The HELL of moving from a music streaming service to Plex

[Drexo]

Hi.

I've been contemplating for sometime now going back to my old way of keeping my music instead of paying a monthly subscription for spotify premium.

This thought triggered in me 2 months ago when moving back to my country, I was throwing away tons of garbage in my home and I found myself throwing away a lot of old music CDs. When I found out later this music is not even on Spotify I realized the crime I've just done and I had to find some other way other than Spotify to manage my music including my hard copies.... and in the process saving some money.

I happen to have a Plex pass, and started to play around with Plex Music and Plexamp on my phone only to realize it's a literal HELL to manage the mp3 IDs.

I still have my mp3 collection from back in the early 2000's that I could renew with some of the new stuff I'm listening to now.

The tracks all have the correct ID tags but for some reason Plex is not picking it up automacitally and is merging a lot of songs together under a single artist or album. While troubleshooting the situation I found this Reddit post with my exact problem and realized that I have to get some other software, Mp3tag, Music Braniz, or either buy Filebot www.filebot.net to reorganize my music under specific folder hierarchy like I already do with my video collection.

 

I'm here to ask one question. I am willing to get down on some chores, like I was used to with my video collection but my music library is way larger that my videos. Is there an easier way to do this automatically before I even start? and don't reply me Spotify pls!

I was considering to use the iTunes Server app on Synology since I use an iPhone and I'm planning to get a NAS this year, does anyone have any experience on that or even on Synology Audio Station or would reccomend me something else?

Thank you.

   

[Drexo]

Shout out to the Hands-On Android youtube channel, I think he has the perfect solution for automatic restructuring of a huge music library like mine that Plex will actually recognize and uses a free app most of us already know.

For many like me migrating from a streaming music service to owning again my music this process is a pure nightmare. If all goes as described in this video you can set up tons of music in a couple of minutes.

I'm going to try it out and let you know.

 

[maplepants]

I use iTunes Match and it's pretty slick. Works in Music.app on my Apple stuff and iTunes on my gaming PC. 

 

But I also use Plex, and don't have any issue.

 

The key to Plex, whether we're talking video or audio is that you must be absolutely religious in following the Plex naming conventions for your media. Any deviation at all runs the risk of causing all kinds of wacky mis-matches.

 

Naming convention for TV shows

Naming convention for Movies

Naming convention for Music

 

Speaking from experience, if you are unflinchingly rigid in following these naming conventions Plex just handles the rest automagically. As long as you follow the convention properly, you can even include "TV shows" or Movies which aren't in any media database like concerts you've filmed or (in my case) music lesson DVD I structured as a TV show. 

 

I recommend, that you fix your media to ensure it really matches the conventions, then rebuild your metadata and you should be good to go.

 

edit:

 

It's also not just important that you follow the convention, but that you name things like Plex expects you to name them. Lots of DVDs have season / show names that don't quite match. When I ripped my Chapelle's Show DVD I didn't know what to call the "secret season" as the DVD named it. Similarly when I ripped my The Office box set, it wasn't obvious what to call the Christmas specials.

 

That's where you need https://thetvdb.com. However that website calls your TV show, that's how you name it.

Edited April 29, 2022 by maplepants
adding info about https://thetvdb.com

[Mark Kaine]

I dont ever use streaming services, 

On 4/20/2022 at 4:46 PM, Drexo said:

I found myself throwing away a lot of old music CDs. When I found out later this music is not even on Spotify I realized the crime I've just done and I had to find some other way other than Spotify to manage my music including my hard copies....

and this is pretty much why...

 

So you're asking for some automated sorting process or something? 

 

i haven't found one tbh, what i do is organize my stuff in folders and then make "playlists" by naming things appropriately (really just putting numbers in front) 

Sure lengthy process but i do it while listening,  and it also ends up exactly how I want usually... cant imagine an automated process for this at all.

Spoiler

oh yeah and i use WMP exclusively = )

 

ps: has an automatic playlist feature but i never use it, might be worth a try though. 

[Drexo]

So after sometime I a moment to settle down and dedicate to my music consolidation.

So the trick with iTunes from the previews video I linked from Hands-On Android youtube channel, works as long as your mp3s are correctly tagged which mine aren't so everything get shoved into 3 albums only.

I'm back to square one, I need to get my mp3 library tagged correctly before I even want to use this trick. I am trying with Mp3tag and, atleast on bulk, it's impossible.

Basically when I try getting the tags for all my library from Musicbrainz shows a little window with the search results and a whole lot of albums are shown from wich I should be choosing only one... here's my problem...why can I choose just one?

This Mp3 tagging is giving me headakes.

[NobleGamer]

23 hours ago, Drexo said:

So after sometime I a moment to settle down and dedicate to my music consolidation.

So the trick with iTunes from the previews video I linked from Hands-On Android youtube channel, works as long as your mp3s are correctly tagged which mine aren't so everything get shoved into 3 albums only.

I'm back to square one, I need to get my mp3 library tagged correctly before I even want to use this trick. I am trying with Mp3tag and, atleast on bulk, it's impossible.

Basically when I try getting the tags for all my library from Musicbrainz shows a little window with the search results and a whole lot of albums are shown from wich I should be choosing only one... here's my problem...why can I choose just one?

This Mp3 tagging is giving me headakes.

This takes me back to organizing & cleaning up tagging of my 2000s MP3 collection.  So I did a search on my computer for the one app that I used to use that took care of all this, and it turns out that it still exists in all its winamp-like glory.  Be prepared to enable compatibility modes, if it still works at all.

The more info you have for folder & file name structures that can be used for tagging (album, track #, song, artist, etc), then the more automated tagging can be.

The less info you have for folder & file name structures, then either the more manual your tagging will be (though could still be done in chunks like per album), or you'll need some other app that will read/play the MP3 and get & tag the ID3 tag info, like the original CDDB service but one for MP3s.