I needed to backup my iTunes music to my external usb drive because I want to use the music on my Xbox 360. I wasn’t willing to do it by hand. So I wrote an applescript to do it. The script backups all iTunes playlists into a folder and builds the same folder/playlist structure as in iTunes. It takes some time to run but it works fine.
I added the script to my macmediacenter section. I call it backupbyplaylist – it is a beta version since I only tested it on my one system. Please comment if it is fine for you.