Plexamp, please allow editing of non-structural tags, like moods

Feature Suggestions
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Hello, I searched the forums and found a few topics that are similar, but were asking for far more functionality than I think is required.

Terms I am using (I am sure Plex has their own internal naming for this):

  • structural tags: anything that affects the library organization, like artists and albums.
  • non-structural tags: anything that won’t affect the basic library view, like labels, moods, comments, reviews, etc.

My ask is that plexamp allows me to add/remove/edit non-structural tags for tracks and albums when using plexamp.

I decided to make my own request because the other topics were asking for structural tag editing, but that seems like it’d open a huge can of worms regarding local state vs the server state, so I only am asking for non-structural tag editing. De-sync between the server library organization, and the local cache, would probably be a lot of effort to unwind, or the app would have to bust the cache with each tag change, which would be an awful UX. So I think structural tag editing is probably not worth the effort from the devs.

This thread had my request in the comments, but as Elan said

The schema doesn’t support that and almost certainly will not. Our philosophy is the Same Great Metadata for all users :sweat_smile:

I have to be honest, track moods and per-track data in general make less sense to me now after we added Sonic analysis of tracks. In many cases, simple using a track radio will probably better results than the sparse metadata we get on track moods, and I don’t think it’s realistic to expect people to add that level of data.

In at least some cases, you can use playlists to get effect, e.g. having “workout”, “happy”, “driving”, “dinner party” playlists as substitutes for elaborate tagging schemes.

I’m sorry, this probably isn’t what you wanted to hear…

and I fully agree with him. I use the smart playlists to make “mood radios,” I just need an easier way to tag my tracks with moods while I am listening.

The reason I specify track moods is because album moods rarely work for me due to albums like Halo 2, where some songs are highly energetic, others are depressing, and some are interludes that I want to skip altogether using a custom mood I added.

Plexamp is incredible, and I think basic mood / tag / label editing, plus smart playlists, would make it the best automatic “DJ” out there.

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If we are meant to use Plexamp-specific stuff like Mood heavily then there must be a way to edit those labels when we disagree with the automated analysis.

I would prefer to see this happen not in Plexamp itself but by the use of custom tags. External editing tools like mp3tag are so much more powerful than anything built in to a music client. And once the data is IN the file it cannot get lost if you have to rebuild a library.

I hope Elan does not retract the per-track data we can use now, like Genre. I use Genre heavily because I always think, “I want to listen to post-punk” not “I want to listen to … whatever ‘Mood’ post-punk is.”

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If we are meant to use Plexamp-specific stuff like Mood heavily then there must be a way to edit those labels when we disagree with the automated analysis.

I agree. For a good example, look at the moods generated for a band called “Suicide Silence.” I certainly wouldn’t consider them to be cathartic or Pop/Rock. And every heavy band loves to include one soft song on the album which will ruin any auto-generated playlist that purely uses album genre.

I would prefer to see this happen not in Plexamp itself but by the use of custom tags…

I’d like both for my use case. I’ll be listening to a song and I’ll want to tag it, but currently I need to write the song down, and remember to add moods and genres when I am at a computer.

I can always use a script to extract the moods from the database if I need to persist them in the music file itself.

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I was hoping others cared about this. Sad to see I’m alone in this. Perhaps I can build a companion app whenever the API is done.

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People care, but not everyone checks the forum every day and pretty much every plexamp user has asked for metadata improvements. Some of us eventually had to stop thinking about plexamp’s poor metadata handling for our mental health..

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True. I am hoping they get an API of some sort going, because I’d happily build an app to do this. It could just check what’s currently playing and bring up the UI for it.