Yes, that preserves the genres for those that use the genres for playists. I chose the composer route also, but it list the ALBUMs of the artist starting with the corresponding letter after clicking the letter. Therefore, you have to know the album you are trying to get to when using the composer lettering scheme.

 

Gotcha... I didn't use the genre for anything, so I didn't mind changing it. I can see where others might find it useful though.

 

Is there a way to automatically do the Genre thing? Or do you have to do it album by album?

 

It won't do it automatically. You can however select multiple artists in itunes and change the genre for all of them. Much easier then doing it album by album.

 

True. I think most people know the artist's album title, since they are trying to find it! It is not much different than "genre" mode but it's quicker in getting to the desired album.

I use both the "composer" and "genre" because both give me greater flexibility in narrowing down my search while I'm driving. If I know I want to listen to a specific artist and I know the album, I go with "composer". If I'm not sure of the album, or in a mode for a certain genre then I go with the "genre".

 

How is it quicker? Not knocking it, just a little confused. You would think it would be slower considering most people have multiple albums by each artist (more to scroll through).

 

The "composer method" is also great if you have albums that are compilations because they will not show up under the "genre method" because the "genre method" files artists by their album title. In a compilation (example, 80s compilation) you have many artists under one album title. Under the "composer method" you can label the composer as "C" and then get to it quickly!

It is quicker especially when the artist is on the first screen (I think its the first 6 letters) and their genre is not on the first screen. It takes less steps to get to the album.

Example: Alice in Chains (AIC) in my ipod is filed under "rock" If I was to get to it through "genre method", I would have to scroll to 2nd or 3rd screen under my genres and then pick AIC and then the album. Under the "composer method", I would pick "A" and then the album... But if you have many artists filed under "A" in "composer method" then it would probably be easier using the "genre method"

As I said, I use 'em both so it kinda depends on the situation...

 

Ah....well Alice in Chains is "A" in my genre list, so wouldn't really save me much time. You're right though, both ways have their uses.

 

Now you lost the artist's original genre. Sometimes I like to pick tunes by their genres and not so much by the artist.

To sum it up...You can maintain the artist's genre and also alphabetize by artist if you use the "composer method"

 

Yeah...I understood what you were saying. I just don't use the genre for anything, so I went that route. That and with 60+ gigs of music I sometimes have problems remembering album names

 

bump for my reference!

 

Personally detest the ipod interface on our cars. I seem to always want to listen to bands that start with U, or W, or most of the higher letters making it a HUGE PITA to scroll. Maybe Infiniti can come up with new software to fix this issue. In the meantime, I'll try some of the suggestions posted here.

 

+1. i personally just make playlists of songs i know i like to listen to while i drive.

 

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I just wrote an ASP script that'll do this for you. I'm going to make it into a desktop app in a few days for Windows users, but it whips through an exported iTunes library, setting all of the Genres to "Artist - A" (or whatever letter) and all of the Composers to "Album - B" (or whatever letter). Then you just re-import. There's another step or two to go with it, but it does the job in a few seconds.

I won't be able to work on the Windows desktop app version of this until the middle of the week, but all of the core logic already exists; I just have to make a quick and dirty interface that:

1. Backs up your current iTunes library
2. Processes the exported backup
3. Saves you a new XML file to import

Sorry mac users... I don't have a Mac so I can't whip something up in AppleScript for you. Yet.