Chapter 5
Adding and Editing Information in iTunes
- Retrieving information online
- Editing information for each content item
- Adding information, comments, and ratings
Organization depends on information. You expect your computer to do a lot more for you than just store a song with Track 01 as the only identifier. Not only can iTunes retrieve the song's track information from the Internet, but it can also find the cover art for you.
Adding all the information for your iTunes content seems like a lot of trouble, but you can get most of the information automatically from the Internet — and without all that pesky typing. Adding track information is important because you certainly don't want to mistakenly play Frank Zappa's “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” when trying to impress your classical music teacher with the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony, do you? And because videos you make yourself or convert from other sources don't have this automatic information, you have to enter some description to tell them apart.
This chapter shows you how to add information to your content library in iTunes and edit it for better viewing so that you can organize your content by artist, album name, genre, composer, and ratings. You can then use this information to sort your content in List view or Browse view by clicking the column headings. This chapter also describes how to add cover art for navigating your library with Cover Flow.
Retrieving Song Information from the Internet
Why bother entering information if someone else has already done it for you? You can easily get information about most music CDs from the Internet (that is, assuming you can connect to the Internet). The Gracenote CD Database, an online database available for iTunes users, holds information for millions of songs on commercial CDs and even some bootleg CDs.
Retrieving information automatically
When you pop a commercial music CD into your computer running iTunes, iTunes automatically looks up the track information for that CD on the Internet and fills in the information fields (name, artist, album, and so on). You don't need to do anything to make this happen. You can also edit the information after iTunes fills in the fields.
If your computer doesn't access the Internet automatically, you might want to turn off this automatic information retrieval. (You can always retrieve the information manually, as I describe in the next section.) To turn off the retrieval of track information, follow these steps:
- Choose iTunes
Preferences (Mac) or EditPreferences (Windows).
The iTunes Preferences dialog appears with buttons along the top.
- Click the General tab (if it's not already selected).
The General preferences appear.
- Deselect the Automatically Retrieve CD Track Names from Internet option.
With this option turned on, iTunes connects to the Internet automatically and retrieves the track information. When turned off, iTunes doesn't retrieve the information, but you can retrieve it manually. (Cue the next section!)
Retrieving information manually
You can connect manually to the Internet at any time (for example, by using a modem connection) and retrieve the song information when you're ready to use it. After you connect to the Internet, choose AdvancedGet CD Track Names.
Entering Content Information
You have to enter the information for certain media, including CDs that aren't known by the Gracenote CD Database, custom CD-Rs, and videos and audio books that you bring into iTunes from sources other than the iTunes Store. No big deal, though; just follow these steps:
- Click directly in the information field (such as Artist).
- Click again so that the mouse pointer toggles to an editing cursor — but not so quickly that the track starts playing.
- Type text directly into the information field.
After grabbing the song information from the Internet or typing it, iTunes keeps track of the information for the CD even if you just play the CD without importing it. The next time you insert the CD, the song information is automatically filled in.
Editing the Information
Retrieving ready-made song information from the Internet is a great help, but you might not always like the format it comes in. Maybe you want to edit artist and band names or other information the way I do — I like to list solo artists by last name rather than by first name. (Gracenote CDDB lists artists by first name.) For example, I routinely change Miles Davis to Davis, Miles.
Other annoyances sometimes occur when bands feature The at the beginning of their names, such as The Who, The Band, The Beatles, and The Beach Boys. Even though these names sort correctly (in alphabetical order, under their proper names), I dislike having The before the band name, so I routinely remove it.
You might also want to change the information that is supplied by the iTunes Store for the movies, TV shows, music videos, audio books, and podcasts you download. And if you obtain your content from other sources, you might need to add information for the first time.
You can edit the content information by clicking directly in the specific track's field (such as the Artist field) and then clicking again so that the mouse pointer toggles to an editing cursor. You can then select the text and type over it — or use the Copy, Cut, and Paste commands on the Edit menu — to move tiny bits of text around within the field.
You can edit the Name, Artist, Album, Genre, and My Ratings fields in the list. However, editing this information by choosing FileGet Info is easier. Keep reading to find out why.
Editing multiple items at once
Editing in the content list is fine if you're editing the information for one item, but typically you need to change all the tracks of an audio CD. For example, if a CD of songs by Bob Dylan is listed with the artist as Bob Dylan, you might want to change all the songs at once to Dylan, Bob. Changing all the information in one fell swoop is fast and clean, but like most powerful shortcuts, you need to be careful because it can be dangerous.
Follow these steps to change a group of items at once:
- Select a group of content items by clicking the first item and then pressing Shift while you click the last item.
All the items between the first and last are highlighted. You can extend a selection by Shift-clicking other items or add to a selection by
-clicking (Mac) or Ctrl-clicking (Windows). You can also remove items already selected by -clicking (Mac) or Ctrl-clicking (Windows). - Choose FileGet Info or press -I (Mac) or Ctrl-I (Windows).
A warning message displays:
Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items?
