Arkats

Exactly!! I couldn't agree more, but I guess we are a bit of old school. And for sure I would have never discovered some of the amazing albums I have if I would have followed only one source of discovery, and AI is the opposite of serendipity.

@Fitzian I was... 😉 Longtime ago. So which one will you me advise for PC? Thank you very much for the kid3 manual I didn't have it!! @andrewilley I would say that he can know as soon as I synchronize my PC music folder with my Phone music folder, the files having a tag "Date Added to Library" from MusicBee. But I guess, he doesn't care... But the very strange thing is why I have few albums which are in PA's library since a long time that appears as very recent (on the top of the list)? Knowing that I haven't done anything with these albums/files?! Yes you're right. I had in mind that it might correspond to the moment you have added the file to your collection and fine-tuned some metadata. But then it is absurd because if you modify a metadata of on old file, the last modified date will change with no connection with the Date First Added to the Library...

@andrewilley & @6b6561 Oh! Suddenly it seems quite austere to me. I appreciate very much MusicBee as you have nice and easy access to your collection, to tag, to rate, to generate playlists and more. But I guess you do the same with the different mp3 software you have mentioned. I am also using kid3 to go on the different levels of ID3. @andrewilley Too bad. And the two options you mentioned seem quite technical and I do not want to mess up. But to be sure to understand well the "Date First Added to Library" concept, which library are we talking about? The one on my PC, so the date is the one when I have added the track on my PC music library (which seems to be the case if you mentioned "filesystem's last-modified timestamp" or the one on my phone and it is the date that PA add when it scans the collection and find new tracks?

Dear Andre, Thank you very much for the reply. That is great info and you are definitely right, no need to create more problems! I will investigate and see how far I want to go. May I will just do that on album titles that are common to several artists like those we have mentioned. That is very nice and funny you mentioned that because yesterday I was reflecting on the different discussions we have had and I thought that back in the beginning of the years 2000 when I have started to digitize my entire CD collection with iTunes, I was not sure anymore but I suspected that Album Artist didn't exist as a tag... 😉 That is the limitation of having been at the beginning of the digital revolution using the first tools and formats. Doing the same job today would be more easy (especially for the metadata download) and with a far better quality/weight ratio. It is not necessarily easy for me to accept to work again on my collection especially because after almost 40 years of listening and collecting, it has become quite substantial. I have became almost jealous of my kids whom the way they access music has become completely different and much easier. They do not need to own the music, they just tag what they like on music platforms and build their own collection on the flow with the thumb. Lucky them! 🙂 Thank you very much for your very useful contribution!! Laurent

I guess it is true as over the years I have used and test many different synch apps and at one moment or another I started to have problems. Things have changed when I have used "Synchredible" that is so far very robust and trustworthy. I will check on FolderSync though. Out of curiosity, what music database software do you use? That is a good news, and I was suspecting it as the sorting was quite accurate but with some mistakes that I cannot really understand why. How can I do that to modify the "Date First Added to Library"? Because the best I have found it is to go on Info/tag of the actual playing song but there no access to "Date First Added to Library", only the main tags. Thank you very much Andre for your help!!

Ok guys, thank you for your help and kindness but please don't whip me!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 @Fitzian That is an interesting way to put it... I start to see the point, thanks. What is the behavior of PA if all track artists tags are the same as well as the album tag? Is PA able to understand that all tracks belong to the same album? @MotleyG Yes, I guess it is the case. So, far I have always understood that "Artist" was the main tag for the main song and album artist and "Album artist" was used to include all other artists collaborating. As far as understand now, it seems that it is the opposite. @andrewilley My mistake. These settings only concern what is displayed on screen. I though it concerns the way PA understand and group tracks. @ALL Thank you to all for your patience and help! I will investigate the way to automatically copy the tag "Artist" in the field "Album Artist" because no way that I do it myself with 36k tracks. Wish you all a lovely summer!! Laurent

Thank you both for your help. I am terribly sorry, but I still don't get it. 1. "Artist" is a metadata as all the others like "Album", "Song Title", etc. So, it is "understandable" and manageable by PA. 2. There is the setting that allows you to choose "Album Artist" over "Artist" so when it is off, it is supposed to choose "Artist" over "Album Artist". 3. So PA can sort my titles considering metadata "Artist" and "Album". It is just what I need. I don't understand why in the way you present things, you seem to deny the existence and the possible use of the metadata "Artist". Why giving so much importance to Album Artist when comes first the metadata Artist? If blank, then PA considers the metadata "Artist" to sort. But with the specific setting, PA do not even need to consider "Album Artist" and go directly to "Artist". Sorry, but I don't understand why PA should guess? It just splits according to logic using Artist and Album tags. Thank you, I keep that in mind... hoping to get what I need before going that way... 😉

Hello 6b6561, Thank you for your reply. To synchronize my PC Music folder on my MicroSD, I plug the card directly on my PC because the synchronization app I use (Synchredible) is not able to do the job if the MicroSD card is in the phone. Not necessarily practical but at the end I am fine with that knowing that after having tried many different apps that is the one I prefer. But I didn't know about FolderSync Pro and it seems to be able to do it, so I will give a try... but as you mentioned it, this might make the synchro much more slow... So, to be tested. Yes, my Music folder on PC contains sub folders by artists. It is managed directly by MusicBee. As you mentioned the automatic scan in PA, I have tried it at the beginning and I was not satisfied because some files were missing, so It is off. At the end, next time I will try again just a simple scan instead of a total re-scan, and I will see if it is fine. Of course, as my microSD is out of my phone for synchro, I do not have the problem you mentioned with PA scanning when the synchro is not completed. Anyhow, as the auto scan is off, it is a manual scan, which gives you the hand on when to do the scan. Thank you very much for your help!!

