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General discussion

Best Music Library?

Mar 28, 2010 7:39AM PDT

I have a large (30k+) music library, and I like to browse my music. But I'm really sick of the iTunes style layout, where every single track is displayed with one long scroll bar.

I used to use a program called MusicMatch where I could display only the artist, and then expand all of that artist's songs in the main browser. In fact, I could do this with just the arrow keys (up & down, and then left & right to expand & collapse, like in Windows Explorer) and Enter to add a song to my playlist. Sadly, MusicMatch got bought by Yahoo, neutered, and then ignored.

I've looked at TONS of different music programs, including WinAMP and Songbird and so many others, but I can't find anything that lets me actually browse my music.

Can anybody help?
(p.s.: I am also open to suggestions for plugins that would allow me to get the library style I'm looking for)

Discussion is locked

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Try looking for another term
Mar 28, 2010 9:10PM PDT

Library may not be the right term.

Try looking for Catalog utilities. I can't help you specifically as I was asked to create a catalog of a friend's music library, and in the end had to resort to a spreadsheet file, but it was less than satisfactory.

Mark

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Music Libraries
Mar 7, 2012 2:52AM PST

The previous commenter was completely right.
Music library is the wrong term.

Music libraries are what artists upload their songs to in order to get song placements in commercials, film, video games, TV shows, etc.

Your best bet is to just organize your music into playlists under itunes.

I can understand how much work that would be with such a big volume of music.
There's probably a way to do that in itunes.
I'm not sure, because every version seems to be different
and I don't download music so I never really use itunes for anything other than burning my albums, checking my masters, and converting wavs to mp3's.

I would check under your preferences if I were you,
but you've probably already figured this out since you made this thread in 2010.
Good luck anyways.
I hope you resolved your problem.

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Re: Best Music Library?
Mar 8, 2012 2:44AM PST

If you're looking for a good guide on how to find the right music library for your needs (as in production music), they have a good explanation as to how different music libraries work over at http://www.platinummusic.co.uk/music%20libraries%20explained.html but I suspect as the previous posters state you are referring to organising your personal music collection.

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Music Libraries
Mar 8, 2012 8:34PM PST

Thanks for the resource neilgarside.
You can never have to many resources on music libraries.

I'm going to add that you should never do business with any song placement agencies that ask you to send them a check or money in general.
That's important and I should have mentioned it.

Pretty much any company that asks you for money is a scam.
Music libraries take a percentage of your licensing fees and sometimes your royalties depending on the company. You'll also have to pass intense reviews in order to get accepted.

There are exclusive and non-exclusive music libraries as well.
Exclusive basically means that you can't upload your songs to any other music libraries and non-exclusive allows you to use your music wherever you see fit.

That's only the tip of the iceberg though.

I would suggest to use the link that the previous commenter posted to understand this complex industry before getting into it.
There used to be a great site for getting ratings on the various music libraries called musiclibraryreport.com but now you have to pay to even see their content so I'm glad that neilgarside mentioned that site.