Jan 02 2009
iTunes Optimization
There were actually two benefits that came out of my music drive going to sh*t.
The first was finally weeding out some old duplicate tracks that I had been carrying around. Back in 2002, when I was deployed, I copied about 5 CDs of MP3s off of a shared music server on base. Most of the tracks had poor tags (missing track names, album names, etc.) and over the years, I acquired many of the tracks through legitimate means. The record companies can rest assured that my music collection has quite a few less pirated tracks.
The second benefit was being able to redo my main playlist. I like to use the party shuffle feature when I’m working (like now) and I use a playlist to narrow down the library to just the tracks I want to hear. Right now, the playlist of 1671 tracks out of 5792 total. But I’m wondering if there is a way to optimize this further.
I use a “top 50″ playlist on my running iPod, and I want to try and keep it as accurate as possible. The problem is that I still have duplicate tracks in my library. Some are songs that are on more than one album, but most are live tracks that I also have a studio version of. I’m wondering if there is a way to program iTunes to combine the play counts of all of the related tracks and put the most played of the duplicates into my Top 50.
For example, I have three copies of Everlong by the Foo Fighters. Two are studio tracks (from the original The Colour And The Shape and the re-released extended 10th anniversary edition) and one is a live version off of Skin and Bones. If I play all three on a regular basis, say Sudio Version 1 - 10 times, Studio Version 2 - 12 times, and Live Version - 8 times, how can I get just Studio Version 2 in my Top 50 with a total play count of 20?
I’m sure I can find a way to exclude duplicates from the Top 50, but that would not help if track 50 was played 15 times. Then all three versions of Everlong would be excluded for bieing under 15 plays individually.
I’ll do some searching tomorrow and see what I can find. If anyone has some ideas, post them below.
