[Rhythmbox-devel] Exporting iTunes metadata to Rhythmbox

[Creap <creap0 gmail com>]

Hi!

Having used iTunes on Windows for several years, I've collected alot of metadata about my music library. This includes most importantly track ratings, but also play count & last-play-date. Since switching to Ubuntu I've been trying out alot of media players, but Rhythmbox is the one I find keeps most of the iTunes features I want but still is incredibly fast & unbloated. However, I haven't found any scripts or attempts to export iTunes metadata to a Rhythmbox database, while there are plugins for at least Banshee & Amarok (neither of which I'd prefer to use). I'm sure alot of other people would be interested in a script like this too!

Having basicly no programming skills whatsoever, but understanding the basic principles about XML, I think it shouldn't be very complicated making a script of some sort exporting some data from the iTunes XML into a Rhythmbox database. Here are some examples of track metadata in an iTunes XML database file:

<key>15450</key>
<dict>
 <key>Track ID</key><integer>15450</integer>
 <key>Name</key><string>Fisherman</string>
 <key>Artist</key><string>The Congos</string>
 <key>Album</key><string>Heart of the Congos</string>
 <key>Size</key><integer>8802044</integer>
 <key>Total Time</key><integer>364800</integer>
 <key>Date Modified</key><date>2006-03-23T10:06:40Z</date>
 <key>Date Added</key><date>2006-02-20T16:26:01Z</date>
 <key>Play Count</key><integer>8</integer>
 <key>Play Date</key><integer>3241952975</integer>
 <key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2006-09-24T13:29:35Z</date>
 <key>Rating</key><integer>100</integer>
 <key>Location</key><string>
file://localhost/B:/music/Congos,%20The/The%20Congos%20--%20Heart%20of%20the%20Congos%20(disc%201)/01%20-%20The%20Congos%20--%20Fisherman.mp3</string>
</dict>
(omitted: Genre, Disc/Track No, Year, Bit/Sample Rate, etc...)
(Rating: 100 = 5 stars, 80 = 4 stars, etc)

So, given the similiarities to the rmbdb, wouldn't it be quite easy simply comparing either the Location string or perhaps Title + Time or something, entering this into a rmbdb where you've already imported the same music..? If someone feels inclined to give it a shot, I'd be glad to supply you with database files for testing.

This email might come off a bit "demanding" which in no means is my intent, but I kept down on the praise & kind words to save your mailboxes.. :P 
I'm sorry if there's already something similar to this, but I really couldn't find it anywhere.

Thanks,
Creap (creap0 gmail com)