VLC is a media player.

iTunes is a media database application. Thus, it is more flexible with respect to the manner in which it can organize and display the files to the user.

Why not just drag and drop the files from iTunes (instead of from Finder) to the destination CD or MP3 player?

Also, you can right click on a song and select show in Finder. It's easier than going through Get Info.

You can also select a song in iTunes and hit command>R and that will show you where it is and the folder it is in. I make a playlist in iTunes and then use a script from Doug's called "Put This Where I Want" and that will move all the songs in the selected playlist to where ever you want..

I don't like how iTunes controls it for me, and I also don't like how it associates meta data. I already have my music organized by Artist and album at the folder level, because it takes three seconds to create that folder when I rip the music. VLC just reads it from the folder level, and it plays all my formats.

I agree that it would be nice if iTunes had more display options without requiring smart playlists. For example, I would like to be able to show my full library alphabetical by artist, within the artist, group the albums chronologically, and within the albums, group the songs by track number.

I would also like to see iTunes utilize hard links (or other means to an end) so I can have the same data pointed to from multiple artists. For example, I would like to be able to list Riding With The King as an Eric Clapton album and as a B.B. King album. It would also make life easier with hip hop albums. I've found workarounds for the latter, since I am most concerned about associating the track with the primary artist.

Out of curiosity, have you tried changing the behavior of the arrows that (by default) link to a track's location in the iTunes Music Store? With an option-click, they will bring up the appropriate tracks in your library. For example, if I link on the arrow listed in the album column for a hip-hop song with a featured artist (e.g Eminem and Dr. Dre), it will show all of the tracks from that album, regardless of artist. The behavior of a click versus an option-click can be reversed in the Terminal, although I don't have the command handy.

I wouldn't mind seeing iTunes support FLAC, but supporting Ogg Vorbis is a lawsuit waiting to happen, since it is claimed to not really be FOSS. FLAC files can be converted to Apple Lossless without any quality degradation, so that's not a big deal to me. While I don't use DRMed files, I do like VBR AAC better than MP3, since it has slightly better quality at a given bit rate, although it's doubtful most people would notice the difference.

Overall, while iTunes certainly has its shortcomings and room for improvement, it is the best music management software I've tried yet, and quite possibly the best app that I've yet used in OS X. In my experience, only a small percentage of complaints about the app are warranted. Most unwanted behaviors can be changed via preferences.

Yeah I am hard to please when it comes to music. I still buy and own vinyl records. I use itunes to sync my ipod but that is about it. I still don't know why it dupes songs copied from my network share....:confused:

Anecdotal here, but I thought it might be worth chipping in: I recently had an assortment of problems which essentially ended up meaning I had to trash my library and re-import the lot off my NAS (nfs) and, yup, I ended up with a load of dupes in some instances. No idea why.

My usual method of importing stuff is to (with copying turned off) have the files on my local Mac, import them from there, then consolidate library to move everything to the NAS, and this has never caused me any trouble really. Although getting itunes to play nice with my NAS has generally been a pain in the proverbial.

Since you phrased it like that, it makes me wonder:

Does it have anything to do with how OS X treats move and copy differently (regarding which is done by default if no modifier keys are used) depending on whether the source and destination locations exist on the same volume or not?

I don't understand how you can be having metadata issues if you are importing your tunes from vinyl.

Yup my problem as well, and it doesn't do it to any particular album but it seems that the randomness is duplicated in the sense that when I copy certain albums they are more likely to dupe over others. No idea why.

Hello,

Wonder if anyone can give me the solution...

After an iTunes updated, I tried to import the previous Library files. However the message that comes up reads: 'The file "iTunes Library 2008-07-01" cannot be imported because it does not appear to be a valid exported file'. Clicking on the file in question does not open it either. What is going on?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thank you!

iTunes + DougScripts + GimmeSomeTune = Warm shimmering genius.

Hate iTunes?!?
 

I dont get what everyones problem is... I've been using iTunes for almost 4 years now and I still LOVE it. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who is getting into macs.