Beta beat: TuneUp plugin gets your iTunes straightened out

The MP3 is an astonishing invention; who would have thought, in the days of LPs and 8-track tapes, that someday you could keep a houseful of albums on a gadget the size of a Zippo? Unfortunately, with power and convenience comes managerial effort and housekeeping chaos -- duped files, missing cover art, and overall aggravation. Keeping your music clean and neat can seem like a full-time job.

I've long relied on Chaotic's vintage and versatile MP3 Rage (now Media Rage 3, $30) utility for organizing my music, and it does fine (although it can't resolve the one big issue I still have -- a smattering of very old MP2 files that need to be converted to MP3 or AAC before syncing to an iPod, and there's no good way to search for them... rrgh) but I'd love to have a plugin for iTunes that could handle some of the same chores.

It turns out, there already is such a plugin, but (silly Mac user!) I didn't know about it because it's only available in the Windows version of iTunes. TuneUp will happily sit in the iTunes sidebar and kick into gear on request, cleaning your song filenames, adding album art, pointing out concert dates and YouTube videos for your favorite artists, and more. The tool comes in a free version (limited to 50 art downloads and 500 file cleanups) or a paid Gold version ($12 US annual subscription or $20 lifetime license) with unlimited art and cleaning power.

If only there was a Mac version... ah, there's the fun part. The Mac beta for TuneUp will be starting shortly, and we can help you move to the front of the line. Send an email to with your full name as the only thing on the first line of the email -- the first 100 respondents will be automatically added to the beta list.

Happy cleaning!