I hate iTunes with a passion... and now that my gf has said goodbye to her iphone and embrace the android world I never want to see iTunes again. That being said I have made great strides to make this possible, but it hasn't been easy. iTunes is a good concept for music library management, but suffers from bad execution and leaving it behind presents a couple issues.

 

1. How do I manage and keep my library clean and tagged, and in a format I enjoy?

 

This was the easy part, thanks to my great luck of stumbling upon this little great application called beets.

The setup was a little more complicated then just installing a plugin, but not impossible. I mainly used the instruction found in the getting started guide and the ones in this post.

 

I even have beets using "acoustic fingerprinting to identify audio files with missing or incorrect metadata", which is awesome. If you have any question let me know and I will try and help as best I can.

 

2. How do we view and play our library on our mobile devices?

 

I have yet to decide which path to take and hence why I'm on this forum, but I do have some initial ideas. I was thinking  that perhaps I use some sort of  web-based media streamer such as subsonic or jinzora or an alternative if anyone has suggestions.

 

3. How do I sync my music to my mobile devices?

 

Now since most of us are already using unraid, it is safe to assume we all have fairly large libraries which makes it very impractical for syncing and we can not just copy over our whole library to our devices. iTunes addresses this issue by two way syncing playlists, now this is the method my gf and I are most comfortable with and would somehow like to continue. Now I've been thinking the best method to achieve this is by using something like rsync, since android is a linux based os. With a command like

rsync -avu --delete --files-from=yourlist.m3u "/mnt/Music" "/media/ANDROID/MUSIC"

 

And with the use of Tasker I could setup the android device to sync up while asleep. Now for the most part this solution would work, but I would like to take it a step further and somehow embed the possibility of initiating a sync directly from subsonic or a similar web based media server.

 

I think I will initiate a request with the subsonic development team for now and see how far we can make with this idea.

i used to copy music to mobile but when i started using subsonic i have ditched that in favor of only streaming, copying music over seems like a waste of time for, me at least, although my situation may be different than yours in respect to mobile plan,, i have sprint which is unlimited everything so i have no fear of overage charges popping up on my bill,, also subsonic's android app works very well for me and my bluetooth connection in my car

 

if you still want to do the sync route i believe you are correct in using rsync however i cannot really weigh in on that as i do not use it very often

Basically what you've done here is gotten your girlfriend to move from a solution that was simple, easy and comfortable for her (and you it sounds like) to something that is now vastly more complicated. I understand the qualms people have with iTunes but still...

LOL, I personally like iTunes now that I'm good at it. I plug my phone in and it syncs all it needs to sync. My wife plugs her phone in and it syncs all of her stuff. Neither of us like the same music or the same apps.

 

When I was on Android I hated iTunes because I never understood it. I just wished there was something like iTunes and nothing even came close.

the solution i have devise is a little complex, but my gf doesn't have to do anything. phone now syncs at 1 am with her playlist and my phone sync up with my playlists. Works well for now.. just saying making it easier for everyone else who might not be as skilled. I don't mind iTunes I just hate the stuff it does to my nice metadata and how slow it performs when my library is on the network. Oh there is no unlimited data packages in Canada  other than wind.

songbird seems easier to me. not that i use it, or itunes. i dont sync media to anything. but itunes is an awful, awful program.

I installed Itunes on my Windows machine for one reason. Itunes creates a folder called "automatically add to Itunes". If I get new MP3's or any music I just mass move them into that folder then Itunes will move them into the appropriate folder. And my "music" folder is managed by Google music, so whatever I add to that folder gets uploaded by Google's music manager automatically. When I want to listen to my tunes I just goto music.google.com and play my content that way now. I wish I had another solution where I can host my own files on my unraid box and emulate like Google music. I have NO use at all for Itunes and never use it on my ipad at all. Way too many constrictions. I wish there was a PC version of a music management software I can install on my computer and take care of all my music automatically. There is nothing really out there. What does everyone do, just use Itunes?

 

 

What does everyone do, just use Itunes?

