How to move your iTunes music library from a PC to a Mac without losing metadata (ratings, play counts, album art, etc.)

I spent the better part of yesterday trying to load my iTunes library on my new MacBook Pro. I was bound and determined NOT to lose all of the metadata associated with my music — star ratings, play counts, playlists, album art, etc. Call me superficial, but I just didn’t want to lose all of that information; information that has been compiled for 3,300+ audio files over the last three years.

Anyway, I eventually got it all figured out, but I thought I’d pass along what I learned. The tutorial below will help you if you DON’T let iTunes manage your Music folder (you can check this setting in Preferences → Advanced → General) and you’re moving from a PC to a Mac. If you don’t mind letting iTunes manage your music, there are easier ways to make the transfer.

I followed this tutorial for the most part, but I got hung up towards the end of the process. So I paraphrased and edited that tutorial to help out people like me (and, presumably, you) who want to switch from a PC to a Mac.

1. Transfer all of your music from the PC to the Mac.

Don’t delete anything — you want all of the same files on both the PC and the Mac. There are lots of ways to transfer your files documented elsewhere, so I won’t cover that here.

It will make things easier if you try to replicate the folder structure on your Mac that you had on your PC. For example, on my PC I had a folder located in D:/Music/ and within the “Music folder” were four sub-folders: “Downloads” (D:/Music/Downloads/), “Full Albums”, “Single mp3s”, and “Owned Albums (mp3 backup)”. When I copied the music to my Mac, I kept the same folder structure, within my new music folder: /Users/jakebouma/Music/. More on this later.

2. Check for up-to-date software.

Make sure that both machines are running the most current version of iTunes. Might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s important.

3. Find and transfer “iTunes Music Library.xml”

On your PC, locate a file called “iTunes Music Library.xml”. By default in Windows, iTunes will place this file in the “My Music” folder. For example, C:/Documents and Settings/Jake/My Documents/My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml. If you’re having trouble finding the file, just perform a search.

Making sure that this file is not deleted, transfer it from your PC to your Mac. You can do this many ways, including using a USB drive; I emailed the file to myself.

4. Open “iTunes Music Library.xml” on the Mac.

Using a text editor like TextWrangler (all screenshots will be of this application), open the iTunes Library.xml that you just transferred to the Mac. You can do this by holding ⌘command and clicking on the file.



The next step is where retaining the basic file structure from PC to Mac (Step 1) comes in handy. This file, iTunes Music Library.xml, contains ALL of the metadata associated with the music in your iTunes library (ratings, play counts, album art, etc.), including where it is located on your hard drive. All you need to do is change the file locations in this file to reflect their new location on the Mac to keep all of this vital metadata intact.

Rather than editing this file by hand, which would take hours and hours, you’re going to use the “Find” and “Replace All” function.

5. Find and replace.

First, you need to find the “Location” line of a file. This is the line that tells iTunes where to find the file with which it associates the metadata. In Step 1, I mentioned that one of my folders was called “Owned Albums (mp3 backup)”. iTunes recognizes this file as located at file://localhost/D:/Owned%20Albums%20(mp3%20backup). The %20s denote the use of spaces.



Because all of the files in “Owned Albums (mp3 backup)” on my PC now reside in a similar folder called “Owned Albums (mp3 backup)” on my Mac, all i have to do is change the beginning of the file locations.

Highlight the beginning of the file location, and copy it (⌘command + C). In TextWrangler, click Search → Find or press ⌘command + F to open the “Find & Replace” pane. In the top “Search For” box, paste the text you highlighted (⌘command + V). In the bottom “Replace With” box, enter the beginning of the file location on your Mac. (To find the location of a file on your mac, just ⌘command + click the file, and choose “Get Info”. The location is the line that says “Where”.) Make sure that you add file://localhost/ before the location of the Mac file in the “Replace With” box, or iTunes won’t be able to find your files. Here’s what it should look like (click the image for larger file):



Make sure the “Start at Top” box is checked, and then click the “Replace All” button on the right side.



Voilà! Repeat this as necessary for the number of folders you have. Save this file.

6. Copy and replace “iTunes Music Library.xml”.

Make sure that iTunes is closed and locate the iTunes folder on your Mac. Mine is in Users/jakebouma/Music/iTunes. If you have never opened iTunes on your Mac, there won’t be any files here. If you have, there will be two files: iTunes Music Library.xml (not the one you just edited) and iTunes Library.



