What's new in CLZ Music? (page 4)
A big update for the CLZ Music app, introducing a new Statistics screen, a cool “infographic” style screen, showing totals and statistics about your music collection.
To open it, just choose “Statistics” from the menu.
In this new screen, you can find:
- The number of albums in your collection, and how many artists.
- How many tracks, and the total runtime.
- A top 5 list of your most recent additions.
- A nice pie chart showing the distribution of your albums over formats (CD, Vinyl, etc.)
- A bar chart of your albums by artist.
- A bar chart of your albums by genre.
A useful and fun new option in Music Connect software today!
By default, the folders in your folder panel are sorted alphabetically. But as of today, there is another option: sort your folder panel by the numbers, that is by the number of albums contained.
Sorting by the numbers is a nice way to find the most important Artist, Labels, Genres, etc.. in your collection.
Switch between the Alphabetical and Number sorting using the new toggle to the right of the search box:
Roughly a month ago we introduced the ability to use multiple levels of folders in the folder panel. At the time, limited to several built-in field sensible field combinations.
Today we’re giving you the next logical step: the ability to create and save your own multi- and single-level favorites for the folder panel.
The Favorites are shown at the top of the Folder menu, with the single-field options still available at the bottom.
A big step forward for the CLZ Music app today, in which we add more new editable fields:
- Recording Date
- Studios
- Live (yes/no)
- Extras
- Conductors
- Orchestras
Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.
A big step forward for the CLZ Music app today, in which we add more new editable fields:
- Recording Date
- Studios
- Live (yes/no)
- Extras
- Conductors
- Orchestras
Of course, all the new fields sync to/from the CLZ Cloud too.
Wait what? Track searching in Music Connect? Yes, it is finally here!
For many years, the most requested missing feature for Music Connect and CLZ Cloud has been the ability to search for track titles and track artists. The main reason for the lack of a track search has always been performance. Searching a cloud database with over 500 million (!!) songs is not an easy task 🙁
However, a few months ago we finally decided to start on this huge and challenging project.
And I am happy to announce that we found a solution that works! We have created a humongous new search index for the music cloud data, that now includes track titles and track artists. A new flexible search engine is now available behind your familiar search box that lets you search album details, track details or both.
As of today, the new search engine is live in your account, and it is FAST!
Choose between 3 Search Types
Use the new “search type” selector on the left of the search box to choose to search:
- Albums
- Tracks
- or both: Albums & Tracks
Track highlighting
After searching for tracks, click one of the resulting albums and the track that match will be highlighted in your album details panel.
Two updates for your Connect software today. An improved Statistics screen, with cool new charts and lists, plus a re-designed toolbar that clearly shows your currently selected folders and filters.
A very cool and useful addition to your Music Connect software today: the folder panel on the left now allows multiple levels of folders!
This is a powerful way to browse your music collection, e.g by Artist, then Release year.
A big step forward for the Music Connect software today, in which we add many new editable fields and Back Cover images.
Many new fields
Today we have added many fields to the software, all now editable in the Edit Album screen.
- Conductor
- Orchestra
- Studio
- Composer (you can now add multiple instead of just 1)
- Extras
- Recording Date
- Live: Yes/No
- Sound: Mono/Stereo/Hi-Res Stereo/Multi-channel
Of course, the pick list fields are immediately available as folder fields too, so that you can browse your collection in folders by Studio, Orchestra, Live, etc…
New: Add your own back covers
With this big update for Music Connect we have another surprise for you: Back Covers! That’s right, a brand new back cover field you can modify yourself.
Use the “Find Back cover” button to find one, or upload one yourself:
Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.
Today’s update brings you the first batch of user interface improvements that we implemented (more coming up!), plus it bring the app fully up-to-date with the new iOS 13 “sheet-style” popup screens!
Instead of working on new features, we decided to take a few weeks to look at existing screens and functionality and see where things could be improved, of course all based on your feedback.
