Tag Verification Shipped

"Apply Top Hit" trusts one source's first result, which is how a seven-minute remix ends up tagged with the three-minute single's album and year. Tag Verification asks several sources independently and only proposes a change where they agree — agreement is a far stronger signal than ranking.

It runs at three levels, all producing the same review screen: a free cross-source consensus that needs no account, Apple's on-device AI, and a cloud model you bring your own key for. You pick the trade-off; nothing is written until you review it.

What it does

• Cross-source consensus (free). Asks iTunes, MusicBrainz, Deezer, Discogs and Wikipedia independently and proposes a change only where they agree. No account, no key, works on every Mac.
• Wikipedia for the original album. Wikipedia is the most reliable source for the record a song first appeared on, where the catalog APIs return the single or a later hits compilation. It gets the final say on the album.
• Apple on-device AI (free, private). On macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, the on-device model reads the same database results and judges which one matches the file. Nothing about your library leaves the Mac.
• Cloud AI — Claude, OpenAI, or your own local model. Claude can also search the web, for the bootlegs, edits and white labels the databases don't carry. Prefer OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, or a model you're already running locally under Ollama or LM Studio? Point it at any of those instead — billed to your own account, or free if it's running on your Mac.
• Fills a missing year from the file name. When the ID3 tag has no year but the file is named “… (2019)”, the year is offered instead of left blank — a database year still wins when one is found.
• Keeps the artist out of the title. “Justice - D.A.N.C.E.” becomes “D.A.N.C.E.”, while DJ version markers like (Extended Mix) and (Clean) are kept.
• Knows an edit from a mix. Candidates whose length cannot match the file are discarded before anything is counted, so a mix's album and year are never written onto a radio edit.
• You review before anything is written. Every proposal shows the current tags, the change, a confidence score and the source it came from. Applying writes to the files and Serato together, with a backup taken first.

How to use it

1. Select tracks and an engine

   In Tracks & Tags, select what you want checked and choose consensus, on-device, or cloud.

2. Run it

   A free offline check flags the tracks that actually look wrong first, so a paid or on-device run can be narrowed to just those.

3. Review the proposals

   Each card shows the current tags, the proposed change, a confidence and the source. Pre-checked proposals are the confident ones.

4. Apply

   Selected changes are written to the audio files and Serato together, read-back verified, with a snapshot taken first. Serato has to be closed.

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