Copy and replace the iTunes Music Library.xml in this folder with the iTunes Music Library.xml that you just edited in Step 5. Do not open iTunes yet.

7. Manually corrupt the “iTunes Library” file.

Use a text editor such as TextWrangler to open the iTunes Library file (not the .xml file — see the image in Step 6). Select all of the text (⌘command + A) and delete it. The file should now be blank, with zero characters in it; save it (⌘command + S). iTunes Library’s filesize should now be zero KB (This is important, because some text editors — e.g. UltraEdit — may append invisible characters to the beginning of the file).

If this file is corrupted, which is what the above paragraph details, iTunes will default to iTunes Music Library.xml for all of its information. iTunes will automatically rebuild this file itself, so it’s okay to corrupt it for now.

8. Open iTunes and let it do its thing.

A prompt with a progress bar will come up — iTunes is rebuilding your library. Depending on how powerful your computer is and the size of your music library, this may take a while. When this ends, iTunes will come up with a message saying that the library file was corrupted/damaged and it tried to rebuild things for you. Press “OK” and iTunes will finally launch.

9. Tidy up.

After you’ve made sure that all of your metadata is intact and the files play correctly, you’ll probably want to tidy things up a bit now, such as reformatting your columns in the library and all the playlists and setting the Preferences as you’d like them.

I don’t subscribe to a whole lot of podcasts, so I just went to the iTunes Store and re-subscribed to them all. If you want to keep past episodes, follow the instructions here.

That’s it! You’re done!

10. Reformat your iPod (optional).

If you have an iPod and it was set up on your PC, the iTunes on your Mac will say “Only Macintosh-formatted iPods can be updated” when you plug in your iPod. Your iPod will still sync properly with this message, it just won’t download any new iPod software that Apple releases. To fix this, click “Restore” and iTunes will automatically reformat your iPod for your Mac and re-sync all of your music.

Phwew! Please leave comments if you have any questions or if something was unclear. I wrote this to save people the headache I went through.

Ben Folds, Undeclared, and ICCA

It’s no secret that I have many unnecessary and un-useful skills. It once prompted my friend Brandon to call me the “king of party tricks”. One of these skills is vocal percussion. I’ve spent a lot of time (too much?) since my freshman year of high school perfecting the art of mimicking a drum set with my mouth.

In college, I sang and did vocal percussion in a group called Undeclared. There’s a competition for college a cappella groups called the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) that’s kind of like the a cappella version of the NCAA basketball tournament. We competed three times while I was there, and this past weekend I had the opportunity to emcee a quarterfinal that was held on the Luther campus. It was an incredibly fun time interacting with the audience inbetween groups and meeting many of the performers. I even got to perform a song with Undeclared during their showcase (they compete this weekend in St. Louis).

Anyway, Ben Folds is performing at Luther on March 3, and Undeclared has the honor of opening for him. I was asked to come up and do vocal percussion with the group, and I’m totally excited. Although it’s unconfirmed right now, I heard Mr. Folds will even be joining us for a song.

Click below to hear Undeclared perform a song called “Florida” in which I do vocal percussion. My friend Mike Lang is singing (he plays bass and sings backup vocals on my album). And if you’re so inclined, check out this video on YouTube of us performing “Over My Head (Cable Car)” which I arranged.

3 fantastic and totally unrelated videos

Super Bowl factoid video, courtesy of GOOD Magazine.

Barack Obama’s goosebump-inducing “Yes We Can” speech in music video format, with musicians and celebrities (including a cameo by “Michael” from LOST. So that’s where he went…).

Jason Mraz in France. It takes a minute, but hang tight… it’s strangely inspiring.

Dying Stars reviews

Last week I blogged that I would give away twenty free copies of my Dying Stars EP, and it got such a good response that I upped it to thirty.

Since then, a couple of people who received free copies have posted reviews on their blogs, which I thought I’d share here.

Ben at openswitch says:

I must say, I really like it.

I’ve been becoming increasingly disenchanted with today’s mass produced music. Dying Stars is decidedly not mass produced. It’s just a guy and his guitar (for the most part) singing lyrics that actually mean something to him. Imagine that.

