Organizing the iTunes Music Folder

[thadchr]

I have been banging my head against the wall over this for months now and just finally thought to ask... is there any way to choose the way the iTunes music folder is organized? By default, it makes a seperate folder for each artist, so if I burn a new CD that has, say, 6 songs by a band and 6 others which each feature someone else in the song, then I have to weed through 7 different folders in the iTunes folder to find my music.

This has especially become a pain in the butt with album art now, as most of the programs that automatically find art save the picture files to the iTunes music folders, not my own (much more well-organized) music folder. Any help?

 

[russed]

i hate to say it, but i dont think there is a way around it! personally i think it is a pretty natural way for them to be saved that way

if you are on about an album by one artist but then features someone else - keep the artist as the same for all, but then on the track name have .... (Feat. x y z). this way all the songs are still under the same artist and it keeps the music folder less cluttered due to there being less folders.

i think that is what you are trying to get at!

 

[mad jew]

Sorry, I don't think there's a way to change the way iTunes looks after its folders without completely managing your own music library.

Genuine question: why aren't you burning CDs from within iTunes?

 

[Loge]

I'm not on my Mac right now, but I think within iTunes, if you have Part of Compilation set to Yes, then iTunes will put them in a subdirectory called Compilations with the album name the subdirectory after that.

 

[balamw]

I burn a new CD that has, say, 6 songs by a band and 6 others which each feature someone else in the song, then I have to weed through 7 different folders in the iTunes folder to find my music.

That's what playlists are for, no? I have often taken a playlist w/tracks from many artists and/or albums and burned it as a data disc or audio CD in iTunes.

B

 

[lordj4000]

By default, it makes a seperate folder for each artist, so if I burn a new CD that has, say, 6 songs by a band and 6 others which each feature someone else in the song, then I have to weed through 7 different folders in the iTunes folder to find my music.

If you select the songs you want in itunes, you can drag and drop those into your music burning program without going through the folders. You can even drag to the desktop and it will copy them there.

 

[26139]

Um...

I second the drag and drop from iTunes to the desktop option.

Why don't you just make playlists within iTunes? It seems that would be a MUCH easier option.

 

[Konradx]

Whats lame is i have my mp3 folders by name - album. With mutliple albums it sorts them in itunes to one name and the cds they got which is fine..but somtimes it makes 2 folders for one artists and does wacky stuff..maybe because of the way they are coded? i duno but i hate when it doesnt use the sorting ive been using for years

 

[thadchr]

I do make playlists and iTunes, and this is no major dilemma, but there are still a few reasons as to why I feel it's a problem:

1) I'm extremely anal about the organization of my music and always need a perfect master file for transfering music between computers, etc.

2) I'm running iAlbumArt and there is an option to save folder.jpg pictures to music folders when album art is added to a track. I love the feature, but it does me no good if the files are added to a folder (the iTunes music folder) that I don't even use.