First, having an alias to the "Automatically add to iTunes" folder on my desktop has helped quite a bit with adding non-Apple ecosystem music (primarily from Ba

First, having an alias to the "Automatically add to iTunes" folder on my desktop has helped quite a bit with adding non-Apple ecosystem music (primarily from Bandcamp) to iTunes. It doesn't seem to make too many wrong choices, but then again, likely the people who package the mp3s do their best to work with the ecosystem. Second, I've stayed the eff away from iTunes Music. It likely doesn't have what I want anyways, but compared to their hardware, it just seems more like some executive's idea of how to improve Apple's income from iTunes rather than an actual music lover's platform. And iTunes is kind of a hot mess trying to do too many things while execs decide to keep tinkering with it rather than doing the multi-product rethinking they would need to make it work again. Third, a few times a year I make sure to backup everything that isn't on Apple, and most of everything that is. And not via "Time Machine" either, which you should be doing, but actually copying the iTunes music folder or any other downloads onto external media.