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Managing Track Info

September 17 2021 - 4:03 pm

UPDATED: Artist to Last-First v5.5

For macOS 11 and later only. This applet will parse the text of the chosen tag (Artist, Album Artist, Composer or one of their Sort siblings) of a selection of tracks:

Move the LAST word of the tag to the beginning, eg:

  • Hound Dog Taylor -> Taylor, Hound Dog
  • OR Move the FIRST word of the tag to the end, eg:

  • The Crystal Method -> Crystal Method, The
  • Then, the newly configured text can be copied back to your choice of Artist, Album Artist, Composer, Sort Artist, Sort Album Artist and/or Sort Composer tag(s).

    Latest version:

    • Updated to accommodate macOS 12 Monterey
    • Minor UI changes, performance enhancements

    More information for Artist to Last-First v5.5 and download link is here.

    September 1 2021 - 9:01 am

    UPDATED: Remove Leading-Trailing Spaces v3.0

    For macOS 11 and later only. This script will remove any number of extra space characters at the beginning and ending of chosen tags (Title, Artist/Director, Album Artist, Album, Composer, Genre, Grouping, Movement, Work and Show) in the selected tracks.

    Latest version:

    • Accommodations for macOS 12 Monterey
    • UI update

    More information for Remove Leading-Trailing Spaces v3.0 and download link is here.

    August 30 2021 - 9:08 pm

    UPDATED: Remove n Characters From Front or Back v7.0

    For macOS 11 or later. This script will delete a specified number of characters from either the beginning or the ending of the Title, Album, Album Artist, Artist/Director, Category, Comments, Composer, Episode ID, Grouping, Show (or their "Sort" siblings), Movement or Work tag of each selected track. For example, delete the initial digits and the space from "01 First Track", "02 Second Track", and so on.

    Latest version:

    • Accommodations for macOS 12 Monterey
    • UI and performance enhancements

    More information for Remove n Characters From Front or Back v7.0 and download link is here.

    August 29 2021 - 7:17 pm

    UPDATED: This Tag That Tag v6.0

    For macOS 11 and later only. This applet will assist with swapping, copying, and appending data between two user-chosen tags in selected tracks or tracks in the selected playlist:

    Swap - swap data between tags, ex: ARTISTCOMPOSER
    Copy - copy data from one to another tag, ex: ARTIST->COMPOSER ARTIST
    Append - append data from one tag to the end of another, ex: ARTIST->COMPOSER - ARTIST
    Prepend - append data from one tag to the beginning of another, ex: ARTIST->ARTIST - COMPOSER

    The latter three actions also provide an option to delete the info from the first tag after the copy. Read Me explains all.

    Latest version:

    • Initial accommodation for macOS 12 Monterey

    More information for This Tag That Tag v6.0 and download link is here.

    August 27 2021 - 11:20 pm

    UPDATED: Search-Replace Tag Text v7.0

    For macOS 11 and later only. Performs a search-and-replace on the text in your choice of track tags in the Music or TV app (Title, Artist/Director, Album Artist, Album, Composer, Comments, Genre, Grouping, Show, Movement or Work) in the selected tracks or all the tracks in the selected Playlist. Features case sensitivity and whole word match options and "Test run" preview.

    Latest version:

    • Initial accommodation for macOS 12 Monterey

    More information for Search-Replace Tag Text v7.0 and download link is here.

    August 27 2021 - 11:05 pm

    UPDATED: Proper English Title Capitalization v5.0

    For macOS 11 and later only. Capitalizes the first letter of each word in your choice of the Title, Artist, Album Artist, Album, Comments, Composer, Grouping, Movement, Work, or Show tags of the selected tracks, but based on conventional rules of title capitalization in the English language. Thus, "what it feels like for a girl (above and beyond 12'' club mix)" becomes "What It Feels Like for a Girl (Above and Beyond 12'' Club Mix)". Two user-editable Exception Lists can handle words that should not be title-capped or modified. Test Run feature enables you to see what would be changed displayed in a separate Test Run Log window.

