I appreciate art and I love music. And I just can't get enough of it: I really love to listen to my collection on "near all devices": On the Netbook while doing work at the University, on the Tablet while sitting on the couch or on my Phone - while running or commuting. That said, there is always the little and persistent problem of synchronizing data.
Google solved that problem by starting "Google Music": You can upload 20.000 Songs from your collection and listen to them - again and again - for free. Awesome!
But before you rush out and start getting your uplink glowing - let me share two "words of advice":
1.) Clean your collection and tags. Yeah, you saw that comming and you hate it. Everyone does. But it is the only way to get fun out of your collection. Don't try to upload and correct that stuff later. It just won't work and will frustrate you. So do yourself a favor and work out that little errors and problems. Get in some cover pictures, too. MP3tag ( http://www.mp3tag.de/ ) was my tool of choice and works awesome. While using the latest WinAMP to convert Audiofiles from foreign Formats to MP3 - and to look for "a little too strange songs" via the Autotagger - you will get these files ordered in reasonable time.
2.) Your only way to upload your music to Google is by using the Music Manager Tool. It seems straight forward and easy - but it is kind of buggy. Look out for "not uploaded" files by checking files from your HDD against your Google Music Account. Music Manager tends to "overlook" files and can't be pushed to upload certain missing files by adding another folder with the same, missing files. The only thing that is working out is browising to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\MusicManager and deleting the files there [Win 7 Path]. Especially the Database / db File. After restarting Music Manager, the tool will reindex your files and upload missing ones. If "Johnfail" wouldn't had found this Workaround, I would still be sitting ducks. Here is the original post: http://johnfail.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/more-google-music-upload-failure/
Thanks a lot :)!
Other than that - enjoy your music! 🙂