Author Topic: "Album Release Date" as MB internal field for sorting albums properly  (Read 9785 times)

redwing

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If an album contains tracks with different date value like compilation albums, current MB's display of the album gets messy and inconsistent.

In Artwork view grouped by album artist, sort by album ascendant:




In Artwork view grouped by album, sort by album artist/year/album:




In Album & Tracks view, sort by album artist/year/album:




As you see from the above, (1) album year is inconsistent depending on layout (but with basically the same sort criterion) and (2) track list is out of order even though those tracks belong to the same album.

Then how to fix this?
Someone might argue the tagging was wrong. Those tracks should have used the same "release date" (2011)  for date tag, and the currently entered date tag values should be moved to "original date" custom tag. Maybe theoretically that's a correct approach, but then it raises other issues. Do you really want to tag for The Beatles's "Please Please Me" dated in 2012 simply because your compilation album was released in that year, while hiding more important date "1963" in an obscure custom tag? And the chances are you will end up with having the same song in several different date version. Also, most features and panels in MB shows date, and displaying a custom tag instead is not allowed in many cases. In some genres (like classical music), album release date is not that important as compared to track release (or recording) date to make it worthwhile to re-tag the whole library under a new system.  

So what I'd like to suggest is to add a new MB internal field "Album Release Date" for album-sorting purpose only. Offer an easy way to input the date for an album, not for each track, when needed.

Then MB's album year should default to "Album Release Date" when it's set, otherwise to the "latest" track date when different dates are mixed in the same album. Also, all tracks in an album should be sorted by track# in artwork view and album & tracks view regardless of sort criterion. Another benefit of the new field would be sorting multiple albums released in the same year by the same album artist will become much easier because you don't have to re-tag all the tracks to add different month-date value. Also you can tag with original date for each song without much headache about sorting issue.
Last Edit: August 14, 2014, 07:30:26 AM by redwing

redwing

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Then MB's album year should default to "Album Release Date" when it's set, otherwise to the "latest" track date when different dates are mixed in the same album. Also, all tracks in an album should be sorted by track# in artwork view and album & tracks view regardless of sort criterion.

I think the blue-colored part could be implemented at any time regardless of the support for the new field, and that would address most part of the current inconsistency.

phred

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If an album contains tracks with different date value like compilation albums, current MB's display of the album gets messy and inconsistent.
Very much so!

Quote
Then MB's album year should default to "Album Release Date" when it's set, otherwise to the "latest" track date when different dates are mixed in the same album. Also, all tracks in an album should be sorted by track# in artwork view and album & tracks view regardless of sort criterion. Another benefit of the new field would be sorting multiple albums released in the same year by the same album artist will become much easier because you don't have to re-tag all the tracks to add different month-date value. Also you can tag with original date for each song without much headache about sorting issue.
Especially the part quoted in red.  This is exactly what led me to my post asking for a clarification of the compilation tag.  http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=13562.15
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Zak

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This is why I use ASX files for compilations. That way the individual tracks can keep their original release date, album titles and cover art but you can still use them in a compilation without needing to create a second copy of the file.
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psychoadept

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-1

This seems like an awful lot of extra complication and work for a problem that, as you say, can theoretically be handled by Original Year tag.

Also, most features and panels in MB shows date, and displaying a custom tag instead is not allowed in many cases. In some genres (like classical music), album release date is not that important as compared to track release (or recording) date to make it worthwhile to re-tag the whole library under a new system.

Perhaps this is the problem to address, not adding a new non-standard and largely redundant field.  I've had the problem with expanded view showing the first date it finds.  It would be nice if it only showed a date for the album if the date was consistent across the whole album, for instance.

p.s. I like the idea of ASX tracks but haven't gotten that far in my organization.  :)  Wish there were an easy way to create them.
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redwing

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This is why I use ASX files for compilations. That way the individual tracks can keep their original release date, album titles and cover art but you can still use them in a compilation without needing to create a second copy of the file.

Sounds like you're talking about re-using the same file for other compilation albums as well. If so, that's a little off of this topic as this deals with actual files. BTW how do those ASX files behave regarding the inconsistent sort discussed in this thread?

This seems like an awful lot of extra complication

Not sure what you meant by that. What awful lot of complication? Can you give me some examples?
Last Edit: August 15, 2014, 06:33:26 AM by redwing

Steven

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i have made a small change in the v2.4 release so that in this scenario. when the album is expanded the tracks are sorted by disc-track number

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_4/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
Last Edit: August 15, 2014, 07:05:25 PM by Steven

redwing

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Thanks! That addressed the second screenshot. But the first and third screenshots remain the same. Hopefully they could be addressed soon.

phred

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i have made a small change in the v2.4 release so that in this scenario. when the album is expanded the tracks are sorted by disc-track number
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_4/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip
Thanks Steven.
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Steven

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i have re-uploaded the change:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_4/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

it should now also work for artists with a single album. The change is for the Artwork layout only so wont change #3

redwing

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Thanks again! I can confirm it fixed screenshot #1 for all artists regardless of having single or multiple albums. But as you said, #3 remains the same, and "split album" issue (one album splitting into tracks having date tags and those don't) is not fixed yet.

Steven

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the album and tracks layout is not a bug as you are sorting by year then album and MB is doing what i would expect in that case, so there is nothing to fix.
I appreciate you have raised some suggestions in order to acheive what you want but this update was for the expanded panel layout only and i will do no more than that for this version

redwing

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I just found out screenshot #1 fix is not working for artists with multiple albums, as you said. If some tracks have different date tag, then they get split into a separate album.

Anyway, thanks for the fix and hope you could revisit this issue some time later. I appreciate your quick remedy of this issue.

redwing

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When you revisit this issue, can you try one more step?

Currently this is how MB displays for an artist with multiple albums when each album contains tracks of different year tag (grouped by album artist, sort by year ascendant):



But what if the following rule is enforced with whatever sort criterion in artwork view?
: An album never gets split even with tracks of different year tag.

Would this break anything other than addressing this issue? The reason I am asking for this is the sort setting here is meant only for sorting albums by year, not sorting individual tracks by year.
Last Edit: August 17, 2014, 07:53:14 AM by redwing