[Major Bug] Plex fails to catalog all music singles

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
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Plex fails to recognize the artist of my music (tagged with the proper title and artist)

Instead plex shows “Various Artists” instead of the actual artist name.

This is because the music collection is full of singles (that do not have an album).

Plex’s makes the terrible assumption that all music has an album - so that it can render album art and group songs. Many singles have unique album art and many singles have no art. This is also a failure of the UI to force all music to have an image associated with it. The tracks view has a poor information density because of this as well.



















and so many more…

1 Like
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Nobody else realized this?

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@FEA5T said:
Plex’s makes the terrible assumption that all music has an album - so that it can render album art and group songs. Many singles have unique album art and many singles have no art.
yes, Plex does expect there to be some album, but just for organizational purposes. For my singles, I give the album the same name as the song.
This is also a failure of the UI to force all music to have an image associated with it.
It doesn’t need a photo. If there isn’t one available, it will inherit the artist image.

If you are using embedded tags, they need to include Artist, Album Title, Album Artist, Track Name, otherwise PMS will just be guessing. If you don’t use embedded tags, then you can need to organize your folders by Artist - Album \ # - Track Name. You need to use one method or the other, you cannot mix and match. If you can provide an exact example of what you want matched and how you want it to look, we can take a look.

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@MovieFan.Plex I have a folder with 1000 mp3’s:

Named:
Artist - Track Name and

Tagged with:
Artist and Title

  • None of these singles have an album
  • None of them are tagged with an album
  • None of them are named with an album
  • No folder structure indicates an album

Which is why they cannot follow the format Artist - Album \ # - Track Name. These songs do not have an album or a track # - because they are singles - and this is something that is quite common in todays music.

I shouldn’t have to retag my entire collection with the song title or artist name in the album tag or do any tagging to see the Artist tags that are already there (and neither should anyone else). This would be incorrect and misleading (for people and other media players). Plex already recognizes that these singles don’t have an album, and should render them appropriately (with the proper artist - not “Various Artists”) in the tracks and artists views.

When I list all tracks in the UI this should show as:

Artist 1, Track Name 1
Artist 1, Track Name 2
Artist 2, Track Name 3
Artist 2, Track Name 4

NOT

“Various Artists” - Track Name 1
“Various Artists” - Track Name 2
“Various Artists” - Track Name 3
“Various Artists” - Track Name 4

These tracks don’t even have multiple artists. They have ONE artist, and are tagged as such. So why do they show as “Various Artists” in the Artist and Track listing views? It doesn’t make any sense. No other music players have this issue.

“If you are using embedded tags, they need to include Artist, Album Title, Album Artist, Track Name, otherwise PMS will just be guessing”

This is not the correct behavior. I understand that it is an edge case for artist or track name to be missing, however it is very common to not have an album for a song. A ton of music on soundcloud, youtube, etc, a huge portion of modern hits on the top 100 are singles and do not have an album. I find it hard to believe that PMS would need more than an artist and album. A year? Possibly. But album? No…it’s 2016…

See the attachments for how listing tracks looks in the web UI currently. I just don’t understand how there can be 20+ threads about this issue, it being an extremely low complexity fix, and it still isn’t addressed.

This is a design flaw based on a bad assumption that all songs have an album. False.

1 Like
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Plex is not setup to handle song singles. It needs an album. Since you have all the songs in 1 folder, it’s basically treating those songs as a compilation album. Some people actually have compilation albums so this works perfectly for them. PMS is not able to distinguish a compilation album from just a bunch of songs thrown into 1 folder. If you want to have these as singles you will have to create a dummy album. There are programs that should be able to help you rename your files. So instead of

Artist - Track

Use

Artist - Track \ Track Name.mp3

Or put all the singled from each artist into an album called Singles.

Artist - Singles \Track Name.mp3

I personally use the latter method, which works great. Until I ran into O.M.D., who actually has an album called Singles, which is a compilation of their singles. Other singles I had for them had to go into a fake “More Singles” album.

1 Like
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@MovieFan.Plex

@MovieFan.Plex said:
Plex is not setup to handle song singles. It needs an album.

Plex should be setup to handle both albums and singles. Every other music player does.

Since you have all the songs in 1 folder, it’s basically treating those songs as a compilation album.

This is pretty silly (relying so heavily on folder structure) when correct tags are available, don’t you think?

Some people actually have compilation albums so this works perfectly for them.

And those tracks should be tagged as part of an album. What if someone dumped all their albums/compilation albums into a single folder? Then what? Everything breaks? It shouldn’t. Tags are a standard, I just don’t understand why plex isn’t using them.

PMS is not able to distinguish a compilation album from just a bunch of songs thrown into 1 folder.

Why not? It isn’t analyzing the album tag? It should be.

