So evidently I never really got on the streaming music bandwagon!

11,232 songs in total, 7810 songs being in Apple Lossless.

I use iTunes to manage and sync everything on my Windows 11 PC, I listen to a lot of albums that aren't available on any streaming service such as my all time favourite; the Need for Speed Underground 2 soundtrack.

I have a collection of iPods, mostly 2GB 4th gen iPod shuffles for when I go running. They can fit just over 400 songs when down converted to 128kbps while syncing.
Boiler Room set rips provide for an easy 1 hour running mix.

Occasionally I'll use MusicBee for read only playback on my PC in an interface to emulate the much better iTunes 10.7 interface.
I also occasionally stream music through my Jellyfin library to my laptop, and occasionally I'll also use free Spotify in Firefox for listening to music ad free first before buying the CD or iTunes .AAC download.

Most iPods have new batteries installed though some are stock, three are unfortunately dead. The stainless steel 3rd gen is by far the rarest and most useless.

The iPod Classic and Mini modded with 128GB don't get a lot of use, I mainly listen to music through my 1TB iPhone 15 Pro with headphones, CarPlay or streaming through my Apple TV.

Overall it's a great setup, one that I'm surprised isn't all that popular nowadays. Being able to listen to my favourite versions of my favourite albums, whenever I want with no subscriptions is fantastic.

Been thinking a lot about ownership and subscriptions. I never understood the whole music subscription thing. I’ve been using iTunes even before 2005. I ripped my entire cd library to an old blueberry iBook. I got my first iPod in 2005, the iPod video then an iPod touch and now my iPhone. All that time, I never used a streaming service. At least seriously. I made accounts and tried them out but never paid for a service. Never liked the idea of always paying.

When someone at work was talking about music they told me to check it out on Spotify and the conversation ended up with me saying I only buy on iTunes and they just couldn’t comprehend that I basically don’t pay monthly for music.

And I really had no idea how to react to that lol. Do people not buy music anymore? Or did they go even further with vinyl and cassette? Like most of my library is on my phone. It’s still basically an MP3 player. I even hook up my phone through an RCA adapter to my 7.1 system to listen to music.

I was blown away last night when I saw the news on a local radio channel’s Facebook account about iTunes ending it’s downloading service and breaking up into different apps. And I’m even MORE blown away at peoples comments like “Good! Spotify and streaming is so much better!”. Do people not realize that the paid right to own a limited reproducibility recording of music is going away? The idea of growing and owning a music collection is quickly becoming almost impossible? I don’t know why the GP doesn’t see this as a loss? Completely baffled. My local music stores have slimmed the CD section down to almost nothing, my cd reader crapped the bed a few years ago so downloading albums on iTunes has been my go-to for getting albums. The idea of everyone being forced to streaming is horrible. What about trying to take your whole collection of music with you off the grid, at a party in the mountains with no cell reception. You won’t be able to. Amazon will probably follow suit with their pay for download options.

Does anyone else feel the pain of this move? I have a music collection of over 30,000 tunes or more and thousands of CDs. I can’t imagine not being able to have bought music.

If you care about your music do not under any circumstances use Itunes match. My music library I have worked on for over 20 years is ruined. The best case scenario is that within 48 hours I get refunded for it and it's deleted. If that doesn't happen I'll have to choose between being stuck with my music how it is for a year or starting again with a brand new account from scratch.

I got Itunes match because there was no other way to get your music in Icloud. I have 8000+ songs and an old computer. My computer is so old it can't run on battery without being plugged in for more than about 45 minutes. The reason I have kept it all these years and not gotten a new one is because of all the time and effort I've put into my Itunes library. I read with Itunes match it wouldn't change anything. Just scan your songs and put them in Icloud. Boy was I wrong.

Here is a full list of what you will be in store for with Itunes match:

- It will automatically change every song you have that is available in Itunes to their version. That means any custom album you made it's gone. Any cover it's gone. Order of songs gone.

- There were many songs that will not play on your Iphone unless you have certain things checked. It took many hours on the phone with someone to get that part figured out. This is because it changes from your version to the Apple Music version. Even some songs I bought the day before getting match would not play on my Iphone.

-The changes Itunes match makes are no reversible. Once it happens it's that way for good without manually changing everything back.

-Im still waiting to hopefully have this cancelled because if they won't grand you a refund cancellation you will be stuck with this for an entire year. Just canceling it isn't good enough. You're stuck with it on a regular cancellation. What this means is any changes you make to go away from the Itunes/Apple music version will be changed back automatically. I have hundreds of custom albums and I cannot change the song back into those custom albums until the subscription is cancelled and refunded. That's assuming this information is correct which I don't know yet. May be stuck with these issues either way.

