Importing music form Cd's directly into a playlist...

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Importing music form Cd's directly into a playlist...

Cab anyone please advis em if it is possible to import music form Cd's directly into an iTunes playlist? So that on arriving in that 'previously created playlist'on arival there all relvant detail is shown. Including artis and album info dor each track. To date each time I try to import the full list of he tracks us shown, but often kisted as track 1, track 2 etc. etc. Which then requires that I am thenb obliged to do a lot of work referring to the CD cover itself in order to transfer that inmfomation, by typing, into iTunes. Having then compleetd all this info, on trying to then craete a playlist, all the previous inofo I had just typed had completrely vanished fromsight. I was then left with the entire music LIBRARY listing where each imported track was lsited but not with the info I had just typed; but only by the track numer: track 1, track 3, etc etc. again. I the had to crweate a playlist, the transfer each song one at a time into the tha playlist. By the time I had finished I no loher wanted to hear the music. I was way topo tired and needed a rest.

There must be a beter way of doing al this. Please advise. Apologise fo rmy ignorance, I am 80 yers of age and no expert in thsi technology. Thanks

Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jan 10, 2008 9:26 AM

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Answer 1

Zevoneer

Level 9

52,705 points

Jan 10, 2008 9:45 AM in response to Gordonj

*To date each time I try to import the full list of he tracks us shown, but often kisted as track 1, track 2 etc.*

Are you importing commercial CDs or CD-Rs? If they are CD-Rs burned on another computer the track names will be seen as Track 01, Track 02 etc. and the information has to be keyed in again by hand. For commercial CDs, you have to connect to the internet as iTunes picks up the track information from an online database. It will do this automatically if you are connected while you are importing or you can do it afterwards by connecting to the internet, highlighting the tracks and going to Advanced>Get CD Track names: iTunes for Windows - I don't see the names of songs

*Cab anyone please advis em if it is possible to import music form Cd's directly into an iTunes playlist?*

It is possible to do this by using a smart playlist but it does really depend on there being some information on the songs to set the criteria of the list to. For instance if you made a smart playlist to gather together all the songs from a particular Album the songs would show in the list as soon as they were imported: How to create a Smart Playlist with iTunes

Is there any particular reason you need to use playlists? You can easily navigate your way around your library without them if you turn on the Browser window. You cab switch on Browsing from View>Show Browser or from the browser "eye" icon in the bottom right of your iTunes Window. Using the browser you can easily find what your want and filter the library by any combination of Genre, Artist and Album.

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Answer 2

Gordonj Author

Level 1

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Jan 12, 2008 3:21 AM in response to Zevoneer

Many thanks Zevoneer, the info was very useful and helped me a lot. I wanted to add "Phantom of the Opera" two disks to my iTunes LIbrary in order that I could transfer to my iPOd. The first thing i di was to open a playlist in iTunes. Then acting on your instructions I inserted Disc 1, into my CD drive. I was already on-line. iTunes immediately asked: did I want to add the music to the Library, and on selecting Yes, everythign happened as you indicated. The full listing of the tracks was displayed. And the all the tarcks were imported. On completion I then 'selected all' and dragged the whole list to the playlist I had previously opened. I hooked up the iPOd (which I have set to manually control music transfer) and I then selcted all the tarcks again, this time 'dragging' the entire contents to the iPOd.

However, on then checking the iPod for "Phantom of the Opera" I could nto fidn it at first. Nothing was listed in "Albums" "Artists" or "Songs". I finally found it under: Playlists/Recently Added. The songs were all listed there not as a folder, but as each individual tune. Selecting one to play however provided access to all the tunes. Just by selcting at that point 'back' or 'previous'. In this full explanation can you discern where I might have gone wrong? Or did I do it right? Many thnaks, Gordoj

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Answer 3

Zevoneer

Level 9

52,705 points

Jan 12, 2008 5:42 AM in response to Gordonj

Hello Gordon,

First of all you don't really need to create a playlist to get the songs onto the iPod if you are managing it manually so you have an extra step in there that's not really necessary. Once your album is imported you can locate it using the browser and drag the tracks from there to your iPod.

If the songs have all the information on artist, album etc. filled in then you should be able to find them using your iPod menu. I think I know though why you might have had difficulty with your Phantom album. I suspect that the songs on it are all listed as being part of a compilation.

If the tracks are ticked in the Get Info>Info tab as part of a compilation (an album where the tracks are by various artists), they will not appear under Artist on the iPod. Highlight a song in iTunes that you know is not appearing correctly on your iPod. Right click on it and choose Get Info and click the Info tab (alternatively choose Get Info from the File menu). Look to and see if "Part of a Compilation" is ticked. Setting "Compilations" on your iPod main menu prevents you getting lots of single artist entries when you load an album by various artists. You'll find compilation albums listed separately on your iPod and they can also be grouped separately in the iTunes browser.

To set Compilations in the iTunes browser open iTunes and go to File>Preferences>General and tick the box "Group compilations when browsing" then choose OK. When this is set you'll see "Compilations" as the top entry in the browser's Artist pane. When you click on it you'll find any albums listed as compilations will appear in the Album pane.

To view Compilations from the main menu of your iPod scroll to Settings and press the centre button. Scroll down the list that appears until you see Compilations and check that it is set to On, pressing the centre button switches it on or off.

Scroll back up the list to Main Menu and press the centre button again. Scroll to Compilations in this next list to switch the setting to On then press Menu a couple of times to return to the main display.

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