Managing a massive music library

Has your media library outgrown your gadgets?

There comes a time when your digital entertainment library just won’t squeeze onto one computer, especially if it’s brimming with video as well as music. It’s easy to add a hefty external USB drive to a desktop computer, but this isn’t all that practical for notebooks, tablets, smartphones and music players. So what do you do?

For most people the answer is to create a master library on one desktop computer or perhaps a Network Attached Storage drive. Many network drives can act as DLNA and iTunes servers, but using a desktop computer gives you the flexibly to run not just iTunes and/or a DLNA server but also other software such as AirVideo for streaming to iGadgets or Orb for streaming to a range of devices. Both can stream locally and over the web, making them particularly handy.