Why is music organization so complicated and cumbersome with Apple Music?

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Level 1

9 points

Why is music organization so complicated and cumbersome with Apple Music?

I can go to a record store (even today) and it's easy to find what I'm looking for despite the thousands of albums and artists I've never heard of. Despite dozens of genres I've never explored.

And yet, when I try to find the music that I've purchased and stored in Apple Music, it couldn't be more frustrating and confusing.

I spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to undue the destructive imports that Apple Music does - finding and re-filing and re-labeling. Sometimes re-importing.

Is there a way to rip and store my music outside of the Apple Music app - a non-destructive alternative to importing the music the way it was packaged and sold -- and then just letting Apple Music see it and play it?

Mac Studio (2023)

Posted on Jul 30, 2023 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

277,799 points

Aug 4, 2023 7:50 AM in response to ToledoYak

You can set your preferences in Music such that new imports are not copied into the Music media folder. You can also turn off the option that lets Music reorganize files in response to metadata changes. That said metadata is the key to organization within both iTunes and Music. The physical layout and location of files on the drive doesn't matter. Use View > Show Filter Field in Music to add a proper search box for locating items within it.

See also Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for some background on the organization of your media folders.

This post has advice if your albums are broken up after import or not organized with others by the same artist.

tt2

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Answer 2

ToledoYak Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 31, 2023 12:51 PM in response to turingtest2

That's good info. And if my software works properly - it's all good. However, Music is the latest software I've found out is not doing the basic stuff very well. I started looking in the folders to see what size size my music was. The CDs I ripped were 2-4MB. I re-ripped them and upgraded to 15-40MB files to get better quality sound. I also found out that the music I purchased from Apple (downloaded so I don't lose access to them as advised by Apple) were also low res.

During that endeavor I found out

when I chose to "replace" a ripped CD - iTunes/Music didn't delete the old files but keep both files resulting in unnecessary bloat on my drive
some of the CDs I had previously ripped were now missing from my library completely
Music pulled apart and re-filed many of my CDs in opposition to the way they are sold/packaged (making it really hard to match the files in the folders to the app UI) - which wouldn't be necessary if the software didn't mess stuff up - but even more unnecessary IMHO is pulling apart the CDs instead of just filing them as they are made and sold.

IMHO - this is why non-destructive approaches to user data is so sacred.

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Answer 3

Apr 16, 2024 4:33 AM in response to ToledoYak

my workflow to find new albums...

i check wikipedia and lookup the artist. i check his discography and what his latest studio recording was
i lookup the album in itunes to buy it.

why can'T i find the latest studio album of an artist in itunes? instead there are dozens of albums and no visible order. it seems random. thats also a reason why i missed a lot of studio recordings of some artists i like. because i simply didn't realize they got something new.

the only reason i still use apple music and itunes is because i'm lazy to use something else... but that might change...

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Answer 4

muguy

Level 10

90,440 points

Jul 30, 2023 8:53 AM in response to ToledoYak

Your music is under library. Not sure what you’re experiencing but you’ll find everything there

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Why is music organization so complicated and cumbersome with Apple Music?

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