But then, I was rechecking the AP Settings and in Settings / Collection / Lists / Albums you have some settings to choose and one is "Album Artists for Albums" on/off which favors Artist Album over Artist and it is precised that it affects the sorting. In my case it is off. So, I think it is a bug that AP is putting different artists as seen in the Image 3 when it is clearly specific to one artist and that the metadata of all these files are correct.

Hello guys, I have a large music collection (36K tracks) and all tracks are carefully tagged. I manage everything with MusicBee on my PC. Then I use a synchronization app to update my MicroSD card from my music folder. After some time using PA, I have decided that the best way was to re-scan entirely my collection each time I was doing an update (adding new albums) because just doing a simple scan was not perfect, some tracks were missing (as far I remember). But today, I have a problem with sorting my album by date of added to the collection as some albums are presented recent when they are not and I guess that is may be because each time I do a total re-scan (even is the sorting is not completely wrong...) So, what would be the best practice to keep my collection properly updated on PA? Thank you for your help!

Thank you guys. Of course I know and understand what you are saying about the difference and need between Artist and Album Artist. No problem with that. Except that from my own experience, I got too many problems when Album Artist was filled because it was considered first versus Artist to sort the albums (if I remember well because it is quite a long time ago) so it was messy knowing that I had tagged all my tracks using Artist. In order to keep things precise I have taken the habit to put in Artist "A&B" if it is a duet or "feat. B" in the song title if it is a guest. Concerning Compilations, I use in MusicBee the "Compilation" tick, which put all the album's track in a "#Various Artists" folder but do not specify it in the Album Artist that remains empty. But then, reading the knowledge base on Metadata, it seems that I have made the wrong choice... But if you pay attention, it is a bit weird because Artist is always presented before Album Artist and it has even the tag "TPE1" while the following is "TPE2". So why giving preference to the second one at the detriment of the first? Then reading "Should Album Artist tags be missing, Poweramp will fall back to trying to group songs into albums based on the Album and Artist tags instead - but often with mixed levels of success, as Artist names can vary track-by-track - such as featured artists, duets, compilations, etc." So, as my Artist tags are different and Album Artist is empty, why PA is not able to separate them properly? For me it is really something that should be improved.

Thank you MotleyG. Sorry to have missed the nuance... but why Artist alone is not enough? Especially if Album Artist is empty? Because it is exactly as you said before "Greatest Hits" + "The Beatles" . Why should I have twice "The Beatles" in Artist + in Album Artist for the sorting working properly?

Thank you both of you for your help. Unfortunately, my tags seem ok (see Image 4 where I have checked the metadata for the three titles that are displayed in the list but shouldn't). I had a doubt because of the confusion possible between ID3v1 and ID3v2 but long time ago I have erased all v1 from my library and it is well the case for those tracks. So, that is strange... Note that I never use Album Artist but only Artist.

@andrewilley & @MotleyG I do not necessarily agree with you. For sure, most of the playlists contains singles tagged for any reasons and you want them played in random or in the list order. I have them too like playlists with my favorite songs, playlists with smooth tunes and so on. But in that case, the playlist is my recent added albums and singles. So, that would be much easier for me to see them grouped by album and I choose which one to listen and I go from one new album to another one without trying to find them in Collection / Albums. Concerning the order as it has scanned the metadata, Poweramp would even be able to play them in order of the track number. But then, it has come to my mind if it would be possible to sort Albums by dates when added to the collection, and I have seen it is the case. So, that would be a solution to my need. Trying it, it seems to work even if there are some bugs, meaning albums that are displayed like being just added but that are not at all. So, now I have a question regarding the best way to manage a collection with Poweramp. [Section moved to new topic --- Admin] Thank you very much for your help!!

Hello guys, I am not fully sure if it is a bug or a setting that is not correct but here is the thing: I have in my collection many albums from different artists called "Single" as they are singles... When I go into Collection / Genre / Blues rock (for example but it is the same whatever the genre I choose), I have the first line with "All songs of the genre" followed by all album covers of that genre (see Image 1). Then if I go to the album "Single" of the first artist (see Image 2), first the cover is not correct but clicking on that album, it displays all the songs of that genre with the album title "Single" which is a bug because it is supposed to be only the titles of that first artist (see Image 3). So, what is wrong?? Thank you for your help!!