If you only have pop music, then your metadata needs are fairly simple and easily met. However, if you are a classical or jazz fan then it is likely that your metadata is more complex. I'm not really into jazz, but I do have quite a lot of classical music and have documented my approach extensively at http://music.highmossergate.co.uk. Muso lies at the core of this approach, but since it is not a ripper/player/tagger, it has to exist in the context of other software. In my case, that is principally Logitech Media Server ("LMS") and squeezebox touches for playing, dBpoweramp for ripping/converting/initial tagging and mp3tag for tag maintenance. I also use iTunes for my portable music.
Not having control over the entire "ecosystem" creates headaches for metadata management, even within such a flexible solution like Muso.
My solution has some core principles:
- If amending tags to create a particular effect, never lose the underlying data - so that recreation is always possible
- If using a script to amend tags, write it in such a way that re-applying it to a file always has the same result - i.e. it has no effect on a file to which it has already been applied
- If importing and exporting tags from a tool (e.g. Muso), keep it symmetrical i.e such that if the data has not been deliberately changed inside the tool then the exported tags should be exactly the same as the imported ones
- Always use the simplest approach possible to get the desired result
There are a couple of areas, however, where it has not been easy, or even possible to bridge the gaps in the ecosystem components and stay true to these principles.
The first area is the Title tag and this post only concerns that (the other is about artists, performers and instruments and I will post on that later).
In LMS, only one title is allowed for display purposes. However, classical music is more complex than this, with a Title usually having at least two components (Work, Movement) and maybe more. Muso copes with this by using the Group Header field for "Work". However, on choosing this option, only the Movement goes in the Title field. If this is then exported, the Title field no longer has the complete title - breaking rule 3, and maybe rule 1 too. Jeremy has cleverly catered for this by allowing the Title to be structured as "Work: Movement". If "Work" is also imported into the Group Header, then the Title tag will be maintained in full, but only the movement will be displayed (under the work) on the album screen. Arguably, this is a bit of a hack, although it is consistent with much of the external metadata sources - and also consistent with the the approach to sub-headers in Muso, where "::" is used to separate the Group Header from the Sub Header.
iTunes has now thrown a bit of a googly with its introduction of new tags (mp4 only) for work and movement, with a "flag" tag (Show Work Movement) to determine if Title is displayed or Work & Movement. Would it make sense for Muso to go down this route (even though it is iTunes-specific), or are there other, compatible, but better approaches? I can see problems with exports: if say Movement is amended and exported, then it will not be consistent with Title, if that was in the format "Work: Movement". I have checked this in iTunes and confirmed that the "Song" title is independent of Work & Movement. Alternatively, the current hack could be removed and instead a flag could determine that the export of Title will be in the format "Work: Movement". There may be other ideas which may be better. I'll also take a look at what other approaches are out there.
Comments?