If you are someone like me who likes spending less time scrolling or searching and more time listening to the tracks in iTunes library then, get it organized in the first place. The bigger your iTunes library is, the harder it is to keep it structured. However, with a few simple tips, you can playfully manage this task. In today’s column, I enlist iTunes Music Library Tips.
iTunes Music Library Tips for Better Listening
You can change the way you view and play your iTunes content. Here’s how!
Hide Sidebar in iTunes
When you launch iTunes and play a track from your iTunes Library, the sidebar becomes visible readily. It displays different sections. If you would like to hide this from your view, you can choose to hide the sidebar. For this,
Choose ‘View’ and from the list of options displayed, select ‘Hide Sidebar’.
Please note that when you do this, you can’t access your playlists.
Use the Column browser to browse your Music Library
You can use the Column browser to quickly find a song from the Music Library. By default, your music is categorized into five categories — Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres and Downloaded.
All the above are grouped into dedicated columns. You select an item in each column and find that the list automatically narrows down to matching songs. To check this,
1] Choose Music from the pop-up menu at the top left, select ‘Library’.
2] Next, choose ‘Songs’ from the sidebar and switch to ‘View’ tab.
3] Click the ‘View’ tab and select ‘Column Browser’ > ‘Show Column Browser’.
4] Now, choose the columns you would like to display. To use the column browser, select options in as many columns as you’d like.
As you select options, songs that match your selections will get displayed.
Switching to iTunes MiniPlayer
As the name suggests, iTunes player can be morphed into MiniPlayer, occupying very little space on your screen. You can still adjust the volume, search for songs and do other things.
When you hover the mouse cursor over the player, the artwork, controls appear. To shrink iTunes player to the MiniPlayer screen, choose ‘View’ > Switch to MiniPlayer.
Consolidate iTunes Library
Instead of keeping songs at different locations, it makes sense to bring all of your media into the iTunes Media folder. This will make it easy to find related content, and also faster search result. You can also back them to external hard drive, and restore later quickly.
- Launch iTunes.
- Open “File > Library > Organize Library”.
- Check the box next to “Consolidate files” and click on the “OK” button.
- Next, iTunes will copy all the file which are not in iTunes folder here.
Thus, with these simple tips at hand, you can manage your music files. It can make a big difference in how easy you make it find and keep track of them.
