Hello all! A little introduction, I have ~1800 songs and 39 gigs of music. I've been slowly building up my music collection after deciding to transition from Spotify to Navidrome, a neat little self-hosted streaming service. I've been buying primarily digital copies from Bandcamp so I can download in .flac, but recently I learned 100 gecs' album 10000 gecs has a couple slightly different songs on the CD after buying it. I would like to rip it and tag it, but I already have the digital copy marked as "10000 gecs". I also like scrobbling to Last.fm and would prefer to have the album scrobble the same as the digital edition, but I would like for it to show separately in my library. For those of you who have run into this, how do you tag it? Thanks in advance!

Hi all, I have about 3000 songs that are all organised in a neat folder structure with their correct metadata

I am looking to create playlists of these songs, I generally create my playlists based on either or both genre and year. So for example I could have an.all time playlist of all Country music, or a playlist of music between 2010 - 2015 that includes all genres. Maybe one plasylist with just the stuff I like.

I am in need of a program or app that allows me to view all of these music files, filter them, and easily create playlist, and edit and update them as required.

Can anyone recommend something for this?

Thanks.

In Spotify, I have a folder where I keep playlists of albums to listen to and then decide if I want to download them or not. The folder is at 2000 albums atm and instead I want to make a list on my phone of these albums and then delete them once I've listened to them.

I'm looking for an app that will do this, but also sort it not just in my custom order but in alphabetical order if I'm looking for a certain album.

Can anyone think of a good iPhone app that is built for this type of thing? I've looked in the app store, but maybe I'm entering the wrong search info. Maybe such a thing doesn't exist lol

So my mom has an old MacBook probably from 2012-2015 area. In more recent years she's got a sonos system & she's always had an android phone. She went to the apple store to see if they could upgrade or migrate her iTunes music from her old MacBook to her newer one but apparently no dice.

How can we export her iTunes library so that it is

A) accessible on her Android phone

B) copied to an external drive or NAS

C) Highest possible quality

I've never been on the apple side so I don't even know where to begin as my files on windows & Android have always been manually tagged by me & stored in a music folder that I have full control over.

She also has an iPod nano which she used to put music on but i guess it's full now so she's kinda just stuck. She mostly uses her phone or the car to play music but she often complains about not being able to play her music whenever, wherever like she used to. Apparently there's a sonos companion app for Mac but her laptop is so old it's hot supported by the sonos app.

If I could get her library exported I figure I could manage it like I manage my own & she'd have access to all of her music to listen to it anywhere.

If there's other workarounds please let me know. I'm all ears

Hi Folks,

does anybody has experience in using the mentioned device for ripping CD‘s direct on PC?

Especially with copy-protected CD‘s from years 1999-2001? I have a big leck in my mo3-collection because it seems to be impossible to rip my own CD‘s from these years…

So, I have something like hope with the new device but want to make sure that it will work…

Thanks for your input on this!

Kinda weird situation, looking at the Kylie minogue tension 2 album she is on a few tracks where she was the 2nd artist prior to this release.

Would you put the other artist ahead of her even though it is her album?

For example sia and Kylie

Thanks to so many of you who have provided info here I've relied upon. I am a non-tech savvy older fool who has devoted WAY to much time over the last few decades digitizing an impractically large old vinyl collection. I have about 150k songs which are too big for Apple Music (and some of the very old tracks aren't the required quality). I use Sonos and have all the songs on a Synology NAS. I am looking for a way to listen to them on both my Sonos, on the web (if possible) and also on my iPhone. I currently have Apple Music to listen to newer stuff. My question to you geniuses is- what system would you recommend that would let me access all the music on my NAS on Sonos and my iphone, and also allow me- with a separate subscription- to access a paid music streaming service? Thanks so much. You all are great.

After a month of use, my tracks on AIMP suddenly were malfunctioning for no reason. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app, nothing worked so I moved to MusicBee.

Well, I was frustrated with that because MusicBee took the organization system I had in my music drive, and reorganized it into a jumbled of folders by artist only. I had it customly separated into some albums and 2 playlists, and I could not figure how to reverse it.

