Advanced iTunes 8 Management

Here's how to get a better handle on that overloaded, multi-computer, multi-gadget music library of yours.

Inexpensive iPods, music-playing cell phones, and—heck—even PCs have essentially replaced the traditional stereo system. As the typical stack of 17-inch-wide audio components goes the way of the dodo, so too do their accompanying fiberboard shelving units stuffed with hundreds of plastic CD jewel cases.

That doesn't mean that your organizational chores are over, unfortunately. The average music fan may have one or more PCs, an MP3 player, a cell phone, a car stereo, and other music-playing gadgets. And while you won't catch many of us returning to the days of physical media for music—despite what SanDisk may think—it's still tough to keep everything under control. With that in mind, power up your iTunes 8 organization, navigation, and maintenance skills with the following tips:

(Note: If you're using a Mac, typically replacing the Ctrl key with the Command key will yield the same results.)

Improve your playlists. Here are some ways to speed up playlist management:

1. Organize your playlists in folders by clicking File | New Playlist Folder, and then dragging playlists into each one.


2. Create a playlist of an entire album by clicking Music in the Library menu at left, and then View | Show Browser. Then drag the album from the Album list to the space beneath everything else in the big bluish pane at left (minimize the playlists item if you have to)—or just Shift-click the Add (+) button on the album name to do the same thing.
3. Create an instant playlist of a group of selected songs by Ctrl-clicking each song, and then dragging the whole batch to the same space on the left.
4. Right-click a song name to see a bunch of useful shortcuts, including the ability to display all the playlists in which a song currently appears (Show in Playlist), or cue it as the next song in Shuffle mode.
5. Mac only:
   Delete a song from a playlist (as well as from all other playlists and your library) in just one step by pressing Option-Delete.

Navigate iTunes like a pro.

1. Ever lose your place in the Library view while listening to a song? Jump to the currently playing track by clicking the curved arrow to the right of the progress bar at the top.


2. Right-click any column heading in order to change which ones are visible.
3. Work the iTunes controls from the keyboard by holding down the Ctrl key: Ctrl-Right Arrow skips to the next song, while Ctrl-Left Arrow skips back. Ctrl-Up and Ctrl-Down change the volume, while the space bar plays or pauses the current track.

Delete duplicate songs. Now that Apple is finally pulling DRM off its iTunes Store tracks, 30-cent upgrades are available for prior purchases, and, thrown into the bargain, the upgrades double the bit rate—to much-better-sounding 256-kilobit-per-second AAC files. Although iTunes offers to delete the old 128-Kbps files in the process, I found that iTunes misses a lot of them—seemingly because the iTunes Store changed the name of albums along the way. So knock 'em all out in one fell swoop by selecting File | Show Duplicates, and then deleting all the unwanted versions.

Fix incorrect album art. Sometimes iTunes goofs when downloading album artwork. Erase the incorrect images by highlighting all the appropriate tracks, right-click a song title, and select Clear Downloaded Artwork. Then manually drag an appropriate image over to the album art box. Or let iTunes do another pass by clicking Advanced | Get Album Artwork, which then checks the art on all your tunes.

Beef up artist recommendations. iTunes 8's new Genius feature is pretty cool, but take it a step further and install the free iLike Sidebar. It attaches to the right of your iTunes window and generates new recommendations, free MP3 links, and even related videos as you play different tracks.

Create extra libraries. Apple wants you to keep all of your music in one library, but that doesn't mean you have to. Hold down the Shift key when starting up the app; you'll see a small dialog box asking whether you want to create a new library or look for an existing one. This little trick lets you archive music you don't feel like staring at all the time but don't want to delete forever, either—and it's also great for people with different musical tastes who share the same computer.

Improve the sound quality of imported CDs. Now that storage prices have fallen through the floor, and the standard iPod classic has a 120GB hard disk, consider bumping up the sound quality of imported CD tracks to at least 256 Kbps AAC, if not Apple Lossless. If you've already imported all your CDs, you could—gulp—do it again at a higher bit rate or losslessly as well. (That's what I ended up doing.)

BONUS TIP: Make it fun. There's no need to stare at a featureless backdrop of song and album titles all day. Don't forget that iTunes lets you spruce up the interface with a couple of built-in extras. The first is the app's beautiful Cover Flow feature, which turns your PC into a virtual jukebox—click the right-most icon under View at the top right of the window to activate it. There's also the customizable Visualizer, which ebbs and flows in time to the music; toggle it by pressing Ctrl-T.