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Full support for larger text sizes (Full DPI Awareness)

With super hi-res 4K (or even 5K) screens becoming quite common, more and more people are running Windows with the Font Size (DPI scaling) set to 125% or 150%, to keep text readable. So earlier this year, we released maintenance builds for all Windows editions to fix various layout problems when running Windows with “large fonts”.

Today, with version 18.1 we’re taking the next step: Music Collector is now fully “DPI Aware”. Starting with this version, if you have increased your font size in Windows, the program will actually follow that setting and use bigger text fonts in all screens!

On top of that, texts now look sharper, less fuzzy, making full use of your hi-res screen.

Old version:

New version:

Improvements to the Add Albums from Core screen

  • Single Search Box: Just one box for searching (e.g. like Google or Amazon). No more separate Artist and Title boxes. Just enter (part of) the artist’s name and (part of) the title and you will get the best matching results. (see the screen shot below with “metallica justice” results”)

  • Changed timing of “Report missing barcode” popup: The missing barcode popup now pops up when you click on a “not found” result instead of interfering while you’re still scanning barcodes.
  • Easier way of adding multi-disc albums: Add multi-disc albums by selecting multiple results from your search. Just check the boxes next to the results to compile a multi-disc album and add it to your collection straight away:

Adding Multi-Disc Albums by Artist and Title:

Adding Multi-Disc Albums by Barcode:

Fixed:

  • Edit Album:
    • Index field had a typo
    • Clicking next or previous could create a second + button in the User Defined Fields tab
  • Edit Multiple: Enabled acquire button in edit multiple
  • Quick Search: We’ve fixed normalization for quick searches so words with umlauts/accents etc. are now easier to be found.
  • Fixed a problem with folder paths for users that have their Documents folder rooted to an external drive (program wouldn’t install properly).
  • Link Screen could show “Link Selected” button even if there were no matches.
  • Template: Fixed an issue where the template could become “white” if arrow keys were used on the keyboard
  • Light Skin: Better visibility for selected items in your lists.
  • User Defined Fields: It was possible to create invisible User Defined Fields which would then never show up in the edit screen.

CLZ Music (Android)

Faster and better results when adding albums by Artist/Title

February 13th, 2018

Our web-team has been working on this for a long time, but it is now LIVE: a new search engine for Artist/Title searches in our Core online music database and Discogs. An engine that is both better and much, much faster!

And the good news is: these are all “server-side” changes, which means you don’t need to update your Music Collector software, CLZ Music app or Music Connect web-app. Everyone can now instantly enjoy the benefits, no matter which version of the software you have :-).

Read more



NEW: Fully Automatic CLZ Cloud Syncing!

The free CLZ Cloud service is at the center of all our cataloging solutions (desktop, mobile and web), the glue that binds them all together.
Tens of thousands of users are using the CLZ Cloud syncing every day, to transfer data between their desktop, Connect and mobile software, to update their online collection list, or simply for keeping an online backup of their precious database.

Now, it is time to take the CLZ Cloud to the next level, with automatic syncing:
Add or edit albums in Music Collector and these changes will auto-upload to the CLZ Cloud instantly. Did you make changes using the CLZ Music mobile app or directly in Music Connect? Just start your software and changes will download automatically.
No more need to go to the Sync with CLZ Cloud screen, ever.

With “Sync Automatically” switched on…

  1. Your online cloud backup is always up-to-date.
  2. Your cloud viewer always shows the current state of your collection.
  3. All your CLZ tools (desktop, mobile and Connect) will always be in-sync.

Automatic Cloud Syncing is an optional feature, switched OFF by default. If you don’t want to auto-sync, or don’t want to sync with the CLZ Cloud at all, just leave it switched OFF.

Revamped Edit Album and Edit Disc/Track screens

A huge refresh of the Edit screens, bringing the look and feel more in line with the recent Add Albums from Core screen.

