What changed, release by release

Tulip 2.0 beta 3

This beta polishes the screens you spend the most time on. It also fixes a deep check that could stop halfway through finding lyrics on a big library.

Finding lyrics finishes

• When the lyrics service is busy, Tulip now waits and carries on. It used to give up after a few seconds and stop the whole lyrics step.
• If the lookup still has to stop, what it found so far is kept. The Overview shows where it stopped, and Continue picks up from there.
• Tulip remembers which songs it already looked up, so the next check only asks about new and changed songs. It asks about the songs you play first.

A new Overview

• Health › Overview is now a list of areas, with the one that matters most at the top. Select an area to see each of its problems, how many there are, and a button that shows you exactly those songs or suggestions.
• The score says "54 of 100", and How it's scored explains each area's share. Songs that won't play count far more than files that only look worse than their format.
• The deep check sits under the score: each step says how it went, and a step that stopped has its own Continue or Try again. Its settings are in a popover.
• Numbers say what they count ("1,813 sets of copies", "457 covers found"), and the same number no longer appears twice.

Lyrics you can watch

• Synced lyrics in Review now follow the song as it plays: the current line is large and bright, and the others step back. Click any line to jump there. Expand fills the window.
• Switch between candidates while a song plays and the position holds, so you can compare their timing on the same moment.
• If the lyrics run early or late, nudge them with − and + (or [ and ]), then choose Keep this timing to save it with the lyrics.
• Tulip warns you when a candidate has lines after the song ends, and ranks those candidates lower.
• Apple Lossless and AIFF songs now play from the beginning and all the way through. Before, they played a 30-second clip whose lyrics were out of step.

Duplicates that are easy to compare

• Each copy is now one compact row, so eight copies fit without scrolling. Facts that are the same for every copy are listed once at the top. Each row shows only what differs, and the best value is marked.
• Copies are grouped by recording. When a set mixes the original and a remaster, Tulip says so, and the remaster is kept as a separate song by default.
• Merge and Keep separate replace Drop and Leave. A copy you keep separate stays separate after you apply.
• Listening to a copy plays it at the same moment and at matched loudness (⇧1–⇧8 switches copies), so the louder master doesn't sound better just because it's louder.
• Sets are described in words ("2 copies · Same audio") instead of a percentage.

Find Files (was Replace)

• The page explains what it's for, and shows its three jobs: songs only in iCloud, songs whose file is missing, and better copies of songs you already have.
• Three steps walk you through it: choose where Tulip looks, check the matches, and replace. Matches are grouped as Ready, Pick the right file and Not found. Each match says why, and ▶ plays a candidate file before you pick it.
• Tulip tells you what it skipped (FLAC files, folders it couldn't read) and shows its progress on the page.
• Replacing a song that's only in iCloud removes the iCloud copy, so that can't be undone. The approval sheet now says so instead of promising an undo.

Themes

• Choose from four themes in Settings › Appearance, View › Theme or ⌘K: Tulip, Graphite, Midnight and Vinyl, each in light and dark.

Resizable panes

• Drag the edge of the sidebar, the inspector in Library or Review, or the Artists and Playlists list. You can also focus the edge and use the arrow keys. Double-click resets it, and dragging the sidebar or the inspector past its edge hides it. Tulip remembers the widths.

Smaller things

• Artwork is capped at 3000 × 3000 pixels. A 13.8 MB cover used to be copied into every song of the album; Music now gets about 2 MB. Review shows the size Music will get.
• Numbers have thousands separators everywhere.
• The status bar says when Music is closed or Automation isn't allowed, instead of "Connected".
• Review's rows are quieter: no score column, and a chip only when a match isn't exact. A long title shows in full when you hover over it.
• The sidebar's Review count stands out only when changes are held.
• Buttons read in sentence case, and Korean counts use the right counter words.
• Small controls are easier to click.
• Keyboard focus is easier to see.

