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I *hate* iTunes, but I guess I have to use it

After upgrading to 3.0 recently on my 2nd gen iPod Touch, MediaMonkey would no longer recognize the device. I installed a beta driver and it recognized it, *but* it corrupted the files. Ugh.

I’m feeling kinda like someone with a hacked iPhone and have decided that instead of fighting them, I might as well join them. In doing a restore I ended up having to install the 3.1.1 firmware upgrade, but it didn’t look like I had to pay =) Maybe because I only upgraded to 3.0 a few weeks ago. I dunno, but I won’t question a free upgrade. Also installed iTunes 9. Seems more like 8.1 and maybe even 8.0.1…HAHAHA I also had to re-install all my apps! THAT was a pain. Fortunately, the iTunes store keeps track of everything, even the free ones, so I just had to follow my purchase history.

I will continue to use MediaMonkey to manage my music, album art, ID3 tags, etc. I just don’t fully trust iTunes with my entire music collection, so I think I’ll just create a special folder with all my iPod music, even though it will mean I’ll have duplicate files. I have plenty of extra storage space.

I like keeping a special playlist of all my iPod music that is ordered by the date added to my Touch so I can quickly listen to music I’ve just added. I know I can use the automatic Recently Added playlist, but I’ve restored and started over so many times, that auto-playlist is unreliable. It is going to be sort of a pain to use both apps, but guess the alternative is even more evil.

UPDATE 2009-09-10:
OK, I’m *totally* giving in. I set iTunes to “keep my media organized”, that is, it’s going to keep stuff in artist\album\folders. I did this so I could take advantage of, and be in sync with, the new “Automatically Add to iTunes” feature which automatically adds media put in that folder to the iTunes library. Of course, unlike other media managers, it doesn’t just monitor and add entries to the library, it renames and moves the files into the iTunes media folder. Apple always has to be different! See why I don’t trust iTunes with my entire media library?!

September 10, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Music, SeriouslyTrivial.com | , | No Comments Yet

iTunes Genius-like playlist with MediaMonkey

My kid was showing me the iTunes genius feature and I was a bit intrigued. Although I have a 2nd gen iPod Touch I *hate* iTunes and only use it when I have to. Slow and stoopid IMHO, but I digress.

My music and tag manager of choice is MediaMonkey. One of it’s features is support for plug-ins and there is this cool LastFM one. It works in conjunction with MM’s AutoDJ feature which normally just adds a random song to the PlayNow list, but with the plug-in, it will automatically add a similar artist based on LastFM data.

Go to this forum post for a link to download the latest LastFM Auto-DJ plugin. To install, just double-click the plug-in file (like it was an executable file). The .mmip file extension should be associated with MM, assuming you have MM already installed. After the plugin is installed, complete the following steps:

1. Choose ‘Options’ from the main Tools menu.
2. Click on ‘Auto-DJ / Now Playing’ in the Player group of options.
3. Enable ‘Auto-DJ’ and set ‘Automatically maintain at least’ to 1.
4. Set ‘Add tracks from:’ to ‘Last.FM DJ’.
5. Unless you’ve rated most of your music, click the Configure button and enable the ‘Include unknown rating option’–this is very important!
6. Click ‘OK’.
Finally, start the Auto DJ playing mode by choosing ‘Auto-DJ’ from the Play menu. Make sure you do this last step or nothing will happen. Note that there is a toggle button on the player. The location depends on the skin you are using and, at least for me, it’s not a very recognizable icon.

Now, just drag any track to “seed” the process and the Auto-DJ feature will start adding similar artists. Since it isn’t analyzing the song, like iTunes Genius or Pandora might do, you get an interesting chain of songs.

September 6, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Music | , , , | 4 Comments

Tunecore music royalties. I’m rich!

I posted some songs from my old band, Mind Games, to iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and eMusic using the Tunecore service and just got an email with the subject line “You Have Royalties From iTunes”. WOW! So I log in and low and behold, there’s a whopping $1.06 in my account! 40 cents is actually from Napster. Appears to be mostly from streaming, but maybe one actual purchase. Yeah, I don’t even know how I get paid HAHA. 66 cents is from UK iTunes.

Well, I don’t know where I’m gonna  spend it all. I think I’ll just let it sit there and grow =)

February 16, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Music | , , , , , | No Comments Yet