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Doug and Kirk discuss iTunes and AppleScript. This was bound to come sooner or later, since Doug is the AppleScript ninja. We look at what AppleScript does, and discuss more than a dozen of the most useful AppleScripts to use to manage your iTunes library. “AppleScript does not run on Windows, and Windows does not run in my house.” Show notes: News: New Pink Floyd box set covers the early years: 1965 – 1972 Pink Floyd copyright release: 1965: Their First Recordings Everything you need to know about playing music with AirPlay Classical Music Needs More Silence Listen Different: Add Silence to your iTunes and iPod Playlists High-Resolution Silence iTunes & AppleScript: Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes Artist – Name Corrector Remove n Characters from Front or Back This Tag, That Tag Search Replace Tag Text Proper English Title Capitalization List MIAs Super Remove Dead Tracks Music Folder Files Not Added Move Playlists to Folder Playlist Manager Find Album Artwork With Google Save Album Art as folder.jpg Embed Artwork Re-Embed Artwork PDF Adder View Cached Music Copy Tag Info Tracks to Tracks A Space Between Download FAQ and Video Windows Solutions? Bill Nelson’s Artisanal Music Our next tracks: Doug: Roomful of Blues: Live at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel Kirk: Bill Nelson: All That I Remember If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

Doug and Kirk welcome back Andy Doe, digital music consultant, to discuss myths and superstitions around audio: cables, breaking in hardware, digital audio, and more. But first we discuss classical music playlists on streaming services. “Hooray, good for you, you have magical bat ears.” Andy Doe. Show notes: Andy Doe Proper Discord Classical music playlists: Here’s What’s Wrong with Classical Music on Streaming Services (Part Whatever) Audio myths & superstitions: Articles on Kirk’s website about hi-fi magazines writing about audio equipment How Hi-Fi Magazines Write about Cables, Part 7: An Audiophile Shelf IsoAcoustic speaker stands Mastered for iTunes Our next tracks: Kirk: Bach: Lute Works (original version for ten-string guitar), Stephan Schmidt Doug: Rolling Stones, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Andy Doe.Support The Next Track

Have you ever wanted to set up your own home media server? Doug and Kirk discuss the pros and cons of doing this, and explain how to set up a Mac mini as a media server. Show notes: Discovering new music: Apple’s Mac mini OS X Server I wish there was an iTunes Server WD My Passport 4 TB portable hard drive Carbon Copy Cloner Change Screen Resolution on Headless OS X Server Sonos Plex The Merchant of Venice, by the Royal Shakespeare Company Apple improves iCloud Music Library matching, ditches copy-protected matched files for Apple Music users VNC Viewer The best way to watch media on the new Apple TV: iTunes Home Sharing vs. Plex Our next tracks: Doug: Jeff Beck, Loud Hailer Kirk: Emerson String Quartet – Complete Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn welcome NPR and Rolling Stone music critic Will Hermes. We take a brief stroll down memory lane, then discuss music discovery: how does a music critic, overwhelmed with choice, discover new music. “For me to just become a nostalgia merchant; as a writer, and as a music fan, not interested.” Show notes: Discovering new music: Will Hermes’ website; his writing on Rolling Stone; his reviews on WNYC; All Things Considered Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, by Will Hermes NPR Music Uncut Magazine The Wire Pitchfork Rate Your Music Other People Listen to all ten albums from Brian Eno’s Obscure Records label Day of the Dead Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan Rock Family Trees Our next tracks: Kirk: Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians Doug: Johnny Thunders, So Alone If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Will Hermes.Support The Next Track

