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Media Management - More Folder Structure Customization
Long article but very important for the new feature being worked on, please take the time to read it.
I've heared that the April/09 version will have the new feature of automatically organizing media on the HD.
Please don't do it like Apple. Give us a better "default way of organizing music".
artist/album/track song
#old itunes way. Pretty much sucks for transfering the files to mp3 players and other stuff (only works well with iPods)
Beatles/Please Pease Me/14 Twist and Shout.mp3
artist/year - album/artist - track - song
#Used this for a long time. Works well for transfering files to mp3 players since it keeps the songs sorted by artist and track, and looks nice on the HD.
Beatles/1963 - Please Pease Me/Beatles - 14 - Twist and Shout.mp3
artist/artist [year] album - CDx/artist - track - song
#The best i've found so far for transfering files to portable devices. Has the best compatibility for mp3 players or jukebox CD's for the car since it also makes the folders to be sorted in a neat way.
Beatles/Beatles [1963] Please Pease Me/Beatles - 14 - Twist and Shout.mp3
artist = name of the artist/band
year = year the CD has been released (remove if unavailable
album = the name of the album/CD/release
track = the track number with a leading 0 on 1 to 9 (01, 02, 03, 04...)
song = the name of the song
CDx = if a release has multiple CD's or "sides" show CD1, CD2 or remove if unavailable.
Also it would be nice to have a "advanced mode" for users who wish to organize their media in some other way. All data is taken from the mp3 files and library info so this should't be hard to make but still, is unavailable on iTunes.
Thanks for your time (long info)
-syberjj
I've heared that the April/09 version will have the new feature of automatically organizing media on the HD.
Please don't do it like Apple. Give us a better "default way of organizing music".
artist/album/track song
#old itunes way. Pretty much sucks for transfering the files to mp3 players and other stuff (only works well with iPods)
Beatles/Please Pease Me/14 Twist and Shout.mp3
artist/year - album/artist - track - song
#Used this for a long time. Works well for transfering files to mp3 players since it keeps the songs sorted by artist and track, and looks nice on the HD.
Beatles/1963 - Please Pease Me/Beatles - 14 - Twist and Shout.mp3
artist/artist [year] album - CDx/artist - track - song
#The best i've found so far for transfering files to portable devices. Has the best compatibility for mp3 players or jukebox CD's for the car since it also makes the folders to be sorted in a neat way.
Beatles/Beatles [1963] Please Pease Me/Beatles - 14 - Twist and Shout.mp3
artist = name of the artist/band
year = year the CD has been released (remove if unavailable
album = the name of the album/CD/release
track = the track number with a leading 0 on 1 to 9 (01, 02, 03, 04...)
song = the name of the song
CDx = if a release has multiple CD's or "sides" show CD1, CD2 or remove if unavailable.
Also it would be nice to have a "advanced mode" for users who wish to organize their media in some other way. All data is taken from the mp3 files and library info so this should't be hard to make but still, is unavailable on iTunes.
Thanks for your time (long info)
-syberjj
I’m happy
54
people like this idea
I like this idea!
Tell me when this idea gets some attention.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The company has this under consideration.
The best points from everyone
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It would be wrong to assume that tracks without an albumName belong to an 'unknown album'.
Lots of tracks nowadays, are not part of any album!
I’m anxious
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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@All
You will be able to customize the way your media is stored.. There will be no 'default' way.. Head over here for more info: http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Releases...
Or take a look at the latest wireframe/mockup here
I’m thinking someone stuffed the sack on this one... 26 me toos in a couple hours! whooo!
3 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?The problem I always had with i tunes is that it choose how to organize my music for me. For some time I used real player because you could decide exactly how you wanted your files to be named and organized. If something similar to that setup (I believe you referred to it as an "advance mode") could be implemented, that would be amazing.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?my problem has been it finding my files and finding out i needed a license for music i have ripped or had for years , a friendly way of arranging th files would be nice
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?I am sure someone is going to yell at me, But I happen to LIKE the way apple organizes my music. And I have no problem with Syncing my Zen or my Fuze. Im one of the odd ducks that doesn't care what year the song was made. I just want it to go Artist/Albumname/Track#/Song.
As long as it organizes music at all will make me happy. Lets get the basic feature implemented first people. then lets manipulate it to our liking.
