Which Album Do I Keep When There Are Duplicates?

[beingbenjamin]

I have just subscribed to Apple Music. I am going down the list of albums I've accumulated over the years on Spotify and adding them to Apple Music. I do have an older iTunes purchased library. But whether or not I know I already own them, I'm searching Apple Music. But that's when I noticed that some albums I know I've purchased still say "ADD" rather than "DOWNLOADED". Then I end up with two copies in my Library: my purchased one and the Apple Music one. It doesn't always happen, just on some albums. It looks like some metadata is just slightly different. For example the artists for one albums had a "&" between their names on the purchased version but a "/" on the Apple Music version. Sometimes the purchased one will have an option to "Add to iCloud Music", which I assume means it just didn't match because of the different metadata. But a few don't have that option, like they are already there (but clearly aren't since I have two copies). Yet others show one album but all the tracks are duplicated.

This isn't going well and I just need a little clarity on how to clean this up. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Tartarus]

Hi.
Thanks for this challenging question.
Apple Music is indeed not the easiest service to comprehend at first, but within a week you'll be an expert, I can tell.

I have just subscribed to Apple Music. I am going down the list of albums I've accumulated over the years on Spotify and adding them to Apple Music. I do have an older iTunes purchased library. But whether or not I know I already own them, I'm searching Apple Music.

Don't. Just make sure iCloud Music Library is enabled in settings in iTunes. That's when the matching will happen.

But that's when I noticed that some albums I know I've purchased still say "ADD" rather than "DOWNLOADED". Then I end up with two copies in my Library: my purchased one and the Apple Music one. It doesn't always happen, just on some albums. It looks like some metadata is just slightly different. For example the artists for one albums had a "&" between their names on the purchased version but a "/" on the Apple Music version.

That's correct. Metadata is leading in whether a song is matched rather than uploaded.

Sometimes the purchased one will have an option to "Add to iCloud Music",

If you see this option, that means that this song is not yet processed and placed in your iCloud Music Library. Simply tap that and it will either be matched with Apple Music or uploaded to your iCloud Music Library.

which I assume means it just didn't match because of the different metadata.

That's a wrong assumption. It means those songs have not yet been processed by Apple Music. Like I said above, tap the "Add to iCloud Music" option and it will either be matched with Apple Music or uploaded to your iCloud Music Library.

But a few don't have that option, like they are already there (but clearly aren't since I have two copies).

Those duplicates, does one of them have the option to download the song and the other says Apple Music?
To determine if a song is on your computer, simply select that song, tap "Get Info", go to the "File" tab and see if 'Location:' shows a directory in iTunes Media, like 'C:\iTunes Media\artist name\' or 'C:\Apple Music' or 'iCloud'.
A general information:

Songs you previously had on your computer will be in a folder like 'C:\iTunes Media\artist name\'.
Songs you added via Apple Music will either be in or 'C:\Apple Music' or on 'iCloud'.
When it simply says 'iCloud' that means the song was added by you from Apple Music but not (yet) downloaded physically on your computer.

Yet others show one album but all the tracks are duplicated.

If the duplicated songs are songs owned by you and are already in a folder of your own choosing on your computer, make a backup of those songs. Delete the complete album and re-add them to iTunes. Within a few minutes a wheel will spin and those songs will be processed to be matched or uploaded.

This isn't going well and I just need a little clarity on how to clean this up. Any help would be appreciated.

Help is here, I'm happy to be of service.

When I first started using Apple Music and iCloud Music Library I made a backup of all my songs first, put it on an external hard drive and added them from their original folder to iTunes. (The backup was just for in case something went wrong and my songs got deleted in the process).
Only after I was finished adding my own songs to iCloud Music Library I started adding music from Apple Music to my library. That way I made sure I didn't have any duplicates.

I hope this helps you understand Apple Music a bit better.

If not, ask and me or someone else will help you out.

 

[beingbenjamin]

Much appreciated. As I dug in, it looks like the duplicated albums were all really old CDs I had ripped and added to iTunes back in the day. The albums that had duplicate tracks had mismatched metadata.

For what it is worth, I had Apple Music turned on for quite some time so the ones that still said "Add to Apple Music" were not just waiting to upload.

But at any rate, I got it all cleaned up, re-created my playlists, and now it is off to the races. Only took about 3-4 hours.

 

[Tartarus]

I'm glad you solved this issue.
Enjoy Music


I'm an a similar situation myself.
I changed the hard disk my music was on and took the chance to clean up the mess updating from windows 7 to windows 10 did to my folders on that drive.

All my music still appear in iTunes and on my devices, but the songs on my disk aren't associated with them yet. I moved them to another disk and will have to use the import option in iTunes to have them sorted in their appropriate folders.

Since I have 7k or so songs, I'm gonna take my sweet time to this.