Today’s update brings you the first user interface improvements we implemented (more coming up!):
Easier to find Edit and Remove buttons on album details screen (phone only)
Easier editing of pick list fields, especially multi-value fields
- Selected/checked values are now always at the top
- For multi-value fields (like Genre), check/uncheck multiple values in one go!
- Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values..
Complete Re-design of Manage Pick List screen
- Easier to find big button at the top for adding NEW values.
- Remove Unused and Merge action have now been moved to action (…) button top right.
- Easier to use Merge mode.
Add by barcode: New Clear Queue button and new “Scanning tips” popup
Fixed:
- Re-introduced a “sync changes pending” icon to the “Sync with CLZ Cloud” menu item
If you are always adding your albums by Artist and Title, you will certainly enjoy today’s little tweak to the Add Albums screen. A new All / CD / Vinyl selector lets filter the artist/title results by Format.
For example:
All Nirvana / Nevermind results on CD:
All Nirvana / Nevermind results on Vinyl:
Today, a subtle addition to your Music Connect software, but one that can save you a lot of time if you’re always adding your CDs by barcode:
A new “Add [..] to Collection” button under the add queue, that lets you add all scanned albums in one go. No more need to click the little “+” buttons for each entry.
Some other improvements:
At the same time, some other tweaks went live in your software:
- In the “fixed” area at the bottom of the Edit Album screen, we replaced the Owner field with the Location field.
Through user feedback we found that the Location field is used by many more users, compared to Owner. Also many new users were not finding the field. So we figured the Location field deserved a more prominent spot in the Edit Album screen.
BTW: the Owner field can now be found on the Personal tab. - The User Rating field has received a make-over and can now be set using a nice sliding star thingie.
v5: Multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, and: now a subscription app!
It’s finally here: CLZ Music 5.0 for Android! With support for multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, plus a re-designed top bar and menu.
On top of that, (and the main reason why it took so long):
* Starting with v5, CLZ Music is now a subscription app!
Read on below to find out how that affects you (hint: it doesn’t!).
What’s new in CLZ Music 5.0 ?
CLZ Music is now a subscription app, costing $1.49/month
To allow us to keep delivering our CLZ online services (CLZ Cloud and CLZ Core) and our continuous updates to the app, the app has now become a subscription app. For new users, this subscription gives them access to the CLZ online services:
- CLZ Core: for adding albums by artist/title, barcode or cat. no.
- CLZ Cloud: for online backups and syncing between devices.
IMPORTANT: Of course, since you have purchased the app earlier, you have automatically received a life-time “Basic”-level subscription, which gives you access to your existing CLZ Core and CLZ Cloud services. You do not need to pay for a subscription!
In other words, the app now being a subscription app has no effect on you whatsoever!
If you still see any “unlock” problems with your app, please CONTACT US here and we’ll get it resolved ASAP.
Please note: We may introduce new “premium” CLZ services to the CLZ Music app later, which are not part of your free life-time “Basic” subscription. At that time, if you want to use the new services, you will be able to optionally upgrade to a “Premium” subscription.
Now supports and syncs multiple collections !
It is now possible to manage multiple “collections” within your app. The collections you create will be listed in the main menu, so you can easily switch between them.
Use the menu to add new collections, edit their names, change the order, etc…
Multiple collections now also sync through the CLZ Cloud, e.g. to/from the Music Connect cloud-based software or the Music Collector desktop software. So if you have created multiple collections on the desktop side, these will now finally be separated on the mobile app too!
Already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud?
If you already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud, here’s what to do to get your existing entries split up into multiple collections on your mobile app too:
1. Tap the menu top left
2. Tap “Sync with CLZ Cloud” and make sure you’re in sync.
3. Tap the menu top left again and tap “Maintenance”
4. Tap “Update all from CLZ Cloud”
5. Now use “Sync with CLZ Cloud” from the menu again.
Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images
Before v5, if you replaced the automatic Core front cover with your own image (e.g. from Camera Roll), it would not automatically sync to the CLZ Cloud. You had to “force” the upload by using Upload to CLZ Cloud in the Edit screen.