As you’re listening to the album you hear the slight fluctuations in his voice. Sometimes a note is just the slightest bit off. But that, to me, lends credibility. Besides, we all know that mainstream musical performers have their voice run through filters, equalizers and other equipment during production. It’s a breath of fresh air to hear an artist who puts out a clean, honest product.

Jake Bouma isn’t trying to fool anyone with a facade. He’s just writing music and performing it in an effort to lift up another human being. Good album.

Headphonaught chimes in as well:

Expressive. Free. These are the words that come to mind as I listen to songs like the opener “Stuck in my heart” and “last time” >> fiery and spirited performances of self-penned material… love songs for today that drip with sentimentality and ache with real life. The EP shows promise… and I look forward to following Jake’s progress.

If you received a free copy, I’d love a quick review on your blog… but certainly don’t feel obligated. Also, if you can, give it a review on iTunes (link opens in iTunes).

I’m giving away 20 30 FREE copies of Dying Stars

To the first 20 30 people who leave a comment on this post. You’ll receive the entire Dying Stars EP (as featured on iTunes) in addition to “Red On A Wall”, an unreleased bonus track.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Easy, huh? Please make sure you enter a valid e-mail address in the comment form, because that’s where I’ll be sending your free music. Sure, you won’t get a beautiful, packaged album like the one pictured on the right, but it will sound just as good!

If you’ve never heard any of my music, this the perfect opportunity to get on the bandwagon before I hit the bigtime and become “to good” for blogging.

For more goodies, be sure to check out my music page.

(Please do not comment if you already own a copy.)

Best of 2007

I am pleased to present the second annual JakeBouma.com “Best of” list. Feel free to argue with my choices in the comments. Here’s the list for 2006.

1. Army of Me - Citizen
2. Matt Nathanson - Some Mad Hope
3. Andy Davis - Let the Woman
4. Anberlin - Cities
5. Kanye West - Graduation
Honorable Mention: Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger, The Alternate Routes - Good and Reckless and True, Eric Hutchinson - Sounds Like This, William Fitzsimmons - Goodnight

1. Once
2. Atonement
3. Bourne Ultimatum
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. Sweeny Todd
Honorable Mention: Ratatouille, American Gangster, I Am Legend, Oceans 13, No Country for Old Men

1. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From A Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation by Andrew Root (Review forthcoming)
2. Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church by James K. A. Smith
3. Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr (Review forthcoming)
Honorable Mention: The Courtier and the Heretic by Matthew Stewart, The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch

1. Chicago Cubs games
2. Heroes
3. Man Vs. Wild
4. The Colbert Report
5. Project Runway

1. Google Reader (seriously, I live a different life because of it)
2. Twitter
3. Bleed Cubbie Blue
4. IAmJoshBrown
5. Rethinking Youth Ministry

The Facebook song

This is a song I wrote with a couple of friends while in a comedy band called Dr. Thunder and the Generic Sodas called “Facebook (I Poke and I Poke)”. It was written and recorded in the spring of 2006. Enjoy (Click below to play).

Lyrics ↴

My name is Andrew and I just transferred here
I don’t know nobody but I’ll conquer my fears
See, the ladies they frustrate me; I break out in a sweat
But the answer to my problem lies on the Internet

There’s this girl in my class, she sits ahead of me
Blonde hair and blue eyes, 5′2″ or 5″3″
I try to catch her attention but she won’t even look
At least she’ll be my friend on the Facebook

Facebook, Facebook
I know all about you, I read it today
And now our friendship’s just a click away
On the Facebook

We like the same movies, like Armageddon
I looked at all your groups and I joined the same ones
I’m not from Minnesota but I know this is true
When we sit down in a circle, it’s “Duck, Duck, GOOSE, bitches”
(Whoa bitches)

I’ll take friendship, I’ll take dating, or whatever I can get
I’ll take random play or maybe a relationship
I know that you’re a liberal, that’s alright with me
There’s a party in my room, why don’t you R.S.V.P

Facebook, Facebook
I know all about you, I read it today
And now our marriage is just a click away
On the Facebook

I poke and I poke and I poke
and I get nothing in return

I poke her to the left and I poke her to the right
I poke her in the middle and I poker her all night

Well I would do anything, I’d walk the plank
I poke and I poke, but my wall is still blank
On the Facebook

