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Is it possible to edit a section out of a song in iTunes?

My daughter has a dance project in school. She wants a song to start at the beginning, stop at 1:05, start again at 2:07 and go to the end. I tried creating a seperate file so I could do starts and stops on both to do this, but the playlist sees it as a duplicate. Anyone know how to do this?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Apr 22, 2012 9:48 PM

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Posted on Apr 23, 2012 6:59 PM

It's possible to do this using just iTunes. But it's a bit fiddly and would require burning a CD and reimporting using "Advanced > Join CD tracks"


First, set the start time of the track to 0.00 and the stop time to 1.05. Now use the "Convert to ..." function to create a smaller track containing just 0.00-to-1.05.


iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions


Rename the track "first bit" or something like that.


Now go back to the original track. Change the Start time to 2.07 and the Stop time to the time you want it to stop. Do another "Convert to" to create the second shorter bit of track. Rename the new track "second bit" or something like that.


Put the two tracks in order in a playlist. Burn them to a CD. Now reimport the tracks from the CD using "Advanced > Join CD tracks". They should arrive back in your library as a single track.

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Question marked as Best reply

Apr 23, 2012 6:59 PM in response to hdough

It's possible to do this using just iTunes. But it's a bit fiddly and would require burning a CD and reimporting using "Advanced > Join CD tracks"


First, set the start time of the track to 0.00 and the stop time to 1.05. Now use the "Convert to ..." function to create a smaller track containing just 0.00-to-1.05.


iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions


Rename the track "first bit" or something like that.


Now go back to the original track. Change the Start time to 2.07 and the Stop time to the time you want it to stop. Do another "Convert to" to create the second shorter bit of track. Rename the new track "second bit" or something like that.


Put the two tracks in order in a playlist. Burn them to a CD. Now reimport the tracks from the CD using "Advanced > Join CD tracks". They should arrive back in your library as a single track.

Apr 23, 2012 8:18 PM in response to b noir

Depending upon how this is to be played, you could do a simpler variant on bnoir's instructions. First, use File > Reveal in Finder (or right click) to show the actual file being played. In Finder make 2 copies of the file and add these to a new iTtunes playlist. You now have the original file which will remain untouched and out of sight, and two copies in the playlist which will have identical names. Use iTunes' Get Info to rename the tracks. Set the playtime of the first to the desired interval, then the play time of the second one to the desired interval. It may also help to set them to gapless playback. Theoretically if you now play the playlist it will play the interval of the first file, then immediately jump to the other interval for the second file.

Apr 23, 2012 8:30 PM in response to b noir

You're welcome. 🙂


Another way to do this would be to make a copy of the file. If it is an AAC/m4a file you can probably use a free editor such as MPEGStreamclip to trim out the undersired interval. If it is a MP3 file you could probably use Streamclip to edit it, but saving would require re-coding with a small degree of quality loss. My preferred tool for editing mp3s is MP3Trimmer which lets you do lossless saving. This all does require learning how to use new tools so for a once-off type of thing the iTunes route is probably simpler unless it isn't working. Even with gapless playback there may be slight hesitation when it changes track, if that matters.

Is it possible to edit a section out of a song in iTunes?

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