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Understanding relationship between Beatunes 2.1.2 and iTunes 9.0.2 on Win 7

• Edit

Robert Young

23 Jan, 2010 09:08 PM

I am using the trial version to gauge the value provided. I have read the notes.txt and read me, as well as the help file, all installed with the trial version. BPM does appear to get stored in itunes, and I think defects in artist, title, etc. are supposed to be found, corrected and the corrections propagated to iTunes. If the track in iTunes is totally mislabeled (track 07), it does fix that, however I am noticing that album cover pictures, track number (x of y tracks) and especially genre information are not consistently filled in (in iTunes). Genre does not appear to consistently get filled in on your database either. Does your product not update this column?

1. Is color, key, etc. only stored in your system? If not, what columns in iTunes store that information.
   
2. Is there anything besides BPM data that is consistently updated in iTunes?
   
3. Is it accurate to summarize and say that while beatunes will help to clean your iTunes library, in the end one must use two libraries (iTunes and your copy with color/key information) to actually create disks? (your tool can create playlists, however I don't see how to get the resulting playlist back to iTunes to burn or to an iPod to play, and I did not see any kind of burning option in your tool.)

Finally, I got the following error when I tried to analyze a track I purchased last night (Jan 22, 2010) ("A Touch of Grey" from the Grateful Dead"). - "beaTunes was unable to determine the PUID of track 'Touch of Grey'. This may indicate a network problem". The network is fine. Any reason PUID could not be determined (BPM, color and key were) on a brand new purchase from the iTunes store? Do I care (since BPM, color and key were found)??

Still working with the product to make a final decision on purchase or not. Since I only have 14 days, a quick response will greatly appreciated as it will help me continue with my evaluation.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and support!

• beatunes_errors_v1_.doc 598 KB

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by hendrik on 24 Jan, 2010 12:51 PM

   

   Hi Robert,

   thank you for your message.

   Let me try to answer your questions:

   • Filling in missing information. Currently beaTunes uses a third party service (MusicIP aka Amplifindmusicservices) to identify mislabeled tracks and fill in missing information. Depending on what's actually in the MusicIP database, beaTunes can fill in Name, Artist, Album and Tracknumber. Not all fields are guaranteed to be filled in. Genre is never filled in. This is a feature that will be added, but I can't tell you when.
   • iTunes does not offer columns for color, key, language or tags, therefore those are not stored by default in iTunes. You can check the checkbox "embed non-iTunes fields in files" in the beaTunes general preferences. This ensures that any changes to those values are not only stored in the beaTunes database, but also in the audio files themselves (there are standard id3 fields for that). This does not help you see those values in iTunes though - but you can install a plugin to copy the key to the comment field - see http://www.beatunes.com/news/labels/Plugin.html for details.
   • Everything that iTunes can display is also updated in iTunes. beaTunes and iTunes are supposed to be in sync.
   • Creating a playlist in beaTunes creates the same playlist in iTunes. If that's not happening you are encountering a bug and I would be most interested in finding out more about it so that I can fix it.
   • PUIDs are identifiers MusicIP uses for songs. If nobody who uses MusicIP has ever analyzed the song in question, it can't be in the database. But since you just bought the songs, you probably have all the metadata you are interested in and little use for the MusicIP PUID - in other words: it does not matter.

   Hope this answers your questions for now...

   Have a great Sunday.

   -hendrik

   • Edit

2. Support Staff 2 Posted by hendrik on 25 Jan, 2010 10:46 AM

   

   Hi,

   just FYI - it looks like I'll be able to add Genre and Release Year import to that MusicIP task, so that they do get imported, if they are actually in the database.

   This feature will be in 2.1.3, planned to be released this week.

   -hendrik

   • Edit

3. 3 Posted by Robert Young on 25 Jan, 2010 02:22 PM

   

   That's great, thank you very much!!!!

   --------------------------------------------------
   From: "hendrik"
   <[email blocked]>
   Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 5:46 AM
   To: <[email blocked]>
   Subject: Re: Understanding relationship between Beatunes 2.1.2 and iTunes
   9.0.2 on Win 7 [Problems]

   • Edit

4. Support Staff 4 Posted by hendrik on 27 Jan, 2010 04:47 PM

   

   Hi,

   2.1.3 is out. I hope it delivers what you were hoping for.

   -hendrik

   • Edit

5. 5 Posted by Robert Young on 28 Jan, 2010 06:03 AM

   

   Hello! First thank you for 2.1.3, I shall obtain and use it shortly, no later than this weekend. Second, I think my wife would scold you, she complains that I have done nothing but play with "iTunes" (your program actually) since I purchased it.
   

   Notes of clarification to my original e-mail at the top of this thread. Part of my questions were from my own ignorance. I was using the trial copy, which clearly said it would not perform the one click updates, yet I was confused when nothing was updated. (sigh) I also wondered aloud about creating a playlist in beaTunes, however had not tried to do so (even though it's listed in the file menu, and on the iTunes like left side bar.) I went ahead and made the leap and just purchased the software, have not regretted it since.

   Works very well, screen shots are very accurate.

