2012 Project #1: iTunes Clean Up

I have wanted to tackle consolidating and improving our music collection for some time.  It was low of the list of priorities in 2011, but I finally got a chance to dig into this effort (I love having a projects focus at the beginning of the year).  I tried out some new software to help achieve a clean, combined, safe iTunes library along the way, so I wanted to share my approach in case anyone else has a similar to-do.   

1. Consolidate Songs 
John and I both had separate iTunes libraries for a long time.  The first thing I did was dump all of the music into one library, which was located on a shared hard drive (so we can both access it from any computer in the house).  This is a little harder than it seems, because the songs are purchased from multiple user IDs.  We had to authorize each other's computers to ensure seamless sharing.  We have a library of about 5000 songs at this time. 

2. Import Songs from CDs 
When we moved last year, I found a bunch of old CDs (high-school era!).  These were songs not in the library yet, so I went through the process of importing all of these CDs into iTunes.  This is a time consuming process, but I consider it well worth it in order to have all of our music in 1 location, so we can use it all. 

3. Import Songs from iPod 
Over the years and across multiple computers,  I've ended up with songs only on my iPod.  Apple does not give you the option of importing music from iPods back onto computers, unfortunately.  So I found a little tool to help me do so: iRip. iRip was very handy in copying the music from my iPod to my iTunes library.  Well worth the $20 software fee to access hundreds of dollars worth of music. 

4. Clean Up the Library 
I have to admit that this step was the result of a lot of downloaded music (pre-iTunes days).  We had a LOT of songs that had the information wrong (such as no artist, the artist listed in the title of the song, no album, etc).  We also had a lot of duplicates.  I read high reviews of a program called TuneUp, which allows you to 1) update data, 2) add cover art and 3) robustly scan for duplicates.  The clean portion of the tool (#1) saved me so much time of manually scrubbing our library.  This was the most valuable.  Once the songs were cleaned, iTunes duplicate check feature worked pretty well.  The cover art is a nice-to-have feature - it adds some color to the otherwise pretty boring iTunes music list. 

5. Back Up the Library 
Finding a suitable backup solution for our library was a key part of getting organized.  I wanted to ensure that all of the work I put into the library was saved, plus that we would have access to the songs if something happened to the hard drive where iTunes lives.  There are a lot of complicated solutions that tie to our overall backup strategy (which I will cover on another day - that has been another project I've been really focused on), but in the end, I went with a multi-prong approach (my goal is to have at least 2 unique backup solutions for all of our data). 

• iTunes match. iTunes match is really about syncing data across multiple devices.  But it also creates a backup solution by matching all of your songs to iTunes database and saving them in iCloud.  We get the added bonuses of accessing our entire library (including songs not purchased through iTunes) on our iPhones and iPad and upgrading the quality of the songs to Apple's standard. 
• Off-site hard drive with a copy of our current library.  I keep a hard drive at work with a copy of today's library.  The existing songs will not change and they are safe if there is a break in, fire or our hard drive at home goes bad. 
• iCloud.  iCloud now backs up all songs you buy through iTunes.  Therefore, all additions to our library going forward will be covered by Apple (since we buy all of our music through iTunes at this point).  This is helpful, so I don't have to keep updating the off-site hard drive. 
• Coming soon - I'd like to also upload our data to an off-site backup solution.  This will take at least a few weeks to do over the internet for the size of our library, so this is a future enhancement.  In the meantime, with the cloud solution of iTunes match, I'm satisfied that our songs will remain safe. 

Whew!  iTunes is in tip-top shape for us now (I'd like to think!).  It was a lot of steps to get there and it took about 2 weeks of effort.  But I feel like we have a sustainable approach going forward, given our library will only grow.