ID3 Kill is a free Windows software that can recursively scan through directories and perform file operations on audio files.

Usage is pretty straightforward. You point it at a directory and check a few boxes to configure the options. It is possible to include subdirectories in the scan. The main options are to remove ID3v1 and / or ID3v2 tags from all encountered audio files.

Other options include to clean m3u and pls playlists, to ignore file attributes or to display a message after the run is finished.

Update: ID3 Kill has been discontinued. You can download the last version if ID3Kill directly from our servers: ID3 Kill

Both versions of TuneUp are available for Microsoft Windows PCs and Apple Macintosh computers with the limitation that it is currently only working on Intel Based Mac’s running 10.5 or greater. Installation is uncomplicated and the TuneUp bar loads automatically the next time iTunes is started on the computer. The last step before the features can be used is the registration process which takes only a few seconds in iTunes.

TuneUp adds four options to iTunes: Cleaning mislabeled music, finding missing cover art, exploring music and concert notifications.

Adding Meta Tags:

The Clean tab makes TuneUp search for missing meta data in its database. This is simply done by dragging and dropping songs into the TuneUp sidebar. The songs will be analyzed automatically. TuneUp will divide hits into matches and likely matches. Matches have a success rate of 99% while likely matches are about 80-90% correct on average.

All missing metadata, including album art, will be added to the song or album. This tab also provides access to a save all button which is available in the matches and likely matches tab. It is for example possible to save all matches directly in one go and evaluate the likely matches before saving them separately.

Album Cover Art Finder:

TuneUp will automatically scan the iTunes library for songs or albums that are missing cover art and display possible hits in its sidebar. Four different possible images are shown for every album that is missing cover art and it is up to the user to pick the one that is fitting best. Impatient users can click on the Save All button to save all cover art automatically. This will automatically select the first match as the new cover art for the music.

This is a very convenient way of adding missing cover album art to a music collection. Users who do not rely solely on iTunes will be delighted to hear that the cover art is integrated into the music directly which makes it available to other applications as well.

Now Playing:

This combines music recommendations with videos taken directly from Youtube and other news about the song or artist. The videos play directly in iTunes and there are also links to buy merchandise, tickets or music.

Concerts:

This tab will inform the user about local concerts of bands that are in the music collection.

Finally the differences between TuneUp and TuneUp Gold. The free version of the iTunes plugin is limited to 50 cover arts and 500 song cleanups. That’s the only difference.

You can win a copy of TuneUp Gold with a comment on this article. Let us know what software you are currently using to play and manage your music.