That’s nice but a simple big table of files does nothing in terms of functionality - it does not allow for smart playlists, filtering/sorting by Artist, Year, Genre, etc. One way or another, you need a database design for that to work, either by Plex design, or just use the db of iTunes (soon to be Apple Music), it’s just that some design choices for db fields by the Plex devs have either been poor (ie, not making Genre, Artist, etc multivalue attributes, only have 1 Genre field at the Album level, etc), or have not been implemented at all (work/movement, part-of-compilation, etc).
This did not matter when music had nearly no features, but it now starts limiting functionality that could be built on top like smart playlists. And changing your DB design ‘mid stream’ is bound to break a lot of stuff that has since been built on top of it, so this only goes to show the importance of getting it right at an early stage.
I’m running a secondary plex server on my production machine that i often use to organize my music for shows… adding the multi genre to artists or just individualized for tracks would ultimately allow me to organize my sets, build smart playlist and then download to a thumb drive or laptop I’m currently using for djing. Its soooo close. at the moment i can at least do this with ratings, just have to build it out each time which is not ideal
also, the composer idea is cool, but happens when i compose a track for a rapper (hypothetically), is it going to list the track for me since i composed it, or show up under the artist that mumbled over it, or both?
already it drops some of my productions getting listed under my artist profile because of labeling perhaps… just creates a sudo profile that trips out last.fm, they send nasty messages some times.
( i realize it is intend for classical, but the now-a-day composer is technically a producer i believe)
How do you mean “list the track for me”? Composer is different field from Artist, in all other music libraries that support this field (iTunes, foobar2k, etc) you can view/filter/sort by Artist, or by Composer.
For credits like Producer, Engineer, etc there’s a different ID3v2 field (TIPL, “involved people list”) so in principle there’s no need to ‘abuse’ the Composer (TCOM) field, but unfortunately very few music players support this so I can kinda see why you’d want to use the Composer field to store the ‘electronic music producer’.
I have releases that get put out on labels as an artist, tunes for tv that i get producer credit for,… it gets jumbled… i see why its difficult to come up with a standard. i like your idea,though. again with the lack of standard in media players and digital releases… its slowly getting better. plex is helping for the most part
I have read the entire thread (or let’s say fly over), i would really Like the fact If Plex would support “releasetype” from ID3 too.
This way can display, albums under Albums as how is it now and Singles under the “Albums” Section of the page and EPs. Many artist have these three different releasetypes.
I take Majan as example. It could look Like that (i’m scrolling down):
Full Galery: Imgur
I modified the HTML to represent it like how it could look. I would have added other tracks but it would take longer to show what i mean. Majan had only one single so it has been easier to edit it.
As i wrote, “releasetype” would be useful. The value in these tags should mean:
“ep” means EP, “album” means album and “single” single.
Basic i would say. As a bonus i added the “APPEARS” in the screenshot.
I would love that feature to more organize the tracks of an artist. Artists of the EDM genre typically have like 10 EPs 10 singles and 3 album. It can get a mess and you reallyy don’t see what is an album and what a single or other, what i can hear for an hour and wgat for 10 minutes. I hope you understand what i mean.
The “feat.” has already been spoken of so i don’t write more about it. But i guess you get the idea.
I definitely see the value of that. I have a few EPs and singles as well. Unfortunately there’s no such tag in the ID3 specification, so it would have to be a custom tag. There is a ‘media type’ frame in ID3, but that refers to CD vs. DVD vs. tape, LP, etc.
ID3 need really something like that. If Plex would read out the custom tag “releasetype” all my music files would be sorted in their “Type” of release Release Group / Type - MusicBrainz
I guess. They could do in an another way. If you edit an album, there could be an option to set the release type.
This sounds great! Kinda the first thing i hear hear regarding ID3 progress.
Well, this could mean i could rescan my entire music libary and possibly most tags can be used. It depends of course what they implement. If they have an agreement with MetaBraniz hope are really up.I guess the “Match” for muisc will be quite a lot better because they are one of the best companys to do that.
