Transferring 2300+ songs to my mini... A Question

[e3mw]

I'm thinking i'm going to put all my songs on several DVD's and transfer them to my mini that way. I know this sounds like 'the stupid way' but I want to do it because my music library really does need to be backed up, it's a ton of songs, and I'd hate to lose it to a HDD failure down the road on my ipod, macmini, or existing pc

However, that's not my question. My question is: Is there any way to transfer your songs from computer to computer AND preserve the nice little 'Play Counts' feature from one library to the next. I like being able to sort my songs by how many times I have listened to them. And when I transfer all my music to my shiny new mac mini, I want to try and preserve those play counts instead of starting clean.

It's okay to break the bad news to me if it's impossible, but lemme know if It can be done.

Thanks!
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Me with Woz!
Aftershift Music Project | My Music! Feel free to download!
1.42Ghz Mini | 15" 1.67Ghz Hi-Res PowerBook G4
30GB 5th Gen iPod | 512MB Shuffle

[Bandit Bill]

I don't know which program to use to preserve playcounts. But check out ipodlounge.com if you don't get an answer here.

[Susurrus]

The playcounts are kept by iTunes itself and are not actually stored in the MP3 files. You should be able to copy over the iTunes XML files and they will have your playcount, though that is a TOTAL guess right there.

Backing up the playlist data seems to work. You should try out this script at Paint the Tiger, Carve the Swan. It might be what you're looking for.

Also, are you transferring from Mac to Mac or PC to Mac?
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Computer Engineer
Junior, Brown University
15" NC8430 HP Laptop
1.42Ghz PPC Mac Mini, 1Gb RAM, 1st Gen
40GB G4 iPod
2GB Black iPod Nano

[e3mw]

I tried earlier today for the XML backup, it imported all of my files fine, but alas, no play counts. I'll take a look at the script, thanks!

EDIT: And i'm going from PC to Mac.
_________________
Me with Woz!
Aftershift Music Project | My Music! Feel free to download!
1.42Ghz Mini | 15" 1.67Ghz Hi-Res PowerBook G4
30GB 5th Gen iPod | 512MB Shuffle