in the house, in some cases this extends to your TV home audio clusterfuck

2)Works with my ipod

3)Can help organize your video collection (not that I use that)

4)A decent visualizer

but then I have a mac I use for most of this, my pc is on the fritz otherwise I’d still be clueless.

Swami
263 Thu, March 20, 2008 – 8:56 AM
guys and girls…. thank you so much. That answers everything. I knew it’d be better to ask people who actually USE it than to try and google my answers.

muchass grassy ass

Ms.Dynomite
259 Thu, March 20, 2008 – 8:59 AM
check out the iTunes help documentation, as it will answer most of your questions and provide instructions. also as a note, whenever you get the iTunes prompt to update, don’t. Usually the updates have some nasty things and using older versions is better.

> 1) a. does every mp3 you play from your hard drive get copied into the iTunes music folder as an m4a?

- When you BUY a song from the iTunes STORE it comes as m4p format. this is so they can put in the nifty digital rights thing, which prevents you from having that file on more than 3 locations. (there’s a way around this, but I don’t want to confuse you at this point)

- When you IMPORT a song into your LIBRARY it formats to whatever you’ve specified in your preferences. This is usually mp3. (see Preferences > Advanced > Importing)

- When you LISTEN to a song that is NOT in your library (music from a CD or someone else’s playlist) the song remains on the original media, therefore it is not imported/added to your library, which means the format is not changed.

> b. doesn’t this pretty much DOUBLE the amount of space your music library takes up on your hard drive?

Importing/adding to your iTunes library does not mean you have to physically duplicate or add the music files to the iTunes program directories. You can simply have all your music in your desired location on your hard drive, then designate that FOLDER as your iTunes Music Folder/Library source. In other words, iTunes just needs to know where your music is, to then access it with the iTunes interface. Go to Preferences > General. The first item says “iTunes Music folder location” (this is where your “library” accesses the files from). Use the “change” button to find the directory on your hard drive with your music. This is basically like making an alias. it does NOT copy all the music into 2 locations (unless you tell it to).

> c. is there a way to turn that stupid feature OFF?

I think you’re just misunderstanding how iTunes accesses your audio files. see above.

> 2) a. If i listen to music from someone else’s shared playlist, is it coming to me from their hard drive or is it coming to me from the iTunes store?

First, the iTunes Store is TOTALLY different than your iTunes Library. The store isn’t in any way related to the music you add or how you listen to it. The “store” is literally just an interface to the online music store on Apple.com where you buy music. Unless you want to purchase music, ignore that button. Even if you purchase from iTunes, once you download that song it is exists separately from the store. You don’t have to have the store open to listen to it, you don’t even need to be connected to the internet.

The Library is where YOUR music, movies, tv, podcast, etc are listed. (If you’ve specified your hard drive directory as the Music Folder, then the Library is accessing files from there). You never need to use the store to listen to your own music, or music on someone else’s machine.

A playlist is different from an album or a library. A playlist is a collection of aliases referencing the original audio files (in your music folder/library). For example, you can add the same song to many PLAYLISTS, but it only appears once in your LIBRARY. When you create a playlist you do NOT copy those song files to a different location. No duplicates are made.

So when you are listening to someone else’s playlist, you are listening to aliases that point you to their audio files. and those audio files exist on their hard drive (or wherever they’ve specified their library to be, it could be an external drive). So you are accessing their library and listening to it. Note, that because it is only a shared playlist you are only LISTENING to the files, you are not IMPORTING/ADDING them to your own library. You are not duplicating their files onto your hard drive to listen to them.

> b. If you create a shared playlist and you have rare music that isn’t available at the iTunes store, do other people even get to hear it?

see above. the iTunes store has nothing to do with your own music collection. Think of it this way: you own music that isn’t sold at Sam Goody. You aren’t limited to music only sold at Sam Goody. And if you buy something from Sam Goody, once you take it home you can listen to it at any time without having to go back into the Sam Goody store. iTunes is the same way. The only difference is that when you buy from iTunes your usage is restricted, as mentioned above.

and as described above, when you make a playlist you are creating it from the files loaded into YOUR library, totally independent of the iTunes store. so as long as those songs exist in your library, you or anyone else can listen to them.

> c. If you create a shared playlist and you have rare music that isn’t available at the iTunes store, do other people even see it on your shared playist?

see above.

> 3) Aside from podcasting, does iTunes offer any intrinsic value to anyone other than apple and the copyrights they are protecting?

it easily manages all your music in one place. Which makes listening to it or changing to a different vibe very easy and quick.

it allows you to make custom mixes (think mix tapes) with the Playlist feature. It allows you to burn CDs of those mixes/playlist in one step: select the playlist, go to File > Burn Playlist to Disc. If the playlist is too long to fit on a single CD it will even break it up for you and continue the burn onto multiple discs. (You can burn the disc as an Audio CD, MP3 CD or Data CD… see Preferences > Advanced > Burning).

It allows you to easily share music (I’ll leave the interpretation of “share” open).

It allows you to easily manage your mp3 device, like an iPod. It’s essential for using an ipod, getting music on and off it.

hope that helps.

Ms.Dynomite
259 Thu, March 20, 2008 – 9:00 AM
of course after I spent time typing all that, it posts and I then see that you already have your answers.

Swami
263 Thu, March 20, 2008 – 9:07 AM
nono no worries! Actually this clears things up exponentially more! thank you for taking the time to type all that info!

OK so i should be all set to (gently) bombard these folx with every piece of face-bending music i have.

Jenny
464 Thu, March 20, 2008 – 9:45 AM
for a GREAT music organizer…
on a different topic… if you’re trying to organize your music for dj stuff and for your general music collection, i have absolutely been sold on:

JRiver Music Center
http://www.jrmediacenter.com/

damn it’s good…

of course this is unrelated to the whole itunes sharing playlist thing… i’m sure you can’t share playlists with it… BUT

if you’re looking for something that can really organize your music properly, on the computer AND on your mp3 player (i use a creative zen), this is your thang. i have a few more licenses left on my account if you wanna try it out.

Swami
263 Thu, March 20, 2008 – 10:02 AM
whoa! that’s very interesting… lemme read up on it… i might actually take you up on that…

i wasn’t looking for a solution to organizing my musik-stuffs on my personal computer… but now that you bring it up, this definately looks worth checking out.