While iTunes 11 is running a little late, it is expected to drop on us this month. When it arrives, it will be the single biggest change to iTunes since the introduction of the iTunes Music Store. To prepare for this large update, you may want to prepare your iTunes library, adding album artwork, correcting album titles, and getting rid of duplicates. By cleaning up, you’ll have a better experience when iTunes 11 is released and installed on your Mac.

1. Metadata Cleanup

One of the biggest cleanups that can make or break your iTunes experience is metadata. Song titles, album titles, and artist information is vitally important when it comes to navigating through your tunes, videos, and TV shows.

We’ll use a Smart Playlist to easily track the items in your library that needs a quick fix. Select File > New Smart Playlist, and in the dialog that appears, select the following items:

- Check the box labeled “Match any of the following rules”
- “Artist” contains “[blank field]”
- “Album” contains “[blank field]”
- “Genre” contains “[blank field]”

Ensure that “Live updating” is checked, and then click the “OK” button. A new playlist will be created that will display items in your library that contains a blank artist field, blank album field, or blank genre field.

With the items that appear, you can select multiple album tracks (or a single item), and then right-click > Get Info. In this window, select the Info tab to edit the track information.  Information such as track name, artist name, album artist, album, composer, genre, track number, and track year are easily editable.

In the Artwork tab, you can easily remove or add artwork. Images can be dragged and dropped from the Finder into the artwork viewer, or the Add button can be used.

If you have all of the metadata filled in properly, and have an iTunes Store account, then you can have iTunes automatically search for the artwork for you. To do this, right-click on the album that you wish to get the artwork for, and then select “Get Album Artwork.”

When you are done changing the metadata, click the OK button to save the changes.

2. Reduce Duplicates

Duplicates are is an iTunes users worst nightmare. Duplicate items can be a pain, but it’s something that’s easily fixed.

Simply select File > Display Duplicates. All of the duplicates in your library will be displayed, from here, you can multiple duplicate items by holding down Command and clicking on the items. When you are ready to delete the items, press Delete on the keyboard, and then press “Delete Song.”

When you are ready to leave duplicate mode, select “Display All” at the bottom of the window, or click File > Display All.

3. Enable iTunes Match

The newest version of iTunes, iTunes 11 will rely heavily on iTunes Match as a way to listen to all of your music no matter which device you are currently on. While iTunes Match is optional, you will undoubtedly have a better experience with iTunes Match enabled.

You can learn more about setting up iTunes Match by following our guide, here.


Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article's author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.