Tips for Importing Your Music Library to iTunes

As a geek girl, I find it amazing that I made it this far into the 21^st century before converting my CD music library into electronic form. I'm all about data retrieval and forward-thinking archives, but I had no reason to convert my music because...well...I didn't have an MP3 player!

But, as you know, all that changed when I got an Apple iPod Touch and undertook the mammoth effort to import my entire library into iTunes. Over 3400 tracks later, I am finally done, and now I'm ready to pass on the savings - er, I mean wisdom - to you. So, if you're in the position I was in, facing stacks of CDs and a mostly empty MP3 player, listen up. In this article I'll show you how you can convert your library with a minimum of anguish and a maximum of happy listening.

Step 1: Update iTunes, If Needed

Since we're using iTunes for this (though you have many other options) it makes sense to be sure you have the latest version so that you have all the latest cool features available to you. To see if you need to download an update (at least, this works on Windows) go to the Help menu and choose Check for Updates.

Step 2: Choose Your iTunes Library Location

Depending on the size of your music collection and the format you choose for import, it could end up taking a sizable amount of space on your hard disk - for example, currently my music collection takes 25 gigabytes of space. The default location where iTunes chooses to store the library database and the accompanying music files may or may not work for you. Before you start importing all your files, it's a good time to consider whether you want to tell iTunes to store the files somewhere else. Now, you can always move files later, but the larger your imported collection is, the longer that will take.

Examples of when you might want to move your iTunes files:

• The current iTunes files are on a disk drive where you don't normally keep your data files. For example, as a Windows user, I choose to use my c: drive exclusively for the operating system and applications. All data goes on other drives. I do this because the system drive is the most likely drive to fail or become corrupt (in my experience) and this keeps my precious data safer. I consider my music library to be data, so I keep it on a drive reserved for that purpose.
• ITunes is using a small hard disk by default. My partner was running iTunes on her laptop, and because it only has one built-in drive, everything ended up there. But the laptop drive was not that big - if she imported only 10 GB of her music, it would really restrict her storage space. We chose to move the library to an external drive that she kept plugged in much of the time - one that had plenty of space.

If you want to move your library, I recommend the article Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive at iLounge for instructions on how to do it. DO NOT move the files outside of iTunes; it won't work.

Step 3: Setup Your Preferences to Import the Proper Sound Quality

Before you start importing all your music, it's a good idea to double-check the settings that iTunes will use for this process. In particular, you want to verify that it will convert the music to the file format you want at the quality (bit rate) you prefer. You can view the settings by choosing Preferences from the Edit menu. Click on the Advanced tab, then click on the Importing tab in the section below.

Right now, you might be thinking that you really don't know or care about file formats or bit rates, but trust me, now is the time to set this up. The reason is that if you import 100 CDs now using the default settings and then later realize you want higher quality files for playback on a fancy-pants hi-fi, you will have to import your CDs all over again to bring them up to snuff. Who wants to go through that?

So, here's the deal. Some file formats, like MP3 and MP4, are compressed files. They are kind of like JPG files in the graphics world, where compromises have been made to make the file sizes easier to handle while keeping the quality acceptable. Other formats, like WAV and AIFF, have no compression and thus, no compromises. The audio quality is as good as it gets given the source material (your CD) but, as a trade-off, the file size is huge. As in, enormous.

If you have unlimited storage space and are absolutely passionate about electronic archival, you might want to choose an uncompressed file format. Whether your player can handle the files is its own issue.

Even given my love of perfection, I did not choose an uncompressed file format. I did the next best thing - I chose a compressed format and then raised the bit rate as high as I could.

The bit rate setting tells iTunes how much information to keep when compressing the file. The more information, the better the sound quality and the bigger the file - but still, nowhere near the size of a WAV or an AIFF file.

If you are choosing to import using the MP3 Encoder, right now your bit rate options are Good Quality (128 kbps), High Quality (160 kbps), and Higher Quality (192 kbps). I recommend choosing 192 kbps to get a quality you'll be happier with down the road.

If you import using the AAC Encoder, your files will be saved in an MP4 format, which is the same format that iTunes uses for music you purchase from them. You have the option of High Quality (128 kbps) or Higher Quality (256 kbps), and as you probably guessed, I recommend choosing 256 kbps. Note that 128 kbps is the quality that most songs in the iTunes store are offered at, but that doesn't make it fabulous. The new "iTunes Plus" tracks are 256 kbps, probably because enough people want better quality files (for a price!).

