MusicBee integration with iTunes

[tangotonyb]

I've read a few other threads on this, but none are quite my use case and some are quite old so things may have changed?

I use Traktor for DJing, but all of my music is currently managed by MusicBee. I'd like to be able to create and manage playlists in MusicBee and simply use them in Traktor, but the only way it appears I can do that (other than quite expensive 3rd party software), is via iTunes, which I haven't used in decades so I'm unfamiliar with that bit too!

I've a number of questions before I set about potentially messing up my library - I hope someone has some experience and can answer.

1) The starting point is to export the library from MusicBee and then presumably import the xml file into iTunes right? Can I do this without an Apple account?

2) Once in iTunes, I believe the integration with Traktor is seamless - all the playlists should show up right?

3) Presumably I still only have a single copy of the files on my computer?

4) So far I've been using a duplicate set of files for tracks imported into Traktor, but Traktor doesn't seem to be messing up the metadata so I think I'm safe to use the same files for all three?

5) The big question - how do I maintain it all? If I move things around in MusicBee, I guess I have to re-export into iTunes right? Is it a case of blitzing the existing library there and starting again or does it pick up changes?

[tangotonyb]

Darn it - torpedoed at first hurdle. I didn't know iTunes didn't support FLAC files, which is 99% of my library.

[phred]

I would think most of your questions would get knowledgeable answers on an itunes forum.

[tangotonyb]

I would think most of your questions would get knowledgeable answers on an itunes forum.

I think there are rather more people in the world who use iTunes than MusicBee!

So why would i post a question about integration between MusicBee and iTunes, on an iTunes forum where likely very few people use MusicBee?

[phred]

Because not all the people who use MB use itunes. But all people who use itunes, use itunes. Therefore questions such as "do I need an Apple account" or "once in itunes" would be better answered by someone who is an itunes user.

[hiccup]

Darn it - torpedoed at first hurdle. I didn't know iTunes didn't support FLAC files, which is 99% of my library.

I don't know much about itunes and nothing about Traktor, but if itunes doesn't play flac, could it be an option to make a mirror copy of the tracks in your playlist in a format that itunes does play?
You could setup a virtual device  for that, and use encoding settings to the lowest m4a bitrate possible (perhaps even mono) to save disc space.
Assuming that the audio quality is irrelevant for what you are trying to do with these playlists, that is.

edit
Perhaps after that you will need to do a search and replace for .m4a > .flac in the resulting Traktor playlist?
(but to be honest I don't really understand what you are trying to do exactly ;-)

[phred]

Apple, being the proprietary beast that it is, uses ALAC as it's lossless codec.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=FLAC+to+ALAC+convertor

[tangotonyb]

Because not all the people who use MB use itunes. But all people who use itunes, use itunes. Therefore questions such as "do I need an Apple account" or "once in itunes" would be better answered by someone who is an itunes user.

You seem to have read my OP rather selectively - not sure what your issue is with my question - it VERY CLEARLY can only be answered by someone highly familiar with MusicBee. I mean how exactly could someone answer "Do I need an Apple account to migrate a library from MusicBee into Traktor?" if they don't know jack about either MusicBee or Traktor??

I've since found other posts that seem to suggest that you can use the iTunesLibrary export from MusicBee to import into DJ software without specifically going through iTunes, by importing the MusicBee xml although I'm not really clear on how they did this. Certainly alec is suggesting a workaround for the flac issue.

https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=20482.0

@hiccup - converting several thousand files into ALAC is a non-starter sorry.