Author Topic: Option to set the source 'year' tag for 'decade'  (Read 3967 times)

hiccup

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The 'decade' field will display the decade that is derived from the standard year tag.

But many users will be using additional custom tags for years and dates, and these dates are probably more suited to be used for the decade label.

For example:

A box set could be released in 2010, will probably have 2010 as the 'year', so will show up under the 2010s decade.
But the original albums in that box set could have their original release dates in the 'original year' tag.
It would be preferable to have these original albums placed in their appropriate decade and not all under '2010s'.

A compilation album containing tracks from an artist spanning decades could have a release date of 2020.
But the songs could each have their original release dates or 'recorded' dates in another custom tag.
You would probably want to have each song listed under it's own decade.

For singles or orphan tracks it could be the case that you have only the 'original date' tag populated.
Those tracks will not be showing up under a decade at all.

Cut to the chase,

It would be nice to be able to specify what custom tag (or more likely, what virtual tag) MusicBee will derive the 'decade' label from.

Surely more advanced users could achieve this by concocting an additional virtual decade tag, but I think it's a good candidate to have available as a configuration setting.
 

psychoadept

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+1

Would be nice if it were somehow context dependent, even.  I already have some virtual tags that let me organize pop music by date charted, and classical music by date of composition. I've managed to make them both talk to the original year tag, even though a few thing fall into both categories, but I'd be willing to split them into another custom tag if it would allow better use with something like this.
Last Edit: June 09, 2020, 02:26:23 AM by psychoadept
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Steven

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cartman005

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But the original albums in that box set could have their original release dates in the 'original year' tag.

I don't think it is convention to use the "Original Year" tag in this way. From my understanding, it is meant for cover versions of songs. So for example, Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" would have an original year of 1974, because that is when Dolly Parton released her original version.

Documentation

hiccup

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I don't think it is convention to use the "Original Year" tag in this way. From my understanding, it is meant for cover versions of songs.

All what that 20 year old informal standard document for id3 says is: "TORY [Original release year]"
It doesn't explain or define what is meant by 'original', nor does it pertain to alternative tagging schemes such as Vorbis, nor does it say you cannot have user defined id3 TXXX tags for customized dates.

And what if you have a 20 cd box set from 2020 that contains a full original album from the artist that dates from 1980, and on that album is a song that was released as a single in 1979, which was an alternative version from an earlier recording from the same artist they recorded in 1975, which was a cover version of a song from another artist in 1960.

What is 'original' here?
And is your head already spinning?

But that is both not the point of my request, and it is the point.

Because of the rather vague and chaotic ways in which dates (years) are handled by software, organisations and users, many MusicBee users will have created their own custom and virtual tags to handle and store different sorts of dates.

MusicBee already has the concept of 'Decade'.
But it does not allow for users to make it look at a specified year tag to decide on the decade.

Not a crucial feature, but in my mind it makes sense and would make things just a little bit easier.
 

psychoadept

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why cant you just set up virtual tags as appropriate?

Can you suggest a formula for that which doesn't involve a lot of nested if statements? I suppose it could be done with regex.
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Steven

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why cant you just set up virtual tags as appropriate?
Can you suggest a formula for that which doesn't involve a lot of nested if statements? I suppose it could be done with regex.
something like this:
Code
$IsNull(<Year>,,$Left($Date(<Year>,yyyy),3)0s)

cartman005

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What is 'original' here?
And is your head already spinning?

I agree, I wish it was more definitive. Out of curiosity, do you have a way for tagging song covers?

There is also a Original Date field. Do you use that in the same way as the Original Year?

psychoadept

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why cant you just set up virtual tags as appropriate?
Can you suggest a formula for that which doesn't involve a lot of nested if statements? I suppose it could be done with regex.
something like this:
Code
$IsNull(<Year>,,$Left($Date(<Year>,yyyy),3)0s)

Great, thanks!
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hiccup

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I agree, I wish it was more definitive. Out of curiosity, do you have a way for tagging song covers?
There is also a Original Date field. Do you use that in the same way as the Original Year?

Good questions, and an interesting subject for sure ;-)

But... I would prefer to keep this wishlist item on-topic and to the point, and not get it diluted by discussing dates and years in general.
If you would create a dedicated thread on how other users handle dates and years, I am sure it could become an interesting thread...

Back to on-topic:
As I stated in my opening post, using an additional virtual tag for this obviously can be a means to an end.
It's just that you will then end up with having two different 'decade' tags.
And for less savvy users it is an additional obstacle to take.

It was just a thought that makes sense to me.
If others don't think it does or that it isn't worth the effort, no problem.