Modify iTunes ID3 tags and fields for better organization

Aug 26, '05 08:40:00AM

Contributed by: fractacular

The problem with keeping both classical and non-classical music in iTunes is that we tend to organize by performer for non-classical music and composer for classical music. This has presented a constant irritation for me when browsing in iTunes, and a major problem for automatically organizing music; I want all my Beethoven together, whether it's played by the New York Philharmonic or Joe Schmoe the Piano Virtuoso.

To fix this problem, you can organize classical music by putting the composer in the artist field and the performer in the now-vacant composer field. I modified iTunes to support this new paradigm in a transparent manner, e.g. everything now says "Artist/Composer" instead of "Artist", and where it used to say "Composer", it now says "Ensemble".

This page details how to modify iTunes in this manner, and also has a link to my finished Localized.rsrc if you just want to try it out. It also provides a very solid jumping-off point for anyone who wants to change the way metadata is organized and presented in iTunes.

[robg adds: This hint requires modifying files within iTunes itself, and doing so using a hex editor. As noted there, please make sure you make a backup first if you're going to try this. I have not tested this hint myself.]

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