All right! One more try; same link, new binary: soundpal_experimental.zip
This should fixup all sorts of things. It should also parse your 2.4 files (untested, but it looks like the tags I’m parsing are unchanged from 2.3 so I am hoping it will “just work").
Some other minor updates:
@dkwo would love to know how the unicode support changes work out on your end.
Hey @jaymakesgames -- sorry for the wait!
I tried your last build.
$ md5sum soundpal_experimental.zip
5660b7f6bdcd47484c2074495e9145f8 soundpal_experimental.zip
Following are my steps.
e0 error Playdate Error e0 - Playdate Help saying the game crasheduser.xxxxx.com.jaymakesgames.soundpal)KH Dot Ningyouchou, restart Soundpal
to playdate 街へいこうよ どうぶつの森 ～森の音楽会～ folder, if I play them I can see the character looks like current release version (without Japanese string support), and then Album and Artist is Unknown Soundpal 2023-07-18 17.45.20|400x240
e0 error againJF Dot Ayu, restart SoundpalHope this helps!
Thanks for trying! Sorry this build was basically a wash and actually worse than before.
Giving it a go on hardware I can crash quite easily. Looks like the simulator is much more forgiving of whatever bugs I happen to be writing. 
Looking into it, stay tuned.
Ah, quick bug to spot.
The main crasher should be resolved. I don’t think it’s going to fix up poor parsing or titles being messed up - but at least it shouldn’t (I hope) crash as frequently anymore.
Build updated, same link for anyone who would like to try.
I tried some more stuff out on hardware myself and noticed that with a library of more than just a handful of songs, it can take a while to finish parsing everything. I’m not sure if this is related to having more non-ASCII tags or not. Either way; could be sped up. Something to consider for future builds!
Hello @jaymakesgames ~~~
I tried the last build -- 406a88f70fc0a2aa535359a0d1aa5fe3 soundpal_experimental.zip right? This time the audio playback will continue even if I back off from song directory to top menu, however, songs in root music directory still showed wrong characters.
Soundpal 2023-08-01 19.26.27|400x240
Soundpal 2023-08-01 19.26.46|400x240
By the way, I wonder if it'd be hard to add version info to your builds so that version is recognized in Playdate's sideload details and on device. I ask because I was trying the build that you posted 12 days ago (timestamp of your comment) but I wasn't sure it was a new build because they all show 0.0.0 
until I knew I already tested by getting the md5sum of the zip.
capture_20230801_192324_001|690x322
Settings 2023-08-01 19.25.51|400x240
Thanks for the great work!
Hello,
I highly appreciate this application and the only thing I am curious about is your perspective on a scrubbing feature using the crank, which I think would be a unique and amazing thing. I know it would be some effort to implement but wonder how much and what would be involved. Otherwise, I will say that the basic mechanics of simply loading mp3's onto the device is literally easier than it was with my old ipod nano in 2009, making me see this device in a new light. One thing I am noticing is that when I pause and unpause, it moves the time marker about a minute and 20 seconds forwards. Thank you
