Color Coding Feature for Songs [Highlighting]

[outlawza]

Hi Steven,

My wish is for a color coding feature for songs.
What if colors could be read as hex codes contained in the comments section of an ID3 between # symbols?
e.g. A color coded song with a comment too could have a comment reading:

Relaxed feel, would be good for project xyz. #B7C8B6#

The ability to have a column category whose full field displays the color (if any) would be really cool.
A color palette like Directory Opus' would be cool too, with the ability to copy hex codes from already-color coded songs and with space for making several presets.



This would be useful for people who are constantly discovering and sifting through large quantities of music and for DJ's using MusicBee as an aid to Traktor/Serato/Ableton.

Perhaps there could even be an option to make the text of songs' names in playlists and/or now playing reflect the hex code in the comments.
I hope this wouldn't be too much work to implement, as I (and I'm sure many others) would benefit greatly from this feature, and add it to the list of reasons why MusicBee is the best tune-manager and player.

Keep up the good work, peace!

-edit-
Added "Highlighting" to thread title so it appears in relevant searches.

[Nixander]

+1

 I think it would be a very great way of adding more information/more organisation in a library without adding new text.

... imagine if the songs in the main panel would have colours you could:

-  colour them for a mood, for example  red=more aggressiv music, green= more chilled tunes,  etc.
- you could highlight songs as a reminder to listen to them more often/to skip them
- making differnt colours for different genres to have a quick overview in you library
- could be a good aid for tagging (for example all songs without implemented lyric = red)

I think the best idee would be the colouring of the font itself in the mainpanel

[Zak]

While I think labeling tracks with colours may have some uses, using them for mood, rating, genre etc would only be duplicating tags that already exist (except less so, because you'd have to know that Red=aggressive, Green=chilled).

[Greb]

+1!!!!!

I'd allow a lot of possibilities to choose among. For example:

- Instead of filtering by 'similar to artist', differents tones of colour according to how similar it is.
- Different colours according to rate or love.
- Different colours for top last.fm songs or how many listeners has this song in last.fm
- Different colours according to bitrate, lyrics implemented, mood, etc.
- Different colours according to the last time this song was played, or how frequently/rarely is it played, or when was it added.
- Using colours as a marker/reminder.
- Etc.

[Nixander]

While I think labeling tracks with colours may have some uses, using them for mood, rating, genre etc would only be duplicating tags that already exist (except less so, because you'd have to know that Red=aggressive, Green=chilled).

yes you're right but the good thing is that you'd see the chilled songs (green) in a playlist songs very fast. Instead of scanning the genre column you would just see direktly that the next few songs will be chilled songs. If you browse through your music, a red coloured song would directly catch your attention.

It would be an addition visual way of displaying tags/or whatever, but in much more direct way.

On top of that, it would be very inovative, or at least I dont know any program which has this function

[Roadrunner]

When I read all these different ideas, I could imaging a rule based coloring method similar to user defined filters but instead of filtering, one could define a color. In addition you could choose more than one method as active at the same time (first fit defines the color). Colors would just be used virtually during display but not stored in the files itselves. This way you hadn't to mark or copy anything manually.

However, the disadvantage of every coloring is, that you won't be able anymore to easily change the skin or use theater mode...

[SimonBRT]

Potential usefulness aside, this has the possibility of making MB look very ugly! 

[jistme]

It's a creative idea, and I wouldn't like to spoil a party.

But yes, here comes the 'but'...
Personally I think there are already more then enough options with using and filtering tagging genres, moods, occasions, ratings, filtering etc. etc.
Colors would be some 'fun' but will never have the finesse you can achieve with those existing option.
It might be used for some temporary marking, but later on I'm sure you'd want to fill and use the appropriate and common fields for them.
Characterizing a song by just 1 color I believe is impossible. (Maybe add a smell function too?  ;-)

[Greb]

It's a creative idea, and I wouldn't like to spoil a party.

But yes, here comes the 'but'...
Personally I think there are already more then enough options with using and filtering tagging genres, moods, occasions, ratings, filtering etc. etc.
Colors would be some 'fun' but will never have the finesse you can achieve with those existing option.
It might be used for some temporary marking, but later on I'm sure you'd want to fill and use the appropriate and common fields for them.
Characterizing a song by just 1 color I believe is impossible. (Maybe add a smell function too?  ;-)

But you don't need to characterize a song with a color. You can stablished a list of rules that you can freely apply.


