iTunes is a great software to manage and listen to our music, but the experience can be further improved by using additional plugins or apps. These plugins / apps basically extends the functionality of iTunes, enhances iTunes, or both, to satisfy some of the needs that iTunes cannot provide.

Here are 12 plugins / apps that you will find useful when used with iTunes.

Cover Stream

[$20 | Website]

Cover Stream puts coverflow into a HUD window that you can summon with a pre-defined hot key. You can browse your music library and control music easily in that window without having to use iTunes to do that. Cover Stream also integrates with Last.fm flawlessly, scrobbing your music while you listen to them.

CoverSutra

[$20 | Website]

CoverSutra is one of the most mature and popular app to control your iTunes music without switching to iTunes. The app features one of the best user inteface design, using the app is a real pleasure. With CoverSutra, you can search music, see the currently played song’s  album art on your desktop. Integration with Last.fm is also one of the feature.

GimmeSomeTune

[Free | Website]

Truly one of the most essential app to compliment your iTunes. GimmeSomeTune fetches missing coverarts and lyrics in the background while you listen to your music. I have tried many coverart and lyrics fetching apps and I must say this is one that really gets both the job done well. The best part is, it’s free.

Bowtie

[Free | Website]

Designed by Laurent Baumann, also responsible for Fontcase, Bowtie is a beautifully designed free iTunes controller that allows you control your iTunes music unobstrusively. You can also put the now playing song’s coverart on your desktop. Bowtie also features downloadable themes for the CD Cover that houses the coverart which you can start by downloading the themes here.

Tangerine

[$24.95 | Website]

Designed by Potion Factory, also behind The Hit List, Tangerine analyses the tempo of your music and lets you easily create playlists of music grouped by it’s tempo among many other options. Great app if you hate the idea of manually choosing songs for your next workout etc.

Awaken

[$15 | Website]

Awaken lets you play music when you’re sleeping, sleeps your Mac utilizing a sleep timer, and wakes you and your Mac up with your favourite music. You can also use Awaken to alert you about anything else other than waking you up by using the egg timer. Control the alarm and sleep timer with your Apple Remote from across the room while running Awaken in fullscreen mode.

CoverScout

[$40 | Website]

CoverScout scours the internet for coverarts and adds it to your albums. The neat part is that you can edit your coverarts by rotating, cropping, scaling, straightening and even adjusting the color levels of the image.

SongGenie

[$33 | Website]

SongGenie aids you in filling in missing meta datas of your tracks like descriptions, artist names, track names, album names etc, making your iTunes library much more useful and tidy. Written by the same developers from CoverScout, SongGenie integrates with CoverScout by assigning the tasks of adding album arts to your tracks to CoverScout with just one click.

TuneUp

[$29.95 or $19.95 yearly | Website]

UPDATE (Discount for SUBERAPPS readers)

TuneUp is offering a 15% discount promo code for SUBERAPPS readers, just enter SUBERAPPS during checkout, valid till 15 April 09.

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TuneUp cleans your tracks by fixing your mislabeled music and missing coverarts. The app adds a new sidebar to iTunes with all the tools you need to use to clean up your music. The now playing tab displays information about the track and even lets you play the music video of the track right in the sidebar (video fetched from YouTube). TuneUp was really buggy when it first launches late last year due to the overwhelming response but I guess they should have cleared out the kinks by now. Read more about TuneUp in a review written in December last year.

YouControl

[Free | Website]

You Control basically lets you control your iTunes music library via your menubar without switching to iTunes.

DockArt

[Free | Website]

DockArt does a simple but extremely useful job by replacing the default iTunes icon in your dock with the currently playing music’s coverart. When you stop your music, your iTunes icon reverts back to the original one.

AutoRate

[Free | Website]

AutoRate automatically rates your tracks based on how often the track is played and how often each track is skipped. Might not be the most accurate, but a good start if you are not really active in rating your music.

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Once again, if you have any other suggestions for a good iTunes app / plugin, please feel free to comment!

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