Maximum songs in the library

I honestly didn't know there was a limit. I know that they (Apple) talks about a usability limit with the number of photos in iPhoto (smooth scrolling with 25000 photo thumbs, I believe). I've never heard of any issue with an upper limit with iTunes songs. After all, it's just really a db. It should only be limited by the comp (more specifically, the amount of system memory). You also might get the beach ball of waiting because it's on an external drive.

But I'm just guessing.

By the way, impressive library dude. I thought I had a good number of songs/audio files. About 25 gigs, with roughly 6000 "songs" (about 500 are talks/spoken word recordings/etc). 25,000 is just dang impressive.

uh i just assumed that past a certain point, there would be no way someone could that much *legal* music. (not ripped from friends' cd's)

Ripping from friends CDs is illegal now? According to what law?

All I can tell you is that I currently have about 11,000 songs and 60gig, and everything is working fine. (It's all legal, by the way. I have a bit of a music habit.)

There used to be a limit of 32000 songs but that was fixed quite a while back. I don't know if there is a limit now. Maybe 64000?
My library is currently at 46070.

This is unrelated to the original post, but whatever

Here's my problem: I really want to use iTunes, but somehow it has problems getting all my mp3's. Yes, i'm on a lousy Windooz PeeCee, and over the years i developped the habit of ordering mp3's in maps by artist, than album, than disc. When there are more than 3 levels, iTunes simply refuses to fetch those files. Anybody knows what's happening here?

Oh, also, in Windows Media Player you can choose the format of your file names. For example i use
01 - Artist Name - Song Name.mp3
Is there a way to modify this in iTunes?

Finally (and i know this is a lot to ask), is there a way to extract song information from file names and automatically put this into file info? I ask because i have a few Gigs of bootlegs with 'correct' file names, but with no file info (ID3tags).

Any help is welcome

um copyright laws. it's totally fine to rip your OWN cd's, but not a friend's.

[rant]
Actually, that's not been decided yet.

A few things to consider (forget the RIAA's propaganda claims):

It's is perfectly legal to record a tape of a friend's CD (or tape or album or whatever). The idea is that it is a degradation in quality from the original, and therefore not an exact copy. The Supreme Court ruled on this back in the 80s when the RIAA tried to get tapes and tape recorders outlawed. (Yes, the RIAA lost its case when it actually went to the SC.)

Ripping a CD to MP3 or AAC or whatever is analogous to that, if not exactly like it. (Even Apple Lossless would be protected since it is throwing away some of the original information; I suppose it raises a few questions, from a legalistic standpoint, but not one most people are interested in.)

Now, I haven't followed this closely in a while, but I haven't heard of any major decisions being handed down lately. So, AFAIK, you are perfectly entitled to rip a copy of a friend's CD, just as you are free to make a dub tape.

While on its anti-P2P crusade, the RIAA threw in a whole bunch of hooey and FUD, about "stealing" and "breaking the law" and (I think deliberately) wanted people to take home the message that, if they didn't have the receipt, proof of purchase, UPC code, and actual CD that was the source of the mp3s on their computers, then they were somehow breaking the law.

Things are a lot less clear than that. Being generous towards the RIAA, one could say the legal staus of these "recordings" (mp3s, AACs, etc) has not yet been decided. Stepping outside of the RIAA's RDF into the real world, we should all be willing to admit that something is legal until it has been declared illegal. Right?

[/rant]

You need to get a better grip of copyright laws. Going around and just randomly saying 'oh this is illegal, oh that is illegal' does not equate to being familiar with copyright laws.

I understand that that's what RIAA wants you to think, but RIAA is not the law.