Appreciate that there are many posts covering iTunes music libraries but I cannot find the answer to my specific query and can see potential for me doing this wrong so thought best to ask this community first.
I have two family laptops with very (musical taste) separate iTunes libraries.
Both laptops have their own Authorised User shares on the MyCloud where I have created a Music Folder in each area.
My plan is to move the two separate iTunes libraries to these two separate Authorised User areas.
I was hoping that each Authorised User would be able to access their MyCloud music via their iPhones.
We have a UPnP streamer, I was also hoping that this would be able to see and deal with two separate libraries.
But now I am having doubts; I don’t really understand the pros / cons of enabling the MyCloud iTunes server.
Or why there is a default Music folder in the Public Share.
Am I on the right track or should I be moving all the music to the one default Public Area and enabling the iTunes Server.
I had a similar issue in that I wanted to keep seperate and stream music from two very different musical tastes non-iTunes libraries to a Marantz CR610 player. I wanted these to show up seperately on the Marantz but it it only saw the one DLNA server on the MyCloud so presented them together as one large library (although I’ve since found a deeper menu on the marantz that allows individual directories to show up but not ideal for my purposes). I ended up using two MyClouds so that the Marantz sees two servers.
My streamer recognises just one source, however, I can source by “Folder”.
Appears like a giant play-list; a bit messy but keeps the libraries separate.
Similarly, the My Cloud App allows you to source by folder, so the same applies here.
I think I am getting there but am still unclear on the pros / cons of the MyCloud iTunes Server and why I have a default Music folder in the Public share.
Am I missing something obvious here - I could be as I am not that familiar with iTunes.
I believe the MyCloud iTunes server just allows your music to show up in your iTunes library on your PC, nothing more. As I don’t use iTunes I’ve turned this off. The default music folder is just the standard set up from WD. I save all of my music files in FLAC formats to different shares rather than the Public share just to keep the different music tastes for each user seperate. Not sure I need to but this seems to work well for me.
I’m fairly sure you can’t use two iTunes libraries and have each user access their own but perhaps a more knowledgeable reader will give you better information on this. It took me a while to find the best set-up. I originally started with iTunes but found it difficult to get the set-up I wanted, plus the media players couldn’t show album art unless I kept the main PC switched on as it itunes doesn’t store this with the tracks.
Thanks - I am begining to think that iTunes may not be the long term solution for me either.
I have just come up against the Artwork issue also - its missing from both the My Cloud App (iPhone) and my streamer (Naim) despite being in place when I migrated my iTunes media.
Its just messy.
Any suggestions for iTunes alternatives.
I always liked the look of dbpoweramp but it’s only for Win.
dbpoweramp is the software I use to rip in FLAC format tracks straight to the MyCloud share. It finds the artwork and saves it with the FLAC files, rather than seperately as iTunes does. I use the Marantz remote app on an ipad and it shows the art work at album and track level. So much easier to select music than using a list of names. FLAC formats also seem more universal across most media players than the apple lossless formats.
Strangely, I can still see and play the FLAC ripped tracks through iTunes on the PC from the MyCloud share although can’t see the artwork through this medium.
dbpoweramp has a one one month free trial so may be worth a try
