UPDATED: De-Genre v2.0
Eliminate superfluous Genre names fast with De-Genre v2.0. This script re-assigns the Library tracks of selected Genres to another Genre so that the original--and consequently un-assigned--Genres disappear from iTunes' Genre pop-up list. As you may know, you can make many superfluous Genres vanish from iTunes' Genres pop-up list simply by eliminating a reference to them in your tracks; when no tracks are assigned to a particular Genre, that Genre will be dropped from the list. (iTunes original Genre names cannot be removed this way; only those accumulated from other sources or created by you.)
UPDATED: Find Album Artwork with Google v2.5
Brett O'Connor's popular Find Album Artwork with Google has been updated to 2.5. This script will do a Google search for artwork based on the selected track's Album. This latest version updates image size settings to be in-line with Google Image's redesign and fixes a problem with an ampersand character breaking the search string.
Google Reader Problems
Several people who use Google Reader to view my RSS feeds had complained that links embedded in articles were not rendering correctly. I think I have fixed this. Google Reader is not as forgiving as some other new readers so I had to be much more particular about how certain characters were translated. If you use Google Reader, try deleting and then re-adding my feed links and let me know if you get the same nice results I do.
MPAA Ratings
Several people have asked me if it is possible to add or change the MPAA ratings of TV Shows and Movies via AppleScript. From what I gather, the simple answer is no. As far as AppleScript goes, there is no such thing as a "MPAA rating" property which can be directly accessed. As far as I can tell (and I haven't spent a lot of time investigating this), video files downloaded from the iTunes Store contain the MPAA data. For instance, my "Daily Show" video files contain some info that looks like this: "us-tv|tv-14|500|". This can also be seen in the XML file in the Content Rating node--remember that the XML file is written out by iTunes, not read in by iTunes, so changing the XML file does nothing. I actually opened one of video these files in TextEdit, changed the "tv-14" of this string to "tv-ma", and after saving the file, "TV-MA" appeared in the Track Name of the show. It took quite a while, but I'm sure a perl routine could do it faster. But be that as it may, I am not sure how to add an MPAA rating to a file which you may have gotten by some means. I am aware that the program Losify (which I recommend!) is able to do it, but the file does need to be re-written.
Make sure iTunes mounts a networked music library - Mac OS X Hints
This tip at Mac OS X Hints, Make sure iTunes mounts a networked music library, provides a simple method to ensure that the network drive containing your iTunes Music folder is mounted when starting iTunes. Simply put an alias of the iTunes app on the networked drive, copy that alias to your Dock, and launch iTunes with that.
NEW: Trackographer v1.0
Trackographer is a Stay-Open applet that will monitor iTunes and send tag information from each playing track (including radio streams if they provide track info) to a text file. Preferences can be set to include or not include various basic tags and to create a plain text file or a tab-delimited text file which can be imported into a spreadsheet.
NEW: Search Artists to Make Sort Artist
This script doesn't do anything you couldn't already do manually, but does put the whole process into a single script. Search Artists to Make Sort Artist will search for tracks whose Artist tag contains a user-entered search string. It will then ask you for a text string to use in each of those tracks' Sort Artist Tag. Or, rather than have the script automatically enter a Sort Artist, you can choose to display the results of the search in a new playlist to inspect them, then use Batch Set Tracks Sorting Tags to set the Sort Artist tag of just the selected tracks. FWIW.
UPDATED: Join Together v5.1.2
Join Together has been updated to v5.1.2. A couple of months ago I started getting reports from Join Together users regarding a strange "-54 file open" error. This error occurred as Join Together was attempting to apply tags to the joined file in iTunes. Turns out that iTunes 7.1.x is busy analyzing audio data during the "add" routine, thus leaving the file open and preventing the tags from being applied. I couldn't duplicate the error myself (still don't know why), so I had to rely on the kindness and patience of a good dozen or so users to fix the problem. Looks like it's licked. Also, the "-2753 variable" error that some people were getting has also been fixed. This was another error that I was unable to duplicate, so, once again, many thanks to the beta testers for their patient assistance.
...And Subscription Services?
If EMI drops DRM, what about those silly music download services that use the subscription model? Would any reasonable person subscribe to their music collection when untethered music downloads are available DRM-free?
FWIW, I've Started A Tumblelog
Because I don't think it's appropriate to post things I'm interested in at this site which fall outside the Venn diagram of iTunes and AppleScript, I've started a tumblelog with Tumblr. This is the link to the browser version, and this is the link to its RSS feed. Anything that strikes my fancy (such as berating myself for using the phrase "strikes my fancy") could appear there. I probably should have posted this item there, for example, but then how would you know that I had posted it?