Which format you choose can get into a religious battle, so I'll just point out the most practical consideration: if you are using a non-iPod player, it might not read MP4/AAC files, so choose MP3 at 192 kbps for a compressed format. If you are using an iPod, you can use whatever iTunes offers. Remember, you can convert to a lower-quality format later on if need be, but you can't convert to a higher-quality format and get good results.

Step 4: Consider the Speed of your CD/DVD drive

CD/DVD-ROM drives do not all read disks at the same rate. Some are faster than others, and some...well, some read at a snail's pace. The desktop system that I used for my library conversion imports from a music CD in about four or five minutes, which seems tolerable to me. Kathy's laptop, on the other hand, takes long enough that I can't tell you how long it is, because I inevitably get up and walk away impatiently, stopping to beat my head against the wall in the hallway. It finishes sometime before I regain consciousness. Usually.

Obviously, you may not know how fast or slow your drive is before you start importing. Just be aware that you may not be stuck with the speeds you are getting. If your read times are intolerably slow and your CD collection is especially large, you might want to replace your CD/DVD-ROM drive with a newer model. You can even get an external one that you plug in using a USB or Firewire connector, meaning you don't have to open up your computer.

Note: Another factor that can make the process easier is if you happen to have a dual or quad-core processor in your computer. If you do, it is easier to do other things with your computer while it is importing the music, because the system is better at multi-tasking. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, don't worry about it.

Step 5: Import Your Music

The process for importing a CD is simple:

With iTunes already open, insert a music CD into your CD/DVD-ROM drive. ITunes will ask you if you want to import the music, you tell it to go ahead, and it converts the music to the format you selected in step 3.

If you plan to have a CD-importing festival, you might want to tell iTunes that every time you insert a CD, it should go ahead and import the music and then eject the CD. You can do this in the Advanced tab/Importing tab (where we were in step 3) where it says "On CD Insert". Choose the action you want from the pull-down menu. Once you're done importing your library, you can change the setting to whatever makes sense for you.

Oh, and since I don't believe in delayed gratification, I recommend you convert your favorite, most longed-for music first. That way, if you run short on time or lose interest in the process, you've still got your best stuff ready for listening.

Step 6: Get Artwork for Your Albums

iTunes can download the cover art for many albums, allowing you to do that cool cover flow effect in iTunes (choose Cover Flow View from the View menu) as well as on devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch. You'll also see the cover art when you choose Album View.

To download cover art for a single album, first go to Album View or Cover Flow View so that the tracks of the album are grouped together. Select the tracks, right-click your mouse, and then chose "Get Album Artwork." If iTunes can find the artwork, it will be displayed; otherwise, it will let you know it couldn't find art for that album.

To download the cover art for all albums, go to the Advanced menu and choose Get Album Artwork.

If iTunes can't find the album or, as sometimes happens, it comes up with artwork that is incorrect, you have a several options:

• Get the cover art from another source. You can do an image search on Google, look for the album on Amazon.com, or try art4itunes.com.
• Scan the CD cover from your collection and save it as a JPG or GIF file. When I do this, I save the image at 300 x 300 pixels.
• Let it go, because you are not as anal-retentive as the rest of us freaks.

Once you have found artwork to use, add it to the album like this:

1. In iTunes, select the tracks for the album.
2. Right-click to bring up a menu.
3. Choose Get Info.
4. Select the Artwork tab
5. Click the Add button, then navigate to the place where you saved the artwork you found.
6. Click on the artwork, choose Open, then click OK.

Note: If you imported the music as WAV files, you cannot set the cover art because that information isn't saved with the file format. Bummer.

Step 7: Back Up All Your Hard Work!

Once your iTunes library is update, be sure to back it up so that you don't lose all your hard work. Do a search on your system for the iTunes folder. Unless you moved it, this contains the database that tells iTunes what you have and where it is stored, as well as an iTunes Music folder containing all your actual music files. You can use a backup program to back this up to a different location, or just copy the file to another storage device yourself.

And there you have it! Not exactly easy-peasy, but once you get going, it's easier than you might expect. I hope my tips will give you an idea of what to expect and help you get the result you want. I promise you, if you love music, you'll find that in the end, it's worth the effort.

Rock on!

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