3. Prerequisites

Organizing The Library

First of all, it was my aim to make a nice list of all the albums I posess in my iTunes library. I am in the ongoing process of converting my whole CD collection, some couple of hundred CDs, to MP3, and while doing so, I try to keep a list. I used to do this by updating some spreadsheet file in GNumeric, which is still a viable approach, but this is nicer. However, I use certain rules to tag my MP3s:

• I don't keep track of Genres. They are never accurate anyway.
• I try to keep the Artwork of the tracks to just contain the Album cover art, not any other artwork, like singles cover art or logos.
• I try to keep the disk numbers up to date. They are often ignored but I want albums consisting of multiple CDs to be treated as one album.
• Make sure compilations are treated as such by iTunes by setting the Compilation ID3 Tag.
• Compilation albums have the compilation checkbox set correctly, and have the same composer. The artists can be different per track, but the composer is meant to be the one that has composed the compilation. This is open for discussion, I know, but this is the rule I will adjust when making the final layout.
• Greatest Hits are therefore no compilations! Many of the entries at cddb are set differently, so it might be necessary to correct this.

Installing the software used

In earlier versions I used perl modules like MP3::Info to extract the images and ImageMagick command line tools to generate the thumbnails. However, things are much simpler now: I've made a self contained package which is downloadable and has everything you will need.