I poke and I poke and I poke
and I get nothing in return

• Indie rockers Copeland are releasing an album of “rarities, b-sides, EP tracks, acoustic, and alternate versions” called Dressed Up and In Line on November 20. “The idea is this - we’re taking rare and unreleased recordings from the last 7 years and revisiting the original tracks. All of them are going to be re-mixed and re-mastered. Many of them are going to be updated a bit with added strings, vocals, keys, and guitars. Some will be altered more than others.” Awesome. 10/10/2007

Postmodern suspicion and Matt Nathanson’s “Heartbreak World”

A while back I picked up Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire, a book about hearing Colossians with a new set of (postmodern) ears. In the first chapter, the authors describe and define globalization and postmodernity to lay the foundation for the argument of the rest of the book.

Jean-François Lyotard, a famous French philosopher wrote, “Simplifying in the extreme, I define postmodernity as incredulity toward all metanarratives.” Walsh and Keesmaat call this a “hermeneutic of suspicion”:

This quintessentially Generation X lament is permeated by a deep sense of betrayal. Someone has told them a story, spun them a line, about the good life, and it has proved to be a lie… The world is decidedly malignant and dangerous. The best that one can expect in this world of betrayal is to simply get a piece of the game; but even this cannot be guaranteed.¹

To frame their argument, the authors use lyrics from the popular Smashing Pumkins song Bullet with Butterfly Wings. It is very effective, and after quoting it a second time, they say

We feel most passionately when we have a sense of newness to our life, projects to complete, dreams to fulfill. If there is nothing left to do, then there is nothing left to feel either.²

Although the song was released in 1995, we would be mistaken to believe that this “hermeneutic of suspicion” has vacated from our cultural conscience. The song “Heartbreak World” from Matt Nathanson’s newly-released album Some Mad Hope is a musically beautiful and lyrically poetic articulation of postmodern suspicion. Here are the lyrics:

let’s all pack up and move this year
we’ll slip the liars and disappear
we’ll leave memories for auctioneers
and those just standing still

they’ll miss the taste of wanting you
call out your name, like i still do
but they haven’t said a word that’s true
and they only hold you down

in this heartbreak world of “just imagine”
with it’s tired talk of better days
in this heartbreak world, where nothing matters
come on let’s make this dream that’s barely half awake come true

let’s move out of Los Angeles
and just drive until the summer gives
and forget the lives we used to live
’cause we’re gone

If I ever write a book (or another article) that discusses postmodernity, I’m pretty sure I’ll use these lyrics. Nathanson describes the postmodern hermeneutic of suspicion much better than I ever could myself.

This begs the question: In what other pieces of pop culture do you see this suspicion popping up?

1. Walsh, Brian and Sylvia C. Keesmaat. Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004. 22. ↩
2. Ibid., 23. ↩

• RelevantMagazine.com is streaming the entire EP of The Reign of Kindo on their website. The rock/jazz/funk band includes four members of the recently dismantled band This Day & Age (who, if you remember, I love). Hopefully this is merely a sneak peek of what’s to come with this new band. 09/19/2007

Music of the month

Matt Nathanson, Some Mad Hope: I went to a Matt Nathanson concert once, but it was to see the opener (and my personal musical idol) Matt Wertz. Nathanson put on a hell of a show, but for some reason I just couldn’t get into his recorded music. When I heard clips from Some Mad Hope, however, my mind was changed and I immediately pre-ordered the album. This is acoustic/pop/rock at it’s purest and most emotionally moving. I recommend checking out the Making of Some Mad Hope video to get a taste of the sound on this album. Also, I am selling my autographed copy at Half.com. Favorite tracks: Car Crash, Come on Get Higher, Heartbreak World

William Fitzsimmons, Goodnight: I must personally thank Brandon for this one. A simple text message that said “Hey have you heard of William Fitzsimmons?” was all it took, and soon thereafter I was downloading Goodnight from iTunes. Fitzsimmons’ beautiful acoustic/folk/slightly-electronic music is in the same vein as Iron & Wine and Sufjan Stevens. It’s perfect “fall” music. Favorite tracks: Mend Your Heart, It’s Not True, Everything Has Changed