   Suggestion: Even though I had most of my album titles loaded correctly, I figured, what the heck, let's see what beaTunes does with it. So I checked the "replace existing song properties with data from Music IP". In hind-sight, not my best move. My stuff was "more correct". Different album titles (with that song on them) were substituted in several cases. Next time I will go with "Import missing data from MusicIP", probably a much better choice in hindsight.
   

   Something else I noticed. I submitted my library on multiple nights, again just to see what would happen. On night one, I had removed all the [disk 1] entries. However, the over night run reinserted album titles with [disk 1] in them, forcing me to re-clean them (and several additional ones out) on night two. Any thoughts to trying to parse any [disk x] entries out of album names, so we're not forced to clean them again?

   Glad you were able to add genre and release date, I will be happy to let you know how those work. Question: does your product fill in "Album Artist"? (without which iTunes can not locate album art). My personal rule of thumb has been to copy artist to album artist, and so far have had success effectively 100% of the time with album look-ups via iTunes. You might wish to consider in your next release if not already there. I'll look for it this weekend.

   Thanks again, great support, quick turn around, very nice product, especially for the quite reasonable price!!

   Robert Young
   Richmond, VA, USA

   • Edit

6. Support Staff 6 Posted by hendrik on 28 Jan, 2010 08:59 AM

   

   Hi Robert,

   when you say that you have re-submitted over night - are you talking about importing data from MusicIP?

   Regarding "Album Artist" - there is an inspection for that ("Missing Album Artist").

   -hendrik

   • Edit

7. 7 Posted by Robert Young on 28 Jan, 2010 11:59 PM

   

   Yes, I had submitted the entire library (roughly 2400 songs) to be
   inspected, with the replace all data box checked. Did that three or four
   times (and had to re-remove the [disk x] data each time) before I wised up
   and figured I had gotten all the benefit from that, let's just update
   missing data in the future.

   --------------------------------------------------
   From: "hendrik"
   <[email blocked]>
   Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2010 3:59 AM
   To: <[email blocked]>
   Subject: Re: Understanding relationship between Beatunes 2.1.2 and iTunes
   9.0.2 on Win 7 [Problems]

   • Edit

8. Support Staff 8 Posted by hendrik on 29 Jan, 2010 11:21 AM

   

   Yep - updating is often the better bet (unless you have tracks with completely useless names like "Track 7").

   -hendrik

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9. hendrik closed this discussion on 29 Jan, 2010 11:21 AM.

10. Robert Young re-opened this discussion on 29 Jan, 2010 10:50 PM

11. 9 Posted by Robert Young on 29 Jan, 2010 10:50 PM

    

    I just noticed you had no install or upgrade notes for Windows in your 2.1.3
    README file. Also, I was fat, dumb and happy, downloaded 2.1.3 and
    installed it (on Win 7). Double clicked my desktop icon. Imagine my
    surprise when 2.1.2 came up.

    I should have thought of it, however I would presume your upgrade would look
    for and uninstall any previous versions. Short of that, you probably want
    to include that as a 1st step in your readme windows upgrade instructions.

    --------------------------------------------------
    From: "hendrik"
    <[email blocked]>
    Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 6:21 AM
    To: <[email blocked]>
    Subject: Re: Understanding relationship between Beatunes 2.1.2 and iTunes
    9.0.2 on Win 7 [Problems]

    • Edit

12. Support Staff 10 Posted by hendrik on 30 Jan, 2010 07:31 PM

    

    Yes - the update procedure on Windows is less than ideal. It will be fixed eventually - for now one has to install the old version (but NOT delete color etc. during the uninstall) and install the new version.

    -hendrik

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13. 11 Posted by Robert Young on 31 Jan, 2010 12:10 PM

    

    Please give me a location (hot mail account, beaTunes mailbox, etc.) where I
    can send some results from my last library inspection, which I would rather
    not post on a web site that others could access.

    Also, I sent you my entire library for inspection about 4 hours ago (?). I
    am presuming you have logs of what your side did, I want to send you the
    results I'm finding on my side, however make sure to grab your logs (if they
    are not archived) so you'll be able to see both sides of the equation and we
    can discuss further then.

    The inspection just finished (4:03 am Eastern). Let me know if there is any
    identifying data you need from me, I doubt it since I am registered.

    Thanks!

    --------------------------------------------------
    From: "hendrik"
    <[email blocked]>
    Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 2:31 PM
    To: <[email blocked]>
    Subject: Re: Understanding relationship between Beatunes 2.1.2 and iTunes
    9.0.2 on Win 7 [Problems]

    • Edit

14. Support Staff 12 Posted by hendrik on 31 Jan, 2010 01:30 PM

    

    Robert,

    any data users send us is anonymized, so there isn't really a way for me to connect data sent to our server to whatever you are sending me.

    That aside - I believe you are using the MusicIP task a lot. MusicIP is an independent company and you are sending them your data, not us.

    Also I'm wondering, what would you actually like to discuss?

    To start a private discussion, simply go to http://help.beatunes.com/ and start a private discussion.

    Hope this helps,

    -hendrik

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15. 13 Posted by Robert Young on 21 Feb, 2010 05:11 AM

    

    I believe this topic may be closed. However, I will be opening a new one. Common Issue with 2.1.3 failing to communicate with Itunes.
    

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16. hendrik closed this discussion on 21 Feb, 2010 02:06 PM.