What's new?

A couple of fixes today for Music Collector macOS:

Fixed:

• Changing the collection status of an album didn’t work
• Manage Pick List screen could crash on the box set field
• Index field would not increment correctly sometimes
• Printing a list while in dark mode would print a black page

The year “twenty-twenty” is coming up, so here’s Music Collector v20 for macOS!

In this release we added support for the macOS Dark/Light Mode and enhanced the CLZ Cloud syncing system with many new fields and back cover images.

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A useful and fun new option in Music Connect software today!
By default, the folders in your folder panel are sorted alphabetically. But as of today, there is another option: sort your folder panel by the numbers, that is by the number of albums contained.

Sorting by the numbers is a nice way to find the most important Artist, Labels, Genres, etc.. in your collection.

Switch between the Alphabetical and Number sorting using the new toggle to the right of the search box:

The app could crash during syncing of certain items. Shouldn’t happen anymore now!

Fixed:

• App could crash while syncing with CLZ Cloud

Roughly a month ago we introduced the ability to use multiple levels of folders in the folder panel. At the time, limited to several built-in field sensible field combinations.

Today we’re giving you the next logical step: the ability to create and save your own multi- and single-level favorites for the folder panel.

The Favorites are shown at the top of the Folder menu, with the single-field options still available at the bottom.

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Fixed:

• Edit Multiple could change Collection Status of selected albums to “Not in Collection”
• “Added Date” field could be entered wrong when syncing

A big step forward for the CLZ Music app today, in which we add more new editable fields:

• Recording Date
• Studios
• Live (yes/no)
• Extras
• Conductors
• Orchestras

Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.

A big step forward for the CLZ Music app today, in which we add more new editable fields:

• Recording Date
• Studios
• Live (yes/no)
• Extras
• Conductors
• Orchestras

Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.

Wait what? Track searching in Music Connect? Yes, it is finally here!

For many years, the most requested missing feature for Music Connect and CLZ Cloud has been the ability to search for track titles and track artists. The main reason for the lack of a track search has always been performance. Searching a cloud database with over 500 million (!!) songs is not an easy task 🙁

However, a few months ago we finally decided to start on this huge and challenging project.
And I am happy to announce that we found a solution that works! We have created a humongous new search index for the music cloud data, that now includes track titles and track artists. A new flexible search engine is now available behind your familiar search box that lets you search album details, track details or both.

As of today, the new search engine is live in your account, and it is FAST!

Choose between 3 Search Types

Use the new “search type” selector on the left of the search box to choose to search:

• Albums
• Tracks
• or both: Albums & Tracks

Track highlighting

After searching for tracks, click one of the resulting albums and the track that match will be highlighted in your album details panel.

Two updates for your Connect software today. An improved Statistics screen, with cool new charts and lists, plus a re-designed toolbar that clearly shows your currently selected folders and filters.

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Dragging/dropping of discs onto another album (to create a multi-disc from existing album entries) was broken in macOS Catalina. We’ve now added a new way to do this.

Updated: Merging discs into 1 multi-disc album

1. Select the albums by holding COMMAND and clicking them
2. Right click the selection and click “Merge albums”

This will move all discs to the first selected album.

Fixed:

• Import from XML didn’t import everything in certain situations

Fixed:

• Custom images were uploaded too often

Fixed:

• Custom images were uploaded too often
• Add by Barcode: Barcode wasn’t showing in the result

A very cool and useful addition to your Music Connect software today: the folder panel on the left now allows multiple levels of folders!

This is a powerful way to browse your music collection, e.g by Artist, then Release year.

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With all the big comic and game related releases going on, it has been a few months since the last Music Collector update. But we didn’t forget you! In the background, we have been “secretly” working on a big update, which is available now as version 19.3!

Here’s what’s new:

• Many more fields now sync with the CLZ Cloud / Music Connect:
  • Classical music fields, like Conductor, Orchestra, Composers
  • Recording specific fields, like Studio, Date, Live, Sound
  • Extras
  • AND the Back Cover image!
• The Location field has been moved to the bottom of the Edit Screen
• Collection Status field is now a dropdown menu

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A big step forward for the Music Connect software today, in which we add many new editable fields and Back Cover images.

Many new fields

Today we have added many fields to the software, all now editable in the Edit Album screen.

• Conductor
• Orchestra
• Studio
• Composer (you can now add multiple instead of just 1)
• Extras
• Recording Date
• Live: Yes/No
• Sound: Mono/Stereo/Hi-Res Stereo/Multi-channel

Of course, the pick list fields are immediately available as folder fields too, so that you can browse your collection in folders by Studio, Orchestra, Live, etc…

New: Add your own back covers

With this big update for Music Connect we have another surprise for you: Back Covers! That’s right, a brand new back cover field you can modify yourself.

Use the “Find Back cover” button to find one, or upload one yourself:

Changed:

• Add by barcode: Swipe to remove a single barcode wasn’t working. To remove a single barcode now, just press and hold on it!

Fixed:

• When changing a cover, the list and images view wasn’t updated correctly
• Date pickers weren’t showing correctly
• Some colours were wrong (tabs/switches)

As you probably know, macOS Catalina (version 10.15) was released earlier this week.
In Catalina, Apple has made two major changes, that will affect all software that you run on your Mac:

• All programs you use need to be 64-bit. No more support for 32-bit applications!
• All programs you download outside the App Store need to be notarized (=approved) by Apple.

Of course, our Music Collector software has been a 64-bit application since version 18.1 (April 2018). And this week, we got it approved and notarized by Apple too!

So today, we released Music Collector 19.1, 64-bit and notarized, so fully Catalina compatible!

Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.

Today’s update brings you the first batch of user interface improvements that we implemented (more coming up!), plus it bring the app fully up-to-date with the new iOS 13 “sheet-style” popup screens!

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Fixed:

• Crash in Field Defaults screen
• Edit screen: Edit pencil buttons were broken
• Custom covers could upload too often
• Some further modifications to the Manage Pick List screen and pick list pop-ups in the edit screens

Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.

Today’s update brings you the first user interface improvements we implemented (more coming up!):

Easier to find Edit and Remove buttons on album details screen (phone only)

Easier editing of pick list fields, especially multi-value fields

• Selected/checked values are now always at the top
• For multi-value fields (like Genre), check/uncheck multiple values in one go!
• Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values..

Complete Re-design of Manage Pick List screen

• Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values.
• Remove Unused and Merge action have now been moved to action (…) button top right.
• Easier to use Merge mode.

Add by barcode: New Clear Queue button and new “Scanning tips” popup

Fixed:

• Re-introduced a “sync changes pending” icon to the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu item

Fixed:

• Fix for a crash that some iPhone users experienced after adding/editing entries

Several small tweaks for your CLZ Music app today:

• iPhone: details page now has clearer Edit and Remove buttons at the bottom
• “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu now indicates whether there are sync changes pending.

Fixed:

• Link albums screen didn’t correctly search for albums in Core
• Link albums screen size and position is now remembered between sessions
• Drag/Drop image would put image in Downloads folder when using “just link to dropped file”
• Fixed a display issue with shelf-view background

If you are always adding your albums by Artist and Title, you will certainly enjoy today’s little tweak to the Add Albums screen. A new All / CD / Vinyl selector lets filter the artist/title results by Format.

For example:

All Nirvana / Nevermind results on CD:

All Nirvana / Nevermind results on Vinyl: