Can MusicBee simply follow directory structure

[fredo]

Hi all,

I am coming back to MusicBee after a multi-year hiatus. Much has been improved in the interval; Music Explorer in particular looks great. But I can't seem to make it behave the way I want.

My music library is already organized the way I want it at the directory level. Generally, top level folder = artist; 2nd level folder = album; 3rd level folder = disc number (when appropriate). Simple. But I can't get MusicBee to just display it as is in Music Explorer, without second-guessing the existing grouping / sorting. I looked for such a setting but could not find one.

The reason I would want that is to get control over how soundtrack, anthology and / or split albums are displayed in Music Explorer.

Thank you!

[psychoadept]

Do you have "files for each album are in their own folder" set in Sorting/Grouping preferences?

[fredo]

I have, but it has not changed the grouping.

[HaiFi]

Take a look at the picture.

I think that is what you want. To get this result it is not necassary to order your music-library in this folder structure. You have only to take care that all audio-tags are filled correctly.

[fredo]

The problem I am trying to solve is one specific to anthology albums, soundtracks, etc.

Let's say I have an anthology album named "The Best of Pre-WWI Rockabilly" or something. It has 30 tracks by 30 artists.

When I play that album, I most likely want to listen to the entire album. I'm not likely to want to listen to a single song by one artist. So I would want MusicBee to display it as one album rather than splitting it into 30 album/artist pairs.

Similarly, let's say I have a split album where half the songs are by Céline Dion and the other by Death Grips. If I navigate Artist > Album I see the album, but only the tracks by the one artist are shown. If I want to play the other tracks, I have to re-navigate to the album using the other artist's name.

MusicBee's default sorting algorithm works fine whenever "album" is a subset of "artist", but not in those cases when "artist" is a subset of "album", like the examples above or (some) soundtracks. In those cases there should be a means to override the default algorithm in order to keep these albums together. Hope this makes sense.

[phred]

So I would want MusicBee to display it as one album rather than splitting it into 30 album/artist pairs.

If the Album Artist tag is empty MB assumes Album Artist equals Artist. Therefore MB is seeing your compilation/anthology albums as one album for each artist. Put something like "Various Artists" as the Album Artist and that should solve the problem.

[psychoadept]

You mentioned Music Explorer in your first post. The info that HaiFi and phred have given you is correct for your music library. Music Explorer is much more strictly artist-based, so it may just not do what you're looking for. Try switching to the regular library view.

[fredo]

By "regular library view" do you mean "Music"?

If so, it makes no difference. It's just a different view of the same sorting, and Music Explorer is way more elegant.

I also tried to change the tags on one album as you suggested. To reuse my previous example of a split album by Céline Dion and Death Grips with 6 tracks by each artist - let's say that album is called Relaxing Chansons. Album artist tag was blank so I edited it to read "Relaxing Chansons". Now it does show under Artist = "Relaxing Chansons" (okay) and lists all 12 songs (good)... however, it is no longer listed under either Céline Dion nor Death Grips, which is incorrect as it features original tracks by both and should be listed under both as it is significant to the discography of both.

On the other hand, an album like "The Best of Pre-WWI Rockabilly" with its 30 tracks by 30 artists should probably NOT be listed under each of its 30 respective artists as it is representative of a genre rather than individual artist(s). Hope that makes sense, although it's getting complicated  That's why an option for MB to blindly follow the folder structure would give the user the option to control how content is displayed in MB based on the way the user stored it in the file structure.

I used to use Cantata on Linux, and its "Folders" option does just that, it shows you your directory tree and you can play whatever you want. I know MB sort of does that too under "Computer", but it is a rather inelegant way to use the program .

[frankz]

As you've noted, MusicBee does provide the option to blindly follow the folder structure in the Computer node.

I get very confused when people use this library manager and then demand that it acts in all manners like a rudimentary file explorer.  You will get much further tagging your files correctly and using MB as it is intended to be used than you will expecting it to do what it is not intended to do.

Now it does show under Artist = "Relaxing Chansons" (okay) and lists all 12 songs (good)... however, it is no longer listed under either Céline Dion nor Death Grips, which is incorrect as it features tracks by both and should be listed under both as it is significant to the discography of both.

If tagged as you describe, the album will appear half under artist Céline Dion, half under artist Death Grips, and in full under album artist Relaxing Chansons.

[fredo]

The album appears in full under artist Relaxing Chansons, and not at all under artist Céline Dion nor Death Grips.

[Steven]

If tagged as you describe, the album will appear half under artist Céline Dion, half under artist Death Grips, and in full under album artist Relaxing Chansons.

to add to that, simply change the filter on the left side of the Music Explorer to Album Artist

[fredo]

If the filter is set on Album Artist, the album appears in full under Relaxing Chansons, and not at all under Céline Dion nor Death Grips.

If the filter is set on Artist, 6 tracks of the album appear under Céline Dion, 6 tracks under Death Grips, and no entry exists for Relaxing Chansons.

[psychoadept]

You can tag the album artist as Celine Dion; Death Grips. Then it will appear under both.

[hiccup]

If the filter is set on Album Artist, the album appears in full under Relaxing Chansons, and not at all under Céline Dion nor Death Grips.

If the filter is set on Artist, 6 tracks of the album appear under Céline Dion, 6 tracks under Death Grips, and no entry exists for Relaxing Chansons.

I feel you are doing things in a contorted way.

As others mentioned also, MusicBee is not a 'folder player'. You want to use it as such, but you also seem to expect results as if your music is properly tagged, which it seems it isn't.
MusicBee also won't behave as the Linux player you mention. Which even isn't a stand-alone player/manager, but a front-end interface for another piece of software.

You came with an example of an imaginary album that has two album artists.
The principle of an album is that it has a singular name or description for the 'album artist'.
Your imaginary example should have something like 'Celine Dion · Death Grips' as album artist.
Or 'Various Artists', or whatever.

If you would tag your music properly, and use MusicBee as how it is intended, you could have:

- an Album Artist tag: Celine Dion · Death Grips
- an Album Artists tag: Celine Dion; Death Grips

Surely you can do things however you like, and take this information anyway you like it, but I thought it was good to mention this.

Other users may stumble upon this thread and perhaps get wrong ideas.

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

I would suggest the original poster set these various artist albums' "iTunes Compilation" tag to "Yes," tag albums with only a couple of different artists as multi-values into <Sort Artist> (e.g. <Sort Artist> = Celine Dion; Death Grips), tag <Sort Artist> in compilation albums with several different artists as the name of the album's publisher and then sort the Music Explorer by <Sort Artist>.

EDIT: This works for me in the main panel, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't work in the Music Explorer.