itunes2usbbox

A Python script to export iTunes playlists to an external memory to be used in car USB boxes.

• Author: Alessio Bianchi
• System: Mac OS X
• Dependencies: appscript (http://appscript.sourceforge.net/py-appscript/install.html) or installed via sudo easy_install appscript

Usage

./itunes2usbbox.py <external_memory_volume> <playlist1> [playlist2] [playlist3]...

Example:

./itunes2usbbox.py /Volumes/PENDRIVE Bach Mozart Baroque

This will create the following directories:

• /Volumes/PENDRIVE/CD01/ containing the tracks in the Bach playlist
• /Volumes/PENDRIVE/CD02/ containing the tracks in the Mozart playlist
• /Volumes/PENDRIVE/CD03/ containing the tracks in the Baroque playlist

The filename of each track in these directories is composed by a track number and the track title.

Implementation

appscript is used to interface with iTunes.

For each passed playlist, the script will create a temporary working directory under /tmp/. It will extract the audio file paths of each track in the playlist and create symbolic links to them in the working directory. It then uses rsync to synchronize the working directory with the corresponding CDxx directory in the external memory. Extraneous files in the CDxx directory will be deleted.

USB Box compatibility

The directory structure created by this script is specifically targeted to XCarlink USB boxes. Other devices may or may not work.