I’ve been using iTunes for quite some time to organize my music and it works ok but I’m wondering if there is anything better. Most of my CD-based music has been ripped and stored there. I do not, however, have an iPod that I use regularly. I currently own a windows-based laptop, Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and Samsung Galaxy S Tablet and would like to take my music with me.
I’ve heard of the iCloud but is there a better option for my windows/android equipment?
In a wooden crate, sorted alphabetically by artist/band name. Do not count “The” as part of a name for filing purposes. If any of your albums are scratched, note that fact by cutting a small notch in the top of the cover. Trust me, this is the best way.
If you’re happy with iTunes on your computer, then keep using it.
If you want to switch, all of your music is actually in a folder somewhere, organized into folders of artists and albums. Probably My Music - iTunes. Any program you get to replace itunes should be able to point to this folder and do its own cataloging of your music.
You can move music from iTunes to Samsung using this program “Samsung Switch” it seems. From just a cursory glance it looks like you could keep using iTunes and just use this Switch program to periodically synch your PC and phone & tablet.
Speaking for myself, I’ve never used iTunes, but I’ve always prefered to just have it stored locally. One of the issues with some sort of cloud storage for your music is that if you are unable or unwilling (perhaps due to data fees) to use it, you don’t have access to your music. I have all of my music stored on a drive, each band gets it’s own folder, each album therein gets it’s own folder, and the songs are named by track number and song name. I have my music ripping software set up to do all of that automatically, so it’s just stick in a CD, verify the information is correct, and click rip.
With Windows, Windows Media Player or WinAmp or other players will all work like this. And any android system can be set up to sync all of that with your phone or other device assuming you have enough storage on the device which, unless you have a huge collection, up to 128GB can all fit on a micro SD in your phone and/or tablet just fine.
That said, if you have access to cloud pretty much anywhere you’d listen to music, then using iCloud or a similar service like googledrive would probably work just fine too.
My music files are all just in great big file-folders. I recorded most of them from my old vinyl albums.
I use serial numbers, and keep a spreadsheet of album and track data.
I also used an MP3 tagging program to copy the file name to the MP3 internal name field.
Between searching the spreadsheet, and searching the file names, I can usually find what I’m looking for.
I’ve almost entirely abandoned stored music in favour of Spotify.
“My music” is just a bunch of playlists and lists of artists and albums. I can listen to pretty much anything I want at home.
On my phone, I have a couple of those playlists synced locally so I can listen to them without streaming. I switch those around every week or so.
There are a few songs and artists that aren’t available on Spotify. I don’t care anymore, I just go and listen to something new instead. My CDs gather dust in a cupboard, and I mostly just use iTunes for backing up my phone.
All of my mp3s are in one folder and organized this way: “Artist - Album - track number - Name of track.” I’ve also uploaded everything to Google Play. I can listen comfortably at home or on the go.
If you need to transfer music to your phone, you can connect it to your computer via USB, then drag a drop files to a music folder. Use the music player of your choice.