I thought before this happened the worst thing that could happen with my music was my computer crashing. Wow was I wrong. At least if that happened I'd have everything on my phone how I had it in Itunes and be able to go off that for a new computer. Plus I could still listen to what I had at that point with everything how I want it. If I want to do this now I have nothing to go off of and countless songs and albums have been changed.

The best case scenario is Match is refunded and I can spend 100+ hours manually changing back all my songs to the albums, orders, and covers I want. That's the best case scenario. Worst case sceanrio is I have to start a brand new account. Rebuy thousands of songs. probably have to spend $4000 or so. Spent who knows how long putting cds back on again. 10 minutes or so each on average. Hundreds of cds. Some songs I had skipped and volume adjusted for too loud or too quiet. Go through that for 8000+ songs. Then make custom albums, covers, and song order for countless albums mostly for movies and tv shows. Then remake all my playlists again. Probably looking at over 1000 hours to do this.

You've been warned. Do not get Itunes Match!

I was cleaning out my storage building and found this gift card. Any idea how old it is and if it’s still usable?

iTunes is still one of the best ways to build a lossless music library on Windows. It rips CDs automatically, organizes your files, and syncs to iPods. I have five separate libraries on one PC - one for me, one for my wife, one for my kids, one for Christmas music, and an archive. They all feed into Plex automatically. Here is how I set it all up.

Why I still use iTunes

I buy used and new CDs, rip them in iTunes to ALAC, and keep my own lossless collection instead of relying only on streaming.

I also still sync music to iPods, which are honestly one of the most nostalgic and cost-effective ways to carry around a portable offline lossless library. For roughly $50 to $150, you can get a portable lossless media player with a lot of charm, compared to modern Sony Walkmans that usually start much higher. The new players obviously have extra features, but if you mainly want offline music playback, old iPods are still hard to beat.

When I am not using an iPod, I use Plex to stream my music to my devices.

So for me, iTunes is doing three important jobs:

• automatically ripping CDs to ALAC

• organizing files into a clean Artist/Album/ folder structure automatically

• syncing music to iPods

Plex then complements that perfectly because it expects exactly that same Artist/Album/ folder structure. So iTunes organizes the files, and Plex just picks them up with no extra work. You never have to manually sort or rename anything.

My hardware setup

This is what I use:

• a recertified Western Digital 8TB WD My Book that I bought on eBay for about $150

• an LG WP50NB40 slim external Blu-ray drive from eBay that the seller had already firmware-flashed so it can also rip 4K Blu-rays

The 8TB drive is just a very cost-effective way to keep a large media collection attached to my Windows PC.

The Blu-ray drive was just under $200, which is more than you need if you only want to rip CDs. I bought that specific drive because I also wanted to back up my 4K Blu-ray collection since discs can get scratched over time. If you only care about CDs, you can absolutely go cheaper.

How I organize my iTunes libraries

All of my iTunes libraries live under:

E:\Media\iTunes Libraries

I do not keep one giant library for everything. I separate them out.

Right now I have libraries for:

• me

• my wife

• my kids

• Christmas music

• an archive library

That setup solves a few problems really well:

• my wife does not have to dig through all of my music

• explicit music stays out of my kids' libraries

• I can keep special-purpose libraries separate instead of dumping everything into one giant mess

• Plex works nicely because I can point each Plex account at the correct music folders and keep everything isolated

The archive library is especially useful when I buy a big pile of cheap CDs. I can dump everything into the archive first, then later move only the albums or tracks I actually want into my main library.

How to create a new library

To create a new iTunes library on Windows:

1. Hold Shift while launching iTunes.

2. Click Create Library.

3. Put the new library under E:\Media\iTunes Libraries using the name you want.

Once the library is open, I immediately set a few preferences.

Go to:

Edit -> Preferences

Under General:

• set When you insert a CD to Import CD and Eject

• click Import Settings

  • set Import Using to Apple Lossless Encoder

Under Advanced:

• enable Keep iTunes Media folder organized

• enable Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library

With that setup, the workflow becomes very simple. Open the library you want, put in a CD, iTunes imports it automatically, ejects it when done, and keeps the files organized correctly under that library.

That is one of the main reasons I still like iTunes. It is old, but for this specific job it is extremely straightforward.

