[rsync]

Apple Music is library focused if you have very simple requirements and if your "library" was created, or coincident with, the iTunes ecosystem.

The OP notes "Folder based navigation" and "... Folder based playlists" but note the use of the word "folder" and not "directory".

Take a look at this dialog box:

https://www.tech-recipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/itun...

... and note all of the fine-grained ways to sort by ... but also note that the most basic attribute of all (filename) is missing.

I am not sure for whom iTunes and its interface is optimized for but I do know that any sane way I could imagine of moving my music onto an iPhone is totally impossible.

[kall]

I don't think it's fair to say that it only works for simple library situations. I happily tend to a large and intricate library with it.

You just need to give up on real files and folders. If you want the fusion of library focus and streaming service, they don't make sense anyway. iTunes is going to take over all management of the filesystem. You just have to surrender all that, than it can be very powerful.

If you actually wanted to migrate, you could copy the filename into the comment tag on the way in, but that seems dirty.

[LgWoodenBadger]

Help me understand how filename is useful in a way that other metadata doesn’t already cover, please.

[littlecranky67]

Somewhat niche, but in the electronic music genre (house, techno, trance etc.) albums and single tracks are a rare thing. People mostly listen and consume DJ livesets/-mixes, and using filenames & folders to organize is basically the way to go. It is very difficult to come up with any sane metadata system, let alone that all music players are unable to cope with that kind of music collection. Public metadata databases like Musicbrainz etc. are not a thing there, and sets are usually not commercially sold - so all metadata would also have to be manually entered.

In case anybody wonders about the (legal) sourcing, in most parts of Europe it is still perfectly legal to record radio stations, locally download from Youtube/Soundcloud etc. and even share/copy with close friends and family. And the market for livemixes is huge in the youtube era, see productions from Cercle, Boiler Room etc.

[bin_bash]

I don't understand, why can't the DJ be the artist and the filename be the track title? Isn't that roughly how SoundCloud works?

[littlecranky67]

Well as said, you mostly will have to do the metadata assignments - and what is it good for, if DJ name + title are already in the filename? If you do exactly as you suggest, Apple Music i.e. would always show a single album for the same DJ, even if you have 50+ sets. Also way more important is the year of the set, often you want them ordered by date of recording.

[rsync]

"Help me understand how filename is useful in a way that other metadata doesn’t already cover, please."

If your "music library" is post-iTunes then it isn't that useful - you have compressed media files with metadata embedded in them.

However if your music library is older than itunes and consists of lossless WAV/PCM files there is no metadata. There is only the filename.

[hondo77]

> However if your music library is older than itunes and consists of lossless WAV/PCM files there is no metadata. There is only the filename.

So putting your music on an iPhone isn't impossible. It just means that you would have to take the time to add metadata to the existing files (and possibly first converting them to a lossless format that supports metadata--I'm guessing PCM does not).

[kall]

That sounds like a situation iTunes/Apple Music is completely unfit for. I think foobar2000 was able to manage that kind of thing? You gotta see that it's a niche situation, not something that even most people who seriously care about their library do.

[snowwrestler]

What happens when you drag one of those files into Music? It doesn’t use the filename as the track name? That’s my recollection of how iTunes used to work with naked music files, but I haven’t tried it with the Music app.

[jackson1442]

isn't "sort name" exactly what you're looking for? I would assume it's the title of the track (or file) but with "the" and the like stripped out.

[rsync]

Yes, it's the title - but not the filename.

WAV/PCM files don't have metadata.

There is no id3/tag data. They do not have a "title" nor do they have anything else. That's a problem if your music library predates iTunes and iDevices.

[KennyBlanken]

Your WAV files don't have metadata, but WAV absolutely supports metadata.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV

> WAV files can be tagged with metadata in the INFO chunk. In addition, WAV files can embed any kind of metadata, including but not limited to Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data[25] or ID3 tags[26] in extra chunks.

That aside: why are you using WAV when there are mature, open lossless compression formats like FLAC?

FLAC is supported in iOS since v11, in Android since Honeycomb, and I'm able to listen to FLAC on a Mac running the now-ancient High Sierra release via the finder's quicklook, or iTunes. I don't think I installed a plugin, but I could be wrong.

[dangravell]

This. Funny how "WAVs don't have metadata" has become such a meme. What is really meant is "software doesn't support WAV metadata". This has changed over the past five years or so, though.