Now I'm on Foobar2000. It seems to not have the same tendency as Musicbee thankfully, but I'm not very technical with commands and computer language, so I'm considering MediaMonkey. My primary concern is another music player doing the same thing that MusicBee did to my drive; is there a way to protect my drive from these type of changes?

Thankfully, I just started getting into this and I'm at sub 1k tracks, and I can't imagine myself ever having more than 10-15,000 tracks.

Thank you for any insight!

Hello all,

Long time media hoarder, first time music hoarder.

I’ve been building my library for the better part of 6 months, but my main method of acquisition has been cumbersome (essentially downloading through deemix by artist and some playlists and organizing through Lidarr).

Considering I am hoping to build a “alternative to streaming services” library, how would other recommend further expansion without needing to search and manually acquire basically everything?

Appreciate you all and this community, can’t wait to get this up and running!

So, I just started to try out MusicBrainz Picard to tag my small music Library but the cover art fetching does not work since the cover art archive source is inoperational at the moment. What other sources/plugins/scripts can I add for cover art fetching and apply them to my tracks. Ideally, I would like to add cover art album wise, so that I don't have to add it track by track. I am still new to this, but I like MusicBrainz Picard. Thanks for your help in advance.

So I am creating this (Part 2) due to all the much appreciated advice and would like to pass that on to future collectors who are fighting the same learning curve as myself:

How to manage a large collection of music and safely back it up: A project for new collectors

PLATFORMS

NAS (Network Attached Storage):

This is a dedicated storage device that connects to your home network. It allows you to store large amounts of data and access it from multiple devices (e.g., phone, laptop) via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. It’s great for building a personal media server, perfect for your needs.

Roon / Plex:

Both of these are media server software. Plex is more versatile as it streams movies, TV shows, and music, while Roon is more music-focused, offering high-quality playback and detailed music metadata. You'd want to research which fits your needs better for managing a huge collection.

Swinsian / Foobar2000 / Marvis:

These are music players and library managers for local collections. Swinsian and Foobar2000 are more customizable and lightweight, while Marvis is an app with a clean interface that works with Apple Music libraries.

HARD DRIVES

• NAS Drives: Same as the NAS platform, this is where your actual files are stored. NAS drives can be set up with RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) to ensure that even if one drive fails, your data is safe.
• SSD Backups: Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are faster and more reliable than traditional hard drives (HDDs), but they’re also more expensive. You can use SSDs for quick-access backups, while NAS drives might hold larger quantities.
• Local Library: This refers to storing your music on your computer or an external hard drive. It’s your immediate go-to for accessing music directly, but it’s vulnerable if not backed up properly.
• File Format Consideration (WAV vs MP3): You’ll need to decide which files to save in which formats. WAV is uncompressed and has higher quality but takes up much more space, while MP3 is compressed and more space-efficient. You may want to save key songs in WAV and the rest in MP3.

3-2-1 METHOD

• 3 copies: One on your Mac, one on a local HHD/SSD, and one in the cloud.
• 2 local backups: Use external drives or a NAS for fast access and redundancy.
• 1 offsite backup: Cloud storage protects your files from physical damage.

Test Platforms

• [ ] Research Platforms: Spend time reading reviews or watching tutorials for the following platforms:
  • NAS Setup: How it works and the pros/cons of different NAS systems.
  • Roon vs. Plex: Compare their features, focusing on ease of use for large collections.
  • Swinsian, Foobar2000, Marvis: Research which offers the best interface and management tools for your needs.
  • CRATES (New Platform)
• [ ] Platform Choice: Based on your research
  • select 2 platforms to test (e.g., one music player like Swinsian, and a backup system like NAS).

Organizing Local Storage & Backups

• [ ] Assess Your Hard Drive Setup: Decide on a setup based on the size of your collection. For instance:
  • Invest in a NAS system if your library is huge and spread across devices.
  • Get an SSD or HDD as a secondary backup drive.
• [ ] 3-2-1 Method Setup: Begin setting up a backup system:
  • Primary storage: Your Mac (or NAS).
  • Secondary storage: External SSD or HDD.
  • Tertiary storage: Research cloud storage options that allow large libraries (Google Drive, iCloud, or dedicated music cloud platforms).

