If only actual mixtapes were still an option
July 18, 2023 5:24 PM Subscribe
It's summer 2023. How do I organize and play my music? Looking for tips on organizing and devices. More details, snowflakes, and angsting below the fold.
Ok, so I'm someone who needs to have music on while working, and I'm increasingly frustrated with my situation. I have:
1) several thousand CDs, organized in binders (and realizing that "out of of sight, out of mind" is an issue so I don't listen to these albums much anymore, which makes me sad)
2) several thousand songs on iTunes, which is increasingly finicky
3) a couple of old iPods with playlists I adore but I can't update them with iTunes anymore
4) Amazon music songs, mostly downloaded. Amazon music has become terrible so I never use the app anymore
I end up defaulting to just running YouTube videos in the background but I miss the music I've actually, you know, purchased over several decades.
So: what is the best way to get ALL of music organized in one location, and/or what are the ways people create playlists and take music with them these days? I have a very limited dataplan, so "stream Spotify/music subscription" on my phone isn't an option.
Ok, so I'm someone who needs to have music on while working, and I'm increasingly frustrated with my situation. I have:
1) several thousand CDs, organized in binders (and realizing that "out of of sight, out of mind" is an issue so I don't listen to these albums much anymore, which makes me sad)
2) several thousand songs on iTunes, which is increasingly finicky
3) a couple of old iPods with playlists I adore but I can't update them with iTunes anymore
4) Amazon music songs, mostly downloaded. Amazon music has become terrible so I never use the app anymore
I end up defaulting to just running YouTube videos in the background but I miss the music I've actually, you know, purchased over several decades.
So: what is the best way to get ALL of music organized in one location, and/or what are the ways people create playlists and take music with them these days? I have a very limited dataplan, so "stream Spotify/music subscription" on my phone isn't an option.
I put a subset of my highly rated mp3s on my phone and play them with the built in music app. I also have Plex and lifetime pass, so I use Plexamp for access to every song I own, but Plexamp is iOS only. Plex itself works on most operating systems.
Do you also have an iPhone in addition to those iPods? Are you open to paying monthly or would you rather not?
posted by soelo at 6:56 PM on July 18, 2023
Do you also have an iPhone in addition to those iPods? Are you open to paying monthly or would you rather not?
posted by soelo at 6:56 PM on July 18, 2023
I have 100% Apple infrastructure. I ripped all my 4000 or so CDs to an external drive using iTunes, it took a couple months of evenings. I play it back using a legacy laptop running iTunes offline through my stereo. You can do this using whatever ripping software you have/prefer, playback software/hardware and a cheap external optical drive.
posted by outfielder at 7:09 PM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by outfielder at 7:09 PM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh,-and for taking it with me, before I got an unlimited data plan I downloaded my favorite music to my iPhone using iTunes /Apple Music.
posted by outfielder at 7:12 PM on July 18, 2023
posted by outfielder at 7:12 PM on July 18, 2023
Response by poster: I don't have an iPhone and my only Apple products are iTunes and those ancient iPods.
I'd prefer not to pay for a service; I mostly want to work with the music I already own.
posted by TwoStride at 7:41 PM on July 18, 2023
I'd prefer not to pay for a service; I mostly want to work with the music I already own.
posted by TwoStride at 7:41 PM on July 18, 2023
One thing I found with a music library from a bunch of different sources is that the metadata associated with the files is not great. But metadata is what allows you to find the music on your devices in whatever organization system you setup.
I've played with a few different things over the years but have found Musicbrainz Picard to be the best at automatically filling out all the id3 tags associated with mp3 files. It does some things I don't like with some music that uses different alphabets (I can't read Japanese but it defaults to characters for the names of many artists, for instance) and there are sometimes albums it can't figure out, but it's been pretty good for fixing up about 90% of my collection. For the ones that don't quite work automatically, I update manually in Musicbrainz or MP3tag, the interface of which I like a little better for manual tagging that Musicbrainz.
For both, when I get the metadata correct, I've set it up to then move and rename the files in a folder and filename structure in a separate drive in structure that is something like `artist/year - album name/artist - track# - song name.mp3' so once I'm done with the tagging, the files in their final location and have all been filed and named similarly within the whole system.
I will say I've given up on genre tags being a useful way to find music since that seems to be the tag that's the most freeform in any of the databases I've seen for collecting music info. For one example, similar artists that should be in the same genre might instead be categorized as one of the following: synthwave, retrowave, new retrowave, synth, 80s, electronic....