I’m amused
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think about this: u have songs from artist X and songs from artist Y. Songs from X are tracks: x1,x3,x5 and songs from Y are tracks y2, y4, y6. With your way of organizing music your mp3 player/car jukebox player will play songs in this order:
x1 y2 x3 y4 x5 y6
its like shuffling the songs. The way i posted is the best way to keep media organized and if it realy makes a difference to you, you can go in advanced mode and organize music like on iTunes.
The big deal about this implementation isnt to use my way, but to give everyone the freedom to sort it the way they want to, and not to be stuck to one way of organizing like on iTunes. -
The big issue with the way iTunes does things, is that compilations in particular have never worked well. If you don't manually mark music as a compilation, it gets scattered everywhere.
But I think this is a great idea overall. Let us define the layout we want, and things will be great. You win, and I win :D -
Inappropriate?Thsi will be agreat feature
BUT please do NOT enforce underscores between words in file names!
I’m anxious
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Well, depending on the file system the OS uses, some placeholder characters are necessary. I'd rather like to see, for example, a "?" replaced by an underscore than not seeing that the file name is not the original song name.
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Inappropriate?@All
You will be able to customize the way your media is stored.. There will be no 'default' way.. Head over here for more info: http://wiki.songbirdnest.com/Releases...
Or take a look at the latest wireframe/mockup here
I’m thinking someone stuffed the sack on this one... 26 me toos in a couple hours! whooo!
3 people think
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Inappropriate?boosh, shouldnt there be a default way? most people want a plug and play player, 90% of the users dont care they just want a simple player. Dont make it complicated or you will loose those users
I’m frustrated
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You're right! But if we just did what 90% of the users just wanted, the resulting player would be horrible. I think most users don't even care about properly tagging their files. If you told them, "Hey, the year is missing", they'd laugh at you.
I think customization is very important, for I fear Songbird's default way won't fit the needs of discerning users, no matter how it'll be done. Well, I'd be suprised, since no player really did that well enough, IMO. -
Inappropriate?"I’m thinking someone stuffed the sack on this one... 26 me toos in a couple hours! whooo! "
no i just did ALLOT of advertising in my world of warcraft guild! LOL
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?well the default way might be artist/album/song name(whatever is set there)... but that could always change... For people that dont care that much, Songbird will organize it that certain way.. But it will have the option to easily change that way... Nothing will be complicated.
"no i just did ALLOT of advertising in my world of warcraft guild! LOL"
roflcopter
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
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Inappropriate?Guys, please don't everyone write "Artist/" if you mean "Album Artist/".
Yes, for a well-kept music library one should respect the differences.
In my opinion, default should be mostly like iTunes' sorting style (Album Artist/Album/01 Song). But of course, it would be great if the user gets as many ways of customizing as possible.
But please don't forget to add special rules, maybe customizable, like:
---> Album Artist/Album/1-01 Song (for albums with more than 1 Disc; that's so important, I hope you understand why - if not, just ask)
---> Various Artists/Album/1-01 Artist - Song (iTunes doesn't do that ... sigh; compilations' files are useless in a disk tree if you don't see artists)
And please, change file names like "01 flower power.mp3" to "01 Flower Power.mp3" when the user corrects uper and lower case in Title ID3 tags from within Songbird. iTunes just ignores case sensitivity when it comes to check if it's necessary to overwrite the file's name after retagging.
2 people think
this is one of the best points
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I was coming here to post exactly this! I have been playing with the new media management feature, and there is indeed the option to have the disc number, however it is not conditional. What I mean is that for many albums I don't have a disc number in the tag as it is just a single disc, but if I used media management as it currently is I would get
Album Artist/Album/UnknownDisc - 01 - Song.ext
Also, the ability to choose separators would be nice instead of being forced to have "space dash space" I would like to just use a single space, and some people like just the dash.
The easiest way to accommodate everyone's preferences is to forgo the idea of using a GUI interface with dropdown menus and switch to a code line. Just have well explained instructions and even those afraid of code can figure out that anywhere you put %artist% you get the artist name, or anywhere you put [%disc number%] you get the disc number but only if there is one. -
Inappropriate?It would be wrong to assume that tracks without an albumName belong to an 'unknown album'.
Lots of tracks nowadays, are not part of any album!
I’m anxious
3 people think
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I agree. Users should be able to use at least basic script functions to create conditions (IF... THEN... ELSE and such).
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Yes!! haven ́t thought about that.
you're completely right!! -
Inappropriate?please please please.
I keep all the cds waiting for this feature. I've lost TOO MUCH time organizing them BY HAND!.
Waiting for this.
And removing i-tunes from there, so keep up the good work!
I’m confident
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Inappropriate?Could this be combined with the watch folder option? As in, a folder is watched and any music put in that folder is automatically put through the file organiser? That'd be mighty handy.
1 person thinks
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yes! That ́s great.
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Inappropriate?I'm really excited about this feature, but I'm afraid the preferences for folder structure and (especially) file names aren't customizable enough.
It looks like we'll be forced to separate every tag by a / in the folder structure and _ in the file name, but what if someone wanted to put their music in a structure like this? (I don't necessarily need it, but it would be cool):
[Album Artist]/[Album] ([year])/
And I certainly don't want any underscores in my file names, in the best case scenario my file names look like this:
## - [Aritst] - [Track Name]
What about some "advanced" option for serious users?
And btw. what would happen if, say one of my tracks doesn't have an empty album tag?
I’m hoping for positive response on this
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Yeah, like I mentioned before, users should be able to use advanced scripting. The program Mp3tag for example is capable of this. Currently what I'm using to create my folders looks like this:
F:\$validate($if(%album%,$if2(%band%,%artist%)\%album%\$if($grtr(%discnumber%,1/1),$left(%discnumber%,1)-,)$num(%track%,2) $if($eql(%band%,Various Artists),$replace(%artist%,/, & ) - ,)%title%,Various Tracks\$replace(%artist%,/, & ) - %title%),_)
Such possibilities are the only way to make every single user happy.
I think Foobar2000 has a similar way of customizing. Maybe just copy these functions? -
Inappropriate?I have my own quirky way of organizing my music so a little flexibility (advanced mode) would be nice. I only can't get my OST's integrated nicely.
I’m happy this is being discused
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Inappropriate?In theory, I think this is a great idea. What I don't like, however, is that it doesn't appear that you can actually customize the fields. You can select from a pre-determined list of fields, but what if I want my structure to be Artist > (Year) Album > Tracks? Is there any way to get this sort of customization?
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Library manager issue.
I’m anxious
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Inappropriate?I think the Music Manager is a good idea, but I don\'t use it yet, as I think it should be more flexible.
For example, for me it is important that the album name has the year (in brackets or something else) before the name:
Artist/(Year) Album/Songs
By now this is only possible by creating a sub-folder:
Artist/Year/Album/Songs
I think it would be best if the fields used were independent of the sub-folder creation.
It may be a silly thing, but this is what is keeping me from using it.
Regards,
K-ist
PS: Great job! I am recommending Songbird to anyone I know...! Keep going on!
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Improve Music Manager.
1 person thinks
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Yes. I wouldn ́t care about that, it ́s good, too.
But!!
I CANNOT make it more than 3 directories of depth.
That makes it all IMPOSSIBLE. -
That ́s what i talk about. It ́s impossible!!
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Inappropriate?I think the best way to make the music manager more flexible is to have a unique ID in every music file you have on your HDD. It could be in the filename and/or the meta-data.
This unique ID is stored in a DB used by songbird to match the track/album to a track/album on the free on-line DBs of music. From that point on, Songbird 'knows' what the track is and can then be used to to some funky things.
It can be told to rename and/or organize your files in way you like, with or without year in the folder name, with or without track numbers etc. As I said in my post over here, Track numbers and album names are only really important when you want to play tracks in order.
Even better, you can get SB to do some renaming on the fly when syncing to MP3 players depending how well your individual player handles meta-data, filenames, folders and playlists etc.
NINJA_EDIT
I forgot to ask:-
I was looking into automatic music collection organization and I'm sure I came across some software that sampled the song and was able to analyze it and identify it by 'listening' to it. There's services you can use on your mobile where you hold your phone up to a song that's playing and the name of the song is sent to you.
Surely that could be used on user's music to identify it and ID it accordingly?
I’m excited
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Inappropriate?I am not sharing your enthusiasm about that idea. Personally I want to get rid of all the different places where information is stored. I constantly have to watch for discrapencies between file/folder names and the metadata. And you are suggesting introducing a third instances for storing that information. I'd rather see the metadata disappear. But that is a bit far fetched so I would settle for a decent file/folder management system. I like the file naming bit of it as it is. But for folders there needs to be the same flexibility. I want more information in certain folder names.
