Not because it’s free (though that helps): Tangerine
I’ve been hoping for a good iTunes plugin/addon that would help group music by mood. Adding to my desire is my un-deniable ‘Reuben-esque’ physique lately. Toss in a huuuuge music library (currently pushing 50 gigs) and my inability to create decent playlists and you can see why I’ve fallen in love with Tangerine.
Tangerine has 3 main functions.
- Scanning – The app will scan your music library (except for iTunes music store purchases–something about the DRM makes this difficult) and keep a record of the BPM, beats per minute, of each song.
- (Really) Smart Playlists - You can use the app to create playlists of tracks falling in a certain beat range
- Syncing – The app will sync your Tangerine playlists to iTunes.
The burning question: Does it really work?
Yes. Yes it does. Usually…
Sometimes it gets the beats a little wrong, sometimes a LOT wrong. But I gotta tell ya’ it’s more right than wrong, and it scans your library WAY faster than just about any other BPM scanning app I’ve seen.
There are 3 perks that I feel put Tangerine above the rest
- It’s pretty – It’s easy on the eyes, and if Apple has taught me anything it’s that looks do matter. Think of it this way, you can be the smartest, nicest, most wonderful person in class, but if you show up every day with 3 day B.O., un-brushed teeth, and greasy hair…none of that matters.
- Playlist visualization – The app makes use of the album art for your tracks (if you have it– and if you have iTunes 7 Apple will let you download it!) and then shrinks or enlarges the art across a time line like a bar graph. The tall the album cover the faster the BMP, the wider the cover the longer the song.
- Styled playlists – Just like the stair master or treadmill at the Gym, Tangerine can ’style’ your playlist to be gradually building, decending, random, or stepped. It’s a great way to tailor the playlist and keep things from seeming too perfect.
Give Tangerine a look and decide for yourself.