Wednesday 21 January 2009
Five important iTunes music tags that are often blank... or wrong!
Written for internet-connected, iTunes users.
I've been told that I have too much time on my hands :)! If you find yourself with the same problem and also want to optimise your iTunes music library, I suggest you improve the accuracy of these five song fields*:
1. Setting the correct Equaliser Preset setting ensures your rock ROCKS on your speaker; not pops, fizzles or raps!
2. Often left blank by the automated look-up process, filling the Album Artist field correctly allows iTunes plug-ins to better find the correct lyrics and album covers.
3. The Genre field often needs to be tweaked to one's satisfaction. For example, your idea of Pop may be Bon Jovi. To others it may be Rock. Setting the correct genres for your tunes makes it a lot easier to play music suited to your mood. It also helps Party Shuffle work so much better on your ears :)!
4. If you own a fair amount of mixed music, setting a Start Time for your favourite tunes can avoid listening to a long mix-in from a previous one. Just as setting a Stop Time saves the boredom of a long outro...
5. The Comments field can be useful for creating smart playlists from its keywords. In particular, it's useful for labeling the mood of the music. For example, there are times when one only wants to listen to Indie music that's commented as happy (versus melancholy)!
I can't guarantee that changing these tags will improve your enjoyment of iTunes, but they should!
* Do this on a Mac by selecting one song (or more) and pressing 'Command' and 'I' simultaneously. Then select the 'Info' or 'Options' tab. Happy editing!
I've been told that I have too much time on my hands :)! If you find yourself with the same problem and also want to optimise your iTunes music library, I suggest you improve the accuracy of these five song fields*:
1. Setting the correct Equaliser Preset setting ensures your rock ROCKS on your speaker; not pops, fizzles or raps!
2. Often left blank by the automated look-up process, filling the Album Artist field correctly allows iTunes plug-ins to better find the correct lyrics and album covers.
3. The Genre field often needs to be tweaked to one's satisfaction. For example, your idea of Pop may be Bon Jovi. To others it may be Rock. Setting the correct genres for your tunes makes it a lot easier to play music suited to your mood. It also helps Party Shuffle work so much better on your ears :)!
4. If you own a fair amount of mixed music, setting a Start Time for your favourite tunes can avoid listening to a long mix-in from a previous one. Just as setting a Stop Time saves the boredom of a long outro...
5. The Comments field can be useful for creating smart playlists from its keywords. In particular, it's useful for labeling the mood of the music. For example, there are times when one only wants to listen to Indie music that's commented as happy (versus melancholy)!
I can't guarantee that changing these tags will improve your enjoyment of iTunes, but they should!
* Do this on a Mac by selecting one song (or more) and pressing 'Command' and 'I' simultaneously. Then select the 'Info' or 'Options' tab. Happy editing!
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