2019-05-03, 20:36
Some thoughts and waffle from me as someone who would like to see all the possible dates visible somewhere. And I've also spent a couple of years understanding some of the madness logic that is behind MB and its ideas. I also have a bit of a weird collection of music.
A suggestion: Add NEW fields to the database to handle these dates. If there are THREE fields in the database to store a date per release then most people may get happy. The data will then be there for a skin to pull out as it wants. And the fields can be populated from both the files and online resources.
DATE as currently stored (can't change old fields to do new work as this upsets all those who have already found a solution. Like the example of using a script to edit all the digital files in Picard. Also this will be used by 90% of people who don't really care about these details.)
RELEASE-DATE - release as per MB for this specific edition of this album
ORIGINAL-DATE - original date that this album first hit the shelves
An option in KODI to allow the user to choose if they want ORIGINAL or RELEASE dates by default displayed.
Then KODI can read this data from the files for each release. Fill in the two different boxes above.
Depending on User choice one or the other gets copied to that DATE entry for the more simple skins.
Many files will only have one or maybe neither of these dates. So lookups online will be needed. Trouble is neither MusicBrainz nor Discogs are perfect at getting original release dates so there needs to be the ability for a user to edit this value for themselves.
Would be good to have it as a Sort By option on any of the skins. Using these choice of dates...
But the rabbit hole doesn't stop there...
And now it is about to get VERY confusing - Compilation disks like "Hits of the 80s" or Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits" means every single SONG on that release has a different ORIGINAL-DATE to be stored for it. So once the minefield is entered of "Original Dates" for an album, that will be requested at a song level too for compilations.
There are also the "Box set" compilations. Things like the huge Discovery Box Set from Pink Floyd with all the separate albums in one box currently appears in KODI as a SINGLE item with just the one date. It would be nice to have the ability to browse through that "box" in KODI as separate releases and see those separate dates for each of the sub disks... Ah. Whoops. There is another headache combo - a single MB Release where each DISC has its own ORIGINAL-DATE.
Yeah - this is messy
Ah - now thinking about the above, what happens when you get Deluxe 30th Anniversary release where the Original CD is accompanied by Extra CDs with Demos, Singles, and other extras? What is the "Original" date there of those CDs? CD1 was "originally released" 30 years earlier. But CD2 and CD3 were released on the 30th anniversary... but they are full of songs with all kinds of dates.
-=-=-
I can come up with plenty more curve balls for this one.
Yes, I am the kind of loony who wants to have access to all kinds of dates. I have about a dozen copies of Dark Side of the Moon. So I do want to know when my different CD editions were really released. I know there are noticeable track differences between the different editions, so I need to be able to keep them apart. Later re-issues of albums by many artists have extra tracks tagged on the end making them a very different thing to listen to. MBIDs being in my files help that a lot to keep these separated.
Before Dave started his Musical Mission I would go to select Dark Side Of The Moon in my collection and would not be able to play it as KODI would show ALL of the same copies mashed into one folder with all the tracks doubled\tripled up... Dave you have already made my music saner and more accessible thanks to MBIDs.
Right - that's enough waffle from me....
A suggestion: Add NEW fields to the database to handle these dates. If there are THREE fields in the database to store a date per release then most people may get happy. The data will then be there for a skin to pull out as it wants. And the fields can be populated from both the files and online resources.
DATE as currently stored (can't change old fields to do new work as this upsets all those who have already found a solution. Like the example of using a script to edit all the digital files in Picard. Also this will be used by 90% of people who don't really care about these details.)
RELEASE-DATE - release as per MB for this specific edition of this album
ORIGINAL-DATE - original date that this album first hit the shelves
An option in KODI to allow the user to choose if they want ORIGINAL or RELEASE dates by default displayed.
Then KODI can read this data from the files for each release. Fill in the two different boxes above.
Depending on User choice one or the other gets copied to that DATE entry for the more simple skins.
Many files will only have one or maybe neither of these dates. So lookups online will be needed. Trouble is neither MusicBrainz nor Discogs are perfect at getting original release dates so there needs to be the ability for a user to edit this value for themselves.
Would be good to have it as a Sort By option on any of the skins. Using these choice of dates...
But the rabbit hole doesn't stop there...
And now it is about to get VERY confusing - Compilation disks like "Hits of the 80s" or Elvis Presley's Greatest Hits" means every single SONG on that release has a different ORIGINAL-DATE to be stored for it. So once the minefield is entered of "Original Dates" for an album, that will be requested at a song level too for compilations.
There are also the "Box set" compilations. Things like the huge Discovery Box Set from Pink Floyd with all the separate albums in one box currently appears in KODI as a SINGLE item with just the one date. It would be nice to have the ability to browse through that "box" in KODI as separate releases and see those separate dates for each of the sub disks... Ah. Whoops. There is another headache combo - a single MB Release where each DISC has its own ORIGINAL-DATE.
Yeah - this is messy
Ah - now thinking about the above, what happens when you get Deluxe 30th Anniversary release where the Original CD is accompanied by Extra CDs with Demos, Singles, and other extras? What is the "Original" date there of those CDs? CD1 was "originally released" 30 years earlier. But CD2 and CD3 were released on the 30th anniversary... but they are full of songs with all kinds of dates.
-=-=-
I can come up with plenty more curve balls for this one.
Yes, I am the kind of loony who wants to have access to all kinds of dates. I have about a dozen copies of Dark Side of the Moon. So I do want to know when my different CD editions were really released. I know there are noticeable track differences between the different editions, so I need to be able to keep them apart. Later re-issues of albums by many artists have extra tracks tagged on the end making them a very different thing to listen to. MBIDs being in my files help that a lot to keep these separated.
Before Dave started his Musical Mission I would go to select Dark Side Of The Moon in my collection and would not be able to play it as KODI would show ALL of the same copies mashed into one folder with all the tracks doubled\tripled up... Dave you have already made my music saner and more accessible thanks to MBIDs.
Right - that's enough waffle from me....