If you want to have these as singles you will have to create a dummy album.

Option 1: Hack up all my music with dummy album tags
Option 2: Choose a music player that reads tags properly (every other service)

There are programs that should be able to help you rename your files. So instead of

Artist - Track

Use

Artist - Track \ Track Name.mp3

Or put all the singled from each artist into an album called Singles.

Artist - Singles \Track Name.mp3

I personally use the latter method, which works great. Until I ran into O.M.D., who actually has an album called Singles, which is a compilation of their singles. Other singles I had for them had to go into a fake “More Singles” album.

I could easily do this. But most people can’t. This is a design issue in plex. I am not here to resolve my issue. I am here because there is a design flaw that is affecting many users and could easily be resolved if PMS used album tags over folder structure. Folder structure and file naming should only be used when proper tags are unavailable. If Artist and Track are available, why use folder structure to determine albums? There should be a condition here to detect that these are singles. Any real compilation album with Artist and Track will also have Album.

Fix the PMS system?

2 Likes
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Singles may not be married to a particular (studio) album, but they are a “release” that fits somewhere in the chronology of the Artist’s body of work. I prefer them to stand out as such when viewing my collection. The Who is a great example of an artist who released a lot of singles which did not otherwise appear on a studio album (see photo below).

Singles customarily have an “A” side and a “B” side. If I have both MP3s, then I’ll enter “Track 1 Name/Track 2 Name” as the album name. Otherwise, I’ll name the album the same as the track. The best resource for single cover art I’ve found is: http://www.45cat.com/.

By using this method, the singles show up in chronological order and are uniquely identified by their name and cover art, just as they were released. Note that I only use embedded metadata in PLEX and that I do NOT have subfolders for each album/release. All of my tracks are stored in a folder named for the artist. Your mileage may vary if you use any other agents.

\Music\Who...
Single-Track Name.mp3
Album Name-##-Track Name.mp3

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I am not referring specifically to Record singles, but rather, modern music. None of the artists I listen to make albums anymore.

As an example. Almost all hits from Justin Bieber are singles before they ever appear on an album. Does plex really expect all users to have the knowledge/capability to tag these common tracks with the correct album?

-> shakes head in bewilderment

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@MovieFan.Plex This is still a major issue. I think you hit the nail on the head with “Plex is not setup to handle singles, it needs an album.” I think that this should be brought up to the dev team considering: the number of threads on it, the ease of fixing, and the severity - so that they may consider adding digital singles support to the roadmap.

At the very least, Plex should recognize a lack of album and not group it under “Various Artists”.

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@FEA5T said:
Almost all hits from Justin Bieber are singles before they ever appear on an album.
That’s a lie right there. Nothing from him is a hit and should never be made into an album. :slight_smile:

Seriously though. I don’t use other music programs so I don’t know how other programs differentiate between a single and an album. And how would it know the difference between a single that doesn’t have an album versus a single track from an unidentifiable album? I could bring it up to the devs but I would need something actionable, not just “handle singles better”.

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@MovieFan.Plex

Why (in this case), does it even need to differentiate between a single and an album (at the artist view)? If I am listing all tracks, sorted by artist, why does it hijack the artist with “Various Artists”? It should say “Various Albums” when looking at the ALBUM view.

Something has to change.

Regarding the choice you mentioned: The likelihood of a user having a legitimate Electronic Single in their collection is much higher than of that track having tags for Artist, Title, and somehow magically NOT having Album. The system is assuming that these tracks are missing album because they are improperly tagged (which is wrong, because, well, a massive amount of music has no album). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_singles

It is actually very irrational for the system to make the assumptions that:

  • Because album tag data isn’t there, it is missing and should be there
  • That all songs have an album

As a developer myself, working with Api’s databases (yes sql), and large distributed systems, I know that the system must be deterministic as to what tags are nullable vs required.

For example, it is not possible to have a music piece without:

Title
Artist
Year
Length

For this above data, the system should assume that if it is not there, it should be, and that it is missing. Here I would expect something like “Various Artists” - if Artists is missing.

It is possible (and common) not to have:

Album
Album Artist
Track Number
Subtitle
Rating
Genre
Etc.

So, in these above cases, the system should be tolerant of missing data. For example, if Album, Album Artist, & Track Number are all missing, well, maybe the PMS system should check to see if it’s in the gracenote database as a single or an album…

But honestly, all that is even unnecessary. The easy logic to get this working smoothly is in the UI:

If a track has no album, I can see categorization under “Various Albums” at the ALBUM view.
If a track has no artist, I can see categorization under “Various Artists” at the ARTISTS view.
If a track has no album, I can NOT see categorization under “Various Artists” at the ARTISTS view. It is easily possible to list all songs by artist, even with no album.

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I would happy to walk a dev through this over the phone/screenshare. Once you see the issue it is pretty obvious.