Eric Hutchinson, Sounds Like This: Eric Hutchinson is the latest of many musical discoveries that comes by periodically perusing the Awarestore Top 10. His music would best be described as quirky piano rock with soul. Think Ben Folds meets Jazon Mraz. I had the good fortune of catching his live show with Amanda at ISU a few weeks ago - before my CD came in the mail - and even though it was only Hutchinson and his bass player, the show was great. One of my favorite songs was called “7C”, which he described as being about a landlord who falls in love with two of his tenants and is then compelled to kill them. I know, it sounds weird, but the song was awesome. Sadly, it’s not on the album… but it still rocks. Favorite tracks: Ok, It’s Alright With Me, You Don’t Have to Believe Me, All Over Now

Athlete, Beyond the Neighbourhood: I was slightly interested in Athlete’s previous album, but they’ve totally nailed it with Beyond the Neighbourhood. This album sounds a bit like a British version of Copeland, but more anthem-rock-ish and less depressing. Favorite tracks: Hurricane, Tokyo, Second Hand Stores

Kent, Du & Jag Döden: Kent is the greatest Swedish rock band you’ve never heard of. I was telling my brother about them the other night, and I said something like, “Kent is what would happen if Sigur Rós decided to rock.” That everything is sung in Swedish makes the whole thing even more appealing, in my opinion. They have a new album, Tillbaka till samtiden (”Back to our time”), coming out on October 17 as well. Favorite tracks: 400 Slag, Den Döda Vinkeln, Mannen I Den Vita Hatten (16 År Senare)

Robbie Seay Band, Give Yourself Away: This album has been playing nonstop in our youth room for about two weeks, and I don’t foresee that ending anytime soon. It’s a great worship album, and the band unironically gave away free downloads of the whole thing for a while. I love the song New Day, about which the band says, “I think most of us feel the world is a mess right now and yet the idea of the sun rising and a new day beginning is still a powerful gift.” Amen. Favorite tracks: New Day, Eternal One, Stay

Releases this fall I’m looking forward to: José González - Down the Line; David Crowder Band - Remedy; Rascal Flatts - Still Feels Good; Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees; Kent - Tillbaka till samtiden

• Dave Matthews released a single and video for “Eh Hee” via iTunes on Tuesday, and for a limited time the video is free. “Creating the whole thing on his own, having Williams create the video (rather than relying on a big-name director), releasing the single unattached to an album, going in a musical direction that’s bound to confuse the fan base…there’s a great deal going on here.” 09/05/2007
• The Robbie Seay Band has partnered with Relevant Magazine to give away their new album Give Yourself Away. All you have to do is click the link above and sign up for a newsletter and the album is yours to download - for free. The album hits stores on August 28, so download it now and up your street cred a few notches. 08/22/2007

Listeners also bought

What do I have in common with Shakira? More than you might think.

Many of you know that my debut album, Dying Stars, has been available for download at the iTunes music store for almost a year now (see left sidebar), and every now and then I check to see if there have been any new reviews written (two 5 star reviews so far!).

Another feature that iTunes has is the “Listeners also bought” section on the right-hand side of an individual artist page. I’ve used this feature several times to discover new artists who have a similar sound as those to whom I already listen. For a while, this feature wasn’t available on my artist page, presumably because there weren’t enough downloads of my music for iTunes to compare with users’ purchases.

Well, now there is a “Listeners also bought” section on my artist page, and the artists listed aren’t exactly similar to my style of music. Listeners who bought the music of Jake Bouma also bought: Fergie, Carrie Underwood, Death Cab for Cutie, Akon, and Shakira.

Go figure.

Prepare Me

(Click to play)

I wrote this song, “Prepare Me”, a little over three years ago in anticipation of working at a summer camp, yet it seems like the words that came to me then are as poignant as ever. The first day of my new job is on Tuesday, and these lyrics will serve as my prayer until then.

I don’t know what you have in store
I don’t know what you’ve chosen me for
I want to be your instrument
I can’t swim but I’m jumping in

Prepare me, prepare me
Illuminate the pathway for my feet
Prepare me, prepare me
Take the blinders off my eyes so I can see
Prepare me

I cannot do this on my own
So I kneel before your throne
I want to show your glorious love
But I need some guidance from above

Prepare me, prepare me
Illuminate the pathway for my feet
Prepare me, prepare me
Take the blinders off my eyes so I can see
Prepare me

Amen.

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