Music Storage/playage/syncage

[Fish-Finger-er]

right, got a bit of an issue for you here.

for the last 7/8 years ive used itunes, as it works, i stick my music on itunes, i plug my ipod into my pc, everything matches up and im away. However it doesnt work as well as id like it to.

basically i currently have a netbook and a desktop. all my music is on my netbook, however decided its about time i stick it all on my desktop, which i could do with the aid of a usb hard drive and a couple of spare hours.

but the trouble is, despite itunes being brilliant at syncing an ipod with itunes thats about it.

I have an android phone, syncing it requires add ons/a ballache. If I download an album on my netbook, I then have to re download an album on my desktop. If I want to change playlists/put a new album on my ipod, I have to plug it into the pc it was originally synced too. I cant just plug it into my netbook to grab the new album on that, as it'll want to delete all the stuff on my ipod and start again.

im looking at getting a tablet pc, and obviously id have the same issues.

what id like is a program/solution that means I can add music onto one device, and it will automatically sync and stick it on the others(i don't mind having to wait till i get home and syncing them all over wifi). forget i've got an ipod as that can be chucked if need be, its only for gym use.

been looking at cloud solutions, but nothings really looking ideal(apart from google music, but its not even officially out in the UK for testing right now). cloud would be a nice touch,providing it would let me download playlists/albums to a device for offline listening, buts its not essential, all I want is something that can share a library across 2/3 windows based computers and sync them to a phone, a tablet pc, and possibly an mp3 player at the touch of a button, or by plugging in.

is there anything that can do this, closest thing I've seen is the icloud, but that means the tablet pc is going to be £200 dearer than it needs to be(64gb ipad vs a 32gb eee pad transformer and a 32gb micro sd card), and would mean getting an iphone for everything to work, and even then I'm not sure if it would allow me to have an offline library that I could add to without using the itunes store, across a desktop pc, a netbook, and most likely soon a laptop.

[isitafox]

Not sure how you are at using proxys or anything but if you can blag a free trial with one you can sign up for an invite to google music (requires you to be in the USA hence the proxy). That lets you upload your entire music collection then you can access it via any computer you want in the world inc an android phone.

Think the web address is music.google.com if you want to read up about it and if it would be suitable for what you want, as far as I know it's currently being tested in the USA and should be released over here if succesfull.

[Krisboats]

Simples.

On your desktop computer make a share folder with read&write access to everyone on the network and lets say, call it 'music'. On your netbook browse your network, go to your desktop and open the music share folder, drag and drop all music into that. It'll take a while (think mine was 3 hours for 130gb) but once it's done delete the music saved on the nebook hard drive.

Then simply direct itunes/winamp/whatever to the network folder for your music and voila! Media sharing available from any device in the house, wirelessly and synced exactly the same for every device as its only one library.

Thats what i've done and its been flawless, runs like a dream.

If you don't want the desktop on all the time you could get a hard drive with network access and just hardwire it to the router then set up a share in the same way.

[JD™]

Simples.

On your desktop computer make a share folder with read&write access to everyone on the network and lets say, call it 'music'. On your netbook browse your network, go to your desktop and open the music share folder, drag and drop all music into that. It'll take a while (think mine was 3 hours for 130gb) but once it's done delete the music saved on the nebook hard drive.

Then simply direct itunes/winamp/whatever to the network folder for your music and voila! Media sharing available from any device in the house, wirelessly and synced exactly the same for every device as its only one library.

Thats what i've done and its been flawless, runs like a dream.

If you don't want the desktop on all the time you could get a hard drive with network access and just hardwire it to the router then set up a share in the same way.

Another vote for this - it's what I do too.

[Muel]

Could just get a cheaper server, stick ubuntu server on it and stream everything across the network. If you then got a static IP on your internets you could set up a VPN and then you could connect to the server from outside the network.

Or you could just use a USB HDD like I do and carry it with you wherever you go, and when you add new music just copy it to the desktop. If I add 5 albums, then just copy and paste the 140gb ish of music I have, then it only copies the 5 new albums so takes a couple of minutes at the most.

In the past I used a 500gb LAN HDD, which worked fine but it was bloody slow. Think 4mbps write speeds. The USB HDD I have now is USB3, so I get about 80mbps write and 100mbps read.

[eskimo]

No offence whatsoever, but actually buying physical copies of music has many benefits. Also not buying Apple helps too

Good luck with your quest though

[Fish-Finger-er]

Thanks for the replies, yea I've signed up for a Google music beta application via a vpn, just awaiting an invite.

Kris, thanks, seems perfect, but doesnt that mean when I'm away from my network I've got bugger all?

I like the way Apple works in as much as if it all fits it all syncs, if not you select what you want on there an you can change what you want whenever you can bring both devices together.

An adding stuff to your itunes on iPhone means its there on your pc.

I just want more than 1 "master library" I.e I can stick tunes off my netbook onto my phone when I'm away from home, but then do it with my desktop when I'm at home. An so far Google seems like the sensible option.