Repro steps:

  1. Get a song from the internet.
  2. Make sure it is tagged with only artist and title
  3. Add it to plex, go to your music, sort by ALL, ARTISTS
  4. Realize that instead of including the artist you just added, it says “Various Artists” (even though you just tagged it with an artist)
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So what’s the problem exactly?

Here’s JB as he resides in my Blues Library with the new hit single and the flip side…
MP3tag First, of course:

The above was done in 5 minutes and that included grabbing some images and creating the ‘Single Sleeve’, just to illustrate you can make anything work in a Plex Music library if you do it right.

A Music Library/
…Justin Beiber/
…Justin Beiber - I Suck, Really Badly/
…tracks

(Blues is the only real place for JB, 'cause you’ll be in tears if forced to listen to it, but it could go either way on Acid)
(I’m in tears right now, in fact)

=)) … :bz … =))

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@JuiceWSA

“Make sure it is tagged with only artist and title”

If you remove the album and album artist tags from your JB tracks I think you will see the issue. Not all JB tracks have an album you know.

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@FEA5T said:
If you remove the album and album artist tags from your JB tracks I think you will see the issue. Not all JB tracks have an album you know.

They better if you want to be twerkin’ up the jornt with JB!

:smiley:

(I’m dyin over here…)

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@FEA5T said:
If you remove the album and album artist tags from your JB tracks I think you will see the issue. Not all JB tracks have an album you know.
That’s the point I’m trying to make. Plex doesn’t let you tie songs to an artist. They belong to an album. If you have a single, you need to make up a fake album for it or make up a fake album for a bunch of singles. But there has to be an album.

It’s similar to how PMS handles TV shows. You cannot have episodes tied to a show, they are tied to the season. So even if the show only has 1 season or it’s a mini-series with 3-4 episodes, they still need to go into a season.

If you want to be able to add ransom songs connected to an artist, you can make a feature request and see how others feel. Try to be specific what you want to see/happen/behave.

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Actually, if you have a file with both Artist and AlbumArtist tagged, but no AlbumTitle, Plex will shove it into an [Unknown Album] underneath the AlbumArtist, fully automatically.

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@MovieFan.Plex
@OttoKerner

That’s the point I’m trying to make. Plex doesn’t let you tie songs to an artist.

Because it was poorly designed?

If you have a single, you need to make up a fake album for it or make up a fake album for a bunch of singles. But there has to be an album.

No, everyone should not need to make a fake album. That is ridiculous. Look at all of the thready I listed of people complaining about this. Music is different from TV. All shows have a season. All Songs have an Artist.

ONLY SOME songs have an album.
ONLY SOME albums have only one artist.

I understand that plex works this way. I am saying that IT SHOULD NOT WORK THIS WAY - BECAUSE SO MUCH OF THE MUSIC RELEASED TODAY DOES NOT HAVE AN ALBUM.

if you have a file with both Artist and AlbumArtist tagged, but no AlbumTitle, Plex will shove it into an [Unknown Album] underneath the AlbumArtist, fully automatically.

Thats smart, but not smart enough. If you have a file with both Artist and Title tagged, but no AlbumTitle or Album, Plex should shove it into an [Unknown Album] NOT “VARIOUS ARTISTS”, fully automatically.

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We just know what we have to do to make it work. We do that. We can hope Plex comes along at some point and does what we want, but that, frankly, is madness.

Personally, I like to enjoy the media PMS is serving so I cut right to the work-arounds so I can do that. Insisting YOUR way is the RIGHT way may ultimately be RIGHT, but Plex clearly doesn’t care what you or anyone else thinks about much of anything.

Cut directly to the work arounds and quit futzing around with something that ain’t gonna work. That’s the point we’re trying to make and even the point The Employee above is trying to make. Life itself is a work around. Live it, or live with it.

:slight_smile:

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@FEA5T said:
Thats smart, but not smart enough. If you have a file with both Artist and Title tagged, but no AlbumTitle or Album, Plex should shove it into an [Unknown Album] NOT “VARIOUS ARTISTS”, fully automatically.

Who says it shoves it into Various Artists? That only happens if:

  • your embedded metadata are wrong
  • you let Gracenote overwrite your embedded metadata. They have really poor data sometimes, especially when it comes to single tracks without an album. Then Gracenote frequently tries to attribute the single track to a sampler album. Which might be the source where your ‘Various Artists’ come from.

Adapt the order of metadata agents, so embedded metadata (Local Media Assets) are top most in Settings - Server - Agents - Albums - Premium Music.
Edit the properties of your music library and activate ‘Use embedded meta data’
Make sure your files are tagged correctly.
Then add those files again. You might have to perform the Plex Dance (minus step 4) if the album has been added into Plex previously.