# By Composer **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature Suggestions\ **Tags:** library-management\ **Created:** [January 23, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760 "2013-01-23T23:19:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![khonsu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/khonsu/32/5233_2.png) [@khonsu](https://forums.plex.tv/u/khonsu)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/1 "2013-01-23T23:19:04Z")
I don’t know how popular this req will be but music section is lacking browsing “By Composer”. This is, IMO, a necessity for classical music. ---
**Author:** ![Jerry\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@Jerry\_1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Jerry_1)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:21am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/2 "2013-02-03T10:21:33Z")
Yes, This would be great for all the classical collections out there. A little search showed that this has been requested a few times. (In fact I wasn’t even sure what thread best to reply to…) Suggestions like adding the composer name to the album title, or artist field do not really work. They mess up all the compilations… tnx! ---
**Author:** ![jkmcne\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7cd45c/32.png) [@jkmcne\_1](https://forums.plex.tv/u/jkmcne_1)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/3 "2013-02-03T10:58:51Z")
Sort by Composer, lyricist or arranger are my three must haves even for non classical music they are a great way to search for songs with similarities. ---
**Author:** ![ddrucker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ddrucker/32/93471_2.png) [@ddrucker](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ddrucker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/4 "2014-04-19T19:32:29Z")
I've been asking for this feature for years. As a listener mainly to Classical music (and with a sizable collection), using Plex (rather than iTunes) to listen to my collection pretty much requires a sort by composer field. ---
**Author:** ![ddrucker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ddrucker/32/93471_2.png) [@ddrucker](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ddrucker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/5 "2014-04-19T19:34:28Z")
> Yes, This would be great for all the classical collections out there. > > A little search showed that this has been requested a few times. (In fact I wasn't even sure what thread best to reply to..) > Suggestions like adding the composer name to the album title, or artist field do not really work. They mess up all the compilations.. > > tnx! Most of my titles have the composer followed by a dash as their prefix. However, as you can imagine, that's a kludge. This feature has been asked so for so many times that I'd pretty much given up, but since Plex has gotten so much better and full of new features over the past year or so, I thought I'd ask one more time. ---
**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/6 "2015-04-08T05:49:09Z")
Classical music presents what appears to be a tough puzzle.  Probably most albums are focused on the composer ("Mozart: The Complete Symphonies"), while others are focused on the ensemble and/or conductor, which may include works by several composers ("The Academy By Request", Neville Marriner & Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields), and still others are focused on an individual soloist (Paul Goodwin, "Oboe & Oboe d'amore Concertos"). I've played with a few music organization tools, and it seems like none of them have come up with a workable solution.  All they really have to do, I think, is pay attention to some of the ID3 tags that are already there.  Might be a great coup for Plex if they can make this work. If any of these music organization tools were to pay attention to all of the ID3 tags available for the purpose, it would take a lot of the pain out this puzzle.  Below are what I think are the relevant tags (from the ID3 v2.3 standard document): TCOM - The 'Composer(s)' frame is intended for the name of the composer(s). They are separated with the "/" character. TPE1 - The 'Lead artist(s)/Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)/Performing group' is used for the main artist(s). They are separated with the "/" character. TPE2 - The 'Band/Orchestra/Accompaniment' frame is used for additional information about the performers in the recording. TPE3 - The 'Conductor' frame is used for the name of the conductor. ---
**Author:** ![ddrucker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ddrucker/32/93471_2.png) [@ddrucker](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ddrucker)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/7 "2015-04-08T07:09:11Z")
I think you've named the fields that matter the most. The 'Academy by Request' example would appear to be the least likely one, though. I think the frequency of most to least classical organizing schemes is 'Composer', followed by 'Lead artist' (note that if it's a purely orchestral album, it's the conductor here, but if it's a concerto, it's the soloist), followed by 'ensemble', which includes orchestra, a chamber music group like string quartet or piano trio (that's piano, cello and violin, not 3 pianos), or in some rare cases, brass quintet or woodwind quintet. It would be a real coup if Plex could make it work. iTunes has gotten a little bit better, offering a composer-centric view, but none of the other ones is supported all that well. ---
**Author:** ![s1mpleman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/s1mpleman/32/6160_2.png) [@s1mpleman](https://forums.plex.tv/u/s1mpleman)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 8:11am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/8 "2015-04-08T08:11:13Z")
Out of interest where do you guys get the meta data for classical music?  Is most of it pulled off your disks? Been having trouble with pulling from music brainz  One example is the Bach 2000 album. It's half complete on there.  Also this feature could be coming with the new music updates that have been planned. When ever they decide to land. Certainly got my +1 though.  ---