My naming scheme would be this:
<artist> / <year> - <album> / <track> - <track>.ext
But it is just impossible right now.
Pjanssen </track></album></year></artist>
I’m undecided
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Inappropriate?
I constantly have to watch for discrapencies between file/folder names and the metadata.
That's why I made my suggestion. You wouldn't need to monitor for discrepencies since the music manager would rename the folder structure and files in the manner you select. As long as the manager knows what the song/album is, it can get all the information about it from a central DB and name it accordingly.
I would settle for a decent file/folder management system.
That could be an option, make the manager remove all metadata (except for some unique ID identifying the song and tieing it to the central DB reference) and rename the files/folders in a manner you want.
But for folders there needs to be the same flexibility.
couldn't agree more.
I want more information in certain folder names.
I assume you mean:
My naming scheme would be this:
artist / year - album / track - track.ext
But it is just impossible right now.
artist / year - album / track number - track name.ext
but I get your point.
What about single music files, OSTs, compilations etc?
They may have trouble fitting into your scheme but with what I'm suggesting, you could have rules to govern how you name everything, from individual files to OSTs, compilations, podcasts etc.
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?I want my naming scheme to be <artist> / <(year) album> / <# artist - track title>
if the numbers are below 10 they would start with a 0 in order to keep them all two digits & easily be organized by the track list.</artist>
I’m anxious
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Inappropriate?dtay, if we have all the music files uniquely identified, we can have their path and filename automatically set to anything we like.
A centralised naming DB will have all info about a music file like artist, track name, album name and number if applicable etc. Then, all you would need to do is specify the naming scheme you want and it's all done for you for all your music.
The point is, everyone wants their files named in a different way and with the system I've described, they can have it. They can even change their mind and have all their files automatically renamed the way they want them. :)
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?It sounds promising but I would have to see the implementation. Especially the reference to an internet DB. Because the tend to misinformed from time to time.
But for me the simplest solution would be to implement the multiple tags in foldername and I am happy.
You make a good point though it just seems to be a bit futuristic to me.
I’m undecided
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Inappropriate?
It sounds promising but I would have to see the implementation. Especially the reference to an internet DB. Because the tend to misinformed from time to time.
True, but you could still overrule the music manager and name the song something different which would signal the change to the central DB.
A few people overruling the manager wouldn't mean much but start getting tens or hundreds of people changing it then the online DB could make the change.
You make a good point though it just seems to be a bit futuristic to me.
Well, there was a time when mobile phones, mobile internet, 4GHz CPUs, 4GB RAM in a home PC etc seemed futuristic... :D
Just because something seems impossible, doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to achieve it. ;)
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?I admire your positive attitude but with futuristic I mean "seems like a lot of work" so it will take some time 'till it is working. I hope somebody from the company is reading this for all they done yet is merging these threads.
I’m silly
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Inappropriate?Hehe, it certainly would be a lot of work but that's what we're here for right?
Making the devs work harder... :D
I’m amused
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“A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?”
-Robert Browning -
Inappropriate?Why not just from metadata??
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Inappropriate?I don't use the autosort function because Musicbrainz Picard does this much better.
For example it automaticly sorts songs from the Beetles under
Beatles, The
and Johnny Cash under
Cash, Johnny
will Songbird ever be able to do so?1 Comment Add a comment
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G'day,
Media management I think even the developers know needs a bit more work. What's important though is that the framework is there now, so other developers could probably create addons for it if they wanted. At this point of time, the main focus seems to be on completely the core feature set, and after the core features are in, polish will be added (although, in many cases this polish is available as addons).
I would probably recommend you submit a feature suggestion at http://bugzilla.songbirdnest.com/ with what you need. The songbird developers are pretty good, and whilst it isn't a feature I'd expect them to implement right away (because features like video and CD-ripping are probably more important), it does seem like something they would get around to it eventually.
Andrew -
Inappropriate?I am missing the tag 'part of a collection' in Songbird.
If you select this tag in iTunes it wil not organize the song in a directy with the artistname but in a directory with all the other collections.
In this (collection)directory are the directories of the albums (so for collections there are NO directories for artists).
This will take care of a problem of the many directories with only 1 song!!!
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Check this to find a solution for collections: http://getsatisfaction.com/songbird/t...
CHAMP