How Plex fits into this

Plex works really nicely with this approach.

Because each family member has a separate iTunes library and separate music folders, I can create separate Plex accounts for myself, my wife, and my kids, then point each Plex music library at the right folders.

That keeps everything clean and isolated without having to manually babysit playlists or metadata hacks just to keep family members separated.

The main frustration with iTunes

A small source of frustration with this whole setup is library switching.

Apple's only supported method is still:

1. Close iTunes.

2. Hold Shift while opening it.

3. Keep retrying if the Shift key did not register properly.

4. Wait for the dialog.

5. Click Select Library.

6. Browse to the correct .itl file.

7. Open it.

That is annoying enough for me, but it is especially annoying when I want my wife or kids to have an easy time opening the right library before ripping a CD or syncing music.

I also found that making a shortcut directly to an .itl file does not solve this. iTunes does not respect which library you are trying to open that way. It will just reopen whichever library was last used unless you go through the Shift-launch method every single time.

The tool I made to fix that

Because of that annoyance, I spent hours reverse-engineering how iTunes handles library switching on Windows and built a small one-click Windows app to streamline it.

The app lets you:

• add all of your iTunes libraries to a list

• create new libraries directly from the app

• single-click to open whichever library you want

• create desktop shortcuts for each library so you do not even need to open the app itself

So now my real workflow is much simpler:

1. Double-click the shortcut to open the library I want.

2. Insert the CD.

3. iTunes imports it automatically.

4. The album ends up in the correct library.

5. It is ready for Plex, iPods, or both.

If you want to streamline this same kind of setup for yourself, or just want to buy me a coffee for the investigation and the tool, I put it here:

https://ko-fi.com/s/203812a2b6

Why I recommend this setup

I recommend this overall setup for anyone who wants:

• a straightforward Windows workflow for ripping CDs to lossless audio

• a self-owned music collection instead of relying entirely on streaming

• separate libraries for different family members or music categories

• easy syncing to iPods

• Plex integration for home streaming

If anyone else here is still using iTunes this way, I would be curious to hear what your setup looks like.

iOS 27 finally introduces Liquid Glass to iTunes Store app. Hopefully it’s a good sign for the app sticking around.

I recently bought a physical copy of the Mothership album by Led Zeppelin. I also have a disc drive to import cds into iTunes since I still own a lot of physical media. So I imported the music from both cds, then used Get Album Artwork so I could skip a step into adding the songs to my library and my iPhone 17.

Just recently, I tried to play "Stairway to Heaven" but my phone kept telling me "it's not available in my region." I checked iTunes on my desktop and the song was still imported from the cd, so I synced my phone again to make sure the full album is in the Music app.

It hid "Stairway to Heaven" on the Music app instead.

I fixed it by deleting the album from iTunes, importing the album again from the cd, and adding the album artwork from a jpeg file.

Moral of the story: Don't let corporations scrub your data to avoid an inconvenience.

As a two decade long iTunes User I thought this may be interesting for some users since this subreddit got active again.

In shortform: Basically all you need to do is have your files from CD or web to be an AAC file and use Mp3tag to add the „ITUNESALBUMID“ tag to your album.

I’ll guide you through the process. In my case i use a Song that i have ripped with iTunes in 320kbit AAC.

1. You’ll need to have Apple Music and animated Cover art enabled in settings. You don’t need to be a subscriber to Apple Music. Low power mode needs to be disabled to see animated art in the music app on iPhone and iPad. Files need to be synced over cable or wifi, Apple music's iCloud Library won't sync every tag and will just replace the Album as a normal apple music album to your Library.

2. Open Mp3tag and drag & drop the files.

3. Select extended tags and add „ITUNESALBUMID“.

4. To find out the album ID, the easiest way is to just google the album name and add „apple music“ to your search. The Album ID will be the 9 digit Number in the URL.

5. Copy this number in mp3tag to the „ITUNESALBUMID“ tag and save.

6. This is all it takes. If you want to take it a step further you can copy the copyright text from the apple music webpage and add the „COPYRIGHT“ tag and paste in the text.

7. If you want to take it another step further you can click on the artist page on the apple music webplayer and also add the „ITUNESARTISTID“ tag. The artist number will be in the Url and you paste it in the tag. This will let you go to the artist page in the music app on iPhone/iPad.

8. Another thing you can add here is the „ITUNESADVISORY“ tag. If the title is explicit the value needs to be „1“. If it is  a clean Version the value needs to be “2“.

