beaTunes News

It took a long time, but now it's finally here: beaTunes 6!

Why did it take so long? Here's the short list:

• Apple Silicon support
• Migration to SQLite 3
• Switch to subscriptions
• Other things

beaTunes isn't just one monolithic app; it depends on a bunch of libraries, some of them native, some not. Making sure all of them work correctly and support Apple Silicon took some time. The same is true for switching the internal database: H2 is a great database and has served beaTunes well for a very long time, but corrupted databases were the single biggest reason for support requests (newer versions of H2 may be more robust!). SQLite 3 was the natural alternative, but not a drop-in replacement. Automatically migrating the data alone was no small task. Above, I also mentioned "Switch to subscriptions." Yes, that's right, beaTunes now comes as a subscription. I'll explain why and what it looks like below. For now, I just want to say: this switch took way more work than anticipated. Last but not least, a lot of (mostly good) things happened in my private life that kept me from working on beaTunes.

So. Subscriptions.

I am not a fan. Never was. But unfortunately, there is an economic reality, and it comes in the form of server bills. beaTunes communicates with a central database. Keeping the servers running, maintained, and backed up costs money every month. There is no way I can pay for this indefinitely without a recurring stream of revenue—like a subscription. So beaTunes 6 will not be sold with a lifetime license, but as a reasonably priced subscription instead. That said, beaTunes 6 also runs without a subscription, with two limitations:

• Analysis of up to 10 songs (per app start)
• Inspection solutions cannot be applied

Other than that, the free version of beaTunes 6 is fully functional.

With that out of the way, let's talk about what's better in beaTunes 6. The simple answer: pretty much everything. beaTunes 6 does not focus on adding fancy new features. Instead, I wanted to make everything just a little bit better, faster, prettier, more stable, and easier to use. On the surface, things may seem very similar to what you know from version 5, but let me assure you: a lot has changed under the hood. And you can feel it! It's simply more fun to work with beaTunes. Less waiting, fewer surprises.

I hope you enjoy this new version of beaTunes as much as I do. It's available today.

Labels: Apple Silicon, Release, SQLite

Here we go again: the newest EA version of beaTunes 6. The biggest news is the brandnew Windows version. So finally you can try v6 on a Windows box. The UI is not great yet, but most important parts are running smoothly. Both Windows and macOS got a new mechanism to view help files, retiring the old proprietary help viewers that have stopped working well a long time ago. Note that the Help itself is not pretty yet. It definitely still needs a bot of love and polishing. A couple of bugs were fixed and the import metadata task has been renovated.

When you start beaTunes 6, and have used beaTunes 5 before, beaTunes will create a backup of your existing database folder and then go on to convert your databases to the new SQLite format. This process cannot be reversed, i.e. you will not be able to migrate data back to beaTunes 5. You can however, delete the new database folder and rename the copy to its former name. In any case, you might want to create a backup before starting beaTunes 6.

Alright, here's the obligatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

• Absolutely no warranty for whatever
• Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
• It may not be possible to migrate data to future or previous versions (even though I make a reasonable effort)
• You will not be able to migrate data created by this version back to beaTunes 5
• This version will cease to function 4 week after its release. A new version or a final product will be made available when this version becomes dysfunctional.
• You cannot buy this version

Here are the macOS download links: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA7-arm64.dmg (Apple Silicon), beaTunes-6-0-0-EA7-x86_64.dmg (Intel)

And here is the Windows one: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA7-x64.exe

Changes in 6.0.0 EA7

• Fixed a long freeze and a failing "New Playlist from Selection" when many songs were selected.
• Fixed cover art that had disappeared online being kept and re-submitted to the online database.
• Added a check that keeps dead cover art addresses out of the library on import.
• Reorganized the "Import metadata from online resources" options into three clearer groups.
• Added an option to import external ids and cover art addresses.
• Updated the info window for one or several songs to match the look of the other views.
• Updated Windows UI (incomplete).
• Replaced the help with a searchable HTML version.
• Fixed the Help menu on macOS, which had stopped opening the help entirely.
• Fixed songs renamed or moved outside beaTunes not being recognized as already in the library.
• Replaced the Windows Start Menu folder with a single "beaTunes" shortcut.

Feedback is very welcome!

Labels: Early Access, Windows

And here's the newest EA version of beaTunes 6. A lot has changed under the hood since EA 5. Some of the older third party dependencies have been updated - the largest ones probably being JRuby and Groovy. More performance improvements, much faster startup on large libraries, small and large tweaks, new icons, configurable light/dark mode, etc.

