Switched Download: TuneUp iTunes Plug-In
by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 21st 2008 at 4:02PM
What it is:
Got a messy, disorganized iTunes library? Here's a solution: Launched last week, TuneUp is a free iTunes plug-in that is supposed to help you reign in your unwieldy music collection by cleaning up tags, like misspelled song titles and unnumbered tracks, as well as add missing album art. If that wasn't enough, it also tracks down YouTube videos related to artists you're listening to and looks for upcoming concerts in your area.
How it works:
The reasonably small 12-megabyte (MB) download adds a side bar to your iTunes with tabs for "cleaning up" your music, adding missing album art, a "now playing" tab with related videos, and a tab of upcoming concerts in your area.
What we like:
We're a bunch of lazy bastards. Anything that will correct all of our (legally?) downloaded music's tags without us spending 20 minutes selecting and typing is welcome addition to our computer toolbox. We also enjoy how much more effective TuneUp is at finding album art than the album art finder built into iTunes, which works 20 percent of the time on a good day.
What we don't:
We realize it's brand new and subject to quirks, but this thing is buggier than a South Bronx housing project. We managed to bring iTunes to a grinding halt (which is admitedly not hard to do) about half a dozen times in our first half hour with TuneUp. TuneUp works great as long as you don't do things like add new music to your library, which can take the plug-in out of service for up to 10 minutes.
The concert tab and album art tab could use some organizing or a search feature. The cover art tab lists every album's missing artwork, which can get overwhelming on larger music collections. And the concert tab lists every upcoming event in your area, which is quite a lot if you live a major metropolitan area like New York City. Neither tab offers any way of browsing them outside of scrolling through the lengthy lists.
Also, despite being designed for iTunes, TuneUp is currently Windows only....odd.
Verdict:
Despite its shortcomings, TuneUp would be worth keeping an eye on as it matures if it weren't for one thing - the price. The free version is limited to cleaning 500 tracks and finding the album art for 50 albums, which is fine for smaller collections, or well-kept large music libraries with just a few missing pieces. However, we can't see shelling out $11.95 a year or $19.95 for a life time of the service until it runs more smoothly and gets some design and navigation updates.There's no doubt that music-library organizing apps are much needed by music collectors, so despite the price, we'll be keeping an eye on this one and keep you posted.
