iTunes backup/upload

I want to upload music to my computer. How does the latest version of iTunes handle backups and uploads? I don't want iTunes to replace my my needledrops, etc. with iTunes Store tracks.

Thank you

 

Just don't sign up for Apple Music or iCloud Music. Load your needle-drops into iTunes and they'll stay there.

 

Thank you for your reply.

That's one issue. I subscribe to Apple Music. Is there a way around my subscription? I'd rather keep my music.

 

I think there's a way to re-name your needledrops so iTunes Music doesn't "replace" them, but I couldn't give you the specifics.

 

I use iTunes and Apple Music. Most of my library is CDs I have ripped with a few DVDs and Blu Rays from which I have ripped music, and the last thing I want is for iTunes to get all helpful and reorganise everything. All of my rips are in Apple Lossless and I would not want these replacing with a load of AAC files from Apple Music! There are two things I do to stop iTunes tinkering with my library and to make backing up my own stuff easy:

1. Preferences>Advanced: Uncheck the "Keep iTunes media folder organised" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder..." boxes. Any music I have ripped goes into a separate folder which can easily be copied and pasted to a backup hard drive. iTunes doesn't mess around with this folder when you add music from it to the iTunes library. I am a bit fussy about labelling my albums; each disc gets its own folder titled "Artist - Album" with all filenames in the format "Track number. Title".
2. Preferences>Advanced: Put the iTunes Media folder somewhere where it is easy for me to find and backup. This will back up anything I have bought from the iTunes store (pretty rare for me). Note that with the above options iTunes will NOT import music files I have added to my library to this folder, so it pretty much only contains stuff I have bought plus backup copies of phone apps etc.

P.S. Just in case a future iTunes update changes any of the above settings I keep all of my CD rips in FLAC format in a separate folder as well, completely out of reach of iTunes. Easy enough to rip music to multiple formats simultaneously, hard drive space is cheap these days, and if any music in one folder gets corrupted it is easy to transcode between lossless formats with no loss of quality.

 

THANK YOU. Extremely helpful.

Have you had issues transporting music from a hard drive to a clean/newly-updated computer?

 

No, and over the years I have migrated my library from one PC to another and one Mac to another, plus I have had to start iTunes from scratch following hard drive replacement.

Just to fully expose my slightly abnormal tendencies, when I rip music to my "Music ALAC" folder, I keep a copy of the folder on both my PC and Mac and add it to the iTunes libraries of each. Occasionally iTunes gets confused and makes duplicate entries, but most of the time it is just fine. Moving from one computer to another is generally as simple as cutting and pasting the folder with your music onto the new computer and then adding the whole folder to the iTunes library of the new computer using the "Add to library" (Mac) or "Add folder to library" (PC) commands.

You MAY find that if you use Apple Music on a mobile device that it doesn't download exactly the same version of the music you thought you had uploaded, particularly if the music is a "non standard" (bootleg / needledrop / rip from DVD or Blu Ray / recording off radio). Examples: Apple Music didn't have the mono Beatles albums last time I tried to download them onto my iPhone, and even after using iTunes Match / Apple Music to upload them, when I tried to download them to the iPhone it gave me the 2009 stereo versions. Similarly, I tried to download an "official" bootleg (just a soundboard recording) of a Marillion gig and ended up with the right songs all from different performances, which sounded really weird.

The solution here, if you intend to use a mobile device, is to sync troublesome recordings to your iDevice via your computer with Apple Music disabled on the iDevice, then enable Apple Music / iCloud Music library on the iDevice and choose the MERGE option when prompted.

You could just use something like Foobar to listen to your music and have none of this fun, of course!

 

Thanks again