4.2 Importing & Managing Your Music
Table of contents
Besides simply adding or dragging and dropping specific media into your library, Songbird provides you with the ability of importing your media by means of iTunes or watching a specific folder for changes. You can also have Songbird automatically organize your library files based on metadata into a specific folder and file format of your choice.
iTunes Import/Export
A lot of people seem to feel like iTunes is holding their music hostage, so for a seamless transition to Songbird, it helps to be able to import your iTunes library and playlists. With the iTunes Importer, Songbird is able to locate your iTunes library and import the data (tracks, playlists, play counts...) into Songbird. You can also export tracks and playlists added to Songbird back into iTunes, so that they can easily be synced to your iPhone or iPod touch.
To Import your library,
- Select Tools › Options… (Songbird › Preferences on a Mac)
- Select the Media Importer tab, then iTunes Import/Export.
- Verify your library location and options.
- Select Import Library.
iTunes Import/Export
For those that still actively use the two applications (i.e iPhone and iPod Touch users), you can also export your library back to iTunes, keeping your music in sync and accessible from both Songbird and iTunes. When exporting your library to iTunes, you will see a Songbird folder under the Playlists node. All of your playlists, smart playlists, and newly added tracks are stored here.
If you are not seeing changes exported to iTunes,
Select Tools › Export Library Changes.
The current iTunes exporter only exports newly added tracks/changes, not an existing Songbird library, to iTunes (like what the iTunes importer does)..
To export all of your existing tracks and playlists, use the following workarounds...
To export all tracks to iTunes: Create a new playlist, put all your tracks(entire library) in it. You should now see all your tracks in iTunes that you see in Songbird.
To export existing playlists: Create a "second version" of all your playlists (i.e. Make a "Favorites2" playlist and copy/drag your "Favorites" playlist into "Favorites2") Those "new" playlists will be exported to iTunes. Then you can rename/cleanup your playlists.
✓ If you are on a dual-booting Linux distribution, and you wish to import your iTunes Library from your Windows or Mac partition, into Songbird on Linux, head here for instructions.
Watch Folders
If you want Songbird to monitor the contents of a folder and automatically add or remove that media from your library, Watch Folders is for you!
To Watch Folders for music,
- Select Tools › Options… (Songbird › Preferences on a Mac)
- Select the Media Importer tab, then Watch Folders.
- Then select which folder you want to watch for changes.
Setting your Watch Folder the same as your Music Management folder will create duplicates in your Library.
✓ Watching folders on Remote Drives is not yet supported.
Media Management
Like your files to be neatly organized? You can automatically organize the files that are contained in your library by using Media Management. Once enabled, it will consolidate your media in one location. You can customize the structure of the folder and file names based on metadata contained in every track. Songbird will automatically update their locations when you make changes to your files metadata. If you drag any files from the desktop into Songbird to add to the library, that source file can then be deleted without affecting the library because a copy has been made in your main library folder.
Important Advice: Tag your files as properly as you can before activating Media Management. Try out the Tagger add-on to create, edit and replace metadata in your music library easily.
To set up Media Management,
- Select Tools › Options… (Songbird › Preferences on a Mac)
- Select the Manage Files tab.
- Check Allow Songbird to manage my files.
- Then set your options for how you wish to organize your music.
Your Music Library location is the main (root) folder where all your music is stored. All of your desired sub folders and music files are stored inside here. When you select a different folder than where your media is currently located, you will get a complete copy of your media. When items are renamed or the folder is the same as where the media is located, then your items will move around in that folder, reorganized based on the metadata tags.
When Managed Mode is enabled, Songbird can delete music from your Music Library and hard drive if you check the option when deleteing files:
- Tag page
- What links here
| File | Size | Date | Attached by | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50_documentbird.png No description | 23.71 kB | 11:58, 25 Jun 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
 | bird_apple.PNG No description | 6.6 kB | 22:41, 23 Jun 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| itunes-import-export.png No description | 24.43 kB | 22:47, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| manage-delete.png No description | 10.96 kB | 22:56, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| manage-files.png No description | 26.5 kB | 22:47, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| watch-folders.png No description | 27.97 kB | 22:47, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
However, in general I have the feeling that Songbird, although delivering a great job, is a little bit *too* much of an iTunes clone. Why, for example, is it not possible to export the music files that are present on my iPod (they are not present in the library) directly to a folder? Or am I missing something?
Best
-iTunes U
-Podcasts
-movies
(meaning i only want to music and playlists from iTunes into Songbird)
Thanks for any tips
Please explain to us how we can organize our music files, now that Media Management has been thrown under the bus! do we need to rename all the (thousands of) mp3 files and folders by hand?
My specific problem is that I am trying to import my Windows Music Library to a USB key and I don't see how to do it.