As with most digital asset management, a consistent and good filesystem is most important to being able to actually use whatever is in the collection (music, photos, etc.), so I'd work a bit to figure out a system that works for you.
Other people have given some good ideas for making your music available. I have a computer set up with an airsonic server that has my entire, properly tagged and filed music collection and I access it via web browser or by the various apps on android and ios that can interact with such a server. The same music is also available via plex for playing on my tv. And I have the server routed through a cloudflare zero-trust tunnel, which allows it to be accessed securely outside of my local network. I can also grant access to this music to friends/family as I want.
posted by msbrauer at 9:11 PM on July 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've played with a few different things over the years but have found Musicbrainz Picard to be the best at automatically filling out all the id3 tags associated with mp3 files. It does some things I don't like with some music that uses different alphabets (I can't read Japanese but it defaults to characters for the names of many artists, for instance) and there are sometimes albums it can't figure out, but it's been pretty good for fixing up about 90% of my collection. For the ones that don't quite work automatically, I update manually in Musicbrainz or MP3tag, the interface of which I like a little better for manual tagging that Musicbrainz.
For both, when I get the metadata correct, I've set it up to then move and rename the files in a folder and filename structure in a separate drive in structure that is something like `artist/year - album name/artist - track# - song name.mp3' so once I'm done with the tagging, the files in their final location and have all been filed and named similarly within the whole system.
I will say I've given up on genre tags being a useful way to find music since that seems to be the tag that's the most freeform in any of the databases I've seen for collecting music info. For one example, similar artists that should be in the same genre might instead be categorized as one of the following: synthwave, retrowave, new retrowave, synth, 80s, electronic....
As with most digital asset management, a consistent and good filesystem is most important to being able to actually use whatever is in the collection (music, photos, etc.), so I'd work a bit to figure out a system that works for you.
Other people have given some good ideas for making your music available. I have a computer set up with an airsonic server that has my entire, properly tagged and filed music collection and I access it via web browser or by the various apps on android and ios that can interact with such a server. The same music is also available via plex for playing on my tv. And I have the server routed through a cloudflare zero-trust tunnel, which allows it to be accessed securely outside of my local network. I can also grant access to this music to friends/family as I want.
posted by msbrauer at 9:11 PM on July 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Once you’ve ripped all your CDs there are other music players available to which you can download some subset of your library that don’t require paying for a service. I don’t have any personal experience with any of them but they definitely exist. SanDisk gets mentioned here a lot.
posted by outfielder at 9:13 PM on July 18, 2023
posted by outfielder at 9:13 PM on July 18, 2023
Best answer: I would recommend not just Plex but also Plexamp - this is a player has been specifically designed to be good at giving you alternate yet meaningful access to your own music collection. For example you can select a song, artist or album and then have a generated playlist that is seeded on that source. You can also change the way in which auto-DJing works - do you want the app to freeze on a particular set of input values or go go on occasional adventures. The app mines your data and suggests playlists. The music can be streamed from a local source or downloaded to your device. The app requires a PlexPass subscription -either time based or life-time. Here is a recent review with features demonstrated.
posted by rongorongo at 12:07 AM on July 19, 2023
posted by rongorongo at 12:07 AM on July 19, 2023
what is the best way to get ALL of music organized in one location, and/or what are the ways people create playlists and take music with them these days?
In addition to the above, I also like beaTunes - this is an app which appears to have be primarily designed for DJs creating playlists - but could appeal to anybody. It will clean up your meta-data from a local collection and then suggest matching tracks according to rules you set. It is more hands on than other solutions in determining why it thinks one track goes with another - and letting you tweak those rules. Here is a review.
posted by rongorongo at 12:59 AM on July 19, 2023
In addition to the above, I also like beaTunes - this is an app which appears to have be primarily designed for DJs creating playlists - but could appeal to anybody. It will clean up your meta-data from a local collection and then suggest matching tracks according to rules you set. It is more hands on than other solutions in determining why it thinks one track goes with another - and letting you tweak those rules. Here is a review.
posted by rongorongo at 12:59 AM on July 19, 2023
Just buy a good quality home cd player and listen to the cd's like we did in 2001. Honestly the increasing complexity of this music technology is ruining the experience and robbing us all of the simple joy of putting on a record. Streaming services treat songs like a little snack to be consumed whenever you have a craving. Turns out having access to millions of songs at the tap of a finger doesn't increase appreciation. But would flipping through those old albums of cds be kind of fun? I dunno, I'm all about trying to escape the algorithms these days and seek the same simple enjoyment I had listening to my discman on the bus on the way to highschool, one cd at a time.
