Can you have your itunes library in the shared folder, and then allow every "user" of that computer access to the songs, or wil it always move them to the user's folder too, making your entire collection duplicated for however many users you have?
Yes, I did this for my family who wanted this exact set up.
Basically what you do is this:
Move your iTunes Music Library folder to the /Users/Shared/ folder. Use symbolic links in each user's Music folder to point to the shared iTunes Music Library folder. You need to do an additional step to make sure that one user's changes will be seen by other users: you have to run an AppleScript at logout (or switch) that quits iTunes and changes permissions on the shared iTunes Music Library so that every user has access to the music.
How do you trigger the script at logout? I'm not at home now, and I forget what it's called, but there's a very nice replacement for FUS that lets you trigger an AppleScript upon logout or switch. I'll post again with some more detailed info later, or someone else can fill in the missing spots.
That's basically how I did it. There might be other ways, but this way was good b/c it avoids redundant copies of music on the system. YMMV.
Comments
Basically what you do is this:
Move your iTunes Music Library folder to the /Users/Shared/ folder. Use symbolic links in each user's Music folder to point to the shared iTunes Music Library folder. You need to do an additional step to make sure that one user's changes will be seen by other users: you have to run an AppleScript at logout (or switch) that quits iTunes and changes permissions on the shared iTunes Music Library so that every user has access to the music.
How do you trigger the script at logout? I'm not at home now, and I forget what it's called, but there's a very nice replacement for FUS that lets you trigger an AppleScript upon logout or switch. I'll post again with some more detailed info later, or someone else can fill in the missing spots.
That's basically how I did it. There might be other ways, but this way was good b/c it avoids redundant copies of music on the system. YMMV.