iTunes library sharing

May 1, 2009 2:50 PM

I'm having a party at the weekend and planned on playing some music in the garden using iTunes - I need some help setting this up!

My main music library is in my room on a beastly desktop. I planned to hook up my old iBook G4 to some speakers in the garden to play from the shared music library on my desktop machine.

This works - however it plays all music, not just the "checked" songs. I also can't use the iTunes DJ on a shared library (which would be ideal, as I want people at the party to cue up music rather than interrupting the flow).

1) Can I share only "checked" songs? (I know i can do single playlists - but I have a huge library and I really don't want to have to go through selecting just the checked songs to make the new playlist)
2) Can I hack iTunes DJ into working with a shared playlist?

I have an iPod too - if that helps!

posted by anonaccount to computers & internet (5 comments total)

You can make a Smart Playlist that only includes the checked songs from your desktop, then just share that playlist. You won't have to go through anything manually. But that wouldn't solve your iTunes DJ issues.

Another option would be to turn on file sharing on your desktop Mac and share the folder that contains your music. Then make a new user account on your iBook (so as not to disturb the iTunes settings in your normal account), open the shared folder, and tell iTunes on the iBook to use that as your data source in the preferences. I wouldn't rely on this long term (you will want to BACKUP the iTunes Library files from the desktop, for one thing, so they don't screwed up) but for temporary party situations where you don't care particularly about play counts and star ratings, it might get the job done.
posted by bcwinters at 2:57 PM on May 1

This option isn't free, and it does require that you are running Leopard on both machines (or know how to set up a VNC connection):

1. Set up your iTunes DJ playlist the way you want on your desktop machine;
2. From the laptop, share the desktop's screen. This will allow you to control iTunes from the laptop with the music and playlists that are on the desktop;
3. Install Airfoil on your desktop and Airfoil Speakers on the laptop. From the desktop, choose the laptop as the output device for iTunes on the desktop.
4. Party!
posted by al_fresco at 3:54 PM on May 1

Thinking laterally, could you not simply copy the songs/albums you want played onto a HDD or USB key and then put them on the laptop?
posted by jhighmore at 5:12 PM on May 1

Alternatively, you didn't specify the the type of the "beastly desktop." Is it a PC? Extraordinary long shot, but you could enable remote desktop on the PC, download the RDP client for OS X, connect to your desktop remotely and specify sound output through your laptop. If you're on a LAN, I think it should stream music without a problem. Worse case, you have to put them both on ethernet, as opposed to wifi for the laptop.
posted by kbanas at 6:29 PM on May 1

I'm confused. Can't you just put the songs you want to play onto your iPod, and connect the iPod to speakers? People can still cue songs without disturbing the one currently playing.
posted by Piscean at 5:27 PM on May 3