Apple Music Profile
YouTube Channel
RSS Feed
Play Play
Murph
Yer Stack
Block Party Weekend
Elevendy
Dupin v4.0.0
Join Together
M3Unify
30 Most Recent RSS FeedMusic app
NEW: Library XML Track Viewer v1.0
I guess every time I opened an exported Music (or iTunes) XML file in BBEdit I said to myself, "You know, it'd be easy to write an app that made lookin' at this thing easier." Then I'd forget about it. And then the next time, I'd say to myself, "You know, it'd be easy to write an app that made lookin' at this thing easier." And so on.
This sort of thing went on for about twenty-five years.
Well it stops today. Examine just the track entry content of any Library XML file exported from the Music app (or older iTunes) in a familiar list view. The list of items can be narrowed by entering text in the Filter field. Basic information from a selecton of items can be copied to the clipboard.
(For handling exported playlist XML files, see Playlist XML Viewer and Playlist XML Librarian.)
Latest version:
- Initial release
More information for Library XML Track Viewer v1.0 and download link is here.
UPDATED: List MIAs v6.6
Universal, for macOS 11 and later only. This applet checks your Media library for missing and presumed dead tracks—those tracks that have become disassociated from their file and which are listed with a "!"—and can delete them from the Music app or create a text file listing these tracks by last known File Path, Title, Artist and Album, which you can view using TextEdit.
Also see Super Remove Dead Tracks and Media Folder Files Not Added.
Latest version:
- General maintenance, UI update
- Fixes unusual issue with locating track for reveal
More information for List MIAs v6.6 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Needle Drop v7.8
Needle Drop plays each track in the selected Music playlist for a set time interval optionally starting at a set number of seconds into each track, beginning with the selected track. Handy for 'scoping playlists.
Needle Drop will work best on tracks that have local files. Un-cached tracks streamed from the cloud may upset timing while audio is being downloaded.
Latest version:
- Fixed issue causing crash on engage
- Updates UI Scripting to correct an issue that may have prevented operation
- General maintenance
More information for Needle Drop v7.8 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Playlist XML Librarian v2.0
I've suspected for years that there would come a time when I'd want one of my AppleScript dinguses to grow up into an Xcode app. You can only do so much with a single thread. I've been using Playlist XML Librarian pretty regularly and the AppleScript incarnation just wasn't able to gimme what I need.
Playlist XML Librarian v2.0 will list the exported Playlist XML files collected in a specified folder with options to view, edit and send (import) them to the Music app. Makes it easy to maintain an organized stockpile of exported Playlist XMLs to reduce the number of onboard Music playlists.
Also see Playlist XML Viewer which can display and play a single selected local Playlist XML file drag-and-dropped or chosen.
Latest version:
- Outgrew AppleScript, is now a full-fledged Xcode app
- Overall speed boost
- Checks each XML file for appearance in the Music app as status
- Sort playlist XML list by name, date, track count, playlist kind and status
- Additional Settings to configure status indexing and display
- Description overspill appears in popover
- Toggle playlist info visible
More information for Playlist XML Librarian v2.0 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Remove From Other Playlists v3.0
A Correspondent recently divulged to me that his Music library contains over 5K Smart playlists. I just had to tell somebody.
It reminds me of an old Punch cartoon showing a rather ragged gentleman with a face full of bandaids and a very shabby looking growth of beard sitting at a table writing a letter: "Dear Sirs: I have used the same razor blade daily for seven months. Is this some kind of record?"
Anyway. It's good to keep yer library nice 'n' neat in my opinion. You can start with this:
Remove From Other Playlists will load, list and examine a selection of tracks from a selected playlist in the Music app and then display the other playlists that also contain them. The tracks can then be batch-removed from any one or more of these other playlists.
Latest version:
- Initial re-release
More information for Remove From Other Playlists v3.0 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Show Me the Track Info v1.1
This script will display track info from the playing or selected track in a floating window that can be configured to show the information in a user-configured order. Eight sections within the window can be drag-arranged into their order of importance. The window can then re-sized to only display as much of the information as is necessary. Handy for quickly surveying tracks without having to click-click-click for the Music app's "Info Window".
