Captain

Apple has recently updated Catalina to 10.15.2 This update includes the following bug fixes: Music Restores the column browser view for managing the music library Resolves an issue that may prevent album artwork from appearing Fixes an issue that may reset music equalizer settings during playback iTunes Remote Adds support for using an iPhone or iPad to remotely control the Music and TV apps on a Mac Not all my artwork is appearing. Now I have to buy a new IPad as mine does not support the new Remote app. Catalina 10.15 was clearly a beta and should have been released as such. Complaints aside, I am not considering an alternative anymore as this would mean much more work than resolving my current issues. Thank you all.

I am looking for an alternative from iTunes to stream my music collection. I am using a Mac Mini stored in a cupboard connected to a NAS. I have used the app Remote to control my Mac Mini. With Remote I can see my albums (cover art) and select an album or song to play. The music is streamed to three rooms by Airfoil (Rogue amoeba). This gives control over which room and the loudness. On the NAS are my iTunes files. It was working well under pre-Catalina OS. Is there a program that is able to do the same or a combination of two programs? I hope this makes my wishes clear

Read and write.

That is the problem with Music under OS Catalina 🤬

Yes, I can mount the NAS drive with Catalina. But I can't set the path to itunes library.itl as it is greyed out. (It was the file set previously under iTunes/Mojave)

Good. One more thing... Will I be able to use the Mac Mini headless?

I am familiar with XLD. I have part of my music collection in FLAC format. I have converted almost all of my music in Apple lossless format. What you suggest is that I have to convert all my music files into FLAC format. If so I have to find a program that will play FLAC files. Will the programs you suggest display the album art and sort them by name and artists? As my collection is quite large I think it will be too large to fit on the harddisk of my Mac Mini. So it will have to stay on my NAS. Is that a problem with the programs that you suggest?

I use my Mac Mini late 2012 to stream music that is stored on a NAS. This worked fine under OS Mojave. After an automatic update from iTunes (before updating to Catalina), I suddenly found that my iTunes library was not working on my system as it had been converted to a Music library. Apple support told me that there was no way to undo this. My Mac Mini was not compatible with Catalina. So I bought a Mac Mini late 2014 that could be upgraded to Catalina. I wiped the harddisk and made a fresh install of Catalina. I had no programs or files of my own installed. But my troubles were not over. In Music I pointed to my file on my NAS, but it did not seem to find the file. After three hours on the phone with Apple support the only solution they could come up with was to copy all my music from the NAS to a new library on the Mac Mini. These files direct to the files on my NAS to play.More than half of the cover art was missing. Apple support told me that it would be completed by the program. It was not fixed after a week.I used to control my iTunes on my Mac Mini with the app Remote and this has always worked fine. When I tried to use this it indicated that I had to open Home Sharing in my Mac Mini. This could not be done. After consulting with Apple support for more than three hours on the phone the final conclusion was that it was a bug in OS Catalina and that this would be fixed. I remember the time when people switched to Apple computers because all would work perfectly. I have never encountered so many problems after installing a new OS. Problems that can't be fixed after consulting Apple support. Music is new in Catalina and there seem to be countless problems with it. What are these well paid programmers doing? Why is Apple bringing this new feature when it is not thoroughly tested? What is most annoying is that the company is not communicating with customers. It seems as if Apple is more focused on selling hardware then software. Can anyone tell me why Pages is still inferior to Microsoft Word, Numbers is still inferior to Microsoft Excel, iMovie is inferior to Luma Fusion etc.?

Thank you for your reply. The files on my NAS are iTunes library.itl and a Music folder that contains all the artists in folders. I think that the iTunes library.itl is the original iTunes file. On my Mac Mini: Music library + Media. The name of the library file is: Music Library.musiclabrary. As it is only 9,2 MB I suspect that it points to my NAS, although I am not sure. Apple support adviced me to copy my Music files (the artists) to my Mac Mini. To be frank I don't know what actually happens on my Mac Mini and what file is playing.

For years I have used the following system to stream music. I have a fairly large collection in iTunes file on my NAS. It was played by a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is stored in a cupboard and was steered by the app Remote. Before the upgrade to Catalina all worked perfect. I was warned that Catalina would not play iTunes anymore. Just before the upgrade to Catalina my iTunes file was corrupted to a Music file format that would not play with iTunes. I called Apple Support a few times for several hours and got no solution. They made me upgrade to Catalina. The new OS can't find the Music files on the NAS. It is a bug Apple said. Also the app Remote sees my collection but will not play the songs. It just doesn't work. Is there a way to fix this or do I have to look for another way to stream my music?

I want to stream music in more rooms from the same source. At this moment I can play music in my study using a Mac mini streaming from iTunes library on this computer. My living room using a Mac mini streaming from a separate iTunes library. This computer uses Pure Music for up sampling. Than through a Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 to my NAD c390DD amp. Then I have a Denon DVD Home Entertainment System that has a network connection. I would like to use these three systems in different rooms playing their own music. Preferably I would like to choose the music from my library using one or more iPads . Question: How do I set this up? Do I need a NAS? Will the Denon fit in this system?

Where can i find the music files? Can they be used on my stereo set? On the ponowebsite the shop seems absent.

Can anyone please make a comparison between both amps? Is there a noticeable difference in the sound? I have read somewhere that NAD people compared the D7050 to the M2 and stated that the sound quality was above (better) then the C390DD. I own a NAD C390DD and I like it very much. There is one thing that I really miss. A headphone connection. Why? When I want to hear it loud I want to play it over the headphones. Nor the NAD nor my DVD player has a headphone connection. So the music DVD's can't be listened to this way. I can connect a headphone direct to my Apple Mac Mini to listen to my iTunes files. But this is al indirect and it requires 'programming' the computer using VNC. This is a procedure that my wife does not understand. Then the NAD D7050 has a headphone connection on the front. This would be most welcome and this makes this amp 'almost exactly perfect' for my needs. I do not need the extension / upgrade possibilities of the C390DD. I also don't need the full 150 Watts. 50 would be fine for my speakers in this small room. Now I wonder why the D7050 would much cheaper and be of much better sound quality. (Please check my sound system in my profile if you have some questions about that. All connections are specified in the design scheme.)

Apple gave us Airplay so we can stream music to several speaker systems. This is ideal if you want to hear your music in different rooms in the house. I bought a B&W Z2 speaker for in the kitchen. We were very happy with it until I installed Pure Music on my Mac. Suddenly there was no more music streaming in the kitchen. Naturally I blamed PM for this. More so because the Internet-radio music that I stream from my iPad through the Mac was received well in the kitchen. Then I learned that Apple is to be blamed. One can stream to more then one speaker set through iTunes, but not if another program is used to play your music. In that case one has to chose only one speaker set. There is is a workaround solution, though. It is called Airfoil. See: Rogue Amoeba | Airfoil I installed it and it works perfect. Two speaker sets playing at once. My HiFi stereo set (with PM) and the B&W Z2 in different rooms. There is also a remote app for iPhone or IPad to control Airfoil. This is may not be big news for many of you but since I had struggled for a long time with this 'problem' I thought I might publish this here.

I have tested running only iTunes and the Apple Remote app. (I have VNC Server running as I use my Mac headless). for a while the Remote app displays the album artwork fine but after a while it crashes. The music keeps on playing fine. No gaps as the Remote app crashes. Then I have to start over again by searching the server etc. So I can rule out Pure Music as being the cause. I have posted my problem on the Apple support forum, but no really helpful reactions. I will have this problem looked into by Apple technicians as coming Saturday a new Apple Store will open here in Haarlem, just one street away.