The Knowhow
Basic information editing tips:
It is much faster to edit multiple tracks at once where information will be duplicated. For example, you could select all tracks on one album and edit the details at the same time rather than repeating the process on a track-by-track basis.
- Open iTunes
- Browse through your music collection to find the tracks you want
- Hold down Ctrl and, keeping it held down, click on each track you want to edit
- When all the tracks are highlighted, right click on one of them
- Click Get Info
- When asked if you want to edit the information for multiple tracks, select Yes
- Select the Info tab
Any information you change will be duplicated onto every other track selected.
Editing track information:
There are a number of different fields or "tags" you can edit for each track. In this article we will cover the most important categories.
Note: If you only select one track, you will also be able to edit its Name. You can also edit individual track names by slowly double clicking on them in iTunes.
Artist:
Depending on how you prefer to search, you may need to put different information here.
- If you search by composer, enter their details here
- If you search by conductor, enter their details here
Composer:
If you entered the composer under the Artist section, put the conductor details here, and vice versa
Album Artist:
- Use this category for details of the musicians involved
Grouping:
This can optionally be left blank, as it is most useful for "Shuffle" mode. If you intend to use shuffle mode and want to keep certain works together, we recommend you categorise the music by movements or type - for example Symphony First Movement or Choral Works.
Genre:
By default, iTunes is geared much more towards pop music and only has one genre listing for Classical.
You can enter your own genres, so can categorise in any way you see fit:
- By period - Baroque or Twentieth Century
- Type of composition - Opera or String Quartet
- By primary instrument - Piano or Orchestral
- Any combination of the above - Classical String Quartet or Ancient Sacred Music
Year:
Normally this can be left blank unless there is a specific reason for entering a date; for example, when an artist has recorded multiple versions of the same work at different times, such as Glenn Gould's famous recordings of The Goldberg Variations.
Comments:
An optional field, but useful for any additional relevant information relating to a performance.
Browsing and sorting using tags:
You are now able to use the categories you've defined to search iTunes or your iPod.
- Click on the category name to sort by it
- Clicking again will reverse the sort (A-Z to Z-A)
- Right-Click on a category to bring up a list of other categories you can add: Clicking them enters them to the sort bar
