Secrets of the iPod and iTunes (Fifth Edition) [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Musicmatch Jukebox

When I sat down to update this book for the latest edition, I had to think long and hard about whether to excise any mention of Musicmatch Jukeboxthe Windows software Apple bundled with the iPod before it released iTunes for Windows. After all, iPods now ship with versions of iTunes for both Mac and Windows; Musicmatch Jukebox doesn't provide that all-important connection to the iTunes Music Store; it doesn't support AAC file encoding or playback; it doesn't support the fourth-generation iPod, iPod Photo, or iPod mini; and quite honestly, I find that Musicmatch Jukebox is more difficult to work with than iTunes.

On the other hand, Musicmatch Jukebox still works with the first three generations of iPods; it provides a couple of useful features that iTunes doesn't have; and it works with more flavors of Windows than iTunes does. (Musicmatch Jukebox is compatible with Windows Me, XP, and 2000, whereas iTunes requires you to run Windows XP or 2000.) So why deny those who prefer the Musicmatch Way some helpful advice on how to put it to best use?

Note that if you've installed iTunes for Windows, Musicmatch Jukebox will no longer function with your iPod (see the sidebar "Musicmatch Jukebox Reinstallation"). Before attempting to use Musicmatch, make sure that your iPod will work with it.

Current versions of Musicmatch Jukebox aren't compatible with any iPods. The last version that worked with the iPod (the first three generations only) is version 7.5, which you can find at [http://partners.musicmatch.com/archives]. The file you're specifi-cally looking for is called mmsetup_7.50.5005_ENU_Apple.exe.

Musicmatch Jukebox Installation

If your iPod didn't come bundled with iTunes for Windows, and you'd like to use Musicmatch Jukebox, these instructions are for you.

When the installer finishes updating your PC's hard drive with the components necessary for Windows to work with the iPod, the Musicmatch Jukebox installer launches. This installer would like a little personal information.

As you can in the iPod registration screen, you can refrain from providing your name and email address. You must, however, indicate the year you were born. Apparently, there are laws on the books that lend a greater degree of privacy to those under the age of 13. If you enter a year of birth that places you among this group, the registration screen won't allow you to enter personal information.

The Personal Music Recommendations window follows. In this window, you can choose to allow Musicmatch to collect data on the kind of music you listen to so that it can send you links to downloadable music it thinks you'll like. Just between us, I consider my musical habits to be my own business, so I selected the No option in this window. But if you find such a service desirable, click Yes with my blessing.

After you've made your choice and clicked Next, the installer proceeds, installing the application and plug-in driver necessary for Musicmatch Jukebox to recognize the iPod as a portable music device.

Next, you'll be asked to enter a user upgrade key. This key, which is the number on the outside of the iPod Software CD sleeve, enables Musicmatch Jukebox Pro's featuresthe ability to rip music files and burn CDs faster, for example. Enter this number, and you're good to go. The installation process completes, and Musicmatch Jukebox opens by default.

When the installer finishes, you'll be asked to restart your PC. Do so.

Musicmatch Jukebox Reinstallation

When you install iTunes for Windows on a PC that includes a copy of Musicmatch Jukebox, some of the files necessary for Musicmatch Jukebox to work with the iPod are deleted. Some people contend that Apple did this intentionally to grab a greater share of the music-player market. Others who have broad experience with PCs understand that it's the Windows way for a new program to muscle aside an older program that offers similar capabilities (Windows Media Player being the outstanding example). Regardless of why iTunes disables Musicmatch, the fact remains that it does.

If you've installed iTunes for Windows and long for the days of Musicmatch Jukebox, Musicmatch offers the following steps for bringing Musicmatch Jukebox back to life (and, ironically enough, removing iTunes for Windows):

1.
Disconnect the iPod from your computer, if it's still connected.

2.
Double-click My Computer.

3.
Double-click Control Panel.

4.
Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel.

5.
Select and uninstall the iTunes item.

6.
Select and uninstall the iPod for Windows item.

7.
Select and uninstall the Musicmatch iPod Plugin item.

8.
Select and uninstall iPod System Software Update and any other iPod-related items that might be listed.

9.
Select and uninstall the Musicmatch Jukebox item.

10.
Close the Add or Remove Programs control panel.

11.
Restart your computer.

12.
Delete the contents of the iPod directory by dragging the files to the Recycle Bin and then emptying the Recycle Bin.