For version 5 we made this more automatic. We introduced a new toggle “Custom Image” in the Edit screen. This toggle will be automatically set when you replace the Core image. Once the Custom Image toggle is set, that cover will automatically sync to and from the CLZ Cloud.
Re-designed top-bar
- The menu icon now includes the “CLZ Music” mark (bigger tap area)
- The “Collection Status” filter button has been moved to the right
Re-designed main menu
- The menu now clearly shows your Account and Subscription Status at the top. Tap either of those to manage them.
- New “Maintenance” screen that now contains:
- the “Clear Database” option
- the “old Import from Music Collector” option
- the new “Update from CLZ Cloud” option (only use when instructed by support staff)
How to update your CLZ Music app to version 5:
- On your device, open the Play Store app.
- Tap the menu button on the top left, then tap “My apps & games”.
- Find the CLZ Music entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.
v5: Multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, and: now a subscription app!
It’s finally here: CLZ Music 5.0 for iOS! With support for multiple collections, automatic syncing of your own images, plus a re-designed top bar and menu.
On top of that, (and the main reason why it took so long):
* Starting with v5, CLZ Music is now a subscription app!
Read on below to find out how that affects you (hint: it doesn’t!).
What’s new in CLZ Music 5.0 ?
CLZ Music is now a subscription app, costing $1.49/month
To allow us to keep delivering our CLZ online services (CLZ Cloud and CLZ Core) and our continuous updates to the app, the app has now become a subscription app. For new users, this subscription gives them access to the CLZ online services:
- CLZ Core: for adding albums by artist/title, barcode or cat. no.
- CLZ Cloud: for online backups and syncing between devices.
IMPORTANT: Of course, since you have purchased the app earlier, you have automatically received a life-time “Basic”-level subscription, which gives you access to your existing CLZ Core and CLZ Cloud services. You do not need to pay for a subscription!
In other words, the app now being a subscription app has no effect on you whatsoever!
If you still see any “unlock” problems with your app, please CONTACT US here and we’ll get it resolved ASAP.
Please note: We may introduce new “premium” CLZ services to the CLZ Music app later, which are not part of your free life-time “Basic” subscription. At that time, if you want to use the new services, you will be able to optionally upgrade to a “Premium” subscription.
Now supports and syncs multiple collections !
It is now possible to manage multiple “collections” within your app. The collections you create will be listed in the main menu, so you can easily switch between them.
Use the menu to add new collections, edit their names, change the order, etc…
Multiple collections now also sync through the CLZ Cloud, e.g. to/from the Music Connect cloud-based software or the Music Collector desktop software. So if you have created multiple collections on the desktop side, these will now finally be separated on the mobile app too!
Already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud?
If you already have multiple collections in the CLZ Cloud, here’s what to do to get your existing entries split up into multiple collections on your mobile app too:
1. Tap the menu top left
2. Tap “Sync with CLZ Cloud” and make sure you’re in sync.
3. Tap the menu top left again and tap “Maintenance”
4. Tap “Update all from CLZ Cloud”
5. Now use “Sync with CLZ Cloud” from the menu again.
Automatic cloud-syncing of your own “custom” images
Before v5, if you replaced the automatic Core front cover with your own image (e.g. from Camera Roll), it would not automatically sync to the CLZ Cloud. You had to “force” the upload by using Upload to CLZ Cloud in the Edit screen.
For version 5 we made this more automatic. We introduced a new toggle “Custom Image” in the Edit screen. This toggle will be automatically set when you replace the Core image. Once the Custom Image toggle is set, that cover will automatically sync to and from the CLZ Cloud.
Re-designed top-bar
- The menu icon now includes the “CLZ Music” mark (bigger tap area)
- The “Collection Status” filter button has been moved to the right
Re-designed main menu
- The menu now clearly shows your Account and Subscription Status at the top. Tap either of those to manage them.
- New “Maintenance” screen that now contains:
- the “Clear Database” option
- the “old Import from Music Collector” option
- the new “Update from CLZ Cloud” option (only use when instructed by support staff)
How to update your CLZ Music app to version 5:
- On your device, open the App Store app.
