Where o Where is Buegie? Your help is requested!

Question

I've seen you post about the organization of Itunes, and if you have a moment to help me understand, that'd be great.
As a test, I put a CD in my computer, selected a song, and then chose import. When Itunes was done, it had created a file folder and album folder under My Music/Itunes/Itunes Music and then placed the song in there. Is this the way it happens automatically even if the top two boxes under Preferences, General, Advanced aren't checked? Does this create a duplicate of all the songs under the My Music folder or just "arrange" them?
Thank you!!

Answer 1

Amy,
Sorry for the delayed response - just saw your post.
iTunes will import a CD into the folder you specify in the 'Preferences'.
It will also use (what I believe) its default organizational structure of 'Artist\Album\Song'. This is independent of the checking or un-checking of the two boxes you mention. Some testing by me with the boxes checked, then unchecked appear to confirm this.
When importing a new CD, it will only create one copy of the music files on the PC and only one song reference within iTunes for each song. No duplicate copies should be made.
The second box with the 'copy' selection applies when one is 'Adding' music to the Library, not 'Importing' a CD. For instance, folks who have a self-designed music file structure on their PCs, and do not want to let iTunes re-arrange this structure would leave the 'organized' box unchecked, and the 'copy' box unchecked. There is no need for iTunes to move the files and certainly no need to re-copy the files.
Other folks have music stored in another structure (possibly for another music player) and also want iTunes to manage the music. They could have iTunes copy that music into its own structure when 'Adding' the music. It would create duplicate music files on the PC across different folders.
In my case, I run a Dual Library: Lossless files on my ExHD, and their Lossy counterparts on my internal Laptop HD. Occasionally, I will 'Refresh' the Library: deleting the references and re-Adding them. At that point, I have a Laptop destination for my iTunes music folder, but I do not need iTunes copying the ExHD's files over to the Laptop - just adding the references to the Library. I do not need the 'organize' box checked as the files/folders are already organized correctly.
I always leave the 'copy' box unchecked - unless I am 'Adding' some 'free MP3s' from Amazon or other sources. I usually place them initially in a separate folder, test them out and add the ones I like into iTunes. At that point, I need to check both the 'copy' box and the 'organize' box to get the files into iTunes correctly.
I hope I made some sense out of this, rather than confused you more. Post back with more questions if you have them.