Adding Custom Fields

[avididid]

Newbie David Here,  Is there a way to add custom fields to Albums, not necessarily Tracks and be able to sort and filter on these custom fields.  Example is adding a field for Grammy Awards Nominees & Winners, Perhaps a field for "ALLMUSIC" Album Picks and or rating.  I have an extensive collection but most of the extra info is entered into a spreadsheet and when I want to find something I have to sort to find the info!  Really like this software but overwhelming for a senior!
Thanks for suggestions - David N.

[hiccup]

What defines an album on a computer is a very different concept from a physical album such as a record or a cd that is one item.
On your harddisk there are no albums. Only files. (songs)
(unless you have a whole album as one single file, but that's rare)

So the music player/manager software you use will have to sort out what it's user considers to be 'an album'.
It can be that all music files that reside in the same folder are treated as an album.
Or it can be that all files that have the same Album Title and the same Album Artist are treated as an album.
With MusicBee, you can decide and refine all this to your own preferences.

So, long story short: Custom tags are always for files, never for albums.

[phred]

I don't track Grammy Award winners, but I track (or did track) Hall of Fame inductees. I created a custom tag "HoF" and applied to some (or all) of the tracks by the inductee. I also add a comment "Hall of Fame 2012" or whatever year. I suppose you can do something similar for the Grammy Award winning albums. But as hiccup says, you'd have to apply it to each track of the album.

[psychoadept]

Here is the documentation we have on custom tags. If you run into a specific problem, feel free to ask. We can offer better help when it's about something specific.

https://musicbee.fandom.com/wiki/Custom_Tags

[avididid]

Great responses, thanks to all! DN

[avididid]

Thanks so much, 1 more easy question - How many custom tags can you add to an track and can these be used in sorting & filters?  I have been using JRiver MC26 but that is way too complicated for me! Tks so much - DN

What defines an album on a computer is a very different concept from a physical album such as a record or a cd that is one item.
On your harddisk there are no albums. Only files. (songs)(unless you have a whole album as one single file, but that's rare)

So the music player/manager software you use will have to sort out what it's user considers to be 'an album'.
It can be that all music files that reside in the same folder are treated as an album.
Or it can be that all files that have the same Album Title and the same Album Artist are treated as an album.
With MusicBee, you can decide and refine all this to your own preferences.

So, long story short: Custom tags are always for files, never for albums.

[phred]

Thanks so much, 1 more easy question - How many custom tags can you add to an track and can these be used in sorting & filters?

I'm pretty sure you add as many custom tags to a track as you need. Of course, MB (currently) only allows creation of up to 16 custom tags.
And yes, they can be used in filters and for sorting.

Make sure -not- to save them to the MB database only. If you do that, and transfer the tracks to another player, the custom tags will disappear. Instead, use the drop-down to select an unused tag frame. Pick something it you're very unlikely to want to use in the future.

[avididid]

Thanks so much to all respondents!  Great help - David (Newbie)