File Format & Metadata Organization

• File Formats:
  • Lossless Formats: Use WAV or FLAC for storing high-quality or critical songs.
    • WAV offers uncompressed, studio-quality audio but takes up more space.
    • FLAC provides the same lossless quality while compressing the file size, making it more storage-efficient compared to WAV.
    • ALAC (Apple Lossless) is another lossless format optimized for Apple environments (file extension: .m4a). It preserves quality while saving space, making it suitable if you use Apple Music or other Apple devices.
  • Compressed Formats: Use MP3 or AAC for storing less critical tracks where space is a priority over the highest quality.
    • MP3 offers efficient compression with manageable audio quality.
    • AAC (also .m4a extension) is similar to MP3 but often results in better quality at smaller file sizes, commonly used in Apple ecosystems.
  • Decision Tree:
    • Use WAV or FLAC for original recordings or songs where quality is paramount.
    • Use MP3/AAC for general listening or casual collections to save space.
• Organize Metadata:
  • Clean up your collection using tools like Apple Scripts, Mp3tag, or MusicBrainz Picard to standardize file names and tags.
  • Ensure uniformity in metadata tags for artist names, albums, track numbers, genres, and years across all files.
  • File Naming Structure: Choose a consistent format for file names, e.g., [Artist] - [Album] - [Track Number] - [Title].
  • Metadata Tags: Focus on correct artist names, album titles, track numbers, genres, and cover art.
• Cloud Backup & Encryption:
  • Consider encrypting your cloud backups for extra security. Tools like VeraCrypt or built-in encryption from services like Google Drive or iCloud can protect your music collection.
  • Regularly back up to both local storage and encrypted cloud platforms to ensure you never lose any music.

Execution & Testing

• [ ] Set Up Your NAS or Backup System: Once you've chosen your system, follow setup instructions to create your personal media library.
  • Test it with a portion of your collection to ensure everything runs smoothly.
• [ ] Backup Your Collection: Begin transferring your collection into the chosen backup system.
  • Ensure you create 3 copies, following the 3-2-1 method.
• [ ] Test Accessibility: Make sure you can access your collection remotely (e.g., on different devices if using NAS).

Additional Tips

• [ ] Regular Backups:
  • Schedule automatic backups with Time Machine or your chosen backup solution.
• [ ] Metadata Management:
  • Keep your library organized with consistent tagging to make sorting and searching easier.

When trying to run beet for the first time I get:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>beet

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main

File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code

File "C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\scripts\beet.exe\__main__.py", line 4, in <module>

from beets.ui import main

File "C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\beets\ui\__init__.py", line 35, in <module>

from beets import config, library, logging, plugins, util

File "C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\beets\library.py", line 26, in <module>

from mediafile import MediaFile, UnreadableFileError

File "C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\mediafile.py", line 52, in <module>

import imghdr

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'imghdr'

I searched the entire Python area and no 'imghdr' or 'imghdr.py' can be found.

I have made this script to concatenate audio files into one long file with chapters calculated based on the duration of the individual files. It also embeds a thumbnail image.

I got annoyed with playback that isn't seamless for music albums and with audio-books that are 100 small files. But it turned out each operation between the concatenation, the chapters and the thumbnail embedding required a different tool. For example, ffmpeg cannot embed thumbnails into opus and chapters are only achieved by making a detour over a matroska container. Anyway, the script does it all in one go.

It can also take the chapters from .cue files. Now, that cue to chapter file converter would probably best be translated into another programming language. Right now it is in the same shell script which grew from initially just chaining together a few ffmepg and mkvtoolnix commands.

Supported formats are opus, mp3 and m4a. No flac because as far as I can tell, flac doesn't support chapters. So it's mostly for mobile lossy copies that you would make of your flac collection.

Here is the repo:
https://github.com/pickae/concatAudio

TL;DR: I want to digitalize a vinyl LP from an obscure Mexican artist into a lossless digital audio file.

Hi everyone!

So recently I’ve been really interested in José de Molina’s work, a controversial Mexican singer-songwriter whose work is barely known at all.

It is actually quite hard to find his discography. No official CD’s of his music have ever been released, only vinyl albums and cassette tapes. Thus, it is very hard to find a good audio recording of his songs. The best thing I could find was a folder of his entire discography in 128kb mp3s, which isn’t ideal.

