Developer Tibor Andre has released Tune-Instructor 3.2 (http://www.tune-instructor.com/) for Mac OS X, an update of the app that provides a variety of options for organizing iTunes files, plus playback controls. The menu bar controller is always present and permits navigation and playback without opening iTunes.

Tune-Instructor allows custom editing of the ID3 tag, which contains all the metadata of an MP3 file, so that users can organize their song libraries, lyrics, artwork, files, and folders however they wish. Advanced audio players and ID3 editors are called taggers, and permit batch tagging other utility functions.

Tune-Instructor offers Search & Replace functionality across all the following categories: Name, Artist, Album, Album Artist, Composer, Show, Sort Name, Sort Artist, Sort Album, Sort Album Artist, Sort Composer, Sort Show, Genre, Comment, Grouping, Lyrics, and Episode ID. Search parameters include: Tag-Text Contains, Tag-Text Starts With, Tag-Text Ends With, Tag-Text Is Equal, Word Contains, Word Starts With, Word Ends With, and Word is Equal. Additional Tag operations, applicable to any of the 17 previously mentioned categories include: Upper/Lower Case set or reset; Copy, Swap, or Overwrite; Cut Numbers or Characters; Expand or Add Numbers or Characters; and Auto-Delete Tags or Unnecessary Spaces.

Additional organizational features permit: syncing of file names and ID3 tags; setting folder names according to ID3 tags; searching, extracting, scaling, and syncing album artwork; searching for and extracting lyrics from the ID3 tag; and syncing the library with the media folder. An Application Preferences window permits the user to set whether or not to have the app appear in the menu bar, and which windows and applications will launch automatically.

Also under user control from the Preferences are the: Track Information Window, Lyrics Window, Controller Design and Visibility, Application Keyboard Shortcuts, Ratings, and Last.fm interconnectivity. Last.fm allows the user to keep a record of what they listen to, and receive recommendations based on their tastes.

Tune-Instructor requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later and iTunes 8.2 or later. It’s Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. Version 3.2 is free “donationware” and available now.