Q - As much as I enjoy using Apple products, I absolutely detest iTunes. I come from a generation of Winamp and Media Monkey, where monitoring folders for incoming music has been built in for ages. For some reason, iTunes doesn't have this. It drives me nuts having to drag new music into my iTunes everyday if I buy it from Amazon or some other online store. I also don't want iTunes to manage my music. I have my own folder organization already, thank you very much!
A -Yes! Someone out there has similar sentiments towards iTunes!
Luckily, we've found a solution for your problem. That is, unless you own a Mac. If you own a PC, however, you are in luck.
iTunes Folder Watch to the rescue. iTFW allows you to set up Watch Folders and to quickly evaluate whether there are any new iTunes-compatible files in any of them which do not exist in iTunes already.
You also have the option to add them selectively or fully automatically (requires an annoying fee). In fully automatic mode, iTFW will add to media in the background and show an indication that it has added the songs to iTunes when completed. You can even create playlists for each individual watched folder, too (a pay-for option included with the fee).
I went ahead and gave it a go and now find myself using it daily. The interface and icons are fugly as hell, but hey, I won't complain when functionality works so darn well. Highly recommended for the lazy media collector.
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I use Hazel for this among other file organization tasks. It's great.
On a Mac it's really easy. Use Automator to make folder watches for where ever Amazon downloads music to then have it auto move the music files to /Users/YOUR USERNAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
It's pretty simple and I've found that folder watches don't slow my machine down at all.
Zune FTW
iTunes 10 on the Mac actually has a folder called 'Automatically add to iTunes' hidden away in the Music/iTunes/iTunes Media folder - just add files and then it pulls them in when you launch. Having iTunes not sort all your files and leaving them where you want them is also perfectly feasable - it's a setting in the advanced preferences tab.
I was in the same boat when trying to use iTunes on PC. Once I switched to all Mac hardware I never looked back. I think a lot of the frustration comes from that and the fact that the Mac apps are just not meant for PC systems.
@Littlepixel & MIK
but you still have to physically add your files to the Automatically add to iTunes folder. I guess the idea is to just download all your music to that particular folder?
@Rosydoodles Don't you need to also add the file to the iTunes XML database? Otherwise, you'll still need to add manually.
Re: "I also don't want iTunes to manage my music. I have my own folder organization already, thank you very much!"
So go into the preferences and uncheck the boxes that say "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy Files To iTunes Media Folder When Adding To Library."
Don't blame Apple because you never bothered to familiarize yourself with the options.
I moved the Automatically add to iTunes folder into my downloads folder, and then set it as the default location for the Amazon downloader and any other music downloading apps I have, so everything gets added automatically. Since the folder lives inside my Downloads folder, it's just a quick drag to add any other random mp3s I might download.
@ekoshyun - Nope iTunes will automatically move the file into the management system it uses and add it to the xml database when you open iTunes next (or if it's already open straight away). On the other hand if you don't let iTunes organise your music then I'm not sure how this will work.
Who _really_ wants to spend their time organizing files in folders ? iTunes handles this much better automatically, all you have to do is type artist/song/album in the search field and immediately get the result your looking for. Not spend minutes looking in folders for playing a song.
@FatMax While I do agree, sometimes I just need to search by genre and sometimes having it organized into folders that way helps out alot. I've been hesitant to switch over to iTunes organization structure until it can magically tell what genre my songs are in automatically. Until then, my genre folders do help a whole deal finding artists I've forgotten about.
iTunes Folder Watch is a nice utility for whom uses ITunes as your media management device and get some media outside ITunes.
My freeware (SyncITunes 1.25 at Download.com) is just for sync a folder (with your subfolders) with iTunes, for the user that uses other software (like MediaMonkey or Winamp) to manage your media.
The user run SyncITunes when he needs update your portable device. (IPhone, etc) though ITunes.
There are 2 main differences between iTunes Folder Watch and SyncITunes:
* ITunes Folder Watch can be automatic, in the background.
* ITunes Folder Watch doen't update tags that was changed outsite iTunes.
Both add new media and delete media that no more exists.
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