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Hello.
I’ve found in my cabinet some carton boxes containing single CDs (like “Missing” by “Everything but the girl”). My actual folder structure is:
ArtistFolder - AlbumSubFolder
So how should the CD single be added to this structure?
Thanks,
Flavio.
Hi and thanks for your reply.
So as of now, my folder structure is wrong?!
When I have albums with more than 1 disc, I have the tracks actually named with prefix the disc number:
1-01 Track 1 CD1
1-02 Track 2 CD1
…
2-01 Track 1 CD2
2-02 Track 1 CD2
Plex does still recognize all albums/artist… but I’d like to know if I’m completely off the road with my structure…
And anyway: the question is still unanswered --> how do I put the CD singles in my structure? Because there’s no album name for those, they are EPs!
Thanks,
Flavio.
There are album names. In the case of “Missing,” there are several:
The above image is from MusicBrainz, which Plex uses as a metadata source. So, as long as your tags (including the EP/single name as the Album Title) and folder structure are correct, you should be able to match the single EP and all its tracks correctly. In these case, the folder hierarchy would look something like:
Music/ <--- Music library would point here, name not important
Everything but the Girl/
/Missing <--- This name depends on which EP you have
/01 - Track Name.ext
If it doesn’t match correctly initially, you can Fix Match on the album to correct it.
Ups - I did in fact! Thanks for pointing it out 
F.
FWIW, see my related post. It may help you:
Also note that I’m using the following folder structure and file naming convention for my singles, without issue:
The result of this methodology looks like this in PLEX Web:
Musicbrainz does have this (“release type”), and Picard saves this in tags (mp3, FLAC, etc) as well. Other online resources like Discogs and RateYourMusic have it too.
Problem is, there’s no music server that currently does something with it (either as tag or through direct MusicBrainz matching). Plex could do it, if they wanted - but they never announce what they’re working on. The Navidrome developer has it planned, so it looks like we’ll get it there. Airsonic, Kodi, Emby, Jellyfin, LMS, Funkwhale - doesn’t seem to be on the radar there yet.
So the suggestion is actually to use the EP’s name at the same level and with the same function as the album name?
And indeed, what has been mentioned below that artists do not issue albums, but releases is quite enlightening to me. That would justify using “Missing” as the release name for my single/EP CD.
Absolutely. For Plex purposes, you’re right to think of them as releases instead of albums. Though I prefer to add details in brackets, like “Missing [Single]” or something similar, and do the same for the Album Name in the ID3 tags. Those usually get passed through to the title in Plex, which helps for casual browsing.
I’ve never tried dmCurator’s method of having a dedicated folder of singles, though. I’m tempted with some of my more prolific artists! It would be like my own curated Greatest Hits folder.
Yep, that’s correct. And I tested your specific example to ensure it worked (I have a few singles/EPs in my collection so I already knew it did). I can’t guarantee it will always work, but it does for every example I’ve thrown at it.
Yes, except that in my case, it’s the embedded tag that drives the PLEX library organization, not the folder structure. In the case of a single, the Album name that’s embedded in the tag is the same as the Title of the song. Here’s what the embedded tag for one of my singles looks like in MP3tag.
Note that I experimented with different methodologies for years before settling on this. It won’t work if you don’t maintain your own tags. The downside is that it was a lot of work given the size of my library. The upside is that the tags are portable to any platform or device because they’re embedded in the files. In other words, they’re not dependent on PLEX or its 3rd party metadata provider.
Incredibly true on both counts. This was a frustration for me, so I finally spent a couple days on/off reviewing and properly configuring every one of my tags in a big collection (Don’t forget Album Artist!). Once those tags were done, I auto-renamed the file/folder structure based on that tag information. Plex’s music system is now a million times smoother than before. It’s reaching the vaunted “I don’t think about it anymore” stage.
I used MP3Tag but there are a bunch of solid products out there that can help automatically fix tags (along with some manual work) and rename based on tags.
The good news is that it really only needs to happen once. After that, just check tags and file/folder naming as you add new stuff, and you’re fine.
Yep, I probably should have emphasized the importance of the tags more in my post (though I do mention it). Plex is very reliant on the tags for proper matching, particularly when “Prefer local metadata” is enabled for the library.
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