  • Button bar is now at the bottom of the screen
    With OK button high-lighted in blue, nice Next/Prev arrow buttons, etc…

  • Clearer blue “+” buttons for checkbox list fields (like Sound, Extras)
  • Same blue + buttons for dropdown fields (like Format, Label, Packaging)
  • Revamped Edit screen for pick list items
    Button bar at the bottom with blue OK button, smaller generate buttons, etc..

But it’s not all just cosmetic changes:

Improved interface for adding Artists, Musicians, Credits

The new interface helps you make better use of your existing person pick lists:

  • Cleaner lists, showing just Display Name and Instrument/Role.
  • Right-click to Modify the name and sort name of a person in the list.
  • Drag the icon in the first column to change the order.
  • Click the “x” in the last column to remove entries.
  • To add an Artist to the list:
    • 1. click the “+ Add Artist” button, or hit Insert on your keyboard
    • 2. A new screen appears, showing your existing Person pick list.
    • 4. Type a few letters in the search box to find the artist you want to add, e.g. enter “spri” to find Bruce Springsteen.
    • 5. Hit the down arrow on your keyboard a few times to select the person from the search results
    • 6. Hit Enter to return to the Edit Album screen with the artist added to the list.

    ONLY when the artist is not in your pick list yet, there’s 3 extra steps:

    • 4a: click the New Artist button top right
    • 4b. enter/paste the display name
    • 4c. click OK

    A similar interface is now also used for the Genre and Studio fields.
    No more endless scrolling in a small check-box list to find the Genre or Studio you’d like to add. Instead, just click the Add button and making your pick from your pick list, using the convenient search feature if necessary.

    Improved: Edit Multiple screens

    • Now use checkboxes to explicitly indicate which field(s) you want set.
      Safer and clearer, no more unexpected changes.

    • To clear a field, just click the checkbox and leave the box empty.
      The box will highlight in red to indicate the CLEAR action. No more hidden F8 keys.

    New screens for selecting Column, Sort and Folder fields.

    The ability to select your own Columns for the List View is an important customization feature of our Music Collector software. The same holds for selecting the sort order and the folder fields for the folder panel.

    However, the “field selection” screens for doing these customizations have always been an area of confusion. So for v18 we decided to re-imagine both the field selection screens and the system for creating/managing your own presets.

    • New Field Selection screen:
      • Available fields are now grouped, like the tabs in the Edit Album screen.
      • Easily find the field you want with the search box top left.
      • Use checkboxes on the left to select fields.
      • Use the “x” button on the right to remove fields.
      • Drag and drop fields on the right side to change the order.
      • Rename the field set at the top right.
    • New interface for selecting and managing your field presets:
      • Just click the Columns or Sort Order button to EDIT the current preset.
      • Click the little arrow to the right of the Columns or Sort Order button to open the preset menu and switch to a different preset.
      • Choose Manage Presets from the preset menu to edit your presets and create new ones.

    NEW: “Clean” template for the details panel, in Light and Dark styles

    A complete refresh, based on the recent Connect/Cloud details page updates. Clean, clear and modern, with some fresh layout ideas:

    • Cleaner look, in both Light and Dark styles.
    • Larger cover image.
    • New look of the track list.

    No more Standard edition: Pro-only features now available for everyone!

    Since last week, we stopped selling the Standard edition of Music Collector. From now on, the Pro edition is the only edition we sell, and will just be called “Music Collector” now.

    Our gift to all users on the Standard edition who have a valid Update Plan:
    Starting with v18, you now get access to all Pro-only features:

    • Batch editing with the Edit Multiple feature:

      Save time by editing multiple items in batch, e.g. to fill in a field value for many items in one go.

    • Customizable pre-sets for sorting, columns and folders:

      Create your own pre-set field combination for sorting and columns. Define your own folder options, even multi-level folder combinations.

    • User Defined Fields:

      Create your own fields (text, number, pick list, checkbox or date) and rename pre-defined fields.

    • Export features:

      Export your database to a CSV or XML file.

  • Music Collector (Windows)

    v17.1.1: A completely new Add Albums screen!

