iTunesToRhythm

Transfer your ratings and play counts between music players: iTunes, Rhythmbox, Amarok, and Windows Media Player, with read-only support for Amazon Music.

Supported players

Player	How to specify it	Read	Write
iTunes library XML (iTunes Music Library.xml)	path to the file	✅	✅
Rhythmbox (rhythmdb.xml)	path to the file	✅	✅
iTunes on macOS (running instance)	itunes	✅	✅
iTunes on Windows (COM API)	itunes	✅	✅
Amarok (MySQL database)	mysql plus the Amarok options	✅	✅
Windows Media Player	wmp	✅	✅
Amazon Music desktop app (Windows)	amazonmusic	✅	❌

File inputs are detected automatically: an iTunes XML library or a Rhythmbox rhythmdb.xml is recognized from its contents.

Requirements

• Python 3
• lxml (all XML-based backends)

Extra packages are needed only for the backends you use:

Backend	Package	Installed by requirements.txt
iTunes on macOS	pyobjc-framework-ScriptingBridge	Yes, on macOS
iTunes on Windows, Windows Media Player	pywin32	Yes, on Windows
Amarok	mysqlclient (provides MySQLdb)	No, optional
Amazon Music	rleveldb	No, optional

Installation

git clone https://github.com/esanbock/ITunesToRhythm.git
cd ITunesToRhythm
pip install -r requirements.txt

This installs lxml plus the iTunes/WMP packages for your platform. The Amarok and Amazon Music packages are optional; uncomment them in requirements.txt (or pip install them directly) if you need them.

Usage

python iTunesToRhythm.py [options] <source> <destination>

<source> and <destination> can each be a file path or one of itunes, mysql, wmp, amazonmusic.

For every song in the destination, the tool looks for the matching song in the source, by file size by default, then copies the rating and play count across.

Nothing is written unless you pass -w. Without it the tool runs as a dry run and prints what it would change. Back up your library files before writing to them.

Options

Option	Description
-w, --writechanges	Write changes to the destination (otherwise a dry run)
-a, --disambiguate	Prompt you to pick the right song when a match is ambiguous
-c, --confirm	Pause after every match for confirmation
-l, --fastandloose	Accept a single file-size match even if the titles differ
--useSongTitle	Match songs by title instead of file size
--noratings	Don't update ratings
--noplaycounts	Don't update play counts
--twoway	Sync both directions; for each song, the copy with the higher play count wins
--dateadded	Also copy the "date added" field (iTunes to Rhythmbox only)
--playdate	Also copy the "last played" date (between iTunes library files and Rhythmbox only)

Amarok connection options, used with mysql:

Option	Description
-s, --server	MySQL server host name
-d, --database	Amarok database name
-u, --username	Database user
-p, --password	Database password

Typical workflow: moving from iTunes to Rhythmbox

1. Copy or mount your music somewhere Rhythmbox can see it. The folder structure doesn't matter.

2. Import the music into Rhythmbox, then close Rhythmbox so it doesn't overwrite the database.

3. Copy your iTunes Music Library.xml to the Linux machine.

4. Do a dry run and review the output:

   python iTunesToRhythm.py -a "iTunes Music Library.xml" ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml
   

5. Run it again with -w to save the changes:

   python iTunesToRhythm.py -w -a "iTunes Music Library.xml" ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml
   

At the end of each run a summary shows how many songs matched fully, partially, ambiguously, or not at all.

More examples

Copy play counts (not ratings) from Rhythmbox to an Amarok MySQL database:

python iTunesToRhythm.py -w --noratings -a ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml mysql -s musicserver -d amarok -u amarokuser -p verysecret

Copy ratings and play counts from Amarok into iTunes on a Mac:

python iTunesToRhythm.py -w mysql -s musicserver -d amarok -u amarokuser -p verysecret itunes

Sync iTunes and Windows Media Player both ways on Windows:

python iTunesToRhythm.py -w --twoway itunes wmp

Notes and limitations

• Matching by file size works well when both players point at the same audio files. If the files were re-encoded or re-tagged, try --useSongTitle.
• Amazon Music support is best-effort and Windows-only. It reads the Amazon Music desktop app's local cache, so it sees only cached tracks and can break when the app changes. It has no file sizes, so songs are matched by title automatically.
• Close Rhythmbox before writing to rhythmdb.xml, or it may overwrite your changes when it exits.

Standalone dump scripts

Each backend module can also be run on its own to print a library's contents, which helps when debugging matches:

python dumpitunes.py "iTunes Music Library.xml"
python dumpAmazonMusic.py

Running the tests

The tests use only the standard library and small sample libraries in tests/fixtures, so they never touch your real music libraries:

python -m unittest discover -s tests

Code is formatted with Black (settings in pyproject.toml): python -m black .

License

GNU General Public License v3. See LICENSE.txt.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.