Updating Tracks lower bitrates, to higher bitrates (Google Play Music Library)

[PittsburghKnights]

So, I've downloaded my Google Play Music library, and there are a ton of songs that are much higher bitrate than what's in MusicBee.

Is there any way to update/upgrade my tracks in Music Bee with the MP3's I've downloaded from Google Play Music?

Basically, Have music Bee look at my downlaods and determine what songs are duplicates, what ones are lower bitrate, and which are higher bitrate?

THANKS!

/pk

[phred]

Tools > Manage Duplicates
You can select which tags to use as criteria for declaring the files as duplicates, but I don't think bitrate is available since it isn't really a tag.

I suggest you give it a look and if you think you see something that might work, test it with a few songs first. I also strongly suggest that you make some backups of the tracks you're testing so if you delete the wrong one, you have a fallback.

[frankz]

I think I know what you're asking, which is how to replace the old files with the new files in bulk. Unfortunately, there's no mechanism to directly replace a set of files with another set of files.  You can only do one file at time with another file.

I've recently been upgrading my collection from MP3 to FLAC and I will tell you what I do.  The "FLACs" here will be your higher bitrate MP3s.

1. I import the new FLAC files to the inbox
2. For each album, I right-click, search on the album.  This brings up the new copy and the old copy.  You need to do this from the Inbox or else you'll only search your library and find the old set. I make sure I'm in Tracks view sorted by file location and then album, so the two sets are distinct.  The new set should also have an INBOX indicator.
3. I use the "Additional Tagging and Reporting Tools" plugin here.  I right click the old set and copy the tags I want from them, which is date added, genre, play count, last played and occasion (which I use to flag files as "Explicit" when they are). Can be whatever library information is important to you. Actually, I created a keyboard shortcut for this because I was doing it so much.  I wish you could copy playlist membership, but you can't.
4. I paste the copied tags to the new set.  Also a shortcut.
5. I manually add the tracks from the new set to the playlists the old set's files were in. I have a playlist column in my display so it's easy to know.
6. I move the new set to their organized folder
7. I delete the old set
8. I add the new set to library

[psychoadept]

You need to do this from the Inbox or else you'll only search your library and find the old set.

This part confuses me. I can locate an album in the library and use right click > Search > Find Album, or just middle click on the album name and get tracks from both the inbox and the library. Do you have your search box set to Local Node Only, by any chance?

@PittsburghKnights: What frankz says is true if you have any concern about preserving play count, date added, etc. You can use phred's method if you don't care about transferring any metadata.

[frankz]

You need to do this from the Inbox or else you'll only search your library and find the old set.

This part confuses me. I can locate an album in the library and use right click > Search > Find Album, or just middle click on the album name and get tracks from both the inbox and the library. Do you have your search box set to Local Node Only, by any chance?

I do have my search box set that way, but the search box doesn't have anything to do with that method of searching by artist, album, etc AFAIK.  Just search box searches.  Or else it wouldn't work inbox search -> inbox + library results as it does.

Also, I was wrong, and if you right-click->Find Artist, Album etc from the library, you will find inbox files too.  So my bad there.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

So, I've downloaded my Google Play Music library, and there are a ton of songs that are much higher bitrate than what's in MusicBee.

How many songs do you have in MusicBee and how many songs came from Google Play Music?

[PittsburghKnights]

I have 7,100 songs...
I could make an assumption that only 320 bitrate songs were upgraded by Google, and this number would be reduced to 2,800 songs.

 I am concerned about my tagging being lost, as well as the ratings on each song.

Frankz method seems to be the only one that would work.

[PittsburghKnights]

I'm not sure what you all mean by the "Inbox" I'm not seeing that in MusicBee...
Could you elaborate?

[psychoadept]

Do you see the left navigator, where it says Library, Playlists, etc? If not, try mousing over the left margin on the window. If you still don't see the inbox you may need to add it in preferences.

[PittsburghKnights]

Okay,
Thanks,
I think I figured it out.

WOW..... This is going to be a TON of work.
Some songs Google has a lower bitrate, some songs google has a higher bitrate.

This is going to be impossible....   

[PittsburghKnights]

Okay, I worked on my first Album, a Coldplay album, everything copied and pasted fine...

Then I did a U2 Album, Copied, and then when I pasted, it pasted the Coldplay information on top of the U2 Album...

[frankz]

Sounds like you didn't actually copy the U2 tags if the Coldplay tags were still in the clipboard.

Note you have to very specifically use the Additional Tagging Tools plugin for copy and paste. Other forms of copy in MB won't do this specific task, at least not that I found.

You may be able to integrate the duplicates manager suggested earlier into your workflow to weed out albums where it wouldn't make sense because the new files are lower bitrate than the old files.  Trial and error to get the best procedure for you, my list is really just a jumping off point.

But, yes, it is a lot of work.