    July 12th, 2017

    Big changes today! The Add Albums Automatically screen has been completely re-designed, to make it both easier-to-use and easier-on-the-eye (and it’s now called “Add Albums from CLZ Core”):

    • A clear two-panel design: Search Results on the left, Preview on the right.
    • The Search Results now show cover images for every album.
    • Automatic Preview of selected result (no more double clicking).
    • Improved success rate on barcode searches for both CDs and vinyl!

    See it in action:

    Here’s the full list of improvements:

    Read more


    Music Collector (Windows)

    v17.0.3: Added search-as-you-type to pick list fields

    March 16th, 2017

    Search-As-You-Type for pick list fields

    We’ve expanded the quick search box to now also allow “search-as-you-type” with suggestions for pick list fields.

    How does it work?

    In the quick search box top right of your screen you should see a “dropdown” button. Use this to select which field you wish to perform a search on. If “search-as-you-type” is available for that field, it will instantly work once you start typing in the box.

    Example

    You can now select the field “Artist” in the quick search box, start typing an artist name, and instantly see suggestions (based on what you typed) of artists you have in your database. Click on an artist to see all his/her albums!

    Fixes in this version

    We also fixed some issues with the program in this version:

    • Images Popup:
      • “size window to picture” showed image slightly smaller
      • .tiff images were not showing

    Music Collector (Windows)

    Now live: Better Discogs searching

    March 16th, 2017

    Great news for vinyl collectors: our web-developers Joe and Robbert have revised and improved our Discogs search mechanisms, to give you more up-to-date Discogs data and more images.

    Read more


    Music Collector (Windows)

    V17.0.1: Major updates to the Quick Search and Image Viewer popup!

    February 14th, 2017

    Quick Search: Search-As-You-Type suggestions

    Instantly find and select a particular album in your local database:

    • In the Quick Search box, just start typing the first few letters of the artist or title you are looking for.
    • While typing, a drop-down list will appear, showing the first five matching albums.
      (for most albums, it only takes 2 or 3 letters before it shows up.)
    • Once you see the one you were looking for, use the up/down keys to select it, then hit Enter.
    • The album will now be selected in your list, with the details showing in the Details Panel.

    Read more


    Music Collector (Windows)

    v16.4.1: CLZ Cloud: Your track lists and artist sort names now sync

    October 24th, 2016


    CLZ Cloud: Now stores and syncs *your* track lists

    • The CLZ Cloud system now supports the storing and syncing of track lists.
      (previously, track lists were always shared from Core)

    • For each track, the CLZ Cloud now stores Title, Artist and Length.
    • Now store and sync your own customized track titles and artists.
    • Now store and sync track lists for unlinked albums (e.g. manually entered or imported).
    • NOTE: after updating your Music Collector software, ALL your albums will be flagged as CHANGED,
      so that they will be re-uploaded to the CLZ Cloud!

    BTW: To sync track lists to the CLZ Music app, you need
    version 4.2.4 for iOS or version 4.3.6 for Android! (both released today)

    CLZ Cloud: Improved syncing of Artist Sort Names

    • Improved storing of Album Artists in the CLZ Cloud.
    • Now correctly sync Artist Sort Names to/from the mobile apps.
    • Fixed: difference in sorting between folder panel and album panel in the CLZ Cloud viewer.

    Music Collector (Windows)

    v16.3.1: New: Light, Dark and System skins and Quick Filter panel

    June 22nd, 2016


    NEW: Choose between Light, Dark or System skins

    Yes, We’re getting rid of the gray!

    Music Collector now comes with a skin system, which affects the look of all screens in the program,
    main screen, edit screens, add auto-screen, sync screen etc.. even the settings screens.

    We have designed two different skins for you to choose from: Light and Dark.
    The third option “System” is basically the old pre-v16.3 look.

    Read more


    Music Collector (Windows)

    v16.2.1: Introducing: Card View for the main screen

    February 16th, 2016


    New view for the main screen: Card View

    Next to List View, Images View and Cover Flow, we have added a Card View, a multi-column view with little info cards for each album, showing the main album details and a small cover thumbnail.

