Best way for iTunes to access music on a different machine?

Hey all,

I'm on Day 8 of my Mac Book Pro, and so far, I must say I'm very happy. Now that I've learned how to make it network with the PCs in my house, it's time to
use my Mac to play songs stored on my on my PC. Said PC acts as a server for all my other machines. I specifically DON'T want to move the mp3 collection from the PC to the MBP because it's massive -- at this point more than 250 MB.

So the question is: what is the best way to go about getting iTunes on my MBP to know what songs are on my PC and play them? I'm adding new music to my PC all the time, so I'll also want iTunes to show the new additions, preferably automatically.

Is this possible?

If your PC is running iTunes then you can try what I suggested in this thread


http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44299&highlight=itunes+library+file+alias

Hey, thanks for the response!

So far, I've held off using this approach for several reasons. Are there any other ways to do what I'm asking?

What are your reasons for not using this approach? As long as your PC is on you can access the music and using Alias's for the xml and library file will make sure your library is up to date.

Well, I was planning to make this a separate post, because it's a problem that's independent of this one. But since you ask: I don't use iTunes on Windows because I haven't figured out a way to import the considerable number of playlists I have.

I've invested tens, possibly hundreds, of hours creating playlists for just about every occasion, dinner, bedtime, morning time, etc. I created these playlists in the m3u format using Winamp.

When I import the playlists into iTunes, each song that's in the playlist shows up twice in my iTunes library. With as many as 2,500 songs in a single playlist, this is a BIG problem.

I've searched high and low for a way to use iTunes to play these playlists without having duplicates in my library. I've asked in forums offered by Apple and ipodlounge, but so far I've got no answer.

Until I get that issue sorted out, I've held off using iTunes for Windows.

Ah gotcha. Like I said my solution was great if you are using iTunes on your PC. I've never found a solution for having iTunes automatically update based on what is in a folder.

iTunes only adds duplicates to my library when I drag a folder that contains all of the songs on top of the .m3u file. If I just drag the m3u file over it doesn't create any extra copies of the song.

trpnmonkey41 said:

iTunes only adds duplicates to my library when I drag a folder that contains all of the songs on top of the .m3u file. If I just drag the m3u file over it doesn't create any extra copies of the song.

Click to expand...

Interesting. This is with your music being stored in the default location for iTunes?

Part of my problem, I suspect, is that I'm storing music not in the default iTunes location (which on a PC, correct me if I'm wrong, is in the iTunes folder) but rather on a dedicated hard drive. Winamp has no trouble reading these playlists but when I drag them into iTunes, the playlists are empty.

The only other option is to import the m3u playlist into iTunes, and when I do that, I get all the duplicates.