TuneUp takes the work out of tidying iTunes

 

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Posted on 17 Jul 2008 at 12:27

Gracenote, the company that provides CD track data for iTunes, is behind a new tool that automatically tidies up disparate tags within a music collection.

TuneUp Companion for iTunes combines Gracenote's database with digital fingerprinting technology to add or correct song titles, artists and genres for iTunes tracks.

Ads Gracenote says, most digital music collections have been built up over many years and from a variety of sources, resulting in libraries that often contain inconsistent data. For instance, Rolling Stones tracks may be categorised under "The Rolling Stones," as well as "Rolling Stones" or simply "The Stones". Similarly, there can be a plethora of songs labelled "Track 01" or by "Various Artists."

TuneUp works by using Gracenote's MusicID recognition technology to first identify each song in a music library. It then tags each song - including previously mislabelled ones - by cross-referencing Gracenote's database of 90 million tracks. To clean up a music library, a user simply drags batches of songs from iTunes to the Clean tab inside the TuneUp Companion.

"The average digital music collection has more than 1700 tracks from many different sources, and this means a typical user's library has inaccurate track titles, artists and genres," said Jim Hollingsworth, SVP of sales and marketing at Gracenote.

TuneUp also finds cover art and can also display upcoming concerts for every artist in a collection and find related merchandise links, videos, fan blogs and industry websites related to any playing song.

TuneUp Companion for iTunes comes on two flavours: a free version with a limit of 500 clean-ups and a $19.95 Gold version with unlimited use.

A Mac version will be available later this year, followed by versions for other media players.

Author: Simon Aughton