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Music Organization

P

planteater

Cancelled
Original poster
Feb 11, 2020
892
1,681
I'm hitting a brick wall and wouldn't mind knowing what third party applications you guys are using for large music collections, both to play and organize. I have no interest in Music that comes with Monterey. I'm on an M1. I have distinct collections that I'd like to keep separate and are currently logically organized within the macOS file system. They include CD's converted to mp4a, vinyl records converted to mp3, downloaded music from Apple, and downloaded mp3s from other sources. I've looked at Audirvana and don't like the interface.

Any suggestions? Cost is a not a deciding factor, the best possible fit is the only criteria.
 
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Try This. It was top rated.

TuneUp - Select the version for your operating system | Fix Mislabeled Song Info, Add Album Art & More

Transform iTunes and Windows Media Player with TuneUp. Fix mislabeled song info, add album art and explore your Tuniverse. Available for Mac or PC.
www.tuneupmedia.com

from this article.

fixthephoto.com

Top 19 Best Music Management Software in 2025

What is the best music management software to use in 2025? Clean and organize your library for comfortable listening.
fixthephoto.com fixthephoto.com


This is second. for Mac.

Downloads | Clementine Music Player

www.clementine-player.org www.clementine-player.org

or this

Downloads - MusicBrainz Picard

Official website for MusicBrainz Picard, a cross-platform music tagger written in Python.
picard.musicbrainz.org picard.musicbrainz.org
 
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justmewhoelse said:
What's your issue? I have a 500BG music library, iTunes/Music handles it fine for many years. All music in iTunes Match for many years too.
Click to expand...
I prefer to keep my collections logically separated by a hierarchy that I created on my primary storage located on my MBP. It would also far exceed the capacity of my iPhone that only has 256GB. Furthermore, I don't trust Music to master copies of this music. Perhaps that is a matter of learning how it behaves, but for now the integrity of my collections is foremost. I do use iTunes/Music for the collection that I purchased from Apple, which is in itself quite large.

As for portability, the collection from Apple is on my iPhone, and I have another older device that acts solely as a music player and has portions of the other collections loaded, but not all of it.

I may continue to just keep it logically within the file system and look for a better player.
 
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Freeangel1 said:
Try This. It was top rated.

TuneUp - Select the version for your operating system | Fix Mislabeled Song Info, Add Album Art & More

Transform iTunes and Windows Media Player with TuneUp. Fix mislabeled song info, add album art and explore your Tuniverse. Available for Mac or PC.
www.tuneupmedia.com

from this article.

fixthephoto.com

Top 19 Best Music Management Software in 2025

What is the best music management software to use in 2025? Clean and organize your library for comfortable listening.
fixthephoto.com fixthephoto.com


This is second. for Mac.

Downloads | Clementine Music Player

www.clementine-player.org www.clementine-player.org

or this

Downloads - MusicBrainz Picard

Official website for MusicBrainz Picard, a cross-platform music tagger written in Python.
picard.musicbrainz.org picard.musicbrainz.org
Click to expand...
Thank you, I've looked at many of those and none seem to fit. Clementine might have, but it crashes on my M1.
 
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justmewhoelse said:
What's your issue? I have a 500BG music library, iTunes/Music handles it fine for many years. All music in iTunes Match for many years too.
Click to expand...
Same.

Mine isn't quite as big but its 271gbs and 80% is from iTunes.
It has no problem at all. I buy my music and have no Apple Music subscription nor any Apple Match either.

I did learn long ago to imbedded all artwork into MP3's or any Music ripped from disc into different formats over the years and have gone back and re-ripped as codecs improved from early rips... I then would buy if ever came available though iTunes.

I also use AppleTV+ App also without any issues with my Movies collection of about 35-40 titles.

From that I've learned over the years have been best practices for new Libraries built on new machines.

I Upgrade my MacBook Pros every 2 years or there about... waiting on 2021 16" M1 Max now upgrading from my 2019 16" intel and will import current library as its so new but over 2 years and I have started fresh and is simple enough after doing it enough over the years.
Only issue I recall is the Catalina upgrade when iTunes>Music app was problematic but found Apples communities had a few super knowledgable users with extensive background in iTunes/Music came up with fix quick enough. YMMV
 
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I'm also more than happy to use Music for my collection of purchases online from Apple and elsewhere.