    Fixed:

    • Add Automatically: right click menu didn’t popup when there were no results showing
    • Main Screen: After adding album through add/link digital files the bread crumb wasn’t updated.
    • Carbon + Quicksilver templates: musician images didn’t scale down to correct size
    • Linking Albums: disc number will be shown in the queue when linking multi disc albums

    Music Collector (Windows)

    v16.1.1: Find Cover systems now all use Bing Image Search

    December 3rd, 2015


    Find Image Online tool now uses Bing Image Search

    The Find Image Online tool previously used Google Images to find images.

    However, it turns out that on December 1, Google terminated the free Google Image Search API
    that we were using, causing our Find Image Online functionality to stop working.

    Google provides a new paid version of the Search API, but it is limited to max 10K searches per day.
    With the amount of customers we have, we need at least 20K daily searches (600K per month!) 🙁

    The solution: Switch to BING!

    Microsoft also offers a paid Bing Image Search API and this one has no limits.
    Or, to be more precise, they let us pay more for higher limits.

    We immediately went to work and updated all our Windows and Mac programs
    to use Bing Images for the Find Image Online tool instead.
    Obviously, this generates considerable extra monthly costs (well over US $1,000),
    but we have decided that we will NOT pass on these extra costs to our customers.

    So here it is: the new Find Image Online, powered by Bing. Enjoy!

    Fixed:

    • Freezes at start up for some users, caused by the webcam detection.

    Music Collector (Windows)

    v16.0.1: Music Collector V16: Quicksilver

    November 30th, 2015

    Webcam barcode scanning

    Use your webcam as a barcode scanner, to add or find CDs by barcode.

    • Scan barcodes with your webcam
      Just use the live camera view to point your webcam at a barcode
      and let our software detect the barcode that is in view.
    • Use the webcam scanner to add CDs by barcode
      Pop-up the scan window and scan CD barcodes,
      either using Direct Search or scanning into the Queue.
    • Or use it in the main screen to find albums by barcode
      Scan a CD barcode while in the main screen,
      to quickly search your local database by barcode.
    • Works best with auto-focus or manual-focus webcams
      Fixed focus cameras will not work well (or at all).


    Read more


    Recent changes

    v23: Now supports our new CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app March 30th, 2023 v22: Configurable Pre-fill & Update from Core + WebP support February 23rd, 2022 v21.5 Improved Submit to Core system October 8th, 2021 v21.4: Bar chart in folder panel background September 14th, 2021 v21.3: New “Transfer Field Data” tool August 6th, 2021 v21.2: More fields now sync to CLZ Cloud / Music Connect June 16th, 2021 v21.1: New Link Discs with Core screen May 6th, 2021 v21.0.2 Various improvements and fixes March 4th, 2021 v21.0: New: Pre-fill fields while adding albums January 18th, 2021 v20.6 Easier access to the Manage Pick Lists screen August 24th, 2020 v20.5: Changing your folder field is now much easier July 28th, 2020 v20.4: Faster image downloads, faster Update from Core June 25th, 2020 v20.3: Faster Shelves View + 2 new Shelf Styles June 4th, 2020 v20.2 Faster CLZ Cloud syncing! March 25th, 2020 v20.1 Improved music file cataloging February 26th, 2020 v20.0.2 Better Tag editing / Faster syncing February 5th, 2020 v20: Folder panel improvements + new Statistics screen January 13th, 2020 19.3: Many more fields now sync with the CLZ Cloud (inc. Back Cover)! October 18th, 2019 v19.2.1: New: Duplicate Finder tool April 12th, 2019 v19.1.2: More tweaks to the Add button March 25th, 2019 v19.1: Three cool tweaks requested by our users March 6th, 2019 v19.0: multiple collections, auto-sync images, 64-bit and a new Flex template! December 17th, 2018 v18.4.1: More fields now sync to CLZ Cloud and CLZ Music August 13th, 2018 v18.3.1: Secure HTTPS connections July 30th, 2018 v18.2.1: Selection checkboxes / New Action Bars May 29th, 2018