Use tags in Itunes/WinXP?
May 2, 2006 4:44 PM Subscribe
I want to apply multiple 'tags' over time to songs in Itunes on WinXP. How to do this without overwriting previous tags?
Maybe the best way to describe this is with an example. I select a bunch of songs in Itunes, right click, go into "Info", and put the word 'acoustic' in the comment field. Great, now I can create a smart playlist that looks for the word 'acoustic'. Later, I decide I'd like to *also* apply the tag 'mellow' to SOME of these songs, so I can create a 'acoustic' + 'mellow' playlist. However, if I select the songs that already have the acoustic tag, I can't *add* to the previous tag, only *replace* it with a new one. Is there any way to do this so I can append new tags into the comment field to my heart's content?
Maybe the best way to describe this is with an example. I select a bunch of songs in Itunes, right click, go into "Info", and put the word 'acoustic' in the comment field. Great, now I can create a smart playlist that looks for the word 'acoustic'. Later, I decide I'd like to *also* apply the tag 'mellow' to SOME of these songs, so I can create a 'acoustic' + 'mellow' playlist. However, if I select the songs that already have the acoustic tag, I can't *add* to the previous tag, only *replace* it with a new one. Is there any way to do this so I can append new tags into the comment field to my heart's content?
Doug's AppleScripts site has a script called Append to Selected Tag which seems like it would do what you want. Or maybe the Add/Remove Groups one. The descriptions are a little terse so you're probably better off just playing around with them, and the other ones that are available.
posted by smackfu at 5:51 PM on May 2, 2006
posted by smackfu at 5:51 PM on May 2, 2006
Response by poster: - Thanks for the info on Apple Scripts - but these can't be run on Windows, can they?
- Re: the first post, I want to be able to add new tags over time. As far as I know you can't append, or can you?
posted by mattholomew at 5:57 PM on May 2, 2006
- Re: the first post, I want to be able to add new tags over time. As far as I know you can't append, or can you?
posted by mattholomew at 5:57 PM on May 2, 2006
When I click once it highlights the whole field to replace it, when I click twice I have a cursor at the end of the entry, and I just add the new values, leaving space or comma or whatever.
I get the feeling we're not talking about the same thing, as this seems really easy to me.
I've tried it for both the genre tag and the comments tag and it works fine for me. Like I said above, this will only work if the group you're editing has the same tag values to begin with, or yeah, you'll end up overwriting everything. But unless you're list is huge or very variable it shouldn't be too hard to sort by genre and then batch edit one genre at a time.
posted by tiamat at 6:08 PM on May 2, 2006
I get the feeling we're not talking about the same thing, as this seems really easy to me.
I've tried it for both the genre tag and the comments tag and it works fine for me. Like I said above, this will only work if the group you're editing has the same tag values to begin with, or yeah, you'll end up overwriting everything. But unless you're list is huge or very variable it shouldn't be too hard to sort by genre and then batch edit one genre at a time.
posted by tiamat at 6:08 PM on May 2, 2006
I also have iTunes and XP, but I don't have this problem. Let's make sure we're doing it the same way.
Select all the songs from one album, right-click, and put "acoustic" in the comments field. Hit OK to get out of the info section.
Fool around, play more songs, tag more songs, whatever.
Select only the songs you selected and tagged as "acoustic" before. Right-click, view info. Does "acoustic" appear in the comments field?
Click in the comments field, after the word "acoustic," and try typing "mellow". This is a crucial step; it works for me, and we should make sure it doesn't work for you.
Right now, here's what I think your problem is. I think that when you select songs you've tagged "acoustic" before, you are also selecting songs that are not tagged "acoustic." If you select two or more songs with different comment fields, because they do not match, the comments field will appear blank and a check mark will not appear in the box to the left of that field in the info popup.
AFAIK there is no solution to that.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:13 PM on May 2, 2006
Select all the songs from one album, right-click, and put "acoustic" in the comments field. Hit OK to get out of the info section.
Fool around, play more songs, tag more songs, whatever.
Select only the songs you selected and tagged as "acoustic" before. Right-click, view info. Does "acoustic" appear in the comments field?
Click in the comments field, after the word "acoustic," and try typing "mellow". This is a crucial step; it works for me, and we should make sure it doesn't work for you.
Right now, here's what I think your problem is. I think that when you select songs you've tagged "acoustic" before, you are also selecting songs that are not tagged "acoustic." If you select two or more songs with different comment fields, because they do not match, the comments field will appear blank and a check mark will not appear in the box to the left of that field in the info popup.
AFAIK there is no solution to that.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:13 PM on May 2, 2006
Response by poster: tiamat, I think I'm not describing it correctly... picture 2 groups of 10 songs each; the first 10 have the tags "acoustic" and "mellow" and the second 10 have the tags "fast" and "electric". Now I'd like to select all 20 songs at once, and add the tag "happy" on to them. So now the first 10 are tagged "acoustic mellow happy" and the second 10 are tagged "fast electric happy". Key is that I want to do it with multiple songs at once, not enter the tag to one song at a time. Hope that clarifies, and thanks for your efforts thus far.
posted by mattholomew at 7:14 PM on May 2, 2006
posted by mattholomew at 7:14 PM on May 2, 2006
That's exactly what I thought was happening, and as far as I know, there's no workaround.
You don't have to go song by song for those 20, but you would have to select the two groups separately.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:22 PM on May 2, 2006
You don't have to go song by song for those 20, but you would have to select the two groups separately.
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:22 PM on May 2, 2006
You'd have to tag those files in two sets. You should be able to add the tag for all the "acoustic" and "mellow" files in one go, and all the "fast" and "electric" files in the other go.
You can only add with out overwriting to multiple files when the files share the same value for whatever it is you want to change.
If you want much more powerful tagging you might want to try MediaMonkey, which supports/shows the tempo/mood/occassion (and many more) tags. Of course this will only work if they're MP3 files, not DRMed iTunes store files.
posted by tiamat at 7:23 PM on May 2, 2006
You can only add with out overwriting to multiple files when the files share the same value for whatever it is you want to change.
If you want much more powerful tagging you might want to try MediaMonkey, which supports/shows the tempo/mood/occassion (and many more) tags. Of course this will only work if they're MP3 files, not DRMed iTunes store files.
posted by tiamat at 7:23 PM on May 2, 2006
I use the above-mentioned Add/Remove Group plugin and it works like a charm... anytime I want to add a new tag to a song, I use that script, and it appends my new text to the "grouping" ID3 tag, it does not overwrite it.
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:59 PM on May 2, 2006
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:59 PM on May 2, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
The smart playlists can be set to match genre "contains" X, so this would work for finding everything marked with the word "mellow", even if that's not the only tag.
Where you'd run into problems would be if you had a playlist with 50 files, 25 of the genre "acoustic" and 25 of some other genre, say "popular". Then you'd have to add the "mellow" tag seperately to each group, to create a "acoustic, mellow" genre and a "popular, mellow" group.
posted by tiamat at 5:46 PM on May 2, 2006