Change iTunes handling of external radio stations

Apr 09, '03 09:17:00AM

Contributed by: Arakageeta

I often like to add internet radio stations to my iTunes play list. If you use one of the built-in radio stations from iTunes, you can just drag and drop a station into a play list and nothing is added to the library. However, if you would like to add a radio station from outside of iTunes, then you often have to deal with the .pls file associated with the station like any other MP3 file, including having to add the file to the library. This is a real bother for me and I would like all radio stations to act the same manner and NOT be added to the library.

Solution:

  1. Add some random station from the built-in stations to a play list.
  2. Open/play the radio station you would like to add.
  3. Do a "Get info" on the station playing, click "edit URL" and copy the URL.
  4. Do a "Get info" on the built-in radio station you added to your play list, click "edit URL" and replace the URL with the one you copied in the previous step.
  5. Delete the file associated with the radio station you were adding as well as its reference in the library.
Done. When you play the radio station you added, the name of the station appearing in the Song Name column should rename itself to match the new station. If it doesn't, you can always fix it in the "Get info" dialog.

Oh, and don't worry: This transfusion has no effect on the built-in station back in the iTunes Radio section.

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