Recently, I found someone in my city who actually owned one of José de Molina’s albums and was actually willing to sell it to me for a very low price. Now, I don’t own a record player and now almost nothing about vinyl records or music digitization, however, I am willing to buy the record solely for the purpose of digitizing in and hopefully getting a lossless digital file of the full album.

As previously mentioned though, I don’t have any equipment at all, and thus I pretty much have no way of realizing such plan.

Is there any way I could digitize the record? Whom should I even contact in order to do this? Is my best bet acquiring the equipment and digitalizing the record myself? How do I even go on about this plan?

Thanks in advance!

The Trooper

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsxyzaK-KpE shows as
   1. 1998 remaster on YouTube (with www.) https://youtube.com/watch?v=WsxyzaK-KpE
   2. 1983 The Trooper from Piece of Mind (Original) YouTubeMusic (with "music."youtube.com) https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WsxyzaK-KpE
2. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=FjFzSfN6W6w shows as 1999 Ed Hunter on YTMusic and 1998 Remaster from Piece of Mind on www.youtube.com
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4DfbinBgL4 - on www. as 2015 Remaster from Piece of Mind and YTMusic as 1982 Original from Piece of Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4DfbinBgL4 - on www. as 2015 Remaster from Piece of Mind and YTMusic as 1982 Original from Piece of Mind

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WeVLw9GJbWM - on 2015 remaster from piece of mind 1983 ?

Master of puppets

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zbSjDVcZA2o shows as Original on YTMusic and Remaster on Youtube.com but not which remaster...

cause this one is 2017 remaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0ozmU9cJDg

there are 3 masters - Original, 1995, 2017

I stole and tweaked this naming script from another thread and it works for me with one exception. If there is no date, it still leaves "()" instead. How do I do this but exclude "()" if there is no date?

%artist%/%album% ($if(%date%,$left(%date%,4)))/$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,1),CD $num(%discnumber%,2))/$num(%tracknumber%,2)-%title%

Thanks.

Like right now I have:

Song A: 4:19 and 4:11

Song B: 3:22, 3:31, and 3:35

Song C: 3:23, 3:35, and 3:41

These aren't even maxi or extended versions. Just the same song across different albums.

Hi all,

I'd like to treat better my collection of local audio files I currently have on my mac.

Requirements:

• macOS and iOS enviroment
• Access it locally and (ideally) also online
• (Ideally) store them online or in local NAS/hard disk
• Also play easily with my HiFi setup: Marantz + Nividia Shield (Android TV)

These are the options I've found:

• PlexAmp (with Plex Media Server)
• Doppler
• Cider
• Swinsian
• Vox

Which are the best options and why?

Any suggestions on the best place to tag the date a track was recorded? I can't seem to find any specific Frame for it.

So I am reorganizing my old music collection, but I'm so confused when it comes to applying the information. Why does each song have three tag fields: Tag 1, Tag 2, and Tag 3? Don't they all just carry the same information?

Do I have to use all 3 or can I use just one of them? If so, which one?

I tried ripping to WAV with dbpoweramp, even with slow speed (my CD unit allows 5x slowest), but the WAV files still do not sound as crisp and limpid and perfect as playing the CD itself. Is there any secret that they hid in the Red Book CD Standard so that no ripping format would obtain a perfect copy? Is FLAC somehow better at this in a way that it rips the exact Red Book standard, or is it the same as WAV only compressed? So to finish, when I play a CD it sounds perfect, the sound quality is crisp, immaculate, limpid, etc., but any ripping format I tried so far has one or another inconsistency when it comes to sound, it's just not the same. That's weird considering dbPoweramp compares the rip bit to bit with a database of CD's ripped by other users and I always get the checksums right, which should mean the contents are precisely ripped as any other users would rip it themselves, but the WAVE files just don't sound like the CD. So, is there a way to actually rip a CD that provides a file as perfect as the Red Book Standard Compact Disc Audio format itself?

Hey everyone. Hope this is the right place to ask :)
For a few months now, I’ve been tasked with making playlists for a weekly event. Since there’s nobody there on hand to handle the actual playing of music, I put all the song into a sound editor (Audacity does the job), with a bit of crossfade between the songs and some normalization, and output everything in a single mp3 file.

