iPod/iTunes Question #34

[vansmack]

I heard the next iTunes is going to have built in Podcast support.  That's exciting.

[beetsnotbeats]

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
  for all you categorization nerds:
 
 i finally completed a huge project of retagging ~20,000 songs with detailed genre/location info in the "comments" section and it's working fantastically
 
 my problem was that one genre field really can't encompass how i want to search through, listen, and group my music ... so now i just pack as much description as i want to into the "comment" field, and create smart playlists to search the fields
 
 this works best for bands who cross genres or eras, like -- for example -- the beatles.
 
 for "a hard day's night" i have the following tags (most from all music):
 
     * Pop
     * Rock & Roll
     * British Invasion
     * Pop/Rock
     * Merseybeat
     * Britain
 
 for "magical mystery tour" i have:
 
     * Pop
     * British Invasion
     * Psychedelic
     * Pop/Rock
     * British Psychedelia
     * Britain
 
 so i search (through smart playlists) for pretty much any kind of descriptor and come up with a perfect list of my music ... one of the coolest things i've found is listing the band's country/city, then being able to find all scottish bands, or all minneapolis bands, or all DC bands
 
 i'm only about 1/4 of the way through ranking all my tracks, but once that's done it should be incredibly dynamic .... say i wanted to find all my 4+ rated American Underground songs from 1981-1985 from NYC bands, it's all right there
 
 anyway, hope this helps someone, i know when i was first starting this whole thing i couldn't really find a good system out there, but i think this is as good as iTunes can handle

For years I've wanted to start a global project that assembled the most insanely detailed music database imaginable. Wanna join?    
 
 Some of the guys on the ARSC listserve would probably consider your commitment dilettante--they're that freaky--but they'd still tip their hats.
 
 I really wish iTunes would allow for as many separate entries of each criterion as one wanted, the same way that you can enter as many criteria as you want for smart playlists; just give us + and - buttons to add and subtract lines. Maybe they can even allow us to define our own criteria, e.g. hometown, active years, etc. And make it so that when I add a new Kraftwerk CD I don't have to reenter all the other artist info. I guess what I'm asking for is a database of artists that is linked to their recordings in the iTunes database.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
  For years I've wanted to start a global project that assembled the most insanely detailed music database imaginable. Wanna join?      

well, it's really already there in allmusic.com, it's just an issue of transferring the data into MP3 tags
 
 

Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
  Some of the guys on the ARSC listserve would probably consider your commitment dilettante--they're that freaky--but they'd still tip their hats.

do you have a URL?
 
 

Originally posted by beetsnotbeats:
  I really wish iTunes would allow for as many separate entries of each criterion as one wanted, the same way that you can enter as many criteria as you want for smart playlists; just give us + and - buttons to add and subtract lines. Maybe they can even allow us to define our own criteria, e.g. hometown, active years, etc. And make it so that when I add a new Kraftwerk CD I don't have to reenter all the other artist info. I guess what I'm asking for is a database of artists that is linked to their recordings in the iTunes database.

yes, that would be sweet.  but i think it's the eternal nerd's quest for perfect software that is designed for the masses.  i mean, don't you think the smart folks over at apple have thought of this?  i'm sure it's just not included because laypeople would find it confusing.

[beetsnotbeats]

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
  well, it's really already there in allmusic.com, it's just an issue of transferring the data into MP3 tags

allmusic certainly has a lot of info but I said  insanely; if I look up, say, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra I still don't get the individual members names, the makes of their instruments, what kind of bow is used by the double-bassist, etc. Clicking on a CD I don't get where it was recorded, who was the engineer, what recording tech was used,.... Obviously, most people don't need/want such info--most people don't need to know an artist's hometown for that matter--but a truly insanely detailed database would supply such info.
 
 

ARSC listserve

do you have a URL?

http://www.arsc-audio.org/
 
 

yes, that would be sweet.  but i think it's the eternal nerd's quest for perfect software that is designed for the masses.  i mean, don't you think the smart folks over at apple have thought of this?  i'm sure it's just not included because laypeople would find it confusing.

Perhaps they've considered it but I'm sure that all their grey matter is dedicated to the recording side. There's no money in selling hometowns and double-bass bows. As for confusing, they could set the current config as the default leaving the really detailed config to (*ahem*)  advanced users (such elitism...).