    Latest version:

    • Accommodations for macOS 12 Monterey
    • Re-designed Test Run window
    • UI and performance enhancements

    More information for Proper English Title Capitalization v5.0 and download link is here.

    August 10 2021 - 8:56 pm

    UPDATED: New Last Played Date v6.0

    For macOS 11 and later. Set Last Played/Last Skipped date of selected tracks to a new date, with option to increase or decrease Plays/Skips, or set to no date and no Plays/Skips.

    Also see Add or Subtract Play Count.

    Works best when Sync/Cloud Library is disengaged due to a bug.

    Latest version:

    • Accommodations for macOS 12 Monterey
    • Adds "Deep Never Played" option
    • UI and performance enhancements

    More information for New Last Played Date v6.0 and download link is here.

    August 8 2021 - 8:37 pm

    UPDATED: Album Rating Reset v5.0

    For macOS 11and later only. This script will allow you to batch set or clear the Album Rating and/or Album Love/Dislike for the albums of the selected tracks or the albums associated with the tracks in a selected playlist (note that only a single track from any album need be selected in order to change the album rating or loved of the entire album). Handy for clearing batches of albums of their user-set album ratings, or re-rating batches of albums.

    Latest version:

    • Initial accommodation for macOS 12 Monterey
    • Provides names of selected albums from pull-down
    • Other UI and performamce enhancements

    More information for Album Rating Reset v5.0 and download link is here.

    August 6 2021 - 8:24 pm

    UPDATED: Append to Selected Tag v6.0

    For macOS 11 and later only. Append the same user-entered text to the beginning or ending of the existing text in the chosen tag--Title, Artist, Album Artist, Album, Composer, Comments, Genre, Grouping, Show (or their Sort siblings), Work or Movement--in each selected track.

    Latest version:

    • Initial accommodations for macOS 12 Monterey
    • UI, performance and security enhancements

    More information for Append to Selected Tag v6.0 and download link is here.

    July 23 2021 - 2:28 pm

    NEW: Sort on First Article v1.0

    An Inquisitive Correspondent emailed to, uhm, inquire about sorting by Title. It would be beneficial, he declared, if some Titles that begin with the article "The" could be sorted under "T" rather than according to whatever the next word happened to be.

    I get that. "The" can add a lot of weight to a title and it doesn't seem right to see things like "The Look of Love" sorted under "look". Band names, like "The Beatles", are a different thing, of course (for the most part).

    Now, the Music app has a Sort Title tag which most people would use to force Titles to sort such that the initial article ("a", "an", "the") is ignored. In fact, I believe it is the default setting for tracks with such data.

    So, to ensure this track sorts on "The", just include the full title as the "sort as" tag. Then do that manually for the...checks notes...600 or so similar tracks in your library that are driving you crazy. And how do you find these "The" titles when they're scattered throughout any playlist because you can't sort them by "T"?

    Wait! What's that!? Hold on a minute...that smell...

    It's an Automation Opportunity! (trademark pending).

    Before I get to the script I wrote, remember that a Smart Playlist can be constructed to gather the tracks whose Title or Artist begins with "The ". Of course, you'd still have to do the Sort Title tag editing one track at a time.

    The script Sort on First Article will scan every track in a batch of selected tracks in the Music app for a Title (or Album, Artist or Album Artist) that begins with "The" and, for those that do, will copy the full title to the Sort Title tag—or, if Album, Album Artist or Artist is the chosen tag, its corresponding Sorting tag. Any other track is ignored so you can "fish" for these kinds of tracks in any arbitrary selection of tracks.

    Additionally, because you can enter your own text instead of the script's default "The", you can search for tags beginning with "A" or "An" or whatever initial article your localization of Music may ignore.

    Sort on First Article is free to use with a donation requested. More information and download is here.

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