[Nicolai P. Zwar]

OK, that’s just semantics. 🙂
As far as I know “iTunes” is discontinued on Mac and replaced by several follow up apps (including Apple Music), which have split some but not all of the functionality of iTunes. On Windows, iTunes is still supported.

In iTunes, if you add cover art to an album, it’s inserted into the files (on Windows at least). I didn’t know that it works differently on a Mac.

At least on Windows, MusicBee is a full (and actively developed and maintained) app that could fully replace iTunes if one ever wants to make the “jump”. (I use it parallel.) I don’t think there’s anything iTunes can MusicBee can’t, but MusicBee can do lots of things iTunes can’t. It also handles both ALAC and FLAC. 🙂

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Digital files on a harddrive IS old fashion and physical media is stone age 😉

That’s quite true really.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Yes, definitely. If I had known about MusicBee just a BIT earlier, I would have tried that instead, and left my long iTunes allegiance by the door. But now that I’ve gone to the trouble of re-installing the old iTunes 11.4, and imported all the music, I might as well use it a bit more.

It’s true that iTunes writes things like album cover into the file itself, but unless you back up the “edited” album as well, it won’t register when you re-import from the external hard drive. I only add new music to the backup, I don’t add all the small changes I do to the existing albums. I know, I should. But it’s too much work. I have too much music. So for now, I take the big job manually every time I need to wipe my computer clean, or buy a new one.

[Dr. Jacoby]

Could be! Plus, the stereo [Pet Sounds} is “artificial” (meaning post-converted).

Actually, it’s true stereo, it’s just that it had never been mixed to stereo until the 1990s.

[Malte Müller]

Could be! Plus, the stereo [Pet Sounds} is “artificial” (meaning post-converted).

Actually, it’s true stereo, it’s just that it had never been mixed to stereo until the 1990s.

That was my impression as well. Same with some for example older Beatles albums that also exist in two versions. To my knowldege the reason was primarily that they were already recorded with for steroe but since in the arly to mid 60s most people did not yet have stereo device they were (also still) released in mono.

In iTunes, if you add cover art to an album, it’s inserted into the files (on Windows at least). I didn’t know that it works differently on a Mac.

Yes, I re-tested it to be sure I tell it correctly. The current version does do it as expected. I could directly see on the Finder (the folder view) directly how the cover is added as the icon changes visibly then. But it was not always the case with older files I am sure. Might be because I naturally have files from various sources over the last 20+ years that might not be done correctly always… Maybe just like the download service have some weird tagging at times I almost always change… As usual, if you don’t do everything yourself… 😉

I only add new music to the backup, I don’t add all the small changes I do to the existing albums. I know, I should. But it’s too much work. I have too much music.

I don’t do this manually. I use macOS built in backup tool called Time Machine that does incremental backups, e.g. it looks for file changes and only backups those. Since that can only backup to one target, I also have another backup tool for manual backups which does the same.
I don’t know if or if not why Windows does not have such a tool. But there are solutions to not do such things manually for ages.

[Malte Müller]

Just for completeness and Mac users reading as I forgot it above: There is one macOS alternative to iTunes/Music called Swinsian. It’s a commerical programm with a trial mode. Since I am still content with iTunes/Music I never tried that and just some free and open source tools. If the macOS tool should ever be changed that might be the one to switch to (if it still exists then).

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Yes, definitely. If I had known about MusicBee just a BIT earlier, I would have tried that instead, and left my long iTunes allegiance by the door.

You can try out MusicBee “parallel” to your iTunes library, just point it to the same music folder (it can be configured to not change the files, so it won’t interfere with iTunes) to see if you like it. It’s more complex and can do way more things than iTunes, so it may help to try it out some time and dive into it, before switching completely. It can be configured in many ways (including even to act and look a lot like iTunes).

But it’s too much work. I have too much music. So for now, I take the big job manually every time I need to wipe my computer clean, or buy a new one.

In the end, it’s whatever works for you. I can only talk from my experience: over the years, I have built a considerable digital music library, and they are all consistently tagged, I want to preserve that and not ever do this over again. For me, cross platform and cross device compatibility (since I don’t even play music on or from my computer) were always essential, which is why my music library, tags, playlists, etc. all exist independently of the software or devices I use to access it.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Actually, it’s true stereo, it’s just that it had never been mixed to stereo until the 1990s.

Ah yes, you’re right. I think I read that in the liner notes and forgot about it.

It can be configured in many ways (including even to act and look a lot like iTunes).

Yes, that’s what made me perk up and take notice.

[Author]

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