How to Import Music on Microsoft Office Access Database

Import music as a database attachment.

Use Microsoft Access to track, sort, manage and store your music collection. Access categorizes information as one of 11 different data types. Textual and numeric data types can be imported directly. The "XML" data type is useful for importing data about songs; however, it cannot handle the songs themselves. Use the "Attachment" data type to import songs into the Access database. Like all other data types, Access stores individual datum as a record. Each song attachment, therefore, is tracked in Access as a database record.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Access (Version 2007 or later)

Instructions

Create Your Song Database

1. Start Access.

2. Click the "Microsoft Office" button, and then click "New."

3. Click the "Blank Database" icon.

4. Save your database.

   Enter a name for your database, and then navigate to the folder where you want to save it. Click the "OK" button and then click the "Create" button.

Create a Table

1. Add a table.

   Click the "Create" tab, and then click the "Table Design" icon.

2. Enter the song's name, and then press the "tab" key.

3. Click the "Data Type" drop-down menu, and then choose "Attachment."

4. Add a record with an "Attachment" data type for each song that you want to import.

Add Songs

1. Click the "View" icon, and then choose "Datasheet" view.

2. Double-click the "Paperclip" icon in the record for the song that you want to import.

3. Click the "Add" button.

4. Navigate to the song, click the "Open" button, and then click the "OK" button.

5. Repeat for each song that you want to import.

Tips & Warnings

• Access has a two-gigabyte limit for the size of each database. If you have a large music collection, it is more efficient to use Access to track the information about each song as an "XML" data type, rather than importing each song as an attachment.

References

• YouTube: Import iTunes Library into Microsoft Access
• Access 2007 Plain & Simple; Curtis D. Frye; 2007

Resources

• Microsoft Office: Introduction to importing and exporting data