[yota]

Hi everybody! I'm new to this forum and new to Mac world in general!
Coming from PC world (and Winamp), I would like to know if there is a possibility on Mac (and iTunes) to sort all the songs by directories (and not by singer, album or whatever)?
If not, is there a player that can do that (and works for Mac OS X)? I found Winamp for Mac but it needs Mac OS 9 to work and, personnally, I don't feel like installing it...
Thanks a lot for your help!!!

[mchladek]

How are you organizing your music in folders? I would think you could use playlists and smart playlists in iTunes in place of your folders.

I know it's all subjective, but that's what I like about the Mac platform. There's less of an emphasis on organizing your folders within the Finder. Instead you use an app like iTunes or iPhoto to help you organize the files in a more logical method (for me anyway): not treating audio and photos as abstract "files" but using the actually audio and actual photo to organize. That's my take on it.

[yota]

mchladek,
Thanks for your reply. Actually, I know the advantages of iTunes very well, but, sometimes, a directory may not contain only same singer or group but belong to same "album" for example... So, I would like to be able to play the files in order of directories...
I haven't found yet how to do that in iTunes, and I think it is a very "basic" function that any kind of mp3 player does. For example, that could be nice it there could be the "location" column so that you could sort according to this column. But, there is singer, album, year, whatever you like, except location of the files.
If someone has a solution, please say. Or, maybe you can propose another MP3 player... Well, I tried Audion (which is free now) but music won't play on my Powerbook G4.
Appreciate your answers!

[philm]

The ethos of iTunes is that you control all the songs through the iTunes interface and not within the Finder. It took me a while to get my head around this, but I now think this makes absolute sense. As you know, to add tracks, you just drag them into the iTunes window and it does something behind the scenes which, in fact, you never need to know about.

To achieve what you require, you can just set up a playlist of required tracks. This might seem like extra effort, but you either spend the time arranging the files and folders into the 'correct' structure on your hard drive (except that iTunes does not work this way), or you spend the same time achieving the same thing within the iTunes interface via playlists.

[chabig]

Originally posted by yota:
...and I think it is a very "basic" function that any kind of mp3 player does.

I disagree. I think the basic function of a music playing application is to organize and play music. It would never occur to me that the music player should faithfully represent the hard disk directory structure.

iTunes provides awesome control over your music via access to just about musical attribute you can imagine, full flexibility with playlists, and smart playlists. The reason lesser programs might reflect the directory structure is exactly because they don't offer the same degree of control that iTunes does so the developer makes you do the work using the file structure.

By the way, I don't think I fully understand your question. You can sort and play music by album. Wasn't that your example?

Chris

[SLam]

Originally posted by yota:
mchladek,
Thanks for your reply. Actually, I know the advantages of iTunes very well, but, sometimes, a directory may not contain only same singer or group but belong to same "album" for example... So, I would like to be able to play the files in order of directories...
I haven't found yet how to do that in iTunes, and I think it is a very "basic" function that any kind of mp3 player does. For example, that could be nice it there could be the "location" column so that you could sort according to this column. But, there is singer, album, year, whatever you like, except location of the files.
If someone has a solution, please say. Or, maybe you can propose another MP3 player... Well, I tried Audion (which is free now) but music won't play on my Powerbook G4.
Appreciate your answers!

iTunes refers to this as a compilation. Highlight all the tracks in the album, and press Command i (or File > Get Info). In the Get Info window, set Part of a Compilation to Yes. Now in Preferences (Command , or iTunes > Preferences), check the box that says Group compilations when browsing...

Click on the Browse button at the upper-right corner (if you haven't done so). Now under Artists, you should see a Compilations item. Those albums will be there. If you had iTunes organize your music, there should be a new folder called Compilations.

I was once anal with how my mp3s were sorted and organized, but after reaching 1000 songs, I just let iTunes organize them in the file structure. With iTunes there's an abstraction between file structure and meta-data.

You can also fine-tune the playing order by creating a playlist.