 

I have no issues with iTunes at all. Maybe that's because I use a Mac. I keep my music library on my main Mac and then use rsync to sync my library with my server and use the SimpleFeatures iTunes Server plugin so my library shows up as a shared source in iTunes on the rest of my computers and streams the music from the server.

I haven't used iTunes in years but when I did it was slow and unresponsive at times. That being said it was still the best music manager out there. I would say it still is, I just prefer to manage my music my way, even if it takes longer and isn't automatic I know all of my music is organized and tagged correctly, exactly how I want it.

 

I have a folder inside my music directory named "new". Usually once a month ill go in and tag everything, rename it in the format I like, and move them into the correct folders. With the aid of a few free programs its relatively simple. Mp3tag for the tags, niyow (name it your own way) set with a custom set of rules for the naming. Mp3tag has its own renamer but niyow is good for all files so I have it anyway, so I make use of it, plus its very flexible.

What does everyone do, just use Itunes?

 

I have no issues with iTunes at all. Maybe that's because I use a Mac. I keep my music library on my main Mac and then use rsync to sync my library with my server and use the SimpleFeatures iTunes Server plugin so my library shows up as a shared source in iTunes on the rest of my computers and streams the music from the server.

 

I do one better and run iTunes from the share that the iTunes Server plugin runs from.

 

However, I only do that because I find holding 350Gb of music on an SSD a waste 

What does everyone do, just use Itunes?

 

I have no issues with iTunes at all. Maybe that's because I use a Mac. I keep my music library on my main Mac and then use rsync to sync my library with my server and use the SimpleFeatures iTunes Server plugin so my library shows up as a shared source in iTunes on the rest of my computers and streams the music from the server.

 

I do one better and run iTunes from the share that the iTunes Server plugin runs from.

 

However, I only do that because I find holding 350Gb of music on an SSD a waste 

 

Haha. Figure out a way to get the server to work over the Internet and I would too!

Comcast temporarily lifted the 250GB transfer cap and I started uploading my music to Google Music.

 

It is awesome. 20,000 songs hosted for free (I uploaded 5,000 so far). Available through any browser or android device (Up to ten devices authorized per account) (I just tried and it works in android browser, I would assume it would work in ios browser too, try music.google.com)

 

I use MediaMonkey to tag my media. It retrieves info from multiple sources online and even inserts the album covers into the id tags. It is mostly automated, but sometimes needs manual override in the case of imported cds with bonus tracks

 

Xbmc or Google Music have no trouble identifying and importing the media info after MediaMonkey treatment.

I wish I had another solution where I can host my own files on my unraid box and emulate like Google music. I have NO use at all for Itunes and never use it on my ipad at all. Way too many constrictions.

 

ive never used it before so i might be wrong but i think thats what subsonic does. there is even a plugin for unraid

 

I wish there was a PC version of a music management software I can install on my computer and take care of all my music automatically. There is nothing really out there. What does everyone do, just use Itunes?

 

there are dozens. i dont know why people use itunes and complain there arent any alternatives.

What does everyone do, just use Itunes?

 

I have no issues with iTunes at all. Maybe that's because I use a Mac. I keep my music library on my main Mac and then use rsync to sync my library with my server and use the SimpleFeatures iTunes Server plugin so my library shows up as a shared source in iTunes on the rest of my computers and streams the music from the server.

 

I do one better and run iTunes from the share that the iTunes Server plugin runs from.

 

However, I only do that because I find holding 350Gb of music on an SSD a waste 

 

Haha. Figure out a way to get the server to work over the Internet and I would too!

 

subsonic might work

I use iTunes personally because of my 2 iphones and 2 iPads. Lol

 

When I was using android I would of killed for a worth wild app that actually worked and kept my stuff synced.

1. How do I manage and keep my library clean and tagged, and in a format I enjoy?

 

It sounds like the program beets worked alright for you. I actually used MediaMonkey which mostly uses info from Amazon to add all useful metadata.

 

FWIW, it took me a long time of trying out different programs, but I've only found MediaMonkey (free version) to be better than iTunes for quickly and easily navigating huge music libraries.