by John Ashman » Thu Jun 05, 2008 5:43 pm
We sell Sonos and as such, have to help people organize libraries and multiple library support is the one thing that has been a huge limitation with iTunes.
Without going back and looking at every suggestion, the main thing is to be able to define your own libraries and have them be 'virtual' as in a playlist or 'actual' in which new folders and locations are created. For instance, I had a separate drive for classical music, but it was tedious moving anything classical there sometimes. I also wanted to create actual folders for jazz, rock, etc. Or create more subgenres instead of generalized genres but then group them all together, such as putting 'latin rock', 'latin pop', traditional latin', 'brazilian jazz' etc all in a folder called "Latin Music". Or put music we know is good demo music in a "Demo Music Library" or a "Favorites Library".
The best similar thing we've found is in Apple's Mail program where you can make "if/then" rules. For instance "If genre contains 'jazz', move to library "Jazz Music". Or "If user is Lucy, move to library "Lucy's music". Or "If format = mp3, wma, aac, move [or copy] to library "iPod Folder". Then be able to look at sub libraries which would at least include folder/drive locations, but also the user created libraries.
In this way, as long as you have the rules set up, all the music would be moved or copied to the right folders and show up as separate sublibraries.
We sell Sonos and as such, have to help people organize libraries and multiple library support is the one thing that has been a huge limitation with iTunes.
Without going back and looking at every suggestion, the main thing is to be able to define your own libraries and have them be 'virtual' as in a playlist or 'actual' in which new folders and locations are created. For instance, I had a separate drive for classical music, but it was tedious moving anything classical there sometimes. I also wanted to create actual folders for jazz, rock, etc. Or create more subgenres instead of generalized genres but then group them all together, such as putting 'latin rock', 'latin pop', traditional latin', 'brazilian jazz' etc all in a folder called "Latin Music". Or put music we know is good demo music in a "Demo Music Library" or a "Favorites Library".
The best similar thing we've found is in Apple's Mail program where you can make "if/then" rules. For instance "If genre contains 'jazz', move to library "Jazz Music". Or "If user is Lucy, move to library "Lucy's music". Or "If format = mp3, wma, aac, move [or copy] to library "iPod Folder". Then be able to look at sub libraries which would at least include folder/drive locations, but also the user created libraries.
In this way, as long as you have the rules set up, all the music would be moved or copied to the right folders and show up as separate sublibraries.