This Early Access release focuses on macOS. A windows version is not available, but there will be windows versions in the future.

When you start beaTunes 6, and have used beaTunes 5 before, beaTunes will create a backup of your existing database folder and then go on to convert your databases to the new SQLite format. This process cannot be reversed, i.e. you will not be able to migrate data back to beaTunes 5. You can however, delete the new database folder and rename the copy to its former name. In any case, you might want to create a backup before starting beaTunes 6.

Alright, here's the obligatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

• Absolutely no warranty for whatever
• Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
• It may not be possible to migrate data to future or previous versions (even though I make a reasonable effort)
• You will not be able to migrate data created by this version back to beaTunes 5
• This version will cease to function 4 week after its release. A new version or a final product will be made available when this version becomes dysfunctional.
• You cannot buy this version

Here is the download link: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA6-arm64.dmg

Changes in 6.0.0 EA6

• Fixed MatchList properties not being persisted.
• Fixed ReplayGain: analysis failed above full scale, and values were not saved.
• Fixed descending "top N" lists including songs without a value.
• Fixed descending sorting being ignored on playlists with a sync tempo.
• Fixed the first screen of a large playlist being reordered after it appeared.
• Fixed edited songs being re-read on every library synchronization.
• Improved startup: the database is verified only after an unclean shutdown.
• Improved sorting: equally ranked songs always appear in the same order.
• Improved database performance: HikariCP replaces c3p0, larger cache, padded IN-clauses.
• Improved memory use and song caching.
• Improved song detail loading (fewer database queries).
• Improved MatchList filter storage (now JSON).
• Improved synchronization logging (quieter; -DSYNC_LOG=true restores the detail).
• Updated to Hibernate 7.4.5.
• Updated ScribeJava, libsvm and the Snowball stemmers; stored credentials are unaffected.
• Fixed Groovy beaTlets not loading at all (the script engine was never registered).
• Updated to Groovy 5.1.0 and JRuby 10.1.1.0.
• Removed the unused ECMAScript scripting option, which had no engine since Nashorn was dropped.
• Reduced the download size by about 14 MB.
• Updated UI (incomplete).
• Added explicit dark/light/system appearance.
• Dropped support for iTunes on macOS.
• Raised minimum requirements to macOS 11 (Big Sur) and Windows 10 (64-bit).

Feedback is very welcome!

Labels: Early Access, macOS, Release

And here's the newest EA version of beaTunes 6. What's new since EA 4? Frankly, not much - at least there are no new features. This EA release concentrates completely on fixing bugs and delivering UI updates. Talking about the UI - it's not completely done, but we are getting there. There should be notably fewer glitches. It should also all feel a little smoother.

This Early Access release focuses on macOS. A windows version is not available, but there will be windows versions in the future.

When you start beaTunes 6, and have used beaTunes 5 before, beaTunes will create a backup of your existing database folder and then go on to convert your databases to the new SQLite format. This process cannot be reversed, i.e. you will not be able to migrate data back to beaTunes 5. You can however, delete the new database folder and rename the copy to its former name. In any case, you might want to create a backup before starting beaTunes 6.

Alright, here's the obligatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

• Absolutely no warranty for whatever
• Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
• It may not be possible to migrate data to future or previous versions (even though I make a reasonable effort)
• You will not be able to migrate data created by this version back to beaTunes 5
• This version will cease to function 4 week after its release. A new version or a final product will be made available when this version becomes dysfunctional.
• You cannot buy this version

Here is the download link: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA5-arm64.dmg

Changes in 6.0.0 EA5

• Improved db migration to work with malformed timestamps (H2->sqlite).
• Improved scrolling.
• Fixed analysis result write failures.
• Fixed FindBar animation.
• Fixed loading of unusual image formats.
• Updated UI (incomplete).

Feedback is very welcome!

Labels: Early Access, macOS, Release

This early access version of beaTunes 6 focuses on three things:

1. Faster analysis
2. Faster synchronization after migration
3. Updated UI (incomplete)
4. Bugfixes

The initial synchronization after migration to the new database should be much faster now, thanks to a number of bugfixes. The UI improved, but still isn't done, and the analysis should be very, very fast compared to v5.

This Early Access release focuses on macOS. A windows version is not available, but there will be windows versions in the future.

When you start beaTunes 6, and have used beaTunes 5 before, beaTunes will create a backup of your existing database folder and then go on to convert your databases to the new SQLite format. This process cannot be reversed, i.e. you will not be able to migrate data back to beaTunes 5. You can however, delete the new database folder and rename the copy to its former name. In any case, you might want to create a backup before starting beaTunes 6.

