Tuning up iTunes

Recently I noticed my iTunes Library was getting full of duplicate files, which is really annoying when your a fan of listening through an entire album like I am. On top of this I’ve let a lot of my files get really bad with incorrect id3 tags and missing a lot of album artwork. I undertook testing out about 15 different programs and iTunes plug-ins to attempt to correct these issues, and have settled on two commercial programs to solve the problem.

The first is iDupe from Wooden Brain Concepts which is shareware for $8 and Mac only. The user interface is really simple, a series of buttons that you step through to solve the problem. The basic process is to highlight a group of duplicate files, such as a few albums full of them or a fraction of your library. Click the first button which refreshes the selection so the program knows what to check. The second button compares the files to see if any are identical matches. The third will uncheck the duplicates, there is also another button that can reverse the check marks if you’re like me and would rather get rid of the files with 1’s or 2’s at the end. Then if you’re daring click the last button which will removed the unchecked files from the playlist, remove them from the iTunes Music Library, and also move the media file to the trash. It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.

The second program is an iTunes add-on called TuneUp from TuneUp Media which is free for a few fixes or offers a $19.95 a year or $29.95 for life price tag. Unlike iDupe this runs on both Mac and Windows. This one is a little quicker. To fix your id3 tags, simply drag your files onto the Clean section and it compares the files with a known data base, if it finds them it’ll let you save the new tags right away. If you want to find that missing album artwork just click over to the Cover Artwork tab, it’ll automatically scan your library for files missing artwork and attempt to locate the proper art. If it finds it you again just click save and it adds the artwork to all your files. It also contains a tab for who’s playing with band bio and discography information and a Concerts tab to show who in your library is playing soon in your city.

So all told $38 keeps your iTunes in good shape and makes it easy to maintain. Its a little bit of a bummer that these features are not built into the iTunes already, but this solution at least seems reasonable to me.