I was wondering whether there’s any program that could do these things automatically. I tried a quick google search, but only found programs that output m3u files…

Thanks!

How do people tag albums when there are multiple releases per year? I mean ok just tag the year and go forth with your day, but then what about when the earlier album shows up later in the list than the other? It drives me bonkers...

how do you all handle this?

Hi all,

I'm a DJ and sometimes purchase music from Amazon when it's not available elsewhere. Generally the quality seems to be OK, ~220kbps to ~260. Obviously this isn't ideal, I would prefer 320, but they seem to sound fine.

Now I just discovered a site called 7digital that seems to offer the same tracks at 320. So I thought, great, I'll start buying off here instead.

To compare the file quality of music purchased off the two sites, I used Fakin the Funk and Spek.

Fakin the Funk seems to think that the Amazon files are lower quality. BUT, when I look at the frequency spectrum in spec, they look almost identical, with just some minor differences at the top of the frequency. Here's an example of two songs I analysed, from 7digital and amazon: https://imgur.com/a/o137fhz

I'm feeling that basically there's no difference between the files. If this is the case, I might as well purchase from amazon, given that the file sizes are smaller and more accurately reflect the quality. Is fakin the funk basically full of it?

Here's a link to the fakin the funk analysis: https://imgur.com/2R6iVdn
In one case it seems to think the amazon file is better quality?

Basically, this is all messing with my head and I'd love some input from those who know about these things! Are the files basically identical?

TLDR: Are files from amazon and 7digital effectively the same, despite inflated file size and higher supposed bitrate?

Thanks

Hi everyone, i have a slight problem regarding the sorting of bootlegs in my Library, i use Picard to tag all my music but bootlegs, to no surprise aren't in their database and i dont know which tags would be essential to make them appear right on my jellyfin server, i want them to appear just as normal albums but it would be nice to have some sort of tag that specifies that its a bootleg.

I recently started hoarding music after my student YouTube Music subscription ended. The artists I enjoy are Indies who typically release singles first—essentially an album featuring just a song and its instrumental version—before later releasing a full album that combines new songs with those singles. Some artists even release remasters later on. This leads to duplicate songs and the inclusion of instrumental versions.

I enjoy instrumentals in general and listen to them often, even if they are mostly video game soundtracks. However, I feel that instrumentals are meant to be whole and stand alone. Instrumental versions of songs often seem incomplete without the vocals. So, what should I keep?

• Keeping songs as separate Singles means more cover art to look at while scrolling, potentially better search-ability, and the ability to keep the songs and their instrumental versions together. However, if a single artist releases 10 singles and 2 albums, and there are 10 or even 100 artists, it could become overwhelming to scroll through everything on my phone. Then again, it may not matter if I can simply search by artist.

• Keeping songs in Albums reduces clutter, as the cover art is embedded within the songs themselves. However, this can lead to inconsistent album art, with multiple cover designs within a single album. For example, a song from an album titled Scream might have its cover art replaced by the single art that says Cry. I can also compile the instrumentals into a single album if I want to listen to them later.

What are your thoughts?

View Poll

Currently 75,000 songs in my collection (I get its small, but I have to listen to every single song before its allowed in my playlist even if I know its going to be good)

I am aware that this question is probably asked very frequently in this community - however I have just discovered it and was hoping to get fresh insights from veteran members

I am looking to improve the safety of my collection over the long term

Personal importance:

• Storing music off platform such as a USB / Hard Drive (I would have done this a year ago, but I have yet to find a way to reliably play such saved music on my phone)

• Playing Music anytime / anywhere on any device (iPhone / MacBook)

• Having separation (~100 playlists with an easy ish way to edit when certain playlists need broken down) + sorting A-Z / Newest - Oldest

• Creating queues (I call it painting playlists by choosing specifically what I want to listen to in order or for a specific party vibe)

More help that would be highly appreciated:

• Being able to specifically select an entire artists discography to add to a listen later playlist or move that artist into another playlist when creating new or breaking down -- (I mainly organize by city / group / era / genre)