RateMe!

Rate songs from the menu bar!
UPDATE: v 1.3 and newer is now available on the AppStore!
Visit rateme.audiocommander.de to download the current version!

Okay, I admit, I love tidy playlists, I love stars and I try to keep my iTunes track ratings quite accurate, so that I can always enjoy my intelligent playlists. There has been a tool called iTunesRatings by Matthew Handley, which disappeared some years ago. Because I think this was a very nice application, I spent some hours my own app, which has some improvements:

RateMe! - See &uamp; Edit iTunes Ratings in the Status Bar

Features:
· See the rating of the current track
· Edit the rating of the current track (Rate itunes songs from the menu bar)
· Supports 1/2 stars (eg. 4.5 stars) by clicking & dragging
· Context Menu with access to iTunes controls (Play/Pause, Previous/Next…)
· Floating Cover Panel
· Simple & Clean Fullscreen Cover
· Quick Playlist and Track Access without opening the iTunes window
· Option to autostart at login
· Option to hide the Menu Bar icon when iTunes isn't launched
· Designed to use as less resources & processing power as possible!
· Runs on 10.5. (Leopard) or 10.6. (Snow Leopard) / Universal Binary

Update:
Version 1.3 is now available on the Mac App Store. All Versions up until 1.2 will be still available here as a free download.
Since 1.2.5, RateMe has a nice, clean & simple fullscreen cover view. I needed one for a party recently. I wanted to project the current cover to the wall, but it should not be animated as this would be too distracting. I wanted it more like a wallpaper. So I first tried iTunes coverflow, but I wasn't satisfied with that, as it also shows the covers next to the current one and there was apparently no way to hide the control bar. So I tried several available plugins and apps to no avail: one was really nice, but failed after three tracks showing a blank one instead; all the others were totally overloaded with fancy animations that couldn't be disabled; constantly spinning CD-Cases or showing other useless animated stuff (I don't want a visualizer, I want a cover view). After five apps, I decided to stop wasting my time and to integrate it into RateMe and hope that you like it as well!

Support:
Visit the RateMe! Forum.

System Requirements:
· Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6. (Snow Leopard)
· iTunes 7

Download:

RateMe is now available on the AppStore!

· Visit rateme.audiocommander.de to download the current version!

Version
v1.3.0 (120330):
· Now available on the App Store
· Many minor improvements & bugfixes
· Converted to ARC (and thus even more crash proof!)
· Playlist & special Playlist icons are now language independent
· User guidance on first launch
· New Preferences
· New Icon
· German Localization
· Cover Panel Error Log Messages fixed
· Library Scan Error Log Messages fixed
v1.2.5 (110309):
· New resolution independent star graphics, including new high resolution stars
· Fullscreen cover: simple & clean fullscreen cover view without any useless fancy animations
· Option to keep track of current playlist (to enable pause/resume)
· Fixed Icon for iTunes 10
· Automatic library scan (each day to keep track of newly added tracks)
· New preferences window
· Minor fixes
v1.2.3 (100320):
· Exposé & Spaces behaviour fixed for cover view panel
v1.2.2 (090802):
· SnowLeopard ready 32/64-bit Universal Executable
· Optional high contrast stars selectable in preferences
v1.2.1 (090408):
· added library update menu item
v1.2.0 (090329):
· final cleanups, added default album art
· startup fixes, get current playlist now updates correctly
v1.1.9 (090328):
· added cover album art in menu & mini window
· alpha slider, tracklist for current playlist
· severe bugfix with incidential NSImageCell binding
· many bugfixes
· tracklisting icons (music, movies, podcasts)
· shuffle support (& loop rewrite)
v1.1.8 (090327):
· iTunes Library playlist integration
· show iTunes window does now open iTunes maximized & shows current track
v1.1.7 (080915):
· Minor bugfixes, fixed virtual memory allocation
v1.1.6 (080726):
· added experimental rating for selected track (currently deactivated)
v1.1.5 (080607):
· Fixed possible star visibility issue
· Updated graphics (stars) for improved quality display on darker backgrounds
v1.1.4 (080517):
· Added click&drag support for half stars, removed context menu options
· Removed “Mute” context menu item (reduce to basic functions)
· Fixed 0.5 steps for ratings
· Added context menu option for Autostart at Login
v1.1.3 (080330):
· Option to hide the Menu Bar icon when iTunes not launched (see context menu: About >; Hide without iTunes)
v1.1.2 (080310):
· Receives iTunes NSDistributedNotification (), therefore increased efficiency by reducing script polling
· Shows current Trackname (Status Bar, Context Menu, ToolTip)
· Show iTunes Window item
· Rating is only allowed if iTunes is playing
v1.0.1 (080308):
· Fixed scripting autorelease bug
v1.0.0 (080307):
· Status Menu Item
· AppleScript Messaging
· Context Menu on right-click
· iTunes style rating (supporting “half” stars)

