Macworld Forums: Adding Music To iTunes - Macworld Forums

I'm new to using iTunes and i need some points of clarification.

I currently have a 1TB network drive that music and other stuff is stored on. For my laptop, I usually will grab music off of the network drive and drop it in a folder on my desktop.

My question is: if I want to add the music to iTunes, do I have to 1) just drop the folder into my iTunes music folder and iTunes will recognize the new tracks, or 2) drag the music into iTunes and then iTunes will copy the files and put them in the iTunes music folder, thus making a second copy and then I would have to trash the folder of music on my desktop,,,

Or...amd I over thinking this? What is the correct way to add music to your iTunes?

Either way will add that music to the iTunes Music folder (the iTunes library).
Yes, delete the download folder afterwards.

That's not the ideal way of doing things IMO. You get all the tracks in one
playlist with no organization to speak of. I create folders under Playlists, one
for each genre. Within a genre folder are folders for each artist. Within an
artist folder I create a playlist for each album. Then I drag the album's
tracks into that album's playlist.

But I obsess about whether "anal retentive" should be hyphenated.