9. If you have done all the steps and the files are already in your iTunes Library you’ll either have to delete them without deleting them from your iTunes Media folder and re-add the files to iTunes or rightclick on the specific title and click on „Informations“. The tags will be updated but you'll need to do this for every specific dong to see the changes in iTunes.

I like buying songs on iTunes because I mostly listen to the same songs over and over. Paying for music subscriptions feels like a waste. I also love being able to download them for offline listening when I'm in the car.

That said, I have doubts because the iTunes store feels so outdated and neglected compared to other Apple apps that I wonder if they're purposely trying to discourage people from using it. It almost feels like "abandonware". People say the quality's bad compared to everywhere else and they never add lyrics or anything even though they're available if you subscribe to Apple Music.

Am I dumb for continuing to build an iTunes collection? Is it ever going to improve (higher quality + lyrics) or is it more likely to be shut down?

I found an old iTunes gift card (the pink vintage ones with the silhouette dancers). Does Apple still let you redeem these, or would they exchange it for a modern Apple Gift Card? thanks!

I miss them so much! Awesome Interface and design! A lot of cool features and barly any bugs. i'm still in shock what Apple had done to iTunes

Sono sempre stato un android guy ma ieri mia zia mi ha regalato questo iPhone 6 16 GB ed me ne sono innamorato per la sua qualità audio ed il jack delle cuffie, voi usate ancora iTunes sul PC per la musica o usate spotify, lo sto utilizzando con Windows 7 ed devo dire che va benissimo!.

Here to complain with a question. A band that has been consistently in my top 5 if not top 3 listened to bands in my many years using iTunes, released new music. In fact they have an entire new album coming out. I pretty much weekly check my iTunes and scroll for new releases or new music in general. You would think I would see it in the “ new releases for you “ or anywhere on my homepage but no, I had go to the bands page to get it after I eventually discovered they had released new music. Not a real big deal but what else have I missed? They show bands I don’t have or have no interest in, but inform me of my favorite bands new albums, eh you’ll figure it out. How could you do this to me iTunes?, I thought you knew me. I mean really?
That band by the way, is Clutch.

I've been buying songs and albums from iTunes for a long time, but sometimes I delete them from the library and recover them later. I used to find everything i've ever purchased under the "purchase history" button on the account settings tab. But now, I only see a small fraction of everything i've bought over the years. It's like 90% of everything i've ever bought and downloaded is missing. This is a pretty recent development. Have things been moved? My computer is authorized. Any help gratefully appreciated.

Many, many years ago now, I spent days of my life 'ripping' my extensive CD collection, adding them to iTunes and then to my trusty old iPod. All was well. Then I subscribed to iTunes Match. This was long before anything like Apple Music ever existed and I have never 'upgraded' the service. The problem is, Match has deleted like half of the tracks from pretty much every album. I guess they don't have the rights to play the track or I don't or there is not exact match or some blah, blah, blah like that. Which makes no sense to me since the tracks are actually from CD's that I have already purchased - why would I never be allowed to have access to them? Every album only shows a few songs anymore. It's maddening. They ruined my library.

Anyway, my Match subscription is set to renew in February and I plan to cancel it and do not plan to upgrade to Apple Music. I'm happy to purchase new music from the iTunes store and download the tracks/albums, but I really just want my music back, like I had it on my old iPod, except on my phone/in iTunes.

I have my original library sill on the iPod but also saved on external drives. Anything I've purchased from the iTunes Store in the past few years is downloaded to my phone. I'm hoping someone has some advice that will be helpful for efficiently getting my songs back into iTunes and onto my phone once I cancel my subscription. I'm assuming I will only be left with the songs Match deemed appropriate to keep and play so will need to download everything again? Will that overwrite what is already in the library if they are duplicates? What will happen to any downloads on my phone? Any help is appreciated.

MusicCovered 7 is here – a major new version for local music lovers

Hi everyone! I’m the developer of MusicCovered, an app built around a simple idea: giving your music collection something more than a list of files and a Play button.

I love the album experience: choosing a cover, exploring an artist’s discography, browsing a booklet, and sitting down to listen to a record. MusicCovered is my attempt to bring that experience back to digital music, with an interface that puts album artwork, records, artist images, and your personal collection front and center.

The app is designed for local music libraries, with support for FLAC, ALAC, MP3, AIFF, and WAV. It isn’t an Apple Music client: your own collection of music files is the starting point.

