Monday, February 15, 2010

iTunes Problems

I have a fair-sized collection of music on my ipod. A little of everything, but a lot of Classical music. Ipods are great for everything except Classical music.

If I want to hear David Bowie, I can search by artist. If I want to listen to a jazz album, I'll search by album. But how do I usually want to search for classical music? By composer. Go look at the composer category on your ipod. It's a mess of names you wont recognize. I had about 900 composers on there.

Still, being patient, I would scroll through (not really so hard to twirl that dial around). But say I wanted to hear an afternoon of Chopin. Here were my choices:

  • Frederick Chopin
  • Fridirik Chopin
  • Chopin, F.
  • Chopin, Fryderyk
You get the idea. Total mess. So being the obsessive-compulsive type that I am, I've now spent hours standardizing all my Classical composers. Then I went through all my rock, pop, jazz, soundtracks - and deleted each and every composer so they wouldn't show up on the list. Actually I pasted them into the comment section of each track. I'm still not done, but now my ipod is usuable.

And now if I want to listen to Chopin, I can select him and sit back - for 9.3 hours. Or Mozart for 18.5 hours, or Beethoven for 1.4 days.

Have you tweaked your iTunes to work better for you? I'd love to hear how.

7 people stopped folding laundry to write:

Dena said...

I had no idea you could "tweak" itunes! I'm so excited now!

Liz Jimenez said...

Glad to know I'm not the only freak out there who has done the EXACT SAME THING! Well, OK, I didn't delete the composer info from other music. But still. Now, if I want to listen to all Dvorak, all the time, I just go Composers -> D -> Dvorak, Antonin.

It makes me so, so, so happy.

I've been known to tweak genres, too. I hate that my husband has some stuff in "techno" and others in "dance" or whatever that just don't make sense. If I'm looking for a genre, I want it all there!

Quilts and Cats said...

Actually, I don't have any music on mine...it's all audio books! Sorted by author! I love a good murder mystery while I'm sewing! Lynne

Cheryl Lage said...

Ooof. I've dodged the iPod acquisition. Still so reliant on the CDs....

Matronly old woman me when it comes to music tech.

Although admittedly, I'm awed by your connoitering of the classical!

The Mother said...

My iTunes is as susceptible to entropy as my jewelry drawer and my kitchen counter.

If I have to expend energy, chances are good it isn't going to happen.

Bea said...

I am already so dependent on technology that I have not had to desire to convert to an ipod or kindle. Lucky me to get transmission of the BEST classical radio station, WCPE. It is on in my studio, in my kitchen and in my car. You can listen to it online as well at

www.theclassicalstation.org

And it is commercial free!

Elizabeth said...

I'm a little OCD when it comes to my iPod too. I HAVE to have the album art, I've spent many hours making sure all the information in the main fields is complete and that my categories are standardized. Loved this post -- you have a great way with words.

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