Itunes library alternative for mac?
I’m wondering if there is a contender out there as an alternative for my music library on the Mac? Need a library that will drag/drop into Traktor as Itunes is refusing to play within Traktor. Failing any alternative i am looking at the only other option, being to add all to Traktor track collection. Please someone help!!
Nothing works as well as iTunes. Explain what you mean by iTunes not playing with Traktor. Maybe we can help you with your problem.
Rapid evolution is free, similar to mixed in key, can drag+drop to Traktor.
I think iTunes doesn’t play well with Traktor, but i also think iTunes is a hideous abortion of a decent product. I effing hate it.
I just use Traktor’s collection, and it’s fine…a bit slower, but…it’s fine.
The problem i have is the unknown exception error (chinese text) that NI surely could sort in the software as VDJ has no problem accessing the library. I certainly am not considering VDJ as an option though. Sorry to be highlighting this again but it is a really disruptive issue for me, particularly on the Mac with fewer alternatives. Tried a manual search for errant text but to no avail so currently left with import entire collection as only option. Will give Rapid Evolution a try though. I had forgotten about that program.
songbird, banshee
I don’t know if this is an option for you but I manage my library one of my laptops which is a PC which has MediaMonkey which is very extensive management tools. I unplug the harddrive from my mac plug it in to my PC edit down my library and plug it back in and then update iTunes. The only leg work I really have to do to get them linked up is delete anything I deleted on my PC from my iTunes library but iTunes tells me which ones it cannot find so thats as easy as scrolling thru the list of songs.
I know this may not sound to easy but the features that mediamonkey offers are really great. I mean it will give me a detailed list of all duplicate songs wether there exact dupes or just similar in song title and artist. Along with synching to any device and synching to Traktor so that anything I change in that program is reflected in traktor also. The only problem I have with the setup is I use the Comment 2 field in traktor quite often and I cannot get that field to appear in mediamonky. I understand it’s on there end with a coding issue but other than that it has every field and then some right down to Mood, Occasion, Involved People … I mean some really obscure fields that if your super anal about organizing you can really get down to it. Which in turn allows for some really easy auto-playlists.
I have a whole list of “Clean” top 40 that I tag as HighSchool under mood and have a auto-playlist that updates whenever I change any tracks occasion to that. It’s as simple or complex as you wan’t it to be and yes does take some time to get a collection going which for some people with thousands of songs may take forever.
It’s not for everyone there is a trial version that can do most things (except Auto-playlists, and auto-add to library which is number 1 and 2 reasons why I use it sadly) but if you just wanna give it a try and have a PC I highly recommend it. I think it’s 20-25$ if you get GOLD version. Well worth every penny IMHO.
I am a fan of Mediamonkey and have it on my PC. The problem is gigging with the Mac with no library search/drag option. Thinking the only solution is ripping out the optidrive and banging in an SSD so i can chuck it all into Traktor and not twiddle my thumbs for 5 mins while it loads. Guess i’ll just have to lump the extra cpu load.
No joy with Songbird or Banshee (drag/drop not an option) and RE freaks out on import of xml and add files option.
What i would love is a lite Itunes that supports drag and drop. Apple won’t be letting go of the extra crap that installs with it in a hurry i suspect though.
iTunes can be frustrating with humungous collections, but I don’t understand the problem that you’re describing. Why would you need to wait for songs to load while you’re gigging? Presumably you would have imported your songs into your Traktor collection by then anyway right? Just find the song in your track collection rather than trying to drag from itunes. If it’s not in your collection yet, there’s an itunes icon you click and choose any playlist in itunes (even smart playlists) and import the song from there, or drag it from there to your favorite playlist in your collection. Or are you saying that doesn’t work for these Chinese text songs? Can you rename the offending tunes or is this a substantial part of your collection? Can you put them all in the same itunes playlist for easier access?
I can’t open Itunes in Traktor due to chinese text (not one song) and get unknown exception error.
I have to run Itunes seperately but on a Mac i can’t drag/drop so this is useless.
My only current option is importing my entire collection to Traktor but waiting 5mins plus for the program to boot isn’t much fun.
These are my current problems.
Forgot to add that i don’t want to add all to Traktor if i can avoid this. I want to keep it as lean as i can.
Does itunes let you drag songs to a folder in the finder? That works for me. Make a playlist in itunes just of the songs you want in traktor, drag them to a folder in the finder, and then import that folder to traktor.
I don’t understand the chinese text problem though I’m sorry 
Thanks for you help. I will certainly use that workflow method for pre gig prep. However i do take “play crap for cash” gigs too and many a request comes my way. No solution for this yet other than entire collection import into Traktor. Surely some software developer wants to take Itunes on and create an alternative library that works, isn’t bloated and can drag/drop into Traktor. Either that or NI could fix Traktor’s exception error??
I had the same problem and searched through 40000 songs in my itunes library. I showed everything in the search bar that could show chinese text and searched all the fields. If I found any chinese characters I changed them to english. It took about an hour or so but afterwards Traktor had no problem linking to the itunes library. Kind of a pain but definitely worth the hour.
glad I’m not the only one 
I have scoured my collection with all fields open and found a few but obviously not all. Will give this a go again and hopefully fix my problem.
Anyone given RE3 beta a go? I had no luck with RE2 but am tempted beta testing 3 if it’s any better.
I have bitten the bullet and ordered an OWC 120gb SSD anyway (optidrive getting ripped out) so if i have no success it’s all going into Traktor. With a blazing new drive there shouldn’t be any problem.
Use RE3 right now, it’s actually quite good - not to sold on the key/bpm accuracy and i had some problems writing tags in the last BETA (It’s okay now in BETA 52), but for free i like it as a library, more than itunes anyway.
Thanks for that, will test it today.