Nowadays, the device most people listen to music on is a smartphone, iPod or computer. What kind of music management software is best to use on these platforms is probably a question that most people will think about. The following moonlight blog will introduce some of my thoughts and practices in this regard.

For different hardware devices, the methods of music management will be different. Depending on the device, it can be divided into two categories: Apple and Android. For Android, music management software mainly includes several domestic online music management platforms, including NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, Baidu Music, etc. Among them, NetEase Cloud Music and Baidu Music provide network disks and support uploading local music to the cloud. This method of management through cloud music is relatively simple to operate. First, you need to export your local playlist to the cloud music platform. It is recommended to use the old version of Kugou Music to export playlists, which can be imported on various cloud platforms. You can then upload unmatched music to the music cloud drive, and then mark all music as "liked" so that you can download and play your own music on computers and mobile platforms.

For Apple, users of iPod Shuffle should have no choice but to use iTunes to manage it. Users using iPhone can manage it just like they would using Android or iTunes. Personally, I think Apple's best music software is its own iTunes software.

Why choose iTunes

For music management platforms, music platforms without export functions are not good platforms. Without export functionality, your music service is always at risk. You don't know when your music service provider is going to go out of business, or if the price of your service will increase tenfold next month. Because there is no export function, the huge migration cost forces you to accept the unpredictable services and functions of the music service provider.

Although domestic music platforms do not provide export functions, they basically support import functions. Then, a more ideal solution was born: use iTunes to manage local music, export iTunes music to various cloud music platforms, discover new music through these platforms, and then download the music to iTunes for management.

ITunes manages music and has strong personalization and customization functions. Its smart playlist is an artifact that can customize the playback content according to all the scenarios you imagine, record the number of times music is played and skipped, score, and export, and the music will not disappear inexplicably. With the old version of Kugou, you can also export self-built lists to NetEase Cloud Music and QQ Music.

Although iTunes supports export, the database it exports is currently not supported by domestic platforms. The import format supported by various domestic cloud music platforms is generally Kugou list. Currently, the latest version of Kugou does not support exporting lists, so you need to use an older version of Kugou.

Supplement and improvement of music information

The first step to use iTunes to manage music is to complete the complete information of the music, including music type, age, album pictures, etc. It is recommended to first use the cloud music platform to match local songs, and then download the music from the cloud platform to local coverage. The download format of 320kbps is fine. Headphones worth a few hundred dollars sound basically the same as lossless music.

After that, local music needs to be further sorted out to complete information such as album, artist, year, genre, etc. It is recommended to use the combination of Media Go Mp3tag to organize local music files and complete their music information such as tracks, ages, album covers, etc.

Media is a music management software produced by Sony. Sony Music, owned by Sony, has the world's largest music library and owns the copyrights to a large number of songs in the record market. With his software, very little album information should go undetected.

After the media installation is completed, double-click to enter. When you first enter, the software will automatically scan all music files, which will take a few minutes. You can cancel and add your own directory, then click "Media Library - Music" and then press Ctrl A to select all the song files, right click, and select "Get Missing Properties" to get various information about the music, and Autocomplete ID3 information and even track numbers. Selection

Mp3tag is a software that organizes music ID3 information in batches. You can sort according to different information of music, and you can also modify the information of multiple music files in batches, such as deleting comments and modifying music types in batches.

After adding the ID3 information, the file name can be standardized based on reliable ID3 information. In Mp3tag, select all music, right-click-Convert-Tag-File Name, and you can batch convert file names. It is recommended to use "artist-song title".

Use iTunes to manage music

Supplement complete song information. After adding album covers, you can import it into iTunes for management. Before importing, you need to select quotEditing Preferences Advancedquot, which includes quotCopy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to libraryquot.

This option is not selected primarily to facilitate exporting files, changing folders, and migrating computers. After selecting it, the music imported into iTunes will be modified by its directory structure, which is not conducive to future management.

If the previous iTunes has copied the music files to the iTunes Media folder, how can I transfer them to the specified directory? My method is to export the iTunes library as an XML file, then delete the music in iTunes, then replace the XML file with a text editor that supports regular expressions, replace the directory address of the specified address with a regular expression, and finally import the library XML from iTunes document.

Archived music uses a separate directory and does not create subdirectories. The folder where music is stored is set to the music type, and the naming rule for music files is "singer-song title".

After importing to iTunes, rate the music according to your own preferences. Then, you can use "Smart Playlist" to create various playlists.

quotSmart Playlist quot is an amazing feature. By using smart playlists, you can greatly increase your chances of hearing the songs you want to hear.

Use smart playlists to give full play to one's imagination and set different rules as filter conditions, for example: according to the chronological order of music, songs from 1980-1990 are classified as "80s songs" , and genre = "Soundtrack" is named "Golden Movie" and genre = "Rock" is named "Rock Song". Genre = quotPOP quot is named quot Pop Song quot. No plays. Has not been played in the past 30 days, and so on. Give full play to your imagination and you can create many interesting smart playlists.

ITunes playlist supports dynamic updates. Newly added songs can be automatically updated to the dynamic list, which is very convenient to use.

If you want to export this list to other platforms, you can first copy the music of the dynamic list, then organize the folders, filter out different temporary folders according to different rules, and then import the folders from Kugou. Then export it to Kugou list file, and then you can import these lists on other music platforms.

Discover new music

You will definitely get tired of listening to old songs all the time, so you need to find new music that you like. According to my experience, it takes a lot of time to find a piece of music that suits your taste.

For English songs, the most effective way is through Pandora, a website. Pandora discovers new songs through music genes. When the user specifies a favorite English song, Pandora will analyze the characteristics of the song, such as the arrangement of the song, the combination of instruments, the performance characteristics of the instruments, style, melody, melody characteristics and other dimensions. This analysis excludes emotional attributes and can find similar songs objectively and professionally. After my own testing, Pandora can usually find songs with similar tastes within 2 or 3 songs, which greatly reduces the cost for users to find music with the same taste. Unfortunately, this service can only be accessed by US proxy servers and it does not support Chinese songs.

As far as Chinese songs are concerned, there is currently no service similar to Pandora. Most music sites mainly rely on genre language tags and big data to make recommendation algorithms, which is actually inaccurate, so we can only spend more time making do. Currently, the main Chinese song recommendation platforms include Douban FM, Xiami Music, NetEase Cloud Music, QQ Music, Baidu Music, etc.

In addition, iTunes also supports plug-ins, the most useful of which is the Last.fm scrobbler plug-in, which is the world's largest social music platform. After using the Last.fm scrobbler plug-in, you can get recommended songs through Last.fm. It should be noted that the official plug-in under 64-bit iTunes has some problems, and you need to install a third-party patch to work properly under 64-bit iTunes.

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