13.
Navigate to the \program files\Musicmatch\Musicmatch Jukebox\ folder.

14.
Delete the files in the Musicmatch Jukebox folderbut not the folder itself.

15.
Reinstall Musicmatch Jukebox from the installation CD that came with your iPod, or download the iPod software from [Musicmatch.com].

16.
When the installation finishes, reboot your computer.

17.
When the computer finishes rebooting, connect the iPod to your system.

18.
Open Musicmatch Jukebox.

The iPod Manager

As I mentioned earlier, when you connect an iPod and format it for Windows, and iTunes launches, iTunes takes care of the iPod's initial configuration (its name and whether you want it to be updated automatically when you plug it in) in the first screen. Musicmatch Jukebox does the same sort of things with the help of the iPod Manager application, which is installed with the iPod 2.0 Software Updater. (Version 2.1 of this software doesn't include it.)

When you install this earlier version of the Windows software with a third-generation iPod, you'll find the iPod Manager in the Windows System Tray.

The iPod Manager window gives you access to the following options:

Enable Disk Mode.
Enabling this option allows you to use the iPod as a removable hard drive.

Change Home Application.
Ostensibly, clicking this button allows you to choose which application you'd like to use to manage music on your iPod. Regrettably, this feature doesn't include a Browse button, so there's no way to direct iPod Manager to use an application other than Musicmatch Jukebox. All you get is a pop-up menu that doesn't list alternatives to Musicmatch Jukebox.

Launch 2.0 Updater.
Click this button to launch the iPod Software 2.0 Updater, which lets you update the iPod's software or restore (reformat) the iPod.

Check Apple Website for Latest.
Clicking this button launches your Web browser and takes you to Apple's home page. Unfortunately, it doesn't take you directly to Apple's iPod page, where you're more likely to find the update you desire. A more direct approach would be to point your browser to [www.apple.com/ipod].

Show in System Tray.
If you disable this option, the iPod Manager icon disappears from the System Tray.

Automatically Launch Home Application on iPod Plug In.
Enabling this option causes Musicmatch Jukebox to launch when you plug in your iPod.

One option that's not apparent in the iPod Manager window is the ability to rename your iPod. Just click the name that's displayed below the icon of your iPod in the top portion of the window, and type a new name.

Newer versions of Musicmatch Jukebox are not compatible with your iPod. For this reason, you should steer clear of the Update Software command in the Options menu.

Musicmatch Jukebox Overview

Musicmatch Jukebox is comprised of a few windows. The main window contains the play controls to the left and the Playlists area to the right (Figure 5.7). You can hide the Playlists area by clicking the left-pointing triangle on the right side of the window.

The My Library window contains a column view of all the songs in your music library (Figure 5.8). You can change the view in which your library is displayedby artist, album, or genre, for example. Songs are clumped together in folders, depending on the view you've selected. If you've chosen to view by artist, for example, all John Cale songs are placed in a single folder. View this same library by album, and you'll see John Cale's Paris1919, Helen of Troy , and Slow Dazzle albums broken into separate folders.

When you plug in your iPod and launch Musicmatch Jukebox, the Portable Devices window appears (Figure 5.9). In this window, you view the songs on your iPod, manually synchronize your music library and iPod, and gain access to the iPod's options via the Option button (including the ability to edit the iPod's name and determine whether it's updated automatically when you plug it into your PC). I'll discuss each of these windows and functions at greater length later in this chapter.

Ripping a CD

Your iPod wouldn't be much of a music player if it had no music on it. The first thing you'll want to do is move some music from the most likely sourcean audio CDinto Musicmatch Jukebox. Here's how to go about it:

1.
Launch Musicmatch Jukebox.

2.
Insert an audio CD into an available CD drive.

Older versions of Windows may open and play the CD with Musicmatch Jukebox. If you're running Windows XP (Home or Professional), a window will appear, asking what you'd like to do with the CD: play it with Windows Media Player, play it with Musicmatch Jukebox, view the files it contains with Windows Explorer, or take no action. For now, choose the option to play the audio CD in Musicmatch Jukebox.

If your PC has an always-on connection to the Internet (such as a cable modem or DSL connection), Musicmatch Jukebox will venture out onto the Web and download such track information as title, artist, and length of each song on the CD. If you have a penchant for tedious tasks (or no information is available online for the CD you've inserted), you're welcome to enter song information manually.