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn discuss spoken word recordings. How to get them, how to manage them, and how to listen to them. And we discuss how the history of recording started with recordings of spoken word content. “Like a Victorian call center.” Show notes: Spoken word and audiobook recordings: Key dates in the history of audiobooks Walt Whitman reading four lines of America James Joyce reading from Ulysses and Finnegans Wake JRR Tolkien reads from The Lord of the Rings Audible.com, Audible UK, free trial with two free audiobooks Librivox: free, public domain audiobooks Join Together, Mac app that splices multiple audio files into one Ripping and Playing Audiobooks Our next tracks: Doug: Fleetwood Mac, The Boston Box Kirk: Arkangel Shakespeare, and King Lear on the iTunes Store If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn analyze the rumor that Apple is planning to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone, and then discuss how people organize music by genre. “No matter where we steer this thing, we always end up driving down inelegant boulevard.” Show notes: The headphone jack rumor: An iPhone without a headphone jack? No way! On the Recurring Rumor that Apple Is Getting Rid of the iPhone Headphone Jack What’s the Logic Behind Apple’s New Headphone Jack? Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter Headphones with lightning connectors: Philips Fidelo M2/27 Audeze EL-8 Titanium Organizing music by genre: ID3 version 1 genre list Gracenote’s genre list How the Over-Genrification of Music Is Bad for Listeners and Musicians Here’s How Messed Up Apple Music Metadata Is (List of iTunes Store genres in a comment to this article) YouTube Users Are Reinventing The Way We Classify Music – vocativ Our next tracks: Doug: Where There’s A Will There’s A Way: The ABC-Dunhill Recordings By Bobby Whitlock Kirk: Bach, Goldberg Variations (1981), on Glenn Gould: The Complete Columbia Album Collection box set If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn welcome special guest Chris Connaker who runs the Computer Audiophile website to discuss high-resolution audio. What are the pros? The cons? Is high-res for you? “Is high-resolution worth it? There really is no definitive answer to that…” Show notes: The Computer Audiophile website High-resolution audio: Episode #3 – Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know about Audio File Formats Gimell Records, John Taverner – Missa Corona spinea Why do CDs use a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz? Hdtracks JRiver Media Center Fiio X7 portable audio player roon The Dark Art of Mastering Music – Pitchfork Our next tracks: Kirk: Roadies Doug: 2, Mudcrutch If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Chris Connaker.Support The Next Track

In the latest episode of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn take a quick look at the new features coming to Apple Music, and then discuss how we listen to music with headphones and speakers. What’s the best kind of headphones? When should you use speakers? Why not use both (not at the same time, of course)? Show notes: News: A Brief Overview of New Features Coming to Apple Music Headphones and speakers: Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Studio Headphones Sennheiser HD 280 Pro Headphones AKG K 240 Semi-Open Studio Headphones Sony MDRV6 headphones Sony STR-DH100 receiver Jabra Revo Bluetooth headphones Bose 201 speakers Denon PMA 720AE amplifier Focal Chorus 705v speakers Cambridge Audio DacMagic 100 IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R155 speaker stands Mackie MR mk3 studio monitors Sonos PLAY:5 Yamaha R-N301 network stereo receiver Our next tracks: Kirk: The Drop, Brian Eno Doug: The Ventures, The Ventures A Go-Go If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track

In episode #4 of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn welcome special guest Andy Doe, digital music consultant and classical record label head, to discuss some streaming music shenanigans, and audio file metadata, the information that tells you who a track is by, its name, its album, and more. “This is the kind of mass-production of music that Henry Ford would have appreciated.” Andy Doe. Show notes: Andy Doe Proper Discord Streaming music shenanigans: Albums are getting unbearably long and sh*tty streaming rules are to blame Metadata: Metametadata: almost everything you read about classical metadata is wrong Dart Music Our next tracks: Doug: Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical Kirk: The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions, Miles Davis If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Special Guest: Andy Doe.Support The Next Track

In episode #3 of The Next Track, Doug Adams and Kirk McElhearn examine the various audio file formats that you may encounter when you listen to music. You’re familiar with MP3, AAC, and, perhaps, Apple Lossless, but do you know your FLAC from your AIFF, or your WAV from your Ogg Vorbis? Show notes: Audio file formats: Here’s a selection of links about audio file formats, working with lossless audio, etc. An Overview of Audio File Formats Supported By iTunes Everything you need to know about digital audio files The ABCs of Lossless Music Files Wikipedia article about lossless compression The complete guide to using iTunes with lossless audio Why You Shouldn’t Use WAV Files with iTunes How to Play FLAC or Other Lossless Audio Files in iTunes, with links to free apps for Mac and Windows to convert audio files to different formats Rip To Lossless – and Never Rip Again Our next tracks: Doug: Tomita, Greatest Hits Kirk: Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin, Winterreise & Schwanengesang, by Ian Bostridge If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.Support The Next Track