Easier way to manage multiple versions of the same album

[Onyxx666]

So I don't know about everyone else but I have many albums that have 3 or more versions. I was thinking that some sort of drop down or tab system would be great to swap between these versions.

Visually there could be tabs at the top to label what the edition is and to swap between them. If you collect versions with different barcodes as well you could have a drop down from the actual tab you are selecting. Maybe you could have a star next to the album versions to select which one you want to show on default which could change to another album cover to match if it has it.



It would be also cool if you select multiple versions it could highlight the songs in a color or just show what differs between them. Lets say basic is just white outline but the last 3 songs are from the limited edition so it highlights those in gold or something.  That way you can quickly see what the other edition includes that the original doesn't.

[Goblet]

Huge +1 from me, lots of soundtracks have various releases (official release, leaked complete, for your consideration, expanded anniversary album, demo, even fan edits, etc) which are "separate" releases for the same media. It leads to too much bloat:



Never sat right with me having them separate nor combining them into a single album, but this is a good concession that keeps an "album" (more release group, I suppose) grouped together whilst allowing for alternates to still be individually displayed as needed.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

So I don't know about everyone else but I have many albums that have 3 or more versions. I was thinking that some sort of drop down or tab system would be great to swap between these versions.

Visually there could be tabs at the top to label what the edition is and to swap between them. If you collect versions with different barcodes as well you could have a drop down from the actual tab you are selecting. Maybe you could have a star next to the album versions to select which one you want to show on default which could change to another album cover to match if it has it.

I'm not sure about a tabbed system, but I would like to see further discussion and input on easier ways to manage multiple releases of the same album as well. +1

It would be also cool if you select multiple versions it could highlight the songs in a color or just show what differs between them. Lets say basic is just white outline but the last 3 songs are from the limited edition so it highlights those in gold or something.  That way you can quickly see what the other edition includes that the original doesn't.

You should be able to create Highlighting rules that already accomplish this.

Never sat right with me having them separate nor combining them into a single album, but this is a good concession that keeps an "album" (more release group, I suppose) grouped together whilst allowing for alternates to still be individually displayed as needed.

I'm not sure how this pseudo-solution would work for the Album Covers view, but in my Soundtrack view, I use <Sort Album> to combine. For example, I have both the soundtrack and score to "Back to the Future," but they both are under a single "Back to the Future" slot in the <Sort Album>-sorted Thumbnail Browser.

[Goblet]

I'm not sure how this pseudo-solution would work for the Album Covers view, but in my Soundtrack view, I use <Sort Album> to combine. For example, I have both the soundtrack and score to "Back to the Future," but they both are under a single "Back to the Future" slot in the <Sort Album>-sorted Thumbnail Browser.

It's less about combining them into a single list and more about being able to alternate between different versions within a single album, IMO. Once you're combining multiple large albums together, at least in my case, they become overwhelmingly long. Using my above example, my four Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides albums are 27 tracks (OST), 106 tracks (demos), 14 tracks (fan edit), and 92 tracks (complete) -- a 239 track list if combined. As with anything though, we all have our own ways of listening / collecting, so this'd really only work if it were a toggleable feature

I do have a few separate albums combined into a single "album" as I sort my core playlist by folders, so that's actually fairly easy enough to achieve with the Album Covers view. It can be a bit strange with the music explorer and can throw off library stats but otherwise it works ok. I'm sure there's an easier way of doing it but I'm a simple person haha