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No clear solution for managing, storing and playing back music files?


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II digitized my music library many years ago and have invested a ton of time and cash to this hobby. But all these years later I find myself at wits' end to find a music library solution that fulfills the promise of digital music. There doesn't seem to be a viable option that lets me:

 

  • easily store, add and manage music files (including rating songs, editing metadata and creating playlists)
  • integrate my library with a streaming service so that as I add new streaming music it can be integrated with existing library (ratings, metadata, playlists)
  • easily playback my integrated library.

 

I've used Roon for a couple of years - but the metadata/ratings/playlist library management capability is just not there to integrate my library with Tidal. Right now I'm back to where I was several years ago, using iTunes/Apple Music on a Mac mini as the source, managing (integrating) the library remotely from a MacBook Pro and feeding it to a mid-fi system that includes an Arcam A38 integrated, irDAC, Sonore microRendu and KEF LS50 standmounts. This option has forced a compromise in both sound quality and playback (the iOS Remote app is just terrible). 

 

So much here on CA is focused on gear and SQ, but I've never read much about library management. Playing an album at a time is fine, but shouldn't we be able to take advantage of database capabilities to easily rate, sort and group music from two sources? I'd be very curious to hear what others are doing...

 

 

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I have no interest in streaming music, apart from listening of new albums when I read reviews in various sites. Thus, no playlists, shortings, ratings here. Just free Spotify.

 

Having said this, I use MUSIChi Suite for music playback and library management. I have tested almost everything available out there, both to Win and Mac, and none of it outperforms it in terms of library management or music reproduction quality (the latter subjective).

I have almost 200,000 tracks loaded and not a glitch nor dropouts. Super stable, supports multiple libraries management.

 

It does no upsampling nor has any function for integrating room equalization through REW or Dirac though.

 

If I were you, I would give it a try. There is a 30 days trial period. Link is here: http://www.musichi.eu/

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Audirvana Plus is a first step in that direction, allowing you to play both your own library (with decent editing features) as well as stream Qobuz, Tidal or Highresaudio. 

 

I wouldn’t go as far as calling it fully integrated, eg mixed playlists of library and streamed tracks are currently impossible. 

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12 hours ago, ethelthefrog said:

II digitized my music library many years ago and have invested a ton of time and cash to this hobby. But all these years later I find myself at wits' end to find a music library solution that fulfills the promise of digital music. There doesn't seem to be a viable option that lets me:

 

  • easily store, add and manage music files (including rating songs, editing metadata and creating playlists)
  • integrate my library with a streaming service so that as I add new streaming music it can be integrated with existing library (ratings, metadata, playlists)
  • easily playback my integrated library.

 

I've used Roon for a couple of years - but the metadata/ratings/playlist library management capability is just not there to integrate my library with Tidal. Right now I'm back to where I was several years ago, using iTunes/Apple Music on a Mac mini as the source, managing (integrating) the library remotely from a MacBook Pro and feeding it to a mid-fi system that includes an Arcam A38 integrated, irDAC, Sonore microRendu and KEF LS50 standmounts. This option has forced a compromise in both sound quality and playback (the iOS Remote app is just terrible). 

 

So much here on CA is focused on gear and SQ, but I've never read much about library management. Playing an album at a time is fine, but shouldn't we be able to take advantage of database capabilities to easily rate, sort and group music from two sources? I'd be very curious to hear what others are doing...

 

 

Organising the music you've got is easy, just use a 'tree'.

 

Something like this, though it's just a simple example as an illustration

Music  1--->M   Artists 1--->M  Titles  1--->M  Tracks

Be constistent. EG - If you think you might want  to add 'composer' do it at the beginning (though it' s not essential).

 

Streaming is different as it is not in your library as a fixed 'physical'  file. You don't get the services you want until/if ever the software player developer/network box maker  decides to make it available.

I managed to get all the  UK BBC national  internet radio stations/some commercial stations appearing as a 'CD' (same as I've done everything else) with  each station as a 'track' on  JRiver but I have not bothered to take it further.

 

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This topic comes up at an appropriate moment for me as just this morning I reviewed and made a few minor corrections to my music library.  I also have a photography hobby which includes thousands of photos.  Both of these hobbies present organization/library issues.

 

For music, I rely on J River Media Center (Ver. 23, 64 bit).  I find the library feature robust and can be backed up.  The "tagging" feature is also robust.  Creating playlists is helpful for organizing music I play frequently (party music or jazz, etc).  Smart playlists (I don't use often but I can if I ever need it) offers a way of automatically organizing music by genre or composer or maybe number of channels.  J River has a cool Android remote.  I use it all the time to select music or a playlist while I am listening in my living room.  My computer is with my equipment in a another area of our home.

 

All music is organized on my hard disk by artist then album name (mostly jazz and blues) or conductor then composer then album name (classical).  J River organizes by Artist or Album Name.  If I get confused or need information, J River allows me to locate the files on my hard disk.

 

Works for me.

Marcus

 

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1 hour ago, Desertpilot said:

This topic comes up at an appropriate moment for me as just this morning I reviewed and made a few minor corrections to my music library.  I also have a photography hobby which includes thousands of photos.  Both of these hobbies present organization/library issues.

 

For music, I rely on J River Media Center (Ver. 23, 64 bit).  I find the library feature robust and can be backed up.  The "tagging" feature is also robust.  Creating playlists is helpful for organizing music I play frequently (party music or jazz, etc).  Smart playlists (I don't use often but I can if I ever need it) offers a way of automatically organizing music by genre or composer or maybe number of channels.  J River has a cool Android remote.  I use it all the time to select music or a playlist while I am listening in my living room.  My computer is with my equipment in a another area of our home.

 

All music is organized on my hard disk by artist then album name (mostly jazz and blues) or conductor then composer then album name (classical).  J River organizes by Artist or Album Name.  If I get confused or need information, J River allows me to locate the files on my hard disk.

 

Works for me.

Marcus

 

Agree that Jriver has good library management. Does it offer streaming support though?

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