New to iTunes - looking for ways to sync metadata

After 2 years doing intensive 'crate digging' without a proper system to categorize my collection, I decided to put an end to that chaos and want to organize my library with a system thats useful to me - thanks to DJTT, I read some useful articles and forum posts here, that gave me an idea how do do that efficiently.

Because of the smart playlists and the Traktor integrability I decided to use iTunes which, lacking a mac and having no need for it before, I have no experience using it so far. So far so good, it's quite easy to use and I already started to tidy up the mess. Usually I edit playlists and prepare / tag tracks on my home computer.

Today I had the idea that the homesharing feature might be useful to work with my library whereever I take my Thinkpad. So I installed iTunes on my Laptop, enabled homesharing. Right after importing my playlists I noticed: It is not possible to edit ID3 tags on my pc using my notebook - it seems that only purchasing iTunes match will allow me to sync the metadata. I don't have to intention to pay 25€/yr just to sync my metadata (I'm not interested in a cloud storage for my music).

So I am looking for a workaround. Ping pong copying the tracks between the two machines whenever I have to update/sync metadata doesn't seem very fail-safe. I already tried to find if there are certain scripts that allow iTunes to do so, which wasn't really successful.

Is there a way to use iTunes the way I want, or is iTunes match the only proper solution?


edit: Learning a bit more about iTunes I noticed that I can solve that by setting up a media server that contains the iTunes music collection, so both machines have access to the same files/filestructure, allowing me to edit the metadata from where I wan't.

Didn't come to my mind that this should be theoretically possible. Will look out for a solution that fits my needs.

Yeah for sure you can get the iTunes you want easily. There are many multimedia websites out there which are providing you complete information on how to do your search.

Best of luck with it!!

Just in case someone is interested in a possible approach, using a Windows system of course ;). A quite interesting 'experience' btw. to see how well most Apple products really harmonize - if you aren't used to their products, although you basically know of the capabilities.

I just created a netdrive which consist my whole music collection, the folder structure which I use to contain prepared tracks for mixes, which I'm syncing, from time to time, or when needed, with my notebooks harddrive. And the iTunes files / folders. I gave my notebook full access, pointed both iTunes installation towards the netdrive and et voila. It works like a charm, exactly what I wanted.

Finding a 'just start doing it' solution seemed almost impossible, since this kind of fiddling around isn't really my territory. More professional solutions, costing 30$ - 40$ would've been a possible shortcut which I didn't want to take so easily.

I'm excited what the impact it'll have on me try out something totally new, considering that I just wanted to playand never really cared about proper organization. But, well, after a time it felt like I am wasting a lot of time and potential, stumbling around in grotesque file structures.

PS: Since it has been mentioned quite often in discussions here in DJTT about the size of music collections, I think getting rid of a lot of tracks that I played never more then once, except some unoticed gems, is a fresh start to reduce the initial workload I'm confronted with now.