March 7 2011 - 12:09 pm

Possible Artwork-Related Scripting Bug in iTunes 10.2?

Several users have reported, and I can verify, that an AppleScript routine used to apply image data to a track as artwork fails with an error -206 when used on iTunes 10.2. Essentially, the error is tripped when the following code--or similar--is run; theTrack is a reference to an iTunes file track and thePictFile is a valid PICT image file:

set data of artwork 1 of theTrack to (read (thePictFile as alias) from 513 as picture)

There are a couple a scripts here that use a variation of that (Re-Apply Downsized Artwork is one) and thus they will error when run with iTunes 10.2. The snippet works fine in versions before 10.2. I can use it on v10.1.2, for example. It might be a bug so I'll keep my eye on this.

posted in Bugs

March 6 2011 - 12:30 pm

NEW: Save Album Art as folder.jpg

Shortly after updating Save Album Art to Album Folder I got a few emails from users who wanted to save iTunes track artwork as a single "folder.jpg" image file in the track's Album folder. Some third-party music devices and systems, like Sonos, may use a "folder.jpg" file found here as display artwork for the audio files that accompany it in the folder. (Sonos is apparently also capable of using embedded artwork, but I understand there is some restriction here size-wise or something. And, of course, not all audio file formats allow image data to be embedded.)

At first I thought I'd post a quick how-to-mod, but it was eventually easier to just write a new script. Save Album Art as folder.jpg will do what I said above about the "folder.jpg" thing. Like the other script mentioned, it has an additional settings panel that you can access by Option-launching the script:

posted in Managing Artwork

March 2 2011 - 5:57 pm

iTunes 10.2 Available

This afternoon, Apple posted iTunes v10.2. According to the Apple blurb it mostly provides accommodation for iOS 4.3.

posted in Apple, iTunes 10

March 1 2011 - 1:13 pm

Dupin v2.2.3 Available

My app that assists with managing your duplicate tracks in iTunes, Dupin, has been updated to v2.2.3. This is a minor maintenance update. I fixed a column re-sizing issue and made a few small performance tweaks. The update is free for registered users of Dupin v2.x.x.

posted in Dupin

February 26 2011 - 11:49 am

Skip and Pretend We Played This Redux

A popular item on the Missing Menu Commands page is Skip and Pretend We Played This. If a song is playing that you don't really want to hear, you'd launch this script to increase its play count by 1 (since it would not be increased until the track actually finished playing), set the last played date to the current date and time (ditto), and play the next track. I use it in a live-updating Smart Playlist that, among other criteria, uses the last played date to only list songs not played in the past few weeks. This keeps any track I don't want to hear from re-appearing for another few weeks. Ideally launched via shortcut, and so on.

But ANYway.

Correspondent Dirk Scharff noted that "if used in the first 2-20 seconds of the song the skip counter is increased too and that's somewhat undesirable as this wouldn't happen if I played that song." I don't pay much attention to skips at my house, but he has a point. So Dirk submitted a mod to the script which I have incorporated below:

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posted in Controlling iTunes, Missing Menu Commands

February 25 2011 - 9:25 am

NEW: A Space Between v1.0

iTunes has had the Crossfade feature for a while, whereby consecutive songs will overlap for a few seconds at end-to-beginning. But what if you want the opposite effect: a set amount of silence between each song? But you can't set a negative Crossfade. A Space Between is an AppleScript applet that will wait a user-set number of seconds between plays of consecutive tracks in a playlist. Just select a playlist, or a track in a playlist, launch the applet, and enter a number of seconds.

The tracks will play, pausing for the entered number of seconds between each track.

posted in Controlling iTunes

February 15 2011 - 8:54 pm

Ten Years

February 15th is the anniversary date of this site and this year makes ten anniversaries. Wow, huh? Actually, I had some stuff up slightly earlier than that, but I can't Wayback much of it and the original files are probably on a Zip disc or something. Closet > Back of Closet > Milk Crate > Shoebox > Zip Discs. Like I'm going back there to even look, right?

Thanks for visiting and making it a lot of fun. I use iTunes with AppleScripts everyday and can't believe how geeked-out I still am about it.

posted in Site News

February 10 2011 - 8:55 pm

Spins v1.0.3

I've updated Spins to v1.0.3. Spins examines your iTunes library and displays stats about your most played tracks. Left to right, its "Breakouts" window, main window displaying one of four panels, and "Live Spins" floating display:

This latest version fixes an issue configuring hours for display, changes how the total tracks of the same rank are displayed in the Live Spins window, and makes some enhancements for stability. Spins is $10 shareware but the un-registered demo is free to use with limited features. Version 1.0.3 is a free update for registered users.

posted in Spins, Updates

January 27 2011 - 11:26 am

Create Shortcut Keys to Select Libraries

There are no shortcut keys to select the Music, Podcast, TV Shows, and other libraries. But you can use AppleScript to create some. Here's how:

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posted in AppleScript Syntax, Snippets, Tips and Info

January 25 2011 - 7:38 am

NEW: Restore Artwork from Album Folder

Restore Artwork from Album Folder will look for an image file in the parent folder of each selected track's file--presumably its "Album" folder--and apply the data from that image file as artwork for the track. If more than one image file is found in the target folder than the first one found will be used. I didn't include a preferences pane as I did for Save Album Art to Album Folder, but you can hard-code the kind of image file to look for, JPEG or PNG, in the script.