Automatically Import New Songs From iTunes

In this blog we will focus on how you can use the Media Wall AutoImporter application (which is free for Myriad 5 Playout users) to monitor one or more folders and automatically import any new content that appears into the appropriate range on your Myriad Wall (complete with all the normal trimming, normalisation and setting extros).

Before we start, let's just recap what AutoImporter can do:

• Monitor multiple destination folders for new content.
• Automatically import new content into a specific Media ID, next empty Media Item in range or the next Media ID in the default item type range (eg Song etc).
• Imported content can use embedded meta-data or use specific information (eg Title, colour etc).
• Email alerts can be sent on successful or unsuccessful imports.

There are many potential uses for this application. Some examples include:

• Automatically import hourly news provided by an external news service (like Radio News Hub).
• Automatically import new songs dropped into a folder.
• Provide a simple way for presenters to import their content by giving them a folder to drop it into.
• Use 3rd party services (like Dropbox) to transfer and synchronise content between sites.
• Automatically add new content purchased from an online store.

It is this last task that we will focus on in this blog. In this case we will demonstrate how new songs purchased from iTunes can be automatically imported into Myriad Playout with them being added to your Songs range complete with title information and normalised ready to be played.

The video below shows the complete process for automatically importing new content purchased from the iTunes store. Whilst the example shows how it can be done with iTunes, the same process can be applied to any online store or folder structure in your network.

Please note that the following process will work for songs purchased from iTunes NOT for sings downloaded from Apple Music. You do not own the songs you download from Apple Music and they contain copy protection that will prevent Myriad from being able to import them.

Now that you have seen the process for automatically importing Songs from a specific folder, you can apply the same technique to setup as many different AutoImporter Groups as you need.