Tulip 2.0 beta 2

This beta makes the deep check usable on a big library. In beta 1 it could take more than a day on 20,000 songs and showed almost no progress while it worked.

A deep check you can watch

• The deep check listens to your songs about six times faster. On a 20,000-song library, listening now takes about three and a half hours.
• Listening, finding lyrics and finding artwork now run at the same time, so lyrics and artwork no longer wait for listening to finish.
• Health › Overview shows each step's progress in songs or albums and the time left, for example "1,240 of 23,025 songs · About 3 h left". The jobs list shows the time left too.
• Duplicate and loudness suggestions appear while the deep check is still listening, a few dozen songs at a time.
• A quick check can run while the deep check is still going, so Check again always works.

BPM and key, while your Mac is idle

• Measuring BPM and key took most of the deep check's time, so it now runs on its own. Tulip measures them only while you're away from your Mac, a few seconds a song, and stops as soon as you're back.
• Health › Overview shows how many songs have been measured. You can turn it off there. It needs macOS 27 or later.

Fixes

• A song whose file is damaged near the end, such as an interrupted download, is now analyzed up to the damage instead of failing.

Tulip 2.0 beta 1

Tulip 2 is a new app, rebuilt from the ground up for people who keep their music as files in Music. This is the first beta: everything below works, and your feedback shapes the 2.0 release.

One calm place for every change

• Tulip suggests fixes. You hold the ones you want and apply them together, and nothing in Music changes until you do.
• You get five seconds to change your mind after you press Apply. After that, History lets you undo any change for 30 days.
• Tulip saves Music's own values before it writes anything, so an undo puts back exactly what was there.

Your library, always up to date

• Tulip keeps a live index of your Music library on your Mac and follows changes as you make them in Music.
• Search for songs, artists and albums in English or Korean. Sort and filter any column, and see a song's file, tags and pending fixes in the inspector.
• Browse albums, artists, playlists and the songs that live only in iCloud.

Library health

• A quick check finds duplicates, missing or small artwork, missing lyrics, dead files, albums split in two, untidy tags and stray files in your Music folder.
• An optional deep check listens to the audio. It finds true duplicates by sound, low-quality copies and loudness differences.
• Duplicates 2.0 lets you choose which copy to keep. The plays, ratings and playlists of the other copies move to the one you keep.
• Replace swaps a cloud song or a broken entry for a better file on your Mac. It keeps the song's plays, rating and place in your playlists.

Lyrics and artwork

• Tulip finds lyrics, including synced lyrics, and artwork from several sources. You compare them side by side before anything is saved.

Listening

• Connect ListenBrainz or Last.fm to see when and what you listen to, with charts, a listening calendar, top songs and comebacks.
• Bring Music's play counts up to date from your listening history. Each update waits in Review like any other change.
• Year in Review tells the story of your year in music, and you can share it as an image.

Discover and make

• Search the Apple Music catalog with your library in mind, and add songs or albums to your library or a playlist. Apple Music search and adds start once Tulip is activated; until then Discover searches the iTunes Store.
• For you suggests albums you're missing, new releases from your artists and artists like the ones you play.
• Smart playlists 2.0 lets you build rules with nested groups and limits, and Tulip keeps the result in Music, refreshing it daily or weekly.
• Describe a playlist in a sentence, such as "2000s Korean indie I haven't played in a year, about 2 hours", and Tulip builds it from your library.
• Labs (Settings › Advanced): "Sounds like this" finds songs in your library that sound alike.

Made for your Mac

• Tulip Glass is a new look, in dark and light, with a new icon. It follows Reduce Motion, Reduce Transparency and Increase Contrast.
• Every screen is in English and Korean.
• Tulip works on your Mac. Each online feature says what it sends and where, and Settings lists all of them.
• Tulip Pro is a one-time purchase, for 1 Mac or 3 Macs, with a 14-day free trial that starts when you choose. Browsing, checking, Review and insights stay free. Tulip 1.0 owners upgrade for free.