3.
To convert (or rip) the audio files on the CD to your hard drive, click the red Record button in Musicmatch Jukebox's main window (Figure 5.10).

When you do, the Recorder window appears.

4.
Specify which tracks on the disc you'd like to rip.

By default, all tracks are selected.

5.
Click Record in the Recorder window.

Musicmatch Jukebox begins ripping the CD, showing the progress it's making as a percentage of each song ripped.

When Musicmatch Jukebox finishes ripping the CD, a fanfare erupts from your PC's speakers, and the disc is ejected.

By default, Musicmatch Jukebox rips CDs as MP3 files encoded at 128 Kbps. (As you recall, it doesn't support ripping or playing AAC files.) When Apple's iTunes rips in the MP3 format, it does so at 160 Kbps, which produces largerand better-soundingfiles than those ripped at 128 Kbps. If you want your files to sound as good as the other guy's or gal's, choose Settings from Musicmatch Jukebox's Options menu, click the Recorder tab in the resulting Settings window, enable the Custom Quality option, and move the slider so that the quality reads 160 Kbps.

Moving Music into Musicmatch Jukebox

Ripping a CD isn't the only way to get music into Musicmatch Jukebox. You can download music from the Web, for example, or you may have moved some music that you own from another computer to your PC via a network connection. You can add this music to Musicmatch Jukebox as well, and there are a few ways to do it.

Choose Add New Music Track(s) to Music Library from Musicmatch Jukebox's File menu.

When you issue this command, the Add Tracks to Music Library dialog box appears. From this dialog box, you can navigate to specific folders that contain music. Or you can take the shotgun approach: Select a volume (your C drive, for example), and click the Add button (Figure 5.11). Musicmatch Jukebox scans that volume for compatible music files and adds any that it finds to the library.

The shotgun method is likely to turn up such interesting musical tidbits as the Microsoft toe-tapper "Windows Welcome Music" (all 5 minutes and 24 seconds of it!).

Fortunately, the latest version of Musicmatch Jukebox (version 7.5) that shipped with the iPod includes an option for skipping tracks smaller than a certain size (100 KB, by default). This option helps ensure that such extraneous audio files as system alert sounds aren't added to your music library.

Drag a compatible music file into Musicmatch Jukebox's Playlist or Library window.

Dragging the file into the Playlist window causes the song to begin playing immediately but doesn't add it to Musicmatch Jukebox's library. To add the file to a playlist, click the Save button just below the Playlist window. To add the file to your library, drag the file into the Library window.

Use Musicmatch Jukebox's WatchFolders feature.

By default, Musicmatch Jukebox stores its songs in the My Music folder within the My Documents folder (which is inside your user folder, if you're running Windows XP). You can instruct Musicmatch Jukebox to use additional folders for music storage by choosing WatchFolders from the File menu.

In the resulting WatchFolders window (Figure 5.12), click the Add button to create a watch folder. When you want to add music to your library, drop the music files into a watch folder. Musicmatch Jukebox will add to its library any files that it finds in watch folders.

Creating and Configuring a Playlist

Like iTunes and the Macintosh iPod, Musicmatch Jukebox allows you to organize your library of songs in playlists. To create such a playlist, follow these steps:

1.
Launch Musicmatch Jukebox.

If the Library window doesn't appear, click the My Library button in the bottom-left corner of the Musicmatch Jukebox window.

2.
Select the songs you'd like to add to your playlist.

3.
Right-click one of the selected songs, and choose Add Track(s) to Playlist Window from the contextual menu (Figure 5.13).

or

Choose Music Library from Musicmatch Jukebox's Options menu and then choose Add Track(s) to Playlist Window from the submenu.

4.
After the songs appear in the Playlists window (Figure 5.14), arrange the order in which you'd like the songs to play simply by dragging songs up or down in the list.

5.
When you have the playlist configured to your satisfaction, click the Save button that appears just below the Playlist window.

The Save Playlist dialog box appears.

6.
Enter a name for your new playlist, and click Save.

7.
To clear the songs from the playlist, click the Clear button below the Playlists window.

This action doesn't remove the songs from your library; it simply clears the playlist so that you can create or call up other playlists.

8.
To call up a playlist, click the Open button below the Playlists window, click the Playlists button in the resulting Open Music dialog box, and then click the Play button.

The playlist will load in the Playlists window, and the first song in the playlist will begin playing.

