Prune Artist Name from Track Name in Song Metadata

Hi,

I've made two related scripts, one to remove the artist name from the name if it is there, and another to add it back so I could create tracks to test the process with. Here are some screenshots:

The scripts can be downloaded from this link which is a .zip file in my OneDrive. The scripts should be unpacked into ~/Library/Music/Scripts (you will need to make the last two folders yourself if they don't already exist) if you want access from the Music toolbar, or you can run the scripts from the Script Editor, which is less fun. Select some tracks then run the desired script from the menu bar. The Append script will only add the artist to the name if it isn't already there, and the Remove script only removes the artist when it is there. Any other name that happens to include " - " will be left as is.

tt2

Select the track and do Cmd-I (Get Info). Click the "Info" tab and you will see all the fields that can be changed - just select and delete the artist name from Name. You don't need a Doug script for this.

If you're confident that "-" is only used with Artist after it, you could use a Finder batch rename: select everything in your iTunes Music folder then do a conditional rename, i.e. change everything from " - " (note spaces) to end of name, to ""

Hi pixelchefs.

I think I can manage a script to do that if you don't mind waiting a few days.

To be clear I would make it specifically replace " - <Artist>" in <Name> with nothing, i.e. "" throughout a selection of tracks, where <Artist> and <Name> refer to the values of those properties in each selected track.

tt2

Hi, I would like to remove from selected track names everything until an underscore ("_"). For instance "Di Sarli52_Marianito" should become "Marianito". Could you please make one for this? I know how to do all this if I had a text file with track names etc as input but as far as I can tell all that is stored as binary in Music, and that is what I do not know how to deal with. Thank you for considering.

How do you get the script list into the menu bar of Music. Does it happen automatically if I create the library/Music/Scripts folder or have I got to do something else?

Edit - answered the question myself. Thanks TT2.

sridharH wrote:

Hi, I would like to remove from selected track names everything until an underscore ("_"). For instance "Di Sarli52_Marianito" should become "Marianito". Could you please make one for this? I know how to do all this if I had a text file with track names etc as input but as far as I can tell all that is stored as binary in Music, and that is what I do not know how to deal with. Thank you for considering.

Sure, I can do that for you. Give me a day or so.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:

Sure, I can do that for you. Give me a day or so.

tt2

Actually I found time to do it now. Use this link to download TrimUnderscore.zip from my OneDrive. There are two files inside, Trim Underscore to LHS.scpt and Trim Underscore to RHS.scpt. You want the second one which:

Changes names of the form <LHS>_<RHS> to <RHS>. Neither <LHS> nor <RHS> can be empty strings.

The other is there in case someone else needs to keep the other half of the string, and both could be adapted for a different separator character/string fairly easily. Backup before you start. This action isn't reversible. Test with a couple of tracks first before doing a big batch.

tt2

And just to confirm this is for Music rather than iTunes, despite the forum this thread is in?

tt2

Yep, just make the folder and put the scripts inside it.

tt2