auto tag/update itunes genres

[thirsty moore]

I'm on a mac. I've got so many random genres in itunes that I would like to narrow it down to the ones that Apple already has. Is there a script or application that would replace the genres of the albums I have with the genre listed in the itunes store? I've searched in Dougs Applescripts and haven't found anything.

[Justin Tonation]

In lieu of a script, you can select multiple albums and change their genres all at once.

[thirsty moore]

That might be the way I have to go. Still looking for any insight though!

[walkonby]

sorry.

[vansmack]

I have never seen a script, but you can sort by Genre.  So do that and I'm willing to bet that most of your "gypsy whitewinecore" can be relabeled "Rock"...

[thirsty moore]

I'm having a tough time with calling ENYA rock, people. This is pretty internal here. I hope you keep it quiet.

One ice cube or 2 for your pinot grigio vansmack?

[kosmo vinyl]

I've been down the path of trying to find a freeware Mac program which pulls down tagging info a couple times and found it's slim picking to say the least.   Problem is it cost money to license access to Gracenote (aka cddb) which iTunes uses for ripping CDs.   Freedb keeps changing how programs access it's info and I find the GPL based programs/dbs lacking in the titles i.e. Musicbrainz....

The only commercial program I had any success with on the Mac was TuneUp, but it's interface and cost annoys me.

[thirsty moore]

The thread is still young! Thanks though, kosmo.

[Justin Tonation]

In lieu of a script, you can select multiple albums and change their genres all at once.

If you go this route, try this to keep track of what you've done:

1. Make a smart playlist of everything. Give it a name you're good with.
2. Choose the first genre you want to fix; for this example "Pop"
3. Add this rule to your playlist: --Genre--  --is not--  --Pop--
4. Everything that is already Pop should disappear (anything that contains Pop but is not specifically "Pop" will still be there, e.g. "Pop Punk"
5. Highlight everything remaining that you want to change to Pop. Right click and choose "Get Info". Change the genre to Pop.
6. After processing, everything that was changed should disappear from the playlist.
7. Add the next genre as in Step 3 and repeat; don't delete from the playlist rules the genres you've already fixed.
8. When the playlist is empty, yer done.

[Chip Chanko]

I've been enjoying Jaikoz for tagging on a mac the last year. I am usually tagging things album by album, though. It gets its info from Musicbrainz. I think that it has a "use itunes genres" setting somewhere in the preferences and could maybe do a pass on your library just looking at the genre category. This would require some setup in the program, though.

[thirsty moore]

Thanks Chip Chanko. I could go album by album no problem if it's just a point and click type thing. Could you confirm whether jaikoz has this itunes genre feature? I did some digging around the jaikoz site and couldn't find it.

[chaz]

If you don't mind going album by album or artist by artist, why not just select multiple songs in itunes (ie every song on an album or every song by an artist), go to the info tab for multiple items, and set the genre there?  Doing it artist by artist wouldn't take THAT long, even in a pretty big library.

[nkotb]

Thirsty is so underground, he only keeps one song MAX from artists, to make sure they never go stale. 

If you don't mind going album by album or artist by artist, why not just select multiple songs in itunes (ie every song on an album or every song by an artist), go to the info tab for multiple items, and set the genre there?  Doing it artist by artist wouldn't take THAT long, even in a pretty big library.

[thirsty moore]

Chaz, when using iTunes genre standards, Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home is Singer/Songwriter and Blood On The Tracks is Rock. Another example is Bjork's Homogenic is considered Electronic while Post is Pop. This is really just some weird compulsion of mine. However, I also use the iTunes Genius Mixes (which are pretty stellar) and I'm not sure how much of it relies on the assigned genre.

Regarding nkotb's comment, I look at the artiste's vision. If one song provides it, then I will digest that vision and then move along.

[Chip Chanko]

Hmm, I just checked and the option it gives is "save genres in an itunes friendly format." Possibly not what I thought it was. Here's from their help menu:

http://www.jthink.net/jaikoz/jsp/help/osx/ch10s02.html#ITunesSaveSettings

Thanks Chip Chanko. I could go album by album no problem if it's just a point and click type thing. Could you confirm whether jaikoz has this itunes genre feature? I did some digging around the jaikoz site and couldn't find it.