I've been tearing my hair out lately with music "manager" programs, primarily Itunes, Winamp and Media Monkey.  I had gotten away from Itunes (for a variety of reasons) and tried Media Monkey.  It turned out to be a little more challenging (read complicated) than I preferred and so tried Winamp.  I had gotten into using Winamp on a regular basis and was getting to like it.  Well, I just got a brand new Itouch from my boys as a birthday gift and now have to go back to either Itunes or Media Monkey due to Itouch compatibility issues (Winamp doesn't currently support the ITouch).

So much for the "back story."  I'd like to know what the professionals here at the cafe use to manage their music collection and what, if any, plug-ins you favor.  I'm especially interested to hear how you deal with consolidating and/or eliminating duplicate tracks in your libraries as this has been the bane of my existence with my music library.  Haven't really found anything that can easily deal with duplicates collectively without taking the time to deal with each track one by one.   

Can't say I've been having too many problems with iTunes.

I've only ever had a few duplicate tracks and the iTunes function 'Show Duplicates' has always helped me sort it out without much fuss.

Larry,
I know you asked specifically for the pro's advice but I'm curious about problems you are having.....  I have zero problem with Itunes.  My needs are simple so I may not understand your specific issues.  I get music from CDs and rip it to Itunes, I purchase MP3s from Amazon, Emusic, etc - no problem (emusic and amazon automatically place the mp3s into Itunes). I purchase from Itunes and convert to mp3 if needed.  I have dozens of playlists for practice, listening, gig recordings, etc..  No problem.  I sync the everything with my IPOD and selected playlists/artists with my Iphone - no problem.  I add the drummer to the comment field so I can search all 6876 tunes to find a specific drummer. I've added several sub genres for searching and playlists.  I'll record with my IPOD in WAV format, convert to MP3 with Audacity to conserve space - problem.  I let Itunes organize by artist/album, etc.. no problem.  I back up the Itunes directory - no problem.  What's the problem? 

Got it.  That's one thing I simply live without without any big impact. Most of my sources of music are as stated which automatically load to Itunes.  When i do bring in other files I drag directly to Itunes which automatically places them in the right location. If they don't come in with proper tagging (name, artist, album, etc.) I modify in Itunes. For example, I get a file with no artist tag. I simply add the artist in Itunes and the file is moved to the artist folder.  Change the album name, the file moves to the correct folder....  You do have to have your Itunes settings configured to "keep media folder organized" and "copy files to media folder" (edit preferences/advanced). If those are not set, it won't happen.  If you have a different way you want to organize your files, you may be stuck...  

amateur #2 - we are not alone.

The ability to actively monitor additions to the library folders would be my biggest item.  Another item of great benefit would be to expand the capabilities of library management.  Dealing with over 150 gigs of music can be challenging (at best) and iTunes doesn't quite measure up to the capabilities of other music management software in this department.  It would also be nice to have some additional eye candy for the interface albeit this is an extremely minor issue. 

I wouldn't really consider my issues a "problem" per se just more of a lament that Apple doesn't spend more time improving and expanding upon iTunes features.

Based on my experience I find iTunes a great music manager, IF all you use is iTunes to purchase and manage your music files.  If you get into moving your music around (i.e. trying consolidate, eliminate duplicate tracks, etc.) and/or you wish to add/change skins, automatically find track info, album art, etc. it seems to me that iTunes is not as well versed as the other music managers I've mentioned. 

Bart, jump in here any time brother............   

I'm with you Bart. I don't need to be "glued" to a computer. I can go in any house room, in a car, or behind my drums to hear it. Nothing special, just a CD player and I'm set. 

My grandson has the things you are talking about. I sit and watch him loose tapes, leave his electronics at his friends, or his Moms house. He's always looking for this tape or song on the net. Order it and wait, then finding new devices and wanting to buy something new. I listen to him argue with his friends about this is better than that. Then he says, "Grandpa, how come your stuff always sounds better than mine? 

Been wanting to comment on this thread since you first posted but not time till now...

As for the folder management - for good or bad (meaning this isn't going to change, so does one best deal with it) - iTunes really wants to be "in charge" of the iTunes Music folder. As a result, every process I try to accomplish by going through the iTunes interface go smoothly - most particularly involving file arrangement and management. I wish they would make the "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library" preference setting the default as they do in iPhoto (actually in iPhoto, there is no option, it just works that way period).

This way everything in the Library would be in that assigned folder. I get that would be confusing to newbies, but a week later it would be helpful to the folks that load stuff into the library, then move the files (or delete them) then wonder why itunes can't find them.

Which, Larry, I know isn't you.

What I'm getting at is that my solution to the need for folder monitoring - is simply don't put anything into the folder myself directly. As I wrote in the other post, I don't do that much downloading - obviously iTunes Music Store does it right, but so does Amazon. Their downloader software plops new songs in an Amazon folder outside of my selected iTunes Media folder. So I can then drag them into iTunes myself or not. Then because I have that option mentioned above checked, iTunes then copies the files in my iTunes Media folder - after which I trash the original files.

As for Apple paying attention to iTunes - I think they give it a lot of attention. Beyond it's growth into being this huge control center, not just for music files, but video/movie files as well - plus the syncing of those things plus calenders and contacts into iPods - as well as integrating and managing apps for the iPhones and Touches, I think there is a constant balancing act by Apple to give it all the capabilities many of us crave (which has, at least to some degree from the beginning - with full size file capability, Apple LossLess, the plug-in/scripting architecture, etc), while at the same time making it functional for all those folks (of which there are many more of) that want it to just work - period, with a double click and little more after that).

I don't know if something similar exists in the PC iTunes world, but on the mac, there is a site called something Doug's iTunes Scripts where there are literally hundreds of plug-in scripts for all sorts of purposes.

So are there some database editing type functions that I think could be cooler, sure - the multi artist catalog of single track in Media Monkey looked very cool. But with an iPod and an iPod Touch, plus multiple Macs in the house - I'm pretty married to iTunes... with overall very little that I can say I'm unhappy about.

David

Thanks for sharing your insight David, it's appreciated.  I've wrestled with this (music managers) for quite some time and believe me, if I could stick with one I would.  I won't be completely throwing iTunes under the bus as I will continue to purchase music through it.  Might even go back to using it exclusively at some point if they get the collection management piece in better shape.