Alternatives to Coversutra?

[Takuro]

I know this is going to be a very specific request, but I am looking for an app that allows you to invoke a search of your iTunes library in one keyboard shortcut, allowing you to switch songs without actually activating the iTunes player window. Coversutra did an excellent job of this, as you can see below. The developer actually stopped working on all her products a few years ago when she made a transition to work for Apple.

Does anybody know of an app that allows this same general functionality? It's incredibly useful, but Coversutra now crashes with the latest version of iTunes. Kind of sad about it, but its been a very long time since this software was updated.

Again, quick and easy lookup of songs is key. I don't want to poke around through a long list of results in Spotlight, and Coversutra did a way better job of actually finding valid matches based on song title, album, and artist. Spotlight pulls a lot of weird or incomplete results sometimes in my experience, mixed with other file types. I just want music.

Thanks

 

[neeklamy]

How about a general purpose launcher? These all let you search through and control your iTunes library, and would come with a load of other benefits besides.

There’s a handful to choose from, Alfred (you would need to purchase the Alfred Powerpack), LaunchBar, or even Quicksilver. There’s a newer launcher too, Lacona, which looks very nice.

 

[Takuro]

How about a general purpose launcher? These all let you search through and control your iTunes library, and would come with a load of other benefits besides.

There’s a handful to choose from, Alfred (you would need to purchase the Alfred Powerpack), LaunchBar, or even Quicksilver. There’s a newer launcher too, Lacona, which looks very nice.

I'd prefer something dedicated for music that can list results by artist and album in the UI like Coversutra had. I just tried playing with Quicksilver's iTunes plugin for a few hours before giving up. When I search for an artist, I am getting a mix of either albums or individual songs by the artist organized in a way that has no real rhyme or reason. For example, say I had 18 songs for an artist across 3 albums. The results would be maybe 1 album, then 2 songs, then another album, then 3 songs interleaved in the results. And that's it. I think I'd have to adjust my search settings to have a ridiculously high max number of results, which is going to ruin Quicksilver's practicality for app launching — the main function I use it for. :/

 

[Takuro]

Just as an update: With the latest iTunes in macOS 10.12 Sierra, Coversutra is suddenly working just fine again without any crashes or lags. Since the developer now works for the same company as the those developing iTunes, I wonder if she had any internal leverage with this. ;P

 

[karnashuk]

I know this is going to be a very specific request, but I am looking for an app that allows you to invoke a search of your iTunes library in one keyboard shortcut, allowing you to switch songs without actually activating the iTunes player window. Coversutra did an excellent job of this, as you can see below. The developer actually stopped working on all her products a few years ago when she made a transition to work for Apple.

Does anybody know of an app that allows this same general functionality? It's incredibly useful, but Coversutra now crashes with the latest version of iTunes. Kind of sad about it, but its been a very long time since this software was updated.

Again, quick and easy lookup of songs is key. I don't want to poke around through a long list of results in Spotlight, and Coversutra did a way better job of actually finding valid matches based on song title, album, and artist. Spotlight pulls a lot of weird or incomplete results sometimes in my experience, mixed with other file types. I just want music.

Thanks

HI TAKURO!

I've just searched the web, coz i was also look for an app that might be an alternative, and I found it! It is called TunesArt - it's available in the Mac App Store. I especially logged in here to help you. Cheers, Karnashuk

 

[Takuro]

HI TAKURO!

I've just searched the web, coz i was also look for an app that might be an alternative, and I found it! It is called TunesArt - it's available in the Mac App Store. I especially logged in here to help you. Cheers, Karnashuk

Thanks. That's definitely by far the closest I think anything is going to get to Coversutra. It even copies some of its features like album art on the desktop and HUD overlays for play/pause/skip.

I found a free alternative that's also pretty good if you use Alfred:

GitHub - caleb531/play-song: An Alfred workflow for quickly and easily playing music in the Apple Music app

An Alfred workflow for quickly and easily playing music in the Apple Music app - caleb531/play-song

github.com

I had to map 3 different hotkeys to launch "playsongby, "playsongin", and "playsong", which isn't as ideal as a single hotkey, but it works very well. It's much better than Alfred's built-in music control in my opinion because it display everything as one flat list with album art in a compact view, sort of like Coversutra did.

 

[hyunbinrain]

I really need an alternative to CoverSutra and Bowtie. What I really like is their album cover art on desktop and miscellaneous themes to choose

 

[I WAS the one]

I really need an alternative to CoverSutra and Bowtie. What I really like is their album cover art on desktop and miscellaneous themes to choose

Sleeve app Get it here.

 

[allan.nyholm]

TunesArt from jibapps features themes. Nothing near what Bowtie does and did.

Then the Music Player Widget Music Player Widget similar to the 10.4 Tiger Dashboard iTunes widget

NepTunes features an album cover on the desktop, but themes as in the past isn't a thing

The Silicio application features a little more theming with its latest update

 

[I WAS the one]

Sleeve. All the way.