Yours truly, born in the 80s
posted by winterportage at 3:47 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yours truly, born in the 80s
posted by winterportage at 3:47 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I use Plexamp for access to every song I own, but Plexamp is iOS only.
Plexamp is multiplatform, here's the Play store page, but it does require PlexPass.
Just buy a good quality home cd player and listen to the cd's like we did in 2001
OP knows how to do this and specifically asked about current options to replace an iTunes library.
msbrauer's advice on tagging was good, that's where a lot of the work is to be done whatever platform is chosen.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:19 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Plexamp is multiplatform, here's the Play store page, but it does require PlexPass.
Just buy a good quality home cd player and listen to the cd's like we did in 2001
OP knows how to do this and specifically asked about current options to replace an iTunes library.
msbrauer's advice on tagging was good, that's where a lot of the work is to be done whatever platform is chosen.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:19 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Anther option I might consider, if I wanted to get a little more under the hood than Plex, is OwnTone. Especially if multiroom audio across devices and unified remote control is important to you (in conjunction with shairport-sync). Think, open-source Sonos. DIY Shairport Sync Airplay receiver with Raspberry Pi.
Other solutions I've heard discussed are Logitech Music Server (free, what's left of Squeezebox, as supported by Logitech) and JRiver Media Center (not free).
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:35 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Other solutions I've heard discussed are Logitech Music Server (free, what's left of Squeezebox, as supported by Logitech) and JRiver Media Center (not free).
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:35 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Plexamp is multiplatform, here's the Play store page, but it does require PlexPass.
You are right, I was confusing it with Prologue, the audiobook player. They just announced that Plexamp can be used on Plex servers using the free tier, too!
posted by soelo at 6:06 AM on July 19, 2023
You are right, I was confusing it with Prologue, the audiobook player. They just announced that Plexamp can be used on Plex servers using the free tier, too!
posted by soelo at 6:06 AM on July 19, 2023
Seconding/thirding/fourthing Plex as a great self-hosted home media solution. I ripped my whole CD collection a while ago, and moving my whole mp3 library over to Plex was more or less a snap once I cleaned up all the tags using the MusicBrainz Picard software.
I did the same thing with my DVD and Blu-ray collection, and Plex provides great handling for self-hosted movies and TV shows if you ever decide to move your video collection to a media server as well.
I ran a Plex server from my desktop for a few years, and recently upgraded to a separate NAS box that I have running in my closet. It's a small investment ($200ish for a NAS with two drive bays, another few hundred for the drives) but it's worth it to not have to leave my PC turned on all the time.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I did the same thing with my DVD and Blu-ray collection, and Plex provides great handling for self-hosted movies and TV shows if you ever decide to move your video collection to a media server as well.
I ran a Plex server from my desktop for a few years, and recently upgraded to a separate NAS box that I have running in my closet. It's a small investment ($200ish for a NAS with two drive bays, another few hundred for the drives) but it's worth it to not have to leave my PC turned on all the time.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
What I would do (and did) is rip all the CDs to iTunes and play them from there.
One thing I did: I made an playlist called "Albums" and whenever I buy or rip a complete album, I add it to that playlist. So that playlist doesn't contain any random odd songs, just whole albums. Then I switch that playlist to the view that displays cover images* and it's a nice way to browse all my CDs/albums. Nicer than just a spreadsheet-like list of tracks in the default iTunes view.
(* Of course you'll need to manually add the artwork for ripped music, or use something to automate it.)
posted by fabius at 6:48 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
One thing I did: I made an playlist called "Albums" and whenever I buy or rip a complete album, I add it to that playlist. So that playlist doesn't contain any random odd songs, just whole albums. Then I switch that playlist to the view that displays cover images* and it's a nice way to browse all my CDs/albums. Nicer than just a spreadsheet-like list of tracks in the default iTunes view.
(* Of course you'll need to manually add the artwork for ripped music, or use something to automate it.)
posted by fabius at 6:48 AM on July 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: FWIW: The oft-recommended Plexamp no longer requires a Plex Pass (ie: is free for most basic users) now! Blog post announcement is here, and while some functionality is still "pay" only (the most important of which is probably downloads, but ymmv) it's still an amazing player when combined with a self-hosted Plex library.
posted by griffey at 7:23 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by griffey at 7:23 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have done this very thing - had thousands of CDs + downloads from bandcamp etc, converted all to mp3 and then set up as a self-hosted music server through Subsonic. The core app is free and allows for browser-based streaming from non-home locations, and if you get the license you can also stream to mobile devices via the open source app or a variety of alternates like DSub. I prefer Subsonic because I've never really liked Plex's handling of very large music libraries, altho maybe it's come a ways since the last time I've looked at it.
