Two iTunes questions...

March 7, 2007 8:11 AM

2 questions about iTunes: 1) I've ripped CDs to a laptop that has no 'Net connection so it can't get data from the CDDB. Before ripping, I've entered the artist and album info but not the tracks (too time consuming). When I copy these files to my main computer, iTunes doesn't import the title/artist info even though the file folders are appropriately named. Why? 2) Once I have these on the iTunes of my main computer and manually have changed back the title/artist, is there a way to get the track info automatically from the internet?
posted by Manhasset to computers & internet (12 comments total)

How are you "copying these files to your main computer"? If you rename the tracks of a CD in iTunes (by clicking the CD... renaming the tracks... selecting the tracks... and dragging them to your library) they should retain the album/track listing information.
posted by phaedon at 8:21 AM on March 7, 2007

Question 2: Select the tracks. Advanced > Get CD Track Names. You might not even have to bother setting the artist/album manually.
posted by chrismear at 8:22 AM on March 7, 2007

phaedon, I'm using the "add to library" option in iTunes to copy the music over.

chrismear, thanks! I can't believe I didn't look there. I was looking under the context-sensitive menu. Aargh.
posted by Manhasset at 8:25 AM on March 7, 2007

If they're obscure songs that iTunes can't find, or you have a shit-ton of MP3s to label, I've had good luck with the MusicBrainz software.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:26 AM on March 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

try not using the "add to library" option!
posted by phaedon at 8:26 AM on March 7, 2007

Okay, I'll try that tonight as I'll have some new tracks to try it out on. Thank you.
posted by Manhasset at 8:34 AM on March 7, 2007

If I'm reading you right, iTunes doesn't pull the artist or album names from the folder names. It pulls it from the ID3 tags. It sounds like you have the names on the folders, but not within the files themselves.

There is probably a utility that can edit ID3 tags based on folder names. Is your computer a Mac or a PC?
posted by willnot at 8:36 AM on March 7, 2007

I am on a Mac.

What I don't understand, however, is why that info isn't in the ID3 tags. Here's my process:

1. insert cd (itunes opens)
2. rename cd with artist/title
3. import cd

When I view the files in the laptop's itunes, the title/artist is there.

4. Copy all the files to my main computer
5. Use add to library to bring in those files.

So, tonight I will take phaedon's advice and see if it works. Any other suggestions based on these steps?
posted by Manhasset at 8:46 AM on March 7, 2007

I think y'all are confused. What the OP wants is for iTunes to retroactively label tracks as mp3s, using CDDB, given an artist an album name. Will it do that? Or does it have to have a CD in the drive to do that?

Or maybe I'm confused.
posted by rbs at 1:31 PM on March 7, 2007

Sounds like a job for MusicBrainz and the Mac version of it's tagging software - iEatBrainz - which uses the sound of each song to match it with the correct information from the MusicBrainz Database and apply the ID3 tags.
posted by dflock at 5:20 PM on March 7, 2007

Oops, link should be MusicBrainz
posted by dflock at 5:22 PM on March 7, 2007

MusicBrainz has come a long way since the last time I tried it! I don't know about the OP, but I certainly am glad I read these answers. My last.fm tallies this month are going to be a lot more accurate than, um, ever before...
posted by crinklebat at 9:14 PM on March 7, 2007