Latest version:
- Adds guides to sections
- Minor UI adjustments
- Improved info gathering
- Setting to enable/disable clickable section to reveal file
More information for Show Me the Track Info v1.1 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Tracks Without Embedded Artwork v3.3
Universal, for macOS 11 and later only. MP3, AAC and ALAC audio files have the capability to store artwork image data internally as metadata, thus allowing artwork to "travel" with a file. This applet will examine the files of the selected tracks (or tracks in the selected playlist) for artwork metadata. Eligible audio tracks whose files are capable of embedding image data but do not contain artwork metadata will be copied to a new discrete Results playlist.
Latest version:
- Re-oriented scan settings
- Accomodations for macOS 26 Tahoe
More information for Tracks Without Embedded Artwork v3.3 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Coverscope v2.8
Universal, for macOS 11 and later only. This applet will show both the assigned track artwork and the local file's metadata artwork (if any exists) for the selected track. The Track entry artwork well supports copy, paste and drags. Pasting or dragging image data immediately applies the image to the selected track's artwork and attempts to embed it. Additional tools can Embed or Apply artwork between track and file.
Latest version:
- Accommodations and adjustments for macOS 26 Tahoe
More information for Coverscope v2.8 and download link is here.
NEW: Who Da Album Artist v1.0
As you likely know, individual music tracks can each have their own individual artist tag. But there are situations when a single mega-artist is handy-like-a-handle for an album of tracks. Like "Various Artists" for compilation albums or "Ray Charles" if it's Ray with different artists on each track. That's why our Founding Fathers created the album artist tag.
Every discreet album in your collection should have an associated "album artist". It's what you'd see as the display artist on the cover or spine of a physical album, for example. Here in the digital future, where albums have been disintegrated into tracks, there is no "album"; the "album" information is born by the tracks it "contains" so the tracks can be re-integrated as an "album" in yer third-party devices there. Thus, the album artist tag is more like an "album tag", rather than a "track tag". Each track of an album should have the same text in its album artist tag. In fact, having mixed text in an album's tracks' album artist tags completely neutralizes the purpose of the mononymnic album artist tag. And some screwing up your music library royally is also nominally possible.
I thought I had album artist configurations handily and dandily in hand over the years. So I was recently in mid-to-high dudgeon after noticing a bunch of albums whose tracks had incorrect or inconsistent or missing album artist tags. CHAAAArrrristopher Columbus! Like I really wanna spend a lot of time going through my library looking for albums with problem album artist tags. So instead I spent what probably would have been the same amount of time making an app that would do the album artist wrangling for me.
Who Da Album Artist will scan your Music library and if it finds any album whose tracks' album artist tags are missing or inconsistent (more than one per album, for example), will give you the opportunity to enter the appropriate album artist and sort album artist tags.
Latest version:
- Initial release
More information for Who Da Album Artist v1.0 and download link is here.
UPDATED: Playlist XML Librarian v1.3
This applet will list the exported Playlist XML files collected in a specified folder with options to view, edit, search and send (import) them to the Music app. Makes it easy to maintain an organized stockpile of exported Playlist XMLs to reduce the number of onboard Music playlists.
Latest version:
- UI adjustments and detailing; minimal Liquid Glass added
- Accepts Open'd and drag-and-dropped Playlist XMLs
- Description field displays popover for longer text
- Table displays Normalization value if present
- Adds "Send to Music app" and "Reveal Default Folder" buttons in main window
- Adds File and Remote Track Type counts to header display
- Handles :00.0 length URL entries properly
- Fixed issue with Filter
Frankly, I would rarely export a playlist as an XML file because traveling to the command to do it—buried in the Music app's File menu—always seemed like a long arduous journey for my mouse. That all changed when I assigned the keyboard shortcut Command-E to the File -> Library -> Export Playlist... menu command. Then I couldn't stop exporting playlists.
(more…)