- On the bottom, switch to the Updates tab.
- Find the CLZ Music entry and tap “UPDATE” on the right.
TIP: if you don’t see the CLZ Music update yet, pull down to refresh!
Based on user feedback we found out users were looking for and expecting a tool to find duplicate entries in their collection. Some way to find out if you’ve accidentally added multiple versions of the same album, but perhaps with a different format or barcode.
After quite a few requests and discussions with users about this, to find out how they got duplicates and what they would expect from such a Duplicate Finder tool, it’s here today: Find Duplicate entries in your collection!
New: Find Duplicate Albums
Open the menu top left and select Find Duplicates to begin.
Then select which field to find duplicates on. You can find duplicates based on:
- Title
- Title & Artist
- UPC (Barcode)
- Index
Click “Find Duplicates” and see what it comes up with. Use the blue “Keep” button to keep a group of duplicates, or use the red “Remove” button to remove a duplicate!
If you click “Remove all duplicates automatically”, it will remove all duplicate entries and will only keep 1 single entry (the oldest one) in your collection.
Tip: use the columns button, top right, to set up the columns you’d like to see!
A new Import tool is now available in Music Connect, for importing databases created with our old competitor “OrangeCD”.
To import your list of albums from OrangeCD, you need to export an OXL file of your albums out of OrangeCD. Here’s what to do:
- Start OrangeCD on your computer.
- Click menu Database > Import and export
- Select the Export to OrangeCD XML option
- Press “next” and save the file somewhere you will be able to find it
- Upload your OrangeCD OXL file in the box on Connect.
Another big step forward for our cloud-based Connect software, making it even more customizable:
The columns in List View are now resizable. That is, you can now change the width of the columns by simply dragging the dividers between the column headers. Hover your mouse over the divider and it will turn blue, then drag it make the column wider or narrower.
TIP: double click the divider to make the column auto-size to its’ current content!
See it in action:
Do you prefer the automatic column widths, the way it was before? No problem, just go to the Settings screen and enable the “Size columns automatically” settings.
You can now manage multiple sub-collections within one account. The collections will appear as little tabs at the bottom (e.g. like in Excel), so that you can easily switch between them.
Create and manage collections
Open the menu top left and click “Manage Collections” to:
- Create new collections
- Rename existing collections
- Remove collections
- Change their order (drag and drop)
Note: the CLZ mobile app currently does not support multiple collections yet (coming soon!). For now, you CAN sync multiple collections to the mobile app, but they will appear mixed together, as ONE database.
New: Notes as a column
The Notes field can now be added as a column in List View:
(example screenshot from Movie Connect)
New:
- The resizable panels in the add screen now have the same design as the ones in the main screen.
Fixed:
- iPad: Wrong initial panel layout in the main screen when the app is started in landscape mode.
- Clear templates: Track artists did not display when the album artist wasn’t set
A useful update of your app today, that is, if you are using the app on an iPad:
All panels in the main screen (folders, list and details) are now resizable using draggable separators between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.
- All panels in the main screen (folders, list and details) are now resizable using draggable separators between the panels, so that you can customize the layout to your own liking.
- The resizable panels in the Add screen have been updated to use the nicer look of the draggable separators.
New: quick search box in the Folder Panel!
Another useful addition to your software today, as we added a Quick Search box in your folder panel.
Especially useful for those long folder lists, e.g. when using Artists as the folder field. Just type a few letters of the artist’s name and the folder list will instantly “filter down” to the matching artists, while you type!
See it in action:
New: Redesigned app icon
We designed new icons that give new users a better indication of what the app actually does (as opposed to just a different color CLZ logo), but still obviously belong together, when shown together.
Fixed:
- List did not scroll to top when the status bar was tapped
A nice time-saving feature was added to your Music Connect software today:
Next / Previous buttons in the Edit Album screen
These buttons let you go through your album list to make changes, while staying in the Edit Album screen. Just use the Next or Previous button on the bottom left.
While doing so, the screen will keep you on the same tab and same field, making it super-easy to make changes to same field(s) for multiple albums.
