How To Duplicate Songs In A Playlist To Edit Info But Not Lose Original?

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How To Duplicate Songs In A Playlist To Edit Info But Not Lose Original?

I'm making a Christmas playlist and want to edit the info on the various songs -- I'll add my own "album artwork" and will change the track info so each of the 25 songs is numbered 1 of 25 ... 25 or 25

bla bla bla

How best do I deal with the playlist so I can make my changes for this project but not lose the original info associated with each song? For example I'll want to add my artwork this time but want the original file to still have the original artwork, track number, album name, etc.

what's the easiest way?

Thanks

PowerBook G4 17, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iTunes 10.1

Posted on Nov 29, 2010 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 29, 2010 10:20 AM in response to jayessemm

You can't have two sets of tags associated with one file. I think you'll just have to make a copy of each file to add to your album. I'll do that and then drag those to a new playlist window to edit the tags. If you drag them to the main library window you'll just end up with two entries in the main list and it'll be a nuisance figuring out which copy you are editing. Either that or use an independent tag editor such as MediaRage before adding them back to iTunes.

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Answer 2

Nov 29, 2010 10:30 AM in response to jayessemm

You will need to make a copy. Each file has one set of tags.

MJ

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Answer 3

Chris CA

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82,759 points

Nov 29, 2010 10:32 AM in response to jayessemm

To make a new copy of the songs, select them in iTunes, right click - Create AAC version (or whatever Import settings is) .

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Answer 4

jayessemm Author

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Nov 29, 2010 10:45 AM in response to Chris CA

Thanks to all of you for your advice.

I'll make sure to make a real copy before I edit the tracks in the playlist.

Thanks

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

278,865 points

Nov 29, 2010 11:25 AM in response to jayessemm

Drag & drop the tracks in the playlist onto the *Automatically add to iTunes* folder and a fresh copy of each file will be made without any re-encoding. The newly created files will be at the top of the library in date added order so can be easily located for their seasonal customising.

tt2

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Answer 6

Nov 29, 2010 11:28 AM in response to Chris CA

Chris CA wrote:
To make a new copy of the songs, select them in iTunes, right click - Create AAC version (or whatever Import settings is) .

Does that simply copy the file without conversion? I don't think the OP wants to convert the songs to a different format and I'd be worried that even if you had it set to make a MP3 copy from a MP3 that it would just end up encoding the MP3 a second time which would involve unnecessary quality loss.

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Answer 7

Chris CA

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82,759 points

Nov 29, 2010 11:39 AM in response to Limnos

Does that simply copy the file without conversion?

No.
It converts but if *Import settings* is set to the same as what the file currently is, it will create a new new copy in the same format.

I'd be worried that even if you had it set to make a MP3 copy from a MP3 that it would just end up encoding the MP3 a second time which would involve unnecessary quality loss.

Correct.
To make a new copy with no loss, need to re-import the original.

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Answer 8

turingtest2

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Nov 29, 2010 11:40 AM in response to Limnos

@Limnos

See the post above yours which I wrote while you were composing yours...

tt2

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Answer 9

Chris CA

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82,759 points

Nov 29, 2010 11:41 AM in response to turingtest2

Drag & drop the tracks in the playlist onto the Automatically add to iTunes folder and a fresh copy of each file will be made

Didn't think that would do it since the files are already in iTunes. But hey, if it works, great!

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Answer 10

turingtest2

Level 10

278,865 points

Nov 29, 2010 11:50 AM in response to Chris CA

Yep, dragging tracks from iTunes out to a folder makes copies of them. Dropping onto *Automatically add to iTunes* simply adds those copies like any other files dropped there so cuts out the need to manually import the copies.

tt2

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Answer 11

jayessemm Author

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83 points

Nov 30, 2010 5:09 AM in response to turingtest2

Wow ... a flurry of comment on what I thought was a basic question 🙂

Many thanks to all!

I am not aware of the "automatically add to iTunes" function -- is it a folder, a button, a menu item, ...? I don't see it in my iTunes and there is no mention when I did a search in the help. I'm sure it is right in front of my face.

What I was thinking of doing was dragging the songs to my desktop and then dragging back. But am I then going to get messed up with the file being recompressed?

Interesting stuff!

Thanks again.

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Answer 12

Nov 30, 2010 6:08 AM in response to jayessemm

The files won't be recompressed unless you do the "convert to" thing Chris CA mentioned earlier.

I am running a much older version of iTunes so I can't answer about this add to folder since it is a newer feature. It would help to know which version of iTunes you are running since many here tend to assume you are running the newest version and if you aren't you may not have that folder.

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Answer 13

turingtest2

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278,865 points

Nov 30, 2010 6:18 AM in response to jayessemm

If you have iTunes 9 or later there should be a folder at *...Music/iTunes/iTunes Media (or iTunes Music)/Automatically Add to iTunes*. Dropping the files here instead of the desktop will save you needing to reimport. Either way, importing files from your drives won't recompress them.

tt2

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Answer 14

jayessemm Author

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83 points

Nov 30, 2010 6:22 AM in response to turingtest2

I'm running iTunes 10.1 (54) and don't see that "automatically add" feature -- go figure.

I often drag a song from iTunes to my desktop and also drag files from my desktop to iTunes (I just drag them to the Library top left).

So long as I'm not getting caught in compressing / decompressing / recompressing / bla bla bla I'll keep on the same way.

Thanks again for all the help!

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Answer 15

jayessemm Author

Level 1

83 points

Nov 30, 2010 8:56 AM in response to jayessemm

Not sure what I've done ...

I settled on the songs I want in the playlist -- there are 24 songs, sort of an advent calendar with a song a day leading to Christmas Eve.

I dragged the songs from iTunes to a folder on my desktop. Then to make sure I could figure out which was the new and which the old I renamed each file on the desktop "Jingle Bells" renamed to "Dec 1 - Jingle Bells" etc.

Then, thinking I was so smart, I dragged the renamed files back to iTunes where I planned to make a final playlist with the "Dec 1," "Dec 2" ... songs, rename the album to my advent song list and switch artwork so all the songs would have my advent art. And guess what ... none of the renamed songs were there and when I click on them iTunes just plays the original.

Yikes!

I can certainly live with what I have but it would have been nice to have special artwork (but, of course, not mess up the original).

And ideas?

Thanks guys.

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