Library View - More Grouping and Sorting Options

[TateB]

Hopefully this hasn't been asked and answered before (if so, my apologies, I did search for the topic but didn't see anything responsive - honest!).

In the Library, set to view by Artists, it would be nice to group by virtual tags.  For example, if I have two artists with the same name, I will differentiate them by country (or state(province)/country) using a virtual tag, and then I use a naming template to send them to a distinct folder in my library, Album Artist (Country).  It would be nice to have this same ability to group Artists in the Library View by a virtual tag, as otherwise my Album Artists include a jumble of different album artists that happen to share the same name.

Similarly, under Library, when I click on Album Artist and bring up their albums, it would be nice if I could sort those by custom sorting options rather than just sort by Album, Year (Asc), Year (Des).  For example, I use Year to represent the year that a release was actually released, and I use original year to represent the year that a live recording actually occurred or, in the event of a reissue, the year that the album was originally released.  I would prefer to sort by original year, preferably using a custom tag that I set up that includes original year.

Thanks again for this program - it has been my go-to music player since October 2015!  Can't wait to see what v3.6 brings!

[Mayibongwe]

In the Library, set to view by Artists, it would be nice to group by virtual tags.
For example, if I have two artists with the same name, I will differentiate them by country (or state(province)/country) using a virtual tag, and then...

Wait...
As it stands, how are you differentiating them in other areas as far as the Music Explorer, artist bio, filtering systems, library stats and everything artist-related is concerned?
It's not quite clear to me if you are requesting this feature because you currently have artists sharing the same name or if this is only for once you come across that dilemma.

Similarly, under Library, when I click on Album Artist and bring up their albums, it would be nice if...

For my own info if someone can answer...is this referring to the Thumbnail browser?

[TateB]

In the Library, set to view by Artists, it would be nice to group by virtual tags.
For example, if I have two artists with the same name, I will differentiate them by country (or state(province)/country) using a virtual tag, and then...

Wait...
As it stands, how are you differentiating them in other areas as far as the Music Explorer, artist bio, filtering systems, library stats and everything artist-related is concerned?
It's not quite clear to me if you are requesting this feature because you currently have artists sharing the same name or if this is only for once you come across that dilemma.

Similarly, under Library, when I click on Album Artist and bring up their albums, it would be nice if...

For my own info if someone can answer...is this referring to the Thumbnail browser?

For the first question, I use a custom tag for grouping and as a preset for the file organizer, both of which reference a country tag when it exists.  This is what my file organizer preset is: $IsNull(<Country>,<Album Artist>,<Album Artist>" ("<Country>")")\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>.  I would like for the Library to be able to group Album Artists using a grouping custom tag.

For the second question, in Library, when organized by "Artists", you can show the tracks for the selected artist or album directly under the selected album/artist.  The sort options are Title, Year (Asc), Year (Des).  I would like to sort using the custom sorting options that I use for other views.

Thanks for requesting the clarifications!

[Zak]

My interpretation is that OP is requesting Virtual Tags be included as options on this menu:

[Steven]

i will add Original Year as an album sorting option and also in the thumbnail browser, but as to the artwork grouping i would like to see some plus ones as it seems quite niche to me

[TateB]

i will add Original Year as an album sorting option and also in the thumbnail browser, but as to the artwork grouping i would like to see some plus ones as it seems quite niche to me

Thank you for considering both, and implementing one.  Sincerely appreciated - this in itself will certainly improve my (already great) user experience!

[Mayibongwe]

For example, if I have two artists with the same name...

Wait...As it stands, how are you differentiating them in other areas...

For the first question, I use a custom tag for grouping and as a preset for the file organizer, both of which reference a country tag when it exists.
This is what my file organizer preset is: $IsNull(<Country>,<Album Artist>,<Album Artist>" ("<Country>")")\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>.  