Alright, here's the obligatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

• Absolutely no warranty for whatever
• Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
• It may not be possible to migrate data to future or previous versions (even though I make a reasonable effort)
• You will not be able to migrate data created by this version back to beaTunes 5
• This version will cease to function 4 week after its release. A new version or a final product will be made available when this version becomes dysfunctional.
• You cannot buy this version

Here is the download link: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA4-arm64.dmg

Changes in 6.0.0 EA4

• Fixed timestamp issue in database migration (H2->sqlite).
• Fixed stalls during analysis.
• Improved migration to include optimized device id update.
• Updated tag fetching.
• Updated UI (incomplete).
• Increased default max heap to 1024m.

Feedback is very welcome!

Labels: Early Access, macOS, Release

This third early access version of beaTunes 6 focuses on three things:

1. Faster analysis
2. Updated UI (incomplete)
3. Bugfixes

The focus for this EA release is clearlyon analysis speed. Most analysis tasks should be substantially faster. Also, the queue logic was rewritten from scratch, using a simplified design. In the UI department, the first thing you'll notice is the updated icon (Tahoe-style) and floating scrollbars and rounded corners within the UI. The latter isn't quite ready yet - there are still some glitches I am aware of. While EA2 didnt' even start in dark mode, EA3 will start, but rounded corners will be rendered in the wrong colors. I am aware of this and it will be fixed.

Thanks to user feedback, I was able to fix a couple of bugs, for example problems with %-sign in file paths or names.

This Early Access release focuses on macOS. A windows version is not available, but there will be windows versions in the future.

When you start beaTunes 6, and have used beaTunes 5 before, beaTunes will create a backup of your existing database folder and then go on to convert your databases to the new SQLite format. This process cannot be reversed, i.e. you will not be able to migrate data back to beaTunes 5. You can however, delete the new database folder and rename the copy to its former name. In any case, you might want to create a backup before starting beaTunes 6.

Alright, here's the obligatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

• Absolutely no warranty for whatever
• Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
• It may not be possible to migrate data to future or previous versions (even though I make a reasonable effort)
• You will not be able to migrate data created by this version back to beaTunes 5
• This version will cease to function 4 week after its release. A new version or a final product will be made available when this version becomes dysfunctional.
• You cannot buy this version

Here is the download link: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA3-arm64.dmg

Changes in 6.0.0 EA3

• Removed share button.
• Improved language detection for macOS.
• Added spellchecking support for Windows
• Added no-sleep mode during analysis and playback for Windows.
• Added open-in-genius action.
• Fixed dark theme (broken in v6, incomplete).
• Updated icon to macOS 26 format.
• Rewrote analysis queue logic.
• Updated to FFSampledSP 0.9.56.
• UI update (incomplete).

Feedback is very welcome!

Labels: Early Access, GUI, Release

This second early access version of beaTunes 6 focuses on two things:

1. Faster database access/synchronization
2. Faster inpection

Both improvements are essentially the result of optimized database queries and parallelization. Especially inspection should be an order of magnitude faster. Note that it may not appear like that at first, as beaTunes will now always start with the relatively slow inspectors first. Synchronization, especially for folder-based libraries on network volumes - which naturally is fairly slow, should be significantly faster.

This Early Access release focuses on macOS. A windows version is not available, but there will be windows versions in the future.

When you start beaTunes 6, and have used beaTunes 5 before, beaTunes will create a backup of your existing database folder and then go on to convert your databases to the new SQLite format. This process cannot be reversed, i.e. you will not be able to migrate data back to beaTunes 5. You can however, delete the new database folder and rename the copy to its former name. In any case, you might want to create a backup before starting beaTunes 6.

Alright, here's the obligatory warning: Before downloading and installing this, please make sure you understand what Early Access means:

• Absolutely no warranty for whatever
• Features may or may not work, appear, and disappear
• It may not be possible to migrate data to future or previous versions (even though I make a reasonable effort)
• You will not be able to migrate data created by this version back to beaTunes 5
• This version will cease to function 4 week after its release. A new version or a final product will be made available when this version becomes dysfunctional.
• You cannot buy this version

Here is the download link: beaTunes-6-0-0-EA2-arm64.dmg

Changes in 6.0.0 EA2

• Migrated to UNUserNotificationCenter.
• Improved synchronisation performance.
• Improved database schema.
• Improved inspection performance.
• Improved analysis performance (1st round).
• Removed unused low-level dsp features.

Feedback is very welcome!

Labels: Apple Silicon, Early Access, Inspection, Release, SQLite