Quick:
I have my gallery sorted is sorted like that:
(root_of_my_mounted_cloud)/Musik/(First Letter of an Albumartist)/(releasetype)/Albumname/songs.mp3
Directory Tree Example
/
└── F
└── Fox Stevenson
├── EPs
│ ├── All This Time
│ │ ├── 01 - All This Time (Original Mix).mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - Out There (Original Mix).mp3
│ │ ├── 03 - Simple Life (Original Mix).mp3
│ │ └── 04 - Crystal (Original Mix).mp3
│ ├── Endless
│ │ ├── 01 - Endless.mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - Trigger.mp3
│ │ ├── 03 - Like You.mp3
│ │ └── 04 - Give Them Hell.mp3
│ ├── For Fox Sake
│ │ ├── 01 - The Heat.mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - Miss You.mp3
│ │ ├── 03 - Gunshot Sonata (feat. Sonata).mp3
│ │ └── 04 - Miss You (D&B Mix).mp3
│ ├── No Fox Given
│ │ ├── 01 - The Heat.mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - Miss You.mp3
│ │ ├── 03 - Gunshot Sonata (feat. Scamp).mp3
│ │ └── 04 - Miss You (D&B Mix).mp3
│ ├── Seoul Remix
│ │ ├── 01 - Lightspeed (IMLAY Remix).mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - (GiiANA Remix).mp3
│ │ └── 03 - (Demicat Remix).mp3
│ ├── Throwdown
│ │ ├── 01 - High Five!.mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - Throwdown.mp3
│ │ ├── 03 - Double Up.mp3
│ │ ├── 04 - Manage.mp3
│ │ └── 05 - All In.mp3
│ ├── Throwdown Remixes
│ │ ├── 01 - High Five! (The Brig Remix).mp3
│ │ ├── 02 - Throwdown (Rob Gasser Remix).mp3
│ │ ├── 03 - Double Up (ETC!ETC! & TightTrraxx Remix).mp3
│ │ ├── 04 - Manage (xKore Remix).mp3
│ │ └── 05 - All In (Prototype Remix).mp3
│ └── Turn It Up
│ ├── 01 - Turn It Up (Higher) (Original Remix).mp3
│ ├── 02 - Lightspeed (Original Remix).mp3
│ ├── 03 - Let This Go (Original Remix).mp3
│ └── 04 - Better Now (Original Remix).mp3
└── Singles
├── Arigatou
│ └── 01 - Arigatou.mp3
├── Bulgogi
│ └── 01 - Bulgogi.mp3
├── Chatterbox
│ └── 01 - Chatterbox.mp3
├── Comeback
│ └── 01 - Comeback.mp3
├── Funky Uncle
│ └── 01 - Funky Uncle.mp3
├── Glue Gun _ Never Before
│ ├── 01 - Glue Gun.mp3
│ ├── 02 - Never Before.mp3
│ ├── 03 - Glue Gun (Instrumental).mp3
│ └── 04 - Never Before (Instrumental).mp3
├── Go Like
│ └── 01 - Go Like.mp3
├── Go Like (D&B Mix)
│ └── 01 - Go Like (D&B Remix).mp3
├── Hoohah (Radio Edit)
│ └── 01 - Hoohah (Radio Edit).mp3
├── Hoohah (VIP Edit)
│ └── 01 - Hoohah (VIP Edit).mp3
├── Killjoy
│ └── 01 - Killjoy.mp3
├── Knowhow (Liquicity Drum & Bass 2017)
│ └── 01 - Knowhow.mp3
├── Okay
│ └── 01 - Okay.mp3
├── Out My Head
│ └── 01 - Out My Head.mp3
├── Out My Head (145 Remix)
│ └── 01 - Out My Head (145 Remix).mp3
├── Out My Head (Fox Stevenson and Feint Remix)
│ └── 01 - Out My Head (Fox Stevenson and Feint Remix).mp3
├── Sweets (Soda Pop) (Extended Mix)
│ └── 01 - Sweets (Soda Pop) (Extended Mix).mp3
├── Take You Down (Maduk Remix)
│ └── 01 - Take You Down (Maduk Remix).mp3
├── Take You Down _ Melange
│ ├── 01 - Take You Down.mp3
│ ├── 02 - Melange.mp3
│ └── 03 - Take You Down (Instrumental).mp3
└── Tico
├── 01 - Tico (Original Mix).mp3
└── 02 - Tico (Radio Edit).mp3
This could be another option i guess how Plex regognize releasetypes.
I think you see what i mean.
I would NOT want Plex to write to any of my ID3 tags. I’ve invested too many years in developing my ID3 tags beyond what music companies and distributors think is important.
Plex’s player and understanding of tags seem too rudimentary. I would expect them to mess up my tags. Tags are getting more complicated with ID3 V1, v2, V2.1, v2.2, v2.3, v2.4 then the APE versions as well --and you can have two ID3 tags and one APE all at once in each file. And I find iTunes doesn’t recognize unsynchronized LYRICS written by other tag editors–i’ve no clue why. But tag editors understand iTunes inserted lyrics. PLEX now brings up synchronized lyrics from LyricsFidnd (which is nice!, I’d love to embed them in each file permanently), but doesn’t pull up unsynchronized lyrics from the MP3 if LyricFind didn’t produce anything. I’ve embedded lyrics in 10k-15k songs. But I realize I represent possibly a fraction of a percent of the user base. My MP3s have artwork, lyrics, composer, lyricist and sometimes producers (I have several favorites) embedded in each one. My greatest hits CDs have each track with the original release year, not the year of the compilation. This way when I pull up 80s music I actually get 80s. iTunes makes use of most of this stuff.
I now use www.MP3TAG.de for cleaning up and mass editing tags. It is the best tag editor I have found. I used one from Magnus Brading for a decade+, years after dev stopped. But eventually it had problems under newer Windows.
I use iTunes due to SmartLists and my ipod plays in my car where i listen to music constantly. Any player that can’t handle queries against the db of tags is way too basic to be of value to me. I might as well use WinAmp from 2001. Plex doesn’t recognize ID3 ratings, it doesn’t understand multi-disc albums properly. And I have no idea how to get it to see ID3 changes in files. Often after a scan I still don’t see the updated info. That problem used to be worse. PlexMusic just doesn’t offer any value over iTunes.
I would NOT want Plex to write to any of my ID3 tags. I’ve invested too many years in developing my ID3 tags beyond what music companies and distributors think is important.
I emphatically agree. Plex shouldn’t be touching our music files in any way, only reading them. (I don’t think they would ever be interested in editing any kind of media anyway.)
So do I. Fortunately this has been Plex’s firm stance from the start. Moving into editing tags would be a huge expansion of scope and would further delay the much-needed improvements in reading tags.
I can see a place for editing tags. for example is you have a band showing up under two names because you spelled their name wrong on one CD, it would be nice to be able to go in PLEX (like iTunes) and rename that CD there and have those changes propagated to the files if you want them to. Then the PLEX database will be updated with the music so you don’t have to do the PLEX dance to fix mistakes like that.
I was recruited to do some testing on the new metadata upgrades that Plex folks have alluded to. Although tag editing is not in the works, we’re not going to be ‘Dancing’ as much as we have been, if at all.