Alright, I think I get it now. What caught me out at first was that I thought you meant two different artists had the same literal <artist> value.
But I now see that you mean one could have an artist value like <Mike Jackson> for one artist and <Michael Jackson> for another totally different artist.
And to make things easier, you'd wanna group them as <Mike Jackson (Country 1)> and <Michael Jackson (Country 2)> ?

Do I have that right?

[TateB]

For example, if I have two artists with the same name...

Wait...As it stands, how are you differentiating them in other areas...

For the first question, I use a custom tag for grouping and as a preset for the file organizer, both of which reference a country tag when it exists.
This is what my file organizer preset is: $IsNull(<Country>,<Album Artist>,<Album Artist>" ("<Country>")")\<Album>\<Disc-Track#> <Title>. 

Alright, I think I get it now. What caught me out at first was that I thought you meant two different artists had the same literal <artist> value.
But I now see that you mean one could have an artist value like <Mike Jackson> for one artist and <Michael Jackson> for another totally different artist.
And to make things easier, you'd wanna group them as <Mike Jackson (Country 1)> and <Michael Jackson (Country 2)> ?

Do I have that right?

Yes, 100% correct.

For instance, there are two Skid Rows, one Irish and one American.

I would use a conditional "country" tag to get "Skid Row (USA)" and "Skid Row (Ireland)", for instance.  If the "country" tag were blank, the album artist would just be "Skid Row."

What this enables is avoiding the "Album Artist" field getting mangled with a bunch of (Country) qualifiers that impacts searching, for instance.  It also works well with various sorting orders when using Album Artist, which I prefer as my Artist tag is where featured or guest artists are listed.  I use the country tag when and where I need to through custom tags/sorting/display columns/file naming conventions.

However, the Library limits the group options, so I cannot use the custom tag - as a result, all of my "Skid Row" albums are grouped together even though they are distinct artists.

I've been contemplating a few other ways to achieve the same or similar effect, one of which being the ability to use custom tags in the custom sorting field, but this is also not possible.  I don't know enough yet to figure out if there is a way to use a custom tag in the Display Artist field, if that is even possible...but that was my next angle to explore.

[boroda]

why don't you define album in mb as "album artist/album/country"?

[Mayibongwe]

Yes, 100% correct.

#1   For instance, there are two Skid Rows, one Irish and one American.
#2   What this enables is avoiding the "Album Artist" field getting mangled with a bunch of (Country) qualifiers that impacts searching, for instance.
#3   I use the country tag when and where I need to, through custom tags/sorting/display columns/file naming conventions.
#4   ...As a result, all of my "Skid Row" albums are grouped together even though they are distinct artists.

Idk man, the above now again sounds like my initial assumption.

#1   Am I tripping or this indicates that my initial assumption is correct? You have two different artists sharing an identical <artist> tag, is that right?

#2   My opinion: You are better off dealing with a <(album) artist> tag that has (country) appended to the end of it to differentiate artists.
        Reason being: You'll be fed inaccurate data every time you deal with the following:
        Music Explorer, artist bio, filtering systems, library stats and everything <artist> dependent.

        Plus, I don't understand what you mean by "having an <artist (country)> format would impact searching".

#3   If your artist tags were populated in the above format for namesakes, there'd be no need to put any case-handling for the locations you specified.

#4   That's just one of the many unwanted by-products that I mentioned in point #2.
        You could overcome this using boroda's suggestion above. But again, refer to point #3 for further simplicity and future consideration.

If I'm still misunderstanding, apologies. That would make it my last reply here as I wouldn't want to spread any more of my own confusion.

[Steven]

i will add Original Year as an album sorting option and also in the thumbnail browser, but as to the artwork grouping i would like to see some plus ones as it seems quite niche to me

confirming i have added Original Year for sorting in v3.6

[TateB]

i will add Original Year as an album sorting option and also in the thumbnail browser, but as to the artwork grouping i would like to see some plus ones as it seems quite niche to me

confirming i have added Original Year for sorting in v3.6

Thank you!