Last night, I organized my music and wasn’t anywhere near my computer while I did it. A fine evening. I felt better after the process.
This weekend, I’ll work in my book library.
What we believe in.
@patrickrhone I want to do this again. We don't have the space for it at the minute but I'm starting by organising my digital collection with no streaming involved at all. I no longer have to think about all kinds of nonsense when I want to play music; the network connection, the subscription, the state of the bloated app.
@SimonWoods Even though I finally subscribed to Apple Music for the ability for anyone in the family to ask for anything they want on the HomePod, I still believe in owning music. My personal library is not connected to Apple Music and I dozens of playlists I've spent much time over the years assembling. I could not imagine giving up ownership and/or control to anyone else over that.
@patrickrhone @SimonWoods So many points of departure here on different topics!
I worked at a record store in my twenties and I organize music obsessively--alpha by album, by artist (by last name where appropriate) on furniture designed specifically for media. But the movie High Fidelity suggests chronological by relationship and I think I could probably organize some of my collection by influence even if that doesn't tell the story of romantic relationships.
Meanwhile, while I have also worked at a book store, I'm more inclined to organize loosely by genre, but with more worry about what shelf the book will fit on. Coffee table books really only fit in a few places, so they're together regardles of topic, for example.
I bought iTunes Music Match first, so I can stream my stuff without having to carry a lot of storage. Apple Music came later so I can research interests for eventual purchase.
I do believe in paying the artist, directly when possible, though I've been acquiring more media digitally over time.
While I'm wholly in the Apple camp with respect to media libraries and services, I find myself planning for alternative should Apple decide some products or services are vintage or obsolete. For example, I'm ripping DVDs and building a Plex server, while I will also convert the same files to MP4 to add to iTunes. I can consume either on my AppleTV today, but I know I can get a Roku later if it comes to that.
Where do you guys find yourselves in respect to these ideas?
@hjalm For me, I have a "Media Server Mac mini" with two large drives attached. One of those drives holds all the media (music and movies) and the other backs it all up.
That is connected to our TV that has Roku built in. The only reason for the connection is the octagonal times I need to use the TV as a monitor otherwise the operation is essentially headless because...
The Mac mini runs Plex to serve up movies I've ripped to the Plex app on the TV. For the music, iTunes music sharing allows me to play anything also to any computer I own. So, I rarely have to "see" the Mac mini because things are set such that anything purchase via iTunes automatically downloads there. Anything I purchase/download elsewhere I simply move to the right drive via File Sharing to add to iTunes on the mini or the right folder for Plex. DVD's rip and convert via Handbreak and a script that launches it when I stick a DVD in the SuperDrive and drops things in the right place.
It's a rather elegant little setup that I've been running for years now.
@hjertnes This is a valid concern. I don’t worry so much about books and music—they do feel portable between applications and platforms. Movies are different, though. For purchased movies, the apps phone home to make sure I am the owner. Tried watching some purchased movies during an internet outage once and the answer was “no.” Ripped movies from my physical media naturally fine, so am exploring methods to make my purchased content more resilient.
@patrickrhone @hjalm I've started keeping movies, music, and audiobooks each in their own library on Plex. I usually purchase movies/TV through iTunes 12.9 and download in 1080p then let TunesKit M4V Converter remove DRM so I can keep them in Plex. The third-party iOS apps Prism and Prologue are great for playing Plex music/audiobooks, respectively.
@scojjac Thanks for the tip on the app. I’m operating under the assumption that iTunes library sharing will go away because the market isn’t large enough to support. Starting to stage Plex as a viable backup.