For example, you want to know which songs are more listened in lastm. So you apply this rule of colours and you get this:




Then you think... hey, didn't I mark some songs because I wanted to learn them with the guitar? So you change to 'markers' rule:




And then you wonder which songs you're listening less, so you change to a rule of colours according to frequency:




And those are only a few options...  

[jistme]

Indeed creative and lots of possibilities.
Trying to think for other people (a very bad habbit ;-) I thought it to be kind of a gimmick which would probably not be used in the long run.
Never mind me ;-)

[Bee-liever]

The ability to have a column category whose full field displays the color (if any) would be really cool.

While having a coloured column/icon for basic marking of a track that needs attention, ie. lyrics missing, not rated, etc would, IMO, be a good idea as a visual reminder, but extending it beyond that basic idea would be difficult.
If  I had a track marked tempo=fast=255,125,0 (orange); mood=energetic=255,0,0 (red); occasion=workout=255,0,255 (magenta)
would MB show all 3 colours as a gradient, pick only the first colour or do a blend of all the colours that hopefully wont match a colour that is already tagged for something else?

And I'd agree with SimonBRT, it has the potential to make MB very ugly, very quick

[Greb]

The ability to have a column category whose full field displays the color (if any) would be really cool.

While having a coloured column/icon for basic marking of a track that needs attention, ie. lyrics missing, not rated, etc would, IMO, be a good idea as a visual reminder, but extending it beyond that basic idea would be difficult.
If  I had a track marked tempo=fast=255,125,0 (orange); mood=energetic=255,0,0 (red); occasion=workout=255,0,255 (magenta)
would MB show all 3 colours as a gradient, pick only the first colour or do a blend of all the colours that hopefully wont match a colour that is already tagged for something else?

And I'd agree with SimonBRT, it has the potential to make MB very ugly, very quick

Not necessarily. The same you have a 'Configure Layout' button that allows to change between 'Artwork view', 'Track view' and so, you could have another one that allow to change between different options, one of them, of course, would be 'no colours'. Imagine an additional 'Configure colour' next to the 'Configure layout' button, something like:

[Bee-liever]

Imagine an additional 'Configure colour' next to the 'Configure layout' button...

I think I get what you're proposing 

If I take my original concern

If  I had a track marked tempo=fast=255,125,0 (orange); mood=energetic=255,0,0 (red); occasion=workout=255,0,255 (magenta)
would MB show all 3 colours as a gradient, pick only the first colour or do a blend of all the colours that hopefully wont match a colour that is already tagged for something else?

rather than tag each individual setting with a colour, I would tag the range?
So, using the colours from your mock-ups (red, green, blue), if I used a filter to find a track that had;
tempo=fast; mood=energetic; occasion=workout; I could have MB show no matches in the skin default colour, 1 match as blue, 2 matches as green and 3 matches as red.

Is this correct?

[Zak]

I imagine any implementation would look something like the Conditional Formatting rules introduced in Excel 2007:



Excel's colouring rules are a bit complicated, so in this example, I've used the option to display an icon next to the relevant value. That could even be another possibility for people worried that all the coloured text and/or rows will make their MusicBee look a bit funky.

[Greb]

Imagine an additional 'Configure colour' next to the 'Configure layout' button...

I think I get what you're proposing  

If I take my original concern

If  I had a track marked tempo=fast=255,125,0 (orange); mood=energetic=255,0,0 (red); occasion=workout=255,0,255 (magenta)
would MB show all 3 colours as a gradient, pick only the first colour or do a blend of all the colours that hopefully wont match a colour that is already tagged for something else?

rather than tag each individual setting with a colour, I would tag the range?
So, using the colours from your mock-ups (red, green, blue), if I used a filter to find a track that had;
tempo=fast; mood=energetic; occasion=workout; I could have MB show no matches in the skin default colour, 1 match as blue, 2 matches as green and 3 matches as red.

Is this correct?

That could be one rule. But there's no limit to the kind of rules you can make. Imagine something like 'similar to [Artist]' plus 'bpm > 160' and you get coloured songs that are similar to some artist and that are 'fast' (better for a party, for example).

And red, blue and green was a basic stuff to make a mockup quickly. The good thing would be to be able to stablish you own range of colours (for example, degrees from colour A to colour B) that could fit, this way, with the skin you usually use. For example: if you're using this skin: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=7659.0 you could stablish a range of colours related to the browns used in the skin.