If you'd like to add music to an existing playlist, you can skip steps 3 through 6. Just select the songs you'd like to add to the playlist, right-click one of the selected songs, and choose Add Track(s) to Saved Playlist(s) from the contextual menu. When you do, the Select Playlist window appears. Click the playlist to which you want to add the tracks; then click OK. The selected tracks are added to the playlist.

Moving Music to the iPod

Musicmatch Jukebox offers you a couple of ways to transfer music from your PC to the iPod. As with iTunes and the iPod, you can cause the iPod to update each time you plug it into your PC, or you can update it manually. The key to managing music on your iPod is the Options dialog box, available from Musicmatch Jukebox's Portable Devices window. Let's take a look.

The Portable Devices window

By default, when you plug your iPod into your PC, Musicmatch Jukebox opens, along with the Portable Devices window. The iPod appears below the Attached Portable Devices entry in the left pane of this window.

If you click the iPod in this window and then click the Options button that rests in the bottom-right corner of the Portable Devices window, you'll get the aptly named Options dialog box. Within this dialog box, you'll find options for adding music to your iPod.

The Options dialog box

The Options dialog box is broken into four tabs.

General tab.
What a waste of a perfectly good tab. Other than providing a place to post Musicmatch Jukebox's product information, this area allows you to reset those " Don't ask me again" messages so that, indeed, Musicmatch Jukebox will ask you again.

Audio tab.
This tab is slightly more useful to iPod users. This area allows you to apply current digital sound enhancements to your files; apply volume leveling, a process that attempts to maintain a consistent volume among the songs on your iPod; and resample audio files encoded at more than a certain resolution at a different rate. (Files encoded at 160 Kbps can be resampled at 128 Kbps, for example.)

Regrettably, only one of these options works on the Windows iPod. Sound enhancements within Musicmatch Jukebox such as EQ aren't copied to the iPod from a PC (though they are if you use iTunes for Windows), and you can't apply volume leveling to songs on the iPod (though you can apply volume leveling to files on the PC and then transfer them to the iPod).

If you choose the resampling option, however, when you download songs to your iPod, they will be resampled at the settings you requested. This resampling takes some timeabout 45 seconds on a not-terribly-fast PCso unless you're really pressed for space, don't bother using this option.

Synchronization tab.
Ah, now we're cookin'. The settings in the Synchronization tab let you decide whether to synchronize your entire music library when you sync your iPod or synchronize only selected playlists (Figure 5.15). This area also includes the Automatically Synchronize on Device Connection option. When this check box is unchecked, you can manage the contents of your iPod manually and mount your iPod on your PC without fear that its contents will be wiped out because the library on the PC doesn't match the songs on the iPod.

Included with Musicmatch Jukebox 7.5 is the new Ignore All Content Deletions option. If you disable this option, Musicmatch Jukebox will delete not only audio files on the iPod that aren't in your computer's music library, but also nonaudio files. That's rightif you disable this option, Musicmatch Jukebox may delete the PowerPoint presentation and email database that you copied to your iPod for "safekeeping." Why Musicmatch included an option that puts your data at risk is beyond me. Suffice it to say that you do not want to disable this option.

iPod tab.
Finally, the iPod tab includes options for automatically launching Musicmatch Jukebox when you plug the iPod into the PC, enabling disk use (in which your iPod appears as a removable hard drive), and naming your iPod. You'll also find the iPod's version number in this tab.

Moving music

If you've chosen to have your iPod updated whenever Musicmatch Jukebox launches, all you need to do to move new songs to your iPod is plug it into your PC. Musicmatch Jukebox will launch, and the songs in your library will be synchronized with the songs on your iPod. Even if you haven't chosen to update the iPod automatically, it's easy to synchronize Musicmatch Jukebox's music library with your iPod. Just open the Portable Devices window, select the iPod in the left pane, and click the Sync button.

To add songs to your iPod when you've configured it to be updated manually, select your iPod in the Portable Devices window, open the My Library window, and drag the songs you want into the main Portable Devices window. You can also drag and drop files from outside the program (from the desktop or a window, for example) into the Portable Devices main window.

Finally, you can create playlists in the Playlists area of Musicmatch Jukebox's main window and click the Send button to move that playlist (and the music it includes) directly to your iPod.

Musicmatch Jukebox will not let you move anything but MP3 and WAV files to your iPod. Although you can play unprotected AAC files on an iPod formatted for Windows, Musicmatch Jukebox doesn't support that file type; therefore, you can't use Musicmatch Jukebox as a conduit for moving those files from your PC to the iPod.

