Managing Playlists–A Couple of Questions

[bbjonz]

Not trying to do the playlist thing to death, but I’ve done some searching haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for. So here are my questions:

1. Can I mix and match “includes” and “not includes” rules? I’ve got a list that looks for “jazz” or “fusion” but I want it to exclude anything with “Christmas” in the title. It finds the first two but the *$&#% Christmas songs keep showing up.
2. Is it possible to use iTunes on my Mac to administer the songs on my Linux server? Each time I change the location of the iTunes folder to the Linux box, it keeps the same library from the Mac. I’d like it to start with a clean slate, so to speak, so that I can change information about the songs (e.g., genre from Jazz to Christmas).
3. If #2 doesn’t work, is there a Linux program that would let me administer songs on the Linux box in the same way that iTunes does?

Thanks in advance.

Joe

[rpedde]

@bbjonz wrote:

1. Can I mix and match “includes” and “not includes” rules? I’ve got a list that looks for “jazz” or “fusion” but I want it to exclude anything with “Christmas” in the title. It finds the first two but the *$&#% Christmas songs keep showing up.

Yup, but just not with the wizard. You’ll have to build it by hand in the text box:

(genre includes "jazz" or genre includes "fusion") and (genre not includes "*$&#% Christmas")

2. Is it possible to use iTunes on my Mac to administer the songs on my Linux server? Each time I change the location of the iTunes folder to the Linux box, it keeps the same library from the Mac. I’d like it to start with a clean slate, so to speak, so that I can change information about the songs (e.g., genre from Jazz to Christmas).

Mmm… sort of. You can put your iTunes library *on* the linux server. Mount a drive somehow (appleshare or nfs would work fastest and best, but smb would do as well). Then start iTunes iwth the option key held down and make a new library on the server. Make your settings “add with copy” and copy all the stuff into a new iTunes share on the server. Then you can open that share and manage tags and stuff, or option start iTunes and select you existing library on you laptop.

Or….

Manage your “main” library on your mac, and sync it ot your linux server using rsync. This is the method I use, but I’m leaning toward redoing my library using the other method now that iTunes 7 can do it.

— Ron

[bbjonz]

Thanks, Ron. Given the music is already on the linux server, I’ll have to try option “A” I think. But in so doing I probably shouldn’t have the “copy to Itunes” folder clicked given the music already on the linux box (and has been painstakingly gone over for dups and other stupid stuff).

Joe

[bbjonz]

I tried messing with iTunes and the linux share, but it scares me–not sure what it’s doing under the hood. I should probably tell it to find the music folder on the share and then when restarting have it create a new library on the share where the music is. Does that sound right? That way, it will search the top folder on the linux box for the music.

Or I could just create smart playlists in Firefly–which I’ve done and it works fine.

Joe

p.s. I finally got those *($&#^ Christmas tunes out of my jazz folder. Thanks!!!

[rpedde]

@bbjonz wrote:

I tried messing with iTunes and the linux share, but it scares me–not sure what it’s doing under the hood. I should probably tell it to find the music folder on the share and then when restarting have it create a new library on the share where the music is. Does that sound right? That way, it will search the top folder on the linux box for the music.

If you have the disk space for two full copies of your music, then the easiest way might be to make a new share, or find a new place to put your music, and do the option trick to make a new iTunes library.

If you close out, you should get an iTunes Music Library.xml, an a couple new folders. If you set your options to “Organize Music”, and “Copy Files to Music Folder”, then you can just add your existing music to that empty library.

It will make new artist directories and whatnot, and will probably take a looong time. Once it’s done, you’ll have two copies of all your music — where you imported it from, and the new copies in your new iTunes share.

At that point, you could probably get rid of your old files, as they are all dups now, and shift your firefly to the new iTunes share.

No real downside, except for the extra disk space (and the time to copy). And if you have it to spare, no problem.

p.s. I finally got those *($&#^ Christmas tunes out of my jazz folder. Thanks!!!

Glad to hear it. Good luck.

— Ron

[bbjonz]

Hi Ron,

Thanks again for your response. In the end, I find it far easier to work with the smart playlists in Firefly than try to get iTunes to work on the files on the Linux box. I also tried Amarok and XMMS. I liked the former better but, apparently, it won’t read m4a or AAC files, and that doesn’t work for me. XMMS probably works fine but the interface seems poorly designed (or just old). And it wouldn’t find all of my files, either.

Thanks for making an excellent product–this has made managing and playing music so much easier.

Joe

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