How do I get iTunes to populate the BPM column in my library?

hhgttg27 wrote:

"PS - Apple, maybe it's time you added a BPM analyser to iTunes!!"

This is a users' forum - Apple don't read anything here related to possible bugs or suggested changes. You can use their iTunes Feedback pageto submit enhancement requests ... though from the availability of 3rd party solutions and the fact that most iTunes users have no use for BPM data I would not assume it would get added to any development priority lists.

most iTunes users have no use for BPM data.... ?!? my wife just asked me to do a list of Prince songs to add for her Nordic walking trips, I need to create a list with prince songs of the same range of pbm.... don't you think that more users would prefer to have that kind of option compared to... let's say filtering by Bit Rates, Equalizer, Disc Number, Sample Rate etc ? or does Apple have a paid service to do that ? :-)

I use Tangerine, it is not supported very well, but it does a decent job of doing the bpm and then will transfer it to itunes. If you want to take the time, you can "tap" a song to get the beat you feel is correct if you don't agree. Mixmeister does not work well on a Mac, but works nicely on a PC. No support for that either, and the free bpm doesn't work well. There are apps out there, but they are no help with itunes, but you could manually go through and find the songs you wanted bpm on. Now itunes has changed the way they list song in the playlist and removed the bpm and I am trying to find a way to put the bpm back into the playlist. I suspect this isn't going to work. Which really is annoying. More than annoying, but I won't be rude. Even though I want to.

iTunes has a field for BPM, but offers no means to automatically populate it. To fill it in, you need to use a 3rd party BPM detection program such as Beatunes: http://www.beatunes.com/itunes-automatic-bpm-detection.html

Beatunes operates automatically and is designed to work seamlessly with iTunes.

"PS - Apple, maybe it's time you added a BPM analyser to iTunes!!"

This is a users' forum - Apple don't read anything here related to possible bugs or suggested changes. You can use their iTunes Feedback pageto submit enhancement requests ... though from the availability of 3rd party solutions and the fact that most iTunes users have no use for BPM data I would not assume it would get added to any development priority lists.

@java222: When you look at your playlists in iTunes,

• you have to switch into "Songs" mode (the button is on the top-right of the iTunes window, just below the "Search" field).
• Once you are in "Songs" mode, you can re-enable the BPM column by
• clicking on "Songs" again,
• then choosing "Show Columns"
• and then "Beats Per Minute".

That aside, to determine BPM for iTunes songs on OS X, there is also BeatGauge (full disclosure—I'm the author).

Hi Coach,

Although I haven't personally used it, another option would be Mixmeister. The full program is kind of pricey, but if you want only the BPM Analyzer, it is $4.

jeb wrote:

Thanks ED, but I notice it's fairly pricy at about $40. Is there no other option at a less expensive price?

HI jeb,

There are several cheap or free iOS apps for BPM detection available in the App Store. They are more oriented to displaying BPM rather than directly updating your iTunes database, but maybe that will work for you.

Ed I know its been a year since this post started

Do you know if there have been any bpm counter apps created for iTunes that I can use on my macbook pro?

I have the bpm counter app but it doesn't work so well

I would like to have my iTunes just show me the bpm's is there a way to do this?

THANKS so much

Hello.

Please clarify what is meant on the website and in the App Store by 'Music files must be locally stored in iTunes and writeable'. All my music files that are displayed in iTunes are stored on an external hard drive. Will this affect the effectiveness of the app?

Thanks.

locally stored = internal or external drive, but not on iCloud

writable = can't be read-only (I guess that's a given)

in iTunes = this app requires iTunes. it does not work on files alone.

Also, the files must not be DRM protected, which is the case for old iTunes bought files and Apple Music files!

Regarding your external drive question: Because of sandbox issues, the app works best with music files stored in /Users/NAME/Music

If for some reason the app cannot find your files, please try dragging directly from Finder instead of iTunes and/or contact support.

Hi, just bought your app. Great and usefull. Thanks a lot, you made my party tonight ! Keep up the good work. I work as a Mac Technician in Belgium with an Apple Premium Service Provider and get this question quite often. Now I know what to answer. Bye Andre

I'm new to this but the other day I downloaded an app that was free for the day: DJAY 2 on the iphone. It will read your existing music files AND playlists. There is an option to analyse the music in terms of BPM. Later you can Sort the music according to BPM. Finally, you can play your selection manually or automatically. I have no connection whatsoever with this software but it does sound as if it might suit your purposes (or even porpoises). In other words, play your existing music through an app rather than iTunes.

My understanding is that the version for iPad is different from that for iPhone. Also there is a pro version available (expensive).

PS - Apple, maybe it's time you added a BPM analyser to iTunes!!

Information like bit rate, disc number are directly available from media files/tags. BPM has to be calculated through analysis of the audio stream, so is in a different category. When I said that "most iTunes users have no use for BPM" data I was taking into consideration the facts that BPM is meaningful only some styles of music, and even where it is the number of users likely to want to use that for filtering or selection is likely to be a small proportion of the total userbase. Given that there are 3rd party utilities that can populate this tag, I really don't see it as a valid development priority for Apple.

Awesome, thanks ed235!

Awesome, Thanks, ed2345!