As far as the core of your library - plan ahead on how you want to organize your file structure. could be as simple as \Music\Artist\Album, just make sure your albums have their own folders whenever possible so you can host album art files without duplication issues. In addition, when ripping your library, make sure that your app's encoding rate isn't defaulted to 128kbps or something nasty like that - with mp3s you generally don't want to go below 192k, and often 256k or 320k is preferred if you have the drivespace for it. And make sure to periodically re-check those settings during the days or weeks it takes to rip the albums! I had my preferred ripper program auto-update to a new version at one point, and didn't realize that it wiped my settings and dropped to default until after I finished and realized half my collection was sitting at a grating 128kbps.
I also strongly recommend a metadata/filename manager like Tag&Rename - it is an absolute treasure when it comes to bulk editing metadata tags, album art, and filenames. When pulling together digital content from multiple sources you can decide on making all your files "Track# - Artist - SongTitle.mp3" or whatever order/content you want from the tags, and then mass update dozens or hundreds of files at a time. Or batch updating an artist's entire catalog to whatever specific genre tags you want to use, etc. When a library gets upwards of thousands of albums, a bit of methodical standards will go a long way towards keeping everything tidy.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY - BACK UP YOUR LIBRARY. Sync to an external drive every now and again, or get some cloud storage, or preferably both. You don't want a power surge or a household disaster to wipe out all those beautiful sounds and all that hard work!
posted by FatherDagon at 11:14 AM on July 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
As far as the core of your library - plan ahead on how you want to organize your file structure. could be as simple as \Music\Artist\Album, just make sure your albums have their own folders whenever possible so you can host album art files without duplication issues. In addition, when ripping your library, make sure that your app's encoding rate isn't defaulted to 128kbps or something nasty like that - with mp3s you generally don't want to go below 192k, and often 256k or 320k is preferred if you have the drivespace for it. And make sure to periodically re-check those settings during the days or weeks it takes to rip the albums! I had my preferred ripper program auto-update to a new version at one point, and didn't realize that it wiped my settings and dropped to default until after I finished and realized half my collection was sitting at a grating 128kbps.
I also strongly recommend a metadata/filename manager like Tag&Rename - it is an absolute treasure when it comes to bulk editing metadata tags, album art, and filenames. When pulling together digital content from multiple sources you can decide on making all your files "Track# - Artist - SongTitle.mp3" or whatever order/content you want from the tags, and then mass update dozens or hundreds of files at a time. Or batch updating an artist's entire catalog to whatever specific genre tags you want to use, etc. When a library gets upwards of thousands of albums, a bit of methodical standards will go a long way towards keeping everything tidy.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY - BACK UP YOUR LIBRARY. Sync to an external drive every now and again, or get some cloud storage, or preferably both. You don't want a power surge or a household disaster to wipe out all those beautiful sounds and all that hard work!
posted by FatherDagon at 11:14 AM on July 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
I will note that both Subsonic and T&R are apps that you may pay some scratch to get the full featureset from - but they are tools that you will own, not services you rent until they no longer get supported. The music library itself will be all yours, hosted on your own computer (aside from the backups DON'T FORGET TO MAKE BACKUPS).
posted by FatherDagon at 11:22 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by FatherDagon at 11:22 AM on July 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I have been using JRiver Media Center for this purpose since 2005. I think it's about $30 now. Ripping my huge CD collection was easy enough, not to mention plenty of music downloaded from newsgroups and now YouTube as well. 327,000 songs in one place easily grouped and sorted by artist, file type, custom rating, and over 200 other categories. I like to make playlists and send them to my mp3 players. I'm pretty sure you can send to your phone as well and even connect over the web and use it as a server.
posted by Carlo at 10:49 PM on July 20, 2023
posted by Carlo at 10:49 PM on July 20, 2023
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You'll have to deal with ripping the CDs, if they're not in iTunes. I would imagine there are ways to extract playlists, whether from iTunes or the iPods themselves. It's been a while, but I think I did that once.
Amazon music; you'll have to break the DRM which is iffy to discuss here, even if it's for your personal archival.
If you want to consider alternatives: self hosted music library managers and music libraries.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:16 PM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]