What are correct locations for music files?

Dear all

I am totally confused by what's happened to my Music on the Mac. So if someone cane help with info and solution I will be very grateful. Sorry if this is a bit tedious, but…

I'm moving my main Music from the desktop iMac in the study to an older but still serviceable model in the living room, with a USB audio output to my hifi. Thanks to Turingtest2 for detailed info on that initial issue, but I've now modfied the plan.

• My music library – ie all the folders containing the .aiff and .wav files – has been sitting on an external USB drive for a couple of years, in a folder which is set in the Music settings screen as /Music & Video/MUSIC. Approx 2Tb including original recordings where I'm a performer or producer, taken from professional sources [reel to reel, DAT etc etc] I've not bothered much inside that location other than a few times when files have got lost, eg after editing album artists or adding extra tracks.

• I was going to move the library to another external drive, but then realised that if I got rid of other stuff [Audacity files etc] that would leave enough headroom for Music to grow. So after that cleanup I took a closer look at the external drive and realised that the library is somehow scattered across three locations:

/MUSIC folder –as set in the Settings ±1.9Tb

/MUSIC/Music – a folder inside that with ±800Gb

/Other Music – created months ago as a temporary "parking place" for duplicate albums ±900Tb

Some playlists appear to be split between the /M and /OM folders, which makes it difficult to update Artists etc – and I've found with some playlists that Music can't find some of the tracks which are in another location . And I worry that some tracks might be missing. So do I:

• Move the files manually [which will take hours, because I will have to do them one at a time to make sure no duplicates / missing tracks etc]
• Run the Organise Library command – although I'm not sure what that will do [??]
• Look for a Doug script or similar to solve the problem

… or do I just accept that my Music is a mess – even if it means I can't keep it as carefully curated as I thought it all was!

And once I've done whatever, what steps should I take to move the app settings etc to the other Mac?

TIA

Ken