Original Timestamp of this post was 2008 March 07

Posted on 1. April 2012 by . This entry was posted in Articles in English, Music, Programming, Software and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

12 thoughts on “RateMe!”

  1. Hi Michi,

    jetzt hab ich mir zum ersten mal dein WebSitenKonglomerat mal bisschen angesehen … macht Spaß und ist informativ!

    Also ich habe mir gerade RateMe gesaugt und das geht net!!!
    Weil ich noch kein 10.5 hab nehme ich an… heul ..

    grüsse
    chris

  3. Mit (Intel) OS X 10.4.11 und iTunes 7.6.2 wills bei mir auch nicht starten.

    Also doch Leopard-only?

  4. Ja! (Wie es bei den Systemanforderungen steht) :
    RateMe ist Leopard only (> 10.5.)

    Wie ich im letzten Kommentar schon geschrieben habe: für Systeme bis 10.5 sollte das Programm iTunes Rating von Matthew Handley funktionieren.

    Gruß,
    M.

  5. Hi. Das Programm läuft zwar, ist aber in der Menüleiste unsichtbar, außer beim Rechtclicken. Ich kann also lediglich die sekundären Funktionen benutzen. // The program works except that it isn’t visible in the menubar, except if I right-click. I can only access the secondary functions (ie, not the rating itself). OS X 10.5.3, iTunes 7.6.2

    Cheers
    Duncan

  6. Hi Duncan,

    after we mailed last week and I cannot reproduce this problem with OS X 10.5.3 and iTunes 7.6.2 on two different machines, I’m pretty sure this isn’t a problem related to RateMe, but has something to do with a System “Enhancer” module (eg something like SIMBL).

    If anyone else is experiencing a problem like this, please leave a message or contact me via the feedback menu item (context menu of RateMe!)

    Best,
    Michael

    Update 6/10/08:
    The problem seems to be fixed with the updated graphics from the 0.1.5 release :)

  8. Just released RateMe! 0.2.1 =)

    New features include cover artwork in the menu, optional cover window (“Info Panel”) with transparency and (my favorite!) quick menu access to playlists and tracks.

    Hint: “Show iTunes Window…” now works as it should and reveals the current track.

    There might be missing icons in the Library submenu with localized iTunes versions other than german or english – and currently no nested playlists are supported (just one folder is recognised): these restrictions are due to the limited access Apple gives us to the unencrypted iTunes library file. I don’t want to mess around with the library and/or hack the encrypted one, but I hope you all enjoy the new release!

    Nevertheless, all links to older versions are still available in the version history.

    Cheers,
    Michael

  9. A year has passed and it’s time again for an updated RateMe!

    Just released v 0.2.5 with a nice & clean fullscreen cover view as well as shiny new resolution independent star icons (esp. the high contrast icons were really ugly). I have to admit that I really like RateMe: I use it daily! (^_^)

  10. es hat mich eine halbe Ewigkeit gekostet dieses Juwel von einer itunes-app wiederzufinden. Überall taucht nur “i love stars” auf bei entsprechenden Suchbegriffen, doch das stürzt bei mir ständig ab und ich mag es nicht. Dagegen schwör ich auf dieses hier. Vielleicht sollte man es anders benennen, da es wahnsinnig viele andere Progamme mit diesem Namen gibt und es so bei einer google-Suche erst weit weit hinten auftaucht. Ein riesengroßes Dankeschön an dieser Stelle! (auch für die Weiterentwicklung, die mir bis heute verborgen geblieben ist…)

    1. Danke für das nette Feedback! Habe gleich ein paar passende Such-Schlagworte in die Seite aufgenommen, dass Rate Me hoffentlich im Ranking höher steigt.

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