Just to clarify why I'm not willing to co-mingle my collections. My CD collection is a lossless extract of many hundreds of CD's. My vinyl collection is an extract of hundreds of rare albums that I've collected over the past 20 years, many of which are not available in any form of mp3, mp4, etc. They will simply be lost to history unless discovered on vinyl. I've invested heavily in time and money to export these collections. I just don't trust the automation of Music with them, but more importantly, I prefer managing my own hierarchy and keeping the collections separate within that.

Thanks for any suggestions of organization applications. I'll probably just keep on doing what I have been - organization at the file level and using IINA and VLC as players. Selectively exporting music to my secondary device, an old iPhone, and using Apple Music on my current iPhone.
 
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The Music app doesn't require users to adhere to the optional organization it can provide (Music>Preferences>Files) but I couldn't say what happens if you add all your music with the options unchecked.
 
Chevysales said:
I did learn long ago to imbedded all artwork into MP3's or any Music ripped from disc into different formats over the years and have gone back and re-ripped as codecs improved from early rips... I then would buy if ever came available though iTunes.
Click to expand...
I am interested in how you embed artwork......?
I currently record from a USB turntable into GarageBand, then export as Apple m4a.
I then just add artwork in iTunes.

Does your method mean the artwork moves with the music file...?

Edit: just 'got info' on an album using finder and the artwork is included.
 
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I have to take photos of my vinyl as they are mostly 12" DJ promos and white labels.
 
I've never used ANY music-playing application to "organize" my digital music.

Instead, I organize it myself, using a finder-created hierarchy of folders/files.

My folder hierarchy is alphabetical.
Within, the folders are "artist/album", etc.

Works for me.
 
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planteater said:
I'm also more than happy to use Music for my collection of purchases online from Apple and elsewhere.

Just to clarify why I'm not willing to co-mingle my collections. My CD collection is a lossless extract of many hundreds of CD's. My vinyl collection is an extract of hundreds of rare albums that I've collected over the past 20 years, many of which are not available in any form of mp3, mp4, etc. They will simply be lost to history unless discovered on vinyl. I've invested heavily in time and money to export these collections. I just don't trust the automation of Music with them, but more importantly, I prefer managing my own hierarchy and keeping the collections separate within that.

Thanks for any suggestions of organization applications. I'll probably just keep on doing what I have been - organization at the file level and using IINA and VLC as players. Selectively exporting music to my secondary device, an old iPhone, and using Apple Music on my current iPhone.
Click to expand...
Sorry if I'm being dense, but I still don't understand the issue. Music supports lossless files, and was built to help organize files such as these long before it was connected to a streaming service (remember the "Rip, Mix, Burn" ads during the Steve Jobs era). It will not alter the files in your main collection (although you have the option to let it send lossy versions of these to your phone).

As to commingling, it does organize your files by album, but the original files are accessible directly through the Finder if you wish. For day-to-day use, you could add tags to allow you to sort by the categories you mentioned through the Music interface.

My suggestion would be to create and archival backup your files that are organized the way you want, then forget about these and set Music to losslessly import the files for day-to-day use. At that point, you can rename, tag, and sort the files in iTunes without affecting the lossless rips.
 
planteater said:
I'm also more than happy to use Music for my collection of purchases online from Apple and elsewhere.

Just to clarify why I'm not willing to co-mingle my collections. My CD collection is a lossless extract of many hundreds of CD's. My vinyl collection is an extract of hundreds of rare albums that I've collected over the past 20 years, many of which are not available in any form of mp3, mp4, etc. They will simply be lost to history unless discovered on vinyl. I've invested heavily in time and money to export these collections. I just don't trust the automation of Music with them, but more importantly, I prefer managing my own hierarchy and keeping the collections separate within that.
Click to expand...
Sorry for reviving this thread, but I am in the same situation as you - did you ever find a solution?

I was (kind of am) was fine using iTunes which could handle multiple libraries (I got one for lossless and one for m4a) but that stopped working with Ventura, and Music.app does not work well with multiple libraries (and even Apple support admitted as much).

I am fine having music.app handning my m4a files for iMatch and so, but as it can't handle more the one library I need something I can use for my lossless files (aiff).
 
I currently keep all my music in the following fashion:

Artist>Album>Tracks

Use TagEdit to tag all the files prior to moving them all over to the above folder(s).

I use Plex to manage them all for playing. As I add the music in, I make sure to tag them with the appropriate tags for both artist and album. This allows me to automatically add them to my dynamic playlists.
 
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