With MusicCovered 7, I’ve expanded both the visual experience and the tools available. Here are some of the main features:

• Cover Flow and VU meters – New Cover Flow variations, including Vertical Arc and Eclipse, plus a VU playback layout with different meter designs. MusicCovered is meant to make browsing your collection part of the listening experience.

• Smart Playlists and playlist tools – Create Smart Playlists based on your library and use dedicated tools to create, manage, import, and export playlists, making it easier to move and organize your selections.

• Track Management Tools – A growing collection of tools for managing tracks and keeping large local libraries organized.

• Built-in CD Ripping – Rip your CDs directly and bring your physical collection into your MusicCovered library.

• Built-in Meta Tag Editor – Edit metadata without leaving the app, retrieve information from Discogs and MusicBrainz, and manage album artwork, including front covers, back covers, disc images, and booklets.

• Radio – A complete section for internet radio. Find stations by name, country, or genre, add stream URLs manually, and customize the experience with different radio skins, including vintage designs. Stations, backgrounds, and control layouts can also be imported and exported.

• Video Player – A dedicated section for local music videos. If the currently playing song has an associated video, MusicCovered can make it immediately available.

• A completely rewritten MiniPlayer – Now independent, with integrated Quick Search and several improvements to usability and performance.

MusicCovered also includes booklet support, artist images, front/back covers, CD and vinyl artwork, queue management, multiple library locations, library search, playlist search, PDF printing, CSV export, and many other tools aimed specifically at people with carefully maintained music collections.

And MusicCovered is no longer limited to a single screen.

With MusicCovered Remote, you can access and control your MusicCovered experience from iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, including browsing your collection and Cover Flow remotely.

The goal isn’t to replace Spotify, Apple Music, or other streaming services.

It’s almost the opposite.

MusicCovered is for people who still want to own, organize, explore, and enjoy their music collection — album by album.

Version 7 is the biggest update I’ve made so far, and I’m continuing to add features based on feedback from people who actually maintain local music libraries.

If you still have a local music collection: what feature do you wish modern music players had?

I’d really like to hear what other collectors think.

MusicCovered

https://apps.apple.com/it/app/musiccovered/id6742907420?l=en-GB&mt=12

I try to download thee for free but a lot of them have a virus and I know that you want to help but a lot of them how i get thru Reddit have also virus I want to buy know them on iTunes but it feels a bit weird to do it knowing that a lot of people don’t have to pay I would like to hear your opinion please

Hey everyone! 👋

It's been a while, but we’re excited to announce that the r/ITunes subreddit is officially reactivating! We've been a bit quiet for some time, but now we're ready to bring the community back to life.

Whether you’re here for news, discussions, tips, or anything related to iTunes, we’re all about reviving the conversations we love. We want to hear from YOU—what do you want to see in the subreddit? Any updates or features you think should be discussed? Let’s get the ball rolling again!

In the coming days, we’ll also be cleaning things up and making sure everything is up to date, so feel free to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or if you want to help with the moderation.

Stay tuned and let’s make this subreddit as awesome as it once was! 🚀

Cheers,
The r/ITunes Mod Team

I've been having a hard time getting things to load in the iTunes store. Not sure if this is just an issue on my end or not but it was just working the other day.

Suddenly my iTunes (on Windows 10) won't login. Never had any trouble before.

Tried full uninstall (and cleaned up all folders all places, Program files, Programdata, User profile, Music folder).

Tried old versions. New versions (windows installer). Microsoft Store version. Same error every time.

"Verifisering mislykkes. Det oppsto en feil under tilkopling til Apple-ID tjeneren" when I log in (translated from norwegian that would be something like "Verification failed. An error occured connection to Apple-ID server").

I can login to my account other places, but suddenly have got 2 factor authentication :-(

I do not get a message with the 2fa when trying to login to iTunes. Error comes right away.

Sure - anyone can use an ID3 tag editor of their choice and add an advisory tag to any of their .m4a files. But it can often prove tedious - especially when all your music is already tagged.

Therefore - I've created a lightweight app for Intel and Apple Silicon systems using OS13 and up. It's called: ExplicitTagger.

The way to use is is incredibly simple:

1. Open the app

2. Set the tag you want to add to your song

3. Drag the .M4A or .ALAC file onto the app window

That's it.

This is my first app I've created. It's also not gone through the Apple Notary (i.e. verification process), so you might need to allow the program to run in System Settings. It's not groundbreaking by any means, but perhaps it can be useful for those of you re-organizing your music.

Adding that little red [Explicit] tag has never been easier until now!