Is it possible using Virtual tags and formulas, to add Artists age to songs?

[jonap]

I know I am asking something very much not likely possible, but I found out virtual tags can do things I didn't know possible, so I am gonna ask

Imagine I have multiple songs by the same artist

In a database the year (in which the artist is born) is associated with the artist

In a virtual tag, the age at the time of the sing released (year realese song - year artist)

Would that be achievable with some formulas magic?

[Mayibongwe]

Virtual tags can manipulate just about every shred of information located in your music files.
So, assuming that the database you mentioned is actually referring to some "year artist" tag stored within your track files:
The virtual tag formula should be something as simple as:

$Sub(<year release song>,<year artist>) whatever tag names reference the info you require

[hiccup]

I am guessing jonap is aiming to have some database-like table (excel sheet, text file, I don't know) that contains the artists and their birth dates, and that a virtual tag would query that 'birthdays' file.

Unless the Additional Tagging & Reporting Tools plugin has some brilliant functionality that I am unaware of, I don't think that is currently possible.

edit
It brings to mind similar questions/requests regarding 'genre' if I recall correctly.
Some users would like to store the genre for an artist somewhere only once, and then have that matched whenever a song by that artist is selected or playing.

So I can see some value in the general idea.

[jonap]

thank you for the replies, yes, what hiccup said is exactly what I was wondering if it was possible and I knew it was a long shot and was hoping for some ATRT magic

[hiccup]

I had just added an edit to my previous post.
It saying I can see some value in the general idea.

Perhaps some bright mind with insights in the technicalities of MusicBee, .NET, databases etc. could say if this would be technically feasible as a new MusicBee feature somehow?

[jonap]

also if going by the general idea, I use flags for the nationality of artists (not the language of the song) so store that information and apply the correct flag to all the songs is another use case

[hiccup]

…I use flags for the nationality of artists…

So we now have potential use for this already for birth dates, genres and nationalities.
Perhaps you could construct and post a well-described wishlist item for this?

I am not sure I would use it myself, but I find the idea interesting and potentially useful to other users.

[Mayibongwe]

I also don't see myself having to use something like this in the near future (if ever).
I don't think I have any useful information that I'd ever want shared uniformly across tracks from the same artist.

With that said, I also do see some potential in such a feature evolving into something that a number of people would appreciate the existence of.
So, if someday I ever felt like taking on the exercise or project, this is how I'd offer it (as a plugin):

If such an offline* database was going to be maintained manually,
Then I wouldn't see how it would have been more advantageous over a process where you would save that value to one of the artist's tracks.
And then applied some plugin-defined command to write (or append) that one track's tag to the same tag on the other artist's tracks.

-------------
*existing outside of MusicBee or the music files
The AT&RT plugin sounds like it could already do the process I described though

[hiccup]

…If such an offline* database was going to be maintained manually…

I'm a bit talking from my a.h., here, since 1. I may not be using such a new feature myself, and 2. I am not using MusicBee's 'sort by' feature much also.

But aren't there similarities between the two?
Meaning that MusicBee's 'sort by' feature also (partly?) exists in its own database and not in the files?
Not sure, but there seems to be some logical connection between what already exists, and what is asked for here?

[Mayibongwe]

Ahhhhh! I see what you mean...

You are absolutely correct.
What's suggested here could function in the same breath as the "sort as" feature.
In the preferences setting, MusicBee already maintains some list of sort as values there, and it automatically writes them to tracks that matches the criteria.

[hiccup]

Ahhhhh! I see what you mean...

Great. So my a.h. was not wrong ;-)

I was also thinking about something like this being user-friendly.
Perhaps it could function a bit like how MusicBee allows for tag hierarchies.
The Tag Hierarchy Explorer can be fed from a relatively simple .txt file.
Perhaps a similar approach could be used for this?

Ah well, it's now up to jonap (or somebody else interested in having this) to draw up a wish for it, and then for the queen bee to assess it.

[jonap]

I think I'll make a wish then

Just a question though, as I am looking up on tag hierarchy to fully understand how it works

Is it possible to retrieve the top level genre from the actual genre, in a virtual tag?

Let's say I have a track with "Soul" genre, that falls under "R&B", can I retrieve R&B in a tag?

[hiccup]

Let's say I have a track with "Soul" genre, that falls under "R&B", can I retrieve R&B in a tag?

How are you populating your genre tag?

[jonap]

In genre there is Soul, so I was wondering if it was possible to retrieve in a virtual tag, the value of the top level genre which is R&B.

Or to make it more deeper, another exemple, a track whose genre is "Italo Dance" so the actual hierarchy is Pop > Dance Pop > Eurodance > Italo Dance

so would like to retrieve Pop from the song with Italo Dance

[hiccup]

In genre there is Soul, so I was wondering if…

Was that an attempt to answer my previous question?
(spoiler: it's not answering it ;-)
I (meant to) ask(ed) how your genre tags technically/physically get populated.