What's New in Music Collector 9 for Windows?

Music Collector 9 was released in January 2010, introducing many great new features.

In the meantime, we have already released a couple of huge updates, tuning the new stuff to perfection and introducing more cool new features (the current build is 9.3.3).

Haven't upgraded yet? Then read on to learn what you have been missing out on.

Upgrading to version 9
You can upgrade any old Music Collector version to the new version 9 PRO for only US $24.95.
Yes, that's right, we will always give you the PRO edition, even if you own a Standard one now.
Just enter your current license key in the box on the right and click the "Upgrade Now" button.

What's New in Music Collector 9?

• What is Music Collector Connect?
• Use the new Connect / Synchronize menu to upload your collection to Music Collector Connect and host your collection on Collectorz.com servers
• Then share your collection with friends, by just giving them a web-link
• Browse your online collection from any online mobile device, including iPhone, iPod touch, Blackberry, Nokia phones, PDAs, etc..
• Manage your collection (add or edit albums) using just a web-browser, from any Windows, Mac or Linux computer.
• Download changes you made online back to your local Music Collector database.
• Sign up for a 30-day trial account

• Find missing cover images online and add them to your database with just a few clicks.
  The screen shows results from Google Images, based on Artist, Title and barcode.
• Easily tweak the Google search keywords yourself using Artist, Title and barcode checkboxes.
  (sometimes removing the barcode from the search gives better results).
• Built-in Crop tool to remove unwanted borders.
• Get to the Find Cover Image screen :
  • by clicking the new "No Cover" placeholder image in Details View
  • right from Preview in the Add Albums Automatically screen,
    when no cover is found in the Collectorz.com online music database.
  • from the right-click menu on any book entry in the main screen
  • from the Images tab in the Edit Album screen

• When no album is selected, the Details View panel now shows collection statistics based on the current Folder field (e.g. by Artist, or by Genre).
• Switch between Bar Chart or Pie Chart (or album Details) with tabs on the right
• Navigate to a folder (e.g. Artist = "Rolling Stones") by clicking on a bar or pie part
• Open Statistics screen by clicking the new "More Stats" button

• Improved look of all charts
• View Stats as Bar Chart or Pie Chart
• Choose from 8 different color sets
• Toggle 3D View On/Off
• View settings (Color, 3D) are automatically applied to main screen charts
• New toolbar icons

• Quickly check your Wish List using tabs at the bottom of the main screen: All / Collection / Wish List
• Add albums to your Wish List right from the Add Albums Automatically screen
• Right click an album to "Move to Wish List" / "Move to Collection"
• Edit Album: clearer separation of Collection Status values into "Collection" and "Wish List" groups
• Updated terminology for the Collection Status values
• Revamped icons for all Collection Status values

• Redesigned rating stars
• Click My Rating stars in Details View to modify rating in a small pop up
• Group albums into My Rating folders on main screen

• Removal of titles under images results in cleaner layout (titles are still shown on mouse-over)
• Reduced spacing between image thumbs
• New placeholder image for albums without cover images
• New placeholder image for albums with a missing thumbnail image

Improved Adding/Linking Music Files Options (new in v9.1):

• Re-design of Add/Link Music Files screen:
  • Automatic grouping of found music files into albums
  • Modify album grouping by dragging/dropping files
  • Add multiple (or all) found albums in one go
  • Use checkboxes to select which albums to add (or use Select All box)
  • Re-order files by dragging and dropping
  • Choose Link Selection to link to an existing album in your database
  • New Expand All / Collapse All buttons to expand / collapse album tree
  • Sort the album list by clicking the column headers
  • Optimized performance of file scanning and screen refreshes
  • Direct access to Filename Parsing settings (yellow gears button top right)
• Full support for .M4A files:
  • Read M4A meta tags (inc cover art) and file info (size, bitrate, length, etc...)
  • Update M4A meta tags from database information

Catalog and Tag music files (MP3, WMA, FLAC, APE, OGG, etc..)

• New "Add / Link Music Files" screen, that lets you:
  • Choose then Scan a Folder with Music Files
  • Add selected Music Files as a new Album in your database, automatically using meta-tag data (including ID3v2 cover images).
  • or: Link selected Music Files to an existing album in your database
• New "Update File Tags" command to update meta-tags (e.g. ID3) in batch, using data and images from your Music Collector database
• Edit Album / Tracks tab:
  • Drag & Drop music files on tracks to link as Music File
  • Drag & Drop playlist files to link all files to tracks automatically
• New Play commands in menu, on toolbar and in Details View (template), for playing tracks and albums.
• Supported audio formats: MP3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, APE, Flac and WAV.
• Supported tag formats: ID3v1, ID3v2, Vorbis, WMA and APE

Add / Link Music Files screen

Link Music Files to Existing Album (allows reordering of files to match track list)

Add Music Files as New Album

Improved Add Albums Automatically screen:

• Search Results from Collectorz.com, freedb, MusicBrainz and Discogs.com are now presented in one optimized list, nicely ordered by relevancy and quality.
• The new screen makes it much easier and quicker to add albums, and thus replaces both the Wizard and Advanced Mode screen: Just search, select the best result from the list (usually at the top), then click Add.
• Hide / Show Search Queue button to switch between "Search Now" and "Add to Queue" mode.
• Select and add multiple results from one search result. (e.g.: search for "Metallica", select 5 CDs and click Add to "Add 'Em All").
• Edit searches in Queue with new Edit Search Criteria screen (right-click menu). This replaces the confusing Update in Queue system.
• New "Add Anyway" button to add an album anyway when no results are found, automatically using the Barcode or Artist, Title you already entered.
• New multi-column Search Results panel, with separate Artist, Title, #Tracks and Cover Yes/No columns.
• Search by barcode or TOC: after searching, the top (and best) search result is now automatically selected, checked and shown in the Preview Panel, so you only have to hit Add Checked to add the album to your database.
• Queue Mode: You can now double-click a queue entry to "Search Selected"
• Search Queue can now be sorted by clicking the column headers

Add Albums Automatically - Direct Search Mode

Add Albums Automatically - Queue Mode

Improved Collectorz.com source:

• Now searches Discogs.com automatically, server-side, adding matching Discogs.com entries to the search results, ordering the full list by relevancy and quality.
• Search by CDID: Collectorz.com result will automatically be "enriched" with cover image and data from matching Discogs result.
• Search by Barcode: results from Collectorz.com and Discogs.com will automatically be merged into one result with full data, track lengths and cover image.
• Search by Author/Title: Improved results because of better "fuzzy matching" and by ordering results based on how close they match your search criteria.

New "Vee Nine" Template for Details View and Export to HTML

• Improved layout
• Larger cover images
• Full width track listing
• New Play buttons per track
• New big Play button to play the entire album
• New look for rating stars
• 3 cool looking styles (Blue, Black, Orange)
• New "Vee Nine Compact" Template for Preview Panel in Add Automatically screen