John is it possible to add the BPM to all the songs in my iTunes library? The short answer for most of us is yes, with the exception of any tracks you purchased directly from iTunes back when much of their music carried DRM - Digital Rights Management. What follows is a complete video tutorial for adding the BPM to unprotected tracks in your iTunes music library.
While not being a huge fan of Auto BPM counters,* I do agree that having a number of methods of sorting your music in iTunes can be helpful and will help you become more efficient at creating cadence based playlists.
*I encourage Instructors to actually sample tracks using a Tap to the Beat counter, rather than depending on a software program to show the BPM of a track. Just because a song is listed at 150 BPM doesn't mean it will communicate a tempo that you can use to set your cadence at 75 RPM. Info about the Tap to the Beat counter can be found here.
MixMeister offers a simple and easy to use BPM Analyzer you can download for free here for both PC and Macs. Download and install it now. What's typical missing form any MixMeister product is a full explanation of how to use their software... and that's where I can help 🙂
Next watch this short video to learn how to add BPM to your iTunes library.
John is a member on the AFS (Association of Fitness Studios) Advisory Council.
Holding certifications from; Schwinn, Heart Zones, Team ICG and Life Time Fitness, John's held regularly scheduled cycling classes between 1998 and 2015 when he moved to Florida.
When the weather permits, you'll find him riding and leading outdoor groups by himself or with his Tandem partner (wife) Amy.
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John,
If you drag the entire iTunes folder into MixMeister BPM Analyzer and you have any protected music in it (DRM), it is likely to crash the Analyzer – at least my experience is that it will definitely crash it (Mac OS).
Also, another way to refresh the meta information into iTunes would be to do Get Info on a track in the list, then just use the previous/next button to roll through the list. I think it is much faster than double-clicking on each track.
I did the whole library at one time. No crashes. The suggestion to use the next button in the ‘get info’ window does help go through the list more quickly without playing a 1400 songs for one second each which is what happens if you double click.
This was great. It has been on my to do list for years. I now have my entire library done. It took like an hour to do all the songs. it took me another 10 minutes to get the bpm into the library as mentioned above.
I did a sample test of bpm using my ‘tap’ app. I found them to be close enough to feel more or less confident. don’t forget rpm = bpm/2.
Great app from mixmiester.
Couple questions:
1. Do you recommend converting all songs in iTunes to MP3 rather than AAC? (Are there pros and cons to this?)
2. After you do the analyzer on your whole iTunes library initially, what do you need to do as you add new songs and want to get their bpms too?
I’m definitely considering doing this, but want to make sure I know what I’m in for! Thank you. 🙂
Shari,
In case John does not get to this right away, I’ll take a stab at the answers you seek.
1. Yes MP3 It will say MPEG. to do this go to advanced in the toolbar… select create MP3 and it’s done. Then you will have an AAC and MPEG. I just delete the AAC
2. For additional songs use the same procedure it just will not take very long. Or, if you have Tap then do it the good old fashion way.
Shari my understanding (and I’m not an audio expert) is that MP3 and AAC are two different, yet similar forms of music file compression. MP3 is the open source most widely used and AAC is Apple’s version. I’m not aware of any reason you wouldn’t convert everything and Chuck’s suggestion to then remove all of the AAC versions is sound – unless you have a huge HD and don’t worry about storage.
Thanks, Chuck and John, for your answers. This is really good info, and I appreciate your explanations.
One more thing to clarify getting the bpms for new songs that are added to the library–would you drag the whole iTunes folder into the analyzer again? Or do you stay in iTunes and click on the new songs to then get their bpms?
Hope that question makes sense. 🙂
When you import additional tracks I would “Right Click” the new track > show in Windows Explorer, and then only drag the the new tracks into the analyzer.
Thanks! I have a Mac, so “Show in Finder” is how that translates (if anyone else needs to know!). 🙂
If I convert song to mpeg will it still play on my apple products? When I slide my songs into the box it only did one song and the next few I tried a little white box popped up so fast I could not read it.
Martha everything will play an Mp3. Were the songs you tried to convert MP3s?