# Hello from London HOW TO START A DIGITAL CLASSICAL WALLET



## Aranoidactaly (Oct 27, 2017)

Hello my name is John from London and I am an amateur pianist 

I would love to hear from members who might put in the right direction 

I would like to build a digital library so it is portable like on my iPad, phone , memory USB stick so where ever I go I can carry it around 

I would love to commit to a software , platform so it will be stable and expandable for the next 10 years 

Any input would be appreciated 

I am not a computer expert but I can manage most task with time and patience 

Thank you in advance 

I would prefer to stay on the apple platform 

iTunes doesn’t not seem to be very classical music friendly 

Ok I admit I don’t fancy sitting for hours ripping CD ‘s that I own 

I don’t mind paying so there must be a easier way


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Welcome to the site.

Some of this has come up before. See

Ripping A CD Collection

Keeping MP3 Tags/Metadata Consistent

A little trick organizing files

iPod/iTunes tagging problem

How to transfer iPod files to iPod/Computer/iTunes (Windows/Mac)

Lots of people on here have expertise.


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## Aranoidactaly (Oct 27, 2017)

Thank you s much 
I have come across the above but what I really want is hear from somebody who has done something similar and can suggest the most efficient way 
I have been down the iTunes direction but I find choices limited in terms of artist and also transferring to non apple platform troublesome 

Thanks BTW


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Try using Clementine (it's cross-platform, so also for an Apple platform) and it is somewhat like a magic parallel universe with an iTunes before it went all stupid.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Since you're already using iTunes, have you tried Stan Brown's system for classical music? I find it works incredibly well:

http://oakroadsystems.com/genl/itunes.htm

(Though I do not swap the artist and composer fields as he suggests--it works better for my needs to keep them as is plus I don't need to remember to swap them). I've occasionally looked at other systems, and found they don't have anything comparable to iTunes' Smart Playlists, which I live by.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Aranoidactaly said:


> Hello my name is John from London and I am an amateur pianist
> 
> I would love to hear from members who might put in the right direction
> 
> ...





Aranoidactaly said:


> Thank you s much
> I have come across the above but what I really want is hear from somebody who has done something similar and can suggest the most efficient way
> I have been down the iTunes direction but I find choices limited in terms of artist and also transferring to non apple platform troublesome
> 
> Thanks BTW


Several questions:

You say you don't fancy sitting for hours ripping CD's you own. From where do you expect to get your music? Is streaming an option?

In your first post you say that you would like to stay on the Apple platform, but in the second you say you don't like iTunes because (in part) you find that transferring to a non-Apple platform is troublesome. Which parts of the Apple platform do you want to use (Mac?/iDevice?/iTunes?).

To my knowledge iDevice storage (other than on classic iPods) is encrypted, and that reduces the number of options for transferring music to them.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Why do people really bother with things like iTunes? Or even imagine they do work you then don't have to do? The thing is bloated and unusable anyway and none of them - including the replacement I suggested - organise libraries automatically in the way you might want them.

I run Clementine (though less often these days) linked to the library of digital files on my computer and also with access to online storage. The thing is it's really not that difficult for me to just open the folders where the music is and manually load the playlists into a player with a few clicks. No need to open a programme and fool around. Those libraries were compiled by me in any case, according to my listening tastes, so _I_ did the work.

It's like marvelling at an auto-reverse cassette deck, when in fact unless you record and place the cassette in that deck and engage play, nothing happens. Turning the cassette to the other side was such a chore! It's soup from a rusty nail. A con.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

eugeneonagain said:


> Why do people really bother with things like iTunes? Or even imagine they do work you then don't have to do? The thing is bloated and unusable anyway and none of them - including the replacement I suggested - organise libraries automatically in the way you might want them.
> 
> I run Clementine (though less often these days) linked to the library of digital files on my computer and also with access to online storage. The thing is it's really not that difficult for me to just open the folders where the music is and manually load the playlists into a player with a few clicks. No need to open a programme and fool around. Those libraries were compiled by me in any case, according to my listening tastes, so _I_ did the work.
> 
> It's like marvelling at an auto-reverse cassette deck, when in fact unless you record and place the cassette in that deck and engage play, nothing happens. Turning the cassette to the other side was such a chore! It's soup from a rusty nail. A con.


I don't believe that the OP can copy music from the filing system (maybe an Apple OS filing system - I'm a Windows guy) to an iPad, as per the example in the original question. If the user switched to a non-Apple player, that might be possible.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

jegreenwood said:


> I don't believe that the OP can copy music from the filing system (maybe an Apple OS filing system - I'm a Windows guy) to an iPad, as per the example in the original question. If the user switched to a non-Apple player, that might be possible.


It would be, but aren't all Apple devices supported by iTunes anyway? It's the old problem of locked-in devices and this is my very point: why bother with a system that wants to direct your behaviour?

There are many ways to buy mp3/flac files outside of iTunes, all of which you can then use in any way you see fit on many devices. The problem is people have become too accustomed to this iTunes system as though it is _the_ standard way to encounter and listen to music and then you are snared. It's ridiculous.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

eugeneonagain said:


> It would be, but aren't all Apple devices supported by iTunes anyway? It's the old problem of locked-in devices and this is my very point: why bother with a system that wants to direct your behaviour?
> 
> There are many ways to buy mp3/flac files outside of iTunes, all of which you can then use in any way you see fit on many devices. The problem is people have become too accustomed to this iTunes system as though it is _the_ standard way to encounter and listen to music and then you are snared. It's ridiculous.


The only thing I use iTunes for is to copy music to my iDevices. For ripping, tagging, computer-based playback etc. I use Squeezebox and JRiver. I haven't bought music from iTunes in years (as 99.99% of my computer-based library is CD Quality or better). If I knew of a simple way to copy files from my computer to my iDevices (and manage them once there) other than iTunes, I wouldn't use iTunes at all.


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

This website lets you create classical works lists and share them https://classicalmusiconly.com/


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