**Author:** ![gcoupe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/gcoupe/32/11125_2.png) [@gcoupe](https://forums.plex.tv/u/gcoupe)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 11:21am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/9 "2015-04-08T11:21:27Z")
As Beckfield says, ID3 v2.3 already has the relevant tags in the specification. Plex simply fails to take account of them. Windows Media Center, on the other hand does, and has done so since 2004. I can browse my music collection in WMC by Album, Artist (both per track and per Album), Genre, Song, Playlist, Composer, and Year. I'm still waiting for Plex to catch up. In answer to the question on metadata sources; I use Media Monkey to manage my metadata. This uses the Freedb metadata source, and I do some manual editing where necessary when adding CDs to the library. For example, Freedb does not list composers, so I always have to add this. ---
**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/10 "2015-04-08T17:03:24Z")
> Out of interest where do you guys get the meta data for classical music? I use EasyTAG, which retrieves from freedb.  Like gcoupe, I make edits where necessary. My OS is linux, so Windows Media Center and iTunes are not practical options. ---
**Author:** ![ddrucker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ddrucker/32/93471_2.png) [@ddrucker](https://forums.plex.tv/u/ddrucker)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/11 "2015-04-09T00:41:32Z")
> Out of interest where do you guys get the meta data for classical music?  And to round out the OS's, I use Mac OS, so it's iTunes for most of the time. On occasion, I'll use a program for converting FLAC files called Max, and it has some (limited) tagging functionality. ---
**Author:** ![s1mpleman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/s1mpleman/32/6160_2.png) [@s1mpleman](https://forums.plex.tv/u/s1mpleman)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2015, 6:51am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/12 "2015-04-09T06:51:08Z")
I've generally been using Mp3Tag and it works fine but the sources the metadata is pulled from isn't always complete. Manual editing is certainly a must, I just thought you guys might have an easier way.  ---
**Author:** ![weeks71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7c8e57/32.png) [@weeks71](https://forums.plex.tv/u/weeks71)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/13 "2015-04-12T06:29:45Z")
+1 to this ---
**Author:** ![transatlantic](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/transatlantic/32/10879_2.png) [@transatlantic](https://forums.plex.tv/u/transatlantic)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2015, 9:19am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/14 "2015-05-02T09:19:02Z")
+1 ---
**Author:** ![Hamilcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f05b48/32.png) [@Hamilcar](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Hamilcar)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 1:32pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/16 "2015-06-14T13:32:58Z")
I can't really browse any classical music I have without the composer tag since the "artist" tag is used for either the conductor, soloist names, etc... ---
**Author:** ![Elijah\_Baley](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/elijah_baley/32/10336_2.png) [@Elijah\_Baley](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Elijah_Baley)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/17 "2015-06-14T14:22:28Z")
> I can't really browse any classical music I have without the composer tag since the "artist" tag is used for either the conductor, soloist names, etc... Don't you know that Classical is not considered "real" music by Plex? It is clear that Rock, Rap, mood, Country, Polka and probably Tibetan Throat Chanting are more mainstream in the view of most Plex users. Fortunately for me I have chosen a different solution for music and audiobooks using a computer and MediaMonkey but were this to be added and full support for at least remembering position and FF and RW for AudioBooks I might rethink my use of Plex for audio files. Plex is first rate in the video department but it is at best third rate at this time for audio. ---
**Author:** ![Hamilcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f05b48/32.png) [@Hamilcar](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Hamilcar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 7:00am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/18 "2015-06-15T07:00:48Z")
> Don't you know that Classical is not considered "real" music by Plex? It is clear that Rock, Rap, mood, Country, Polka and probably Tibetan Throat Chanting are more mainstream in the view of most Plex users. Fortunately for me I have chosen a different solution for music and audiobooks using a computer and MediaMonkey but were this to be added and full support for at least remembering position and FF and RW for AudioBooks I might rethink my use of Plex for audio files. > > Plex is first rate in the video department but it is at best third rate at this time for audio. I hope they can at least have PMS read the metadata, since all my files are correctly tagged. Should not be too hard to implement ! ---
**Author:** ![beckfield](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/beckfield/32/7227_2.png) [@beckfield](https://forums.plex.tv/u/beckfield)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/19 "2015-07-20T15:54:23Z")
Votes didn’t make it through the changeover to the new forum software. Please re-vote for this by Liking the first post above. ---
**Author:** ![s1mpleman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/s1mpleman/32/6160_2.png) [@s1mpleman](https://forums.plex.tv/u/s1mpleman)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 8:59pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/20 "2015-09-07T20:59:12Z")
+5 😛 😛 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Afullmark](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/afullmark/32/5598_2.png) [@Afullmark](https://forums.plex.tv/u/Afullmark)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 11:01pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760/21 "2015-09-16T23:01:20Z")
Goodness yes for composer tag for searching etc [Next page](https://forums.plex.tv/t/by-composer/27760.md?page=2)