Editing Track Tags

Editing track information in Musicmatch Jukebox is just as easy as carrying out a similar operation in iTunes. To produce the Edit Track Tag(s) window (Figure 5.16), just click the Tag button in the My Library window, right-click a track in your music library, and choose Edit Track Tag(s) from the contextual menu. Or select a track, choose Music Library from the Options menu, and then choose the Edit Track Tag(s) command from the resulting submenu.

In this window, you can enter such information as track title, track number, artist, album, genre, preference (akin to iTunes' ratings), lyrics, notes, bios, tempo, and mood. You're welcome to knock yourself out filling in each field for every song in your library, but before you do, you should understand that the iPod will use only the information in the Title, Artist, Album, and Genre fields.

This window offers some features you won't find in iTunes. Take the Load Album button, for example. I can best explain how this button works by providing this for-instance: You've chosen to edit the track information for the Beatles song "If I Fell." When you click the Load Album button, all the songs from the album A Hard Day's Night appear in the Track Filename(s) list. If you then click the Select All button, you can edit tag information for all the songs on that album at the same time.

You'll also find options for looking up tags on the Internet (helpful if you've obtained music that hasn't already been tagged) and for batch-renaming selected files. And unlike iTunes, Musicmatch's tagging feature can download album artwork for the songs in your library. Currently, iTunes provides album artwork only for music purchased from the iTunes Music Store.

Other Musicmatch Jukebox Tricks

What other changes can you make in Musicmatch Jukebox that will affect your iPod?

Make volumes consistent.
If you scroll through your iPod's Settings screen, you'll see the Sound Check option. This feature is peculiar to the iPod and iTunes. When you switch Sound Check on in iTunes, the songs in the iTunes library are processed so that songs play at a consistent volume (some songs aren't wildly louder or softer than others). You can toggle this effect on the iPod.

Although Sound Check appears in the Windows iPod's Settings screen, the feature isn't supported if you're using Musicmatch Jukebox (it is if you use iTunes for Windows). This doesn't mean, however, that you can't produce a similar effect in Musicmatch Jukebox.

Musicmatch Jukebox uses the Volume Leveling feature to generate this effect. Much like Sound Check, Volume Leveling processes songs in your music library so that they play at a volume similar to other Volume Leveling-processed songs. The difference between Sound Check and Volume Leveling is that you can't turn Volume Leveling off on the iPod. (Also, unlike Sound Check, Volume Leveling doesn't have to be applied to every song in your library; you can process only a selected group of songs.) After the songs have been processed on the PC, that volume setting is maintained on the iPod, regardless of whether the Sound Check feature is turned on or off in the Settings screen.

To employ Volume Leveling, open the My Library window, select the songs to which you'd like to apply the effect, and right-click a selected file. From the resulting contextual menu, choose Prepare Track(s) for Volume Leveling. You can also invoke the Volume Leveling command in the Playlists window. Just select the songs you want to process in the playlists, right-click a selected file, and choose Prepare Track(s) for Volume Leveling from the contextual menu that appears.

Chapter 2, Sound Check isn't all it's cracked up to be, and other schemes that crank up the volume on each individual track can be more effective. Such is the case here.

Generate random playlists.
Musicmatch Jukebox includes a feature similar to iTunes' Smart Playlists, called AutoDJ, which generates playlists for you based on three criteria. It works this way:

Click the AutoDJ button in the My Library window. The AutoDJ window appears (Figure 5.17). In this window are three scrolling lists, each accompanied by a list of search criteria (Album, Artist, and Genre, for example). To generate a random playlist, select different criteria in each list, and enter the play time for the resulting playlist.

If I chose By Album for the first list, for example, AutoDJ would display all the albums in my library. Then I'd check the albums from which I was willing to accept songs. In the second list, I might choose By Artist. All the artists in my library would appear in the list, and I'd select those that I was willing to have appear in my playlist. And in the third list, I might choose By Genre and select Jazz and Rock/Pop, thus ensuring that only jazz and rock/pop tunes would appear in my playlist.

Next, I'd enter a play time of three hours and click the Get Tracks button to generate the playlist. AutoDJ would grab three hours' worth of songs from my library that met my criteria and randomly place their titles in Musicmatch Jukebox's Playlists window. Then I could save that playlist and later transfer it to my iPod.