Speed-editing the information in multiple items at once can be dangerous for your library organization. If, for example, you change an informational snippet for one item in a selected group (the song or movie title, for example), the corresponding snippet for all items in the selected group is going to change as well! Be careful about what you edit when using this method. - Click the Yes button to edit information for multiple items.
The Multiple Item Information dialog appears, as shown in Figure 5-1.
- Edit the field you want to change for all the items.
When you edit a field, a check mark appears automatically in the check box next to the field. iTunes assumes that you want that field changed in all the selected items. Make sure that no other check box is selected except the ones for the fields that you want.
Figure 5-1: Change the field info for multiple items at once.
- Click the OK button to make the change.
iTunes changes the field for the entire selection of items.
iTunes offers both Artist and Album Artist fields for a song so that you can include the album artist name if it's different — such as the artist name for a compilation album that features songs by different artists (for example, Eric Clapton's Crossroads box set, in which the Album Artist is Clapton but the Artist for each song might be the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, and so on).
Editing fields for a single item
Although the track information grabbed from the Internet is enough for identifying a song in your iTunes library, some facts — such as composer credits — might not be included. Adding composer credits is usually worth your effort because you can then search and sort by composer and create playlists based on the composer. Videos (movies, TV shows, and music videos), podcasts, and audio books might also have information in their fields that you want to change or have blank fields that could use some helpful information.
To get a look at (and edit) what Gracenote CDDB has provided about an item, select the item and then choose FileGet Info (or press -I on a Mac or Ctrl-I in Windows). You see the item's information dialog, as shown in Figure 5-2.
When you select one item, its information dialog appears and your edits affect only one item; when you select multiple items, the Multiple Item Information dialog appears and your edits affect multiple items.
Figure 5-2: A content item's information dialog.
A selection's information dialog offers the following tabs:
- Summary: The Summary tab (refer to Figure 5-2) offers useful information about the media file format and location on your hard drive, the file size, and the digital compression method (along with bit rate, sample rate, and other settings).
- Info: The Info tab allows you to change the name, artist, composer, album, genre, year, and other information. You can also add comments, as shown in Figure 5-3.
- Video: The Video tab lets you enter information to describe the video. The information fields are set up for TV shows, including the title of the show, episode number and ID, and season number, but you can skip them for movies and music videos and just add a description.
- Sorting: The Sorting tab allows you to add information to fields for additional choices while sorting your library content. Information from the Info tab appears on the left side, and you can add an alternative sort field on the right side. You can even add a Show field for the title of a concert or some other use. Choose ViewView Options to select a sort field as a List view option, and then you can sort your content in List view by using the sort fields.
- Options: The Options tab, as shown in Figure 5-4, offers the following:
- Volume Adjustment: You can set the volume for a song, video, podcast, or audio book in advance so that it always plays at that volume (or lower, if your overall iTunes or iPod/iPhone volume is set lower). Drag the slider to the right to increase the volume adjustment up to 100% (twice the usual volume); drag the slider to the left to decrease the volume adjustment to −100% (half the usual volume).
- Equalizer Preset: Choose an equalizer preset for an item to (consistently) manipulate how it sounds on your iPod or iPhone as well as in iTunes.
- Media Kind: Set (or change) the type of media. For example, after importing a video, you can change its Media Kind to movie, TV show, or music video.
- Rating: Assign up to five stars to an item as a rating. (See how in the next section.)
- Start Time and Stop Time: Set the start and stop times for an item. You can use these options to cut unwanted intros and outros of a song (such as announcers, audience applause, and tuning up), or to skip opening credits or commercials of movies.
- Remember Playback Position: Set this option for an item so that when you select and play the item, iTunes resumes playing it from where you left off. This option is usually turned on for audio books, movies, and TV shows.
- Skip When Shuffling: Set this option for an item to be skipped from Party Shuffle.
- Part of a Gapless Album: Set this option for an item to be played back without a gap between songs.
- Lyrics: The Lyrics tab offers a text field for typing or pasting lyrics (or any text). Some songs in the iTunes Store are supplied with lyrics — you can find them here.
- Artwork: The Artwork tab allows you to add or delete artwork for the item. See the upcoming section “Adding Cover Art.”
Figure 5-4: Add a rating to a song from the Options tab.
Adding a rating
iTunes allows you to rate your content. The cool thing about ratings is that they're yours. You can use ratings to mean anything you want. For example, you can rate songs based on how much you like them, whether your mother would listen to them, or how they blend into a work environment. You can also rate videos based on your watching habits, as well as audio books and podcasts.
To add a rating to a content item, click the Options tab (refer to Figure 5-4) and drag inside the My Rating field to add stars. The upper limit is five stars (for the best). You can also select the item and choose FileRating to assign a rating to an item, or display a Ratings column in List view to assign ratings. (See Chapter 4 for details on changing the view options.)
You might have noticed the My Top Rated playlist in the Source pane. This playlist is an example of a smart playlist — a playlist that updates when ratings are changed. The My Top Rated playlist plays all the toprated songs in your library. You can find out more about playlists in Chapter 6.