[WelshPaul]

Thanks so much for all your work on this Dave. I am seriously over the moon to see composer information in Kodi after all these years. I'm not using MusicBrainz data in my tags, I've got composer info historically entered via mp3tag, so my experience here is just from scanning in my existing music. Sorry if some of the following is down to my inability as a user, but it may help with predicting what a complete idiot may do with all your hard work.

I had a problem updating the database from MyMusic56 to 59. Whatever I tried I couldn't get it to read the composer tag. The only thing I could do was completely remove the source to clear the library and re-add and scan.

I added 4 albums :
1. () by Sigur Ros, where the composer is Sigur Ros for all tracks.
2. OK Computer by Radiohead, where I have all tracks tagged with the composer as Colin Greenwood / Jonny Greenwood / Ed O'Brien / Phil Selway / Thom Yorke
3. (What's The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis, where most tracks are by Noel Gallagher on his own, but one track is multiple composers (including worryingly Gary Glitter).
4. Beethoven's 9th with the composer, er, Beethoven I think, just to keep the classical theme.

When I go to the Composer node the only ones that show up are Sigur Ros and Beethoven. However, under the All Contributors node they all show up. All of the composers are in the database roles. I have to be honest I don't really understand (or care for) nodes, so this may well be my error.

Having added your nodes as instructed I can't get to the playlists option to test that, as there doesn't seem to be any double dot option above roles. Again this may be my lack of understanding of nodes.

I assume the ratings changes are nothing to do with you, as I couldn't help noticing that's a bit messed up. And, finally (for now), if it was reasonably easy for you to add the list item info label could you possibly add $INFO[MusicPlayer.Composer] as that would be far more useful for me for presentation than the list item label, and make all my Kodi dreams come true.

[DaveBlake]

Hey Paul, congrats on being my first user (or at least first to feedback). Through questions and problems I discover all the "obvious" things I need to tell you! Thanks for being a bold adventurer, it is great to have feedback, and don't let the experience put you off. Sharing proto-types with users is always risky, I don't want to disappoint.

Yes you do need to re-scan your files to get this to work. Best start with a clear library by removing the source and re-adding just like you did.

Yes the rating change is a separate thing. This build is just a snapshot of Krypton from the last time I rebased. That is in an early state of flux, so all kinds of things could half work, don't prod it too hard!

A temp test version of a modified the skin will be available soon, yes showing composer, so you can see more of the good data that Kodi now processes.

No ".." above roles, where would it lead? Both genre and roles lie above artists, or you can create custom nodes that mix the two, but I don't see what would go above roles.

The example composers custom node by default respects the "album artists only" system setting (badly named "include artists who only appear on compilations"), hence you are only seeing those composers that are also tagged as album artists. In this build you can also apply or clear that value specific to the node without effecting the global setting. If you edit the node, or create a new one, with

Code:

<path>musicdb://artists/?role=Composer&albumartistsonly=false</path>

then that would show all composers, those that are also tagged as artists and those that aren't.

The custom nodes are really flexible and powerful, especially if you have a large music collection. Maybe they are more than you want at the moment, that's fine too.

It is the skin change to show the data that will help you most, and that is comming. Thanks for your feedback.

[WelshPaul]

No ".." above roles, where would it lead? Both genre and roles lie above artists, or you can create custom nodes that mix the two, but I don't see what would go above roles.

To playlists and other library tools. Currently if you don't have artists, albums, etc, set up a menu options that is the way to get to them. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, are nodes replacing smart playlists, as they seem to do the same thing, otherwise where do you now go to create or access a playlist? Nodes do seem to me to be a little contradictory if the direction of travel is to make things as simple as possible for new users.

Clear on the other stuff - thanks.

[tomc]

Great Great Work!!

Thank you Dave!

[zag]

Nice work

First composers node screenshot ever in Kodi!

[zag]

One thing I noticed for the first time when adding some classical music is some artists only get the MBID, is this normal(due to incomplete mb entries maybe?) or is it a bug?

[DaveBlake]

One thing I noticed for the first time when adding some classical music is some artists only get the MBID, is this normal(due to incomplete mb entries maybe?) or is it a bug?

Odd? Not normal, and unexpected. Could be down to the tags, the quality of Musicbrainz for classical music does vary. Can you tell me the recordings that did this (what tracks do these artists lead to). Maybe have a look at the tags yourself? I would like to follow this up.

Paul I wouild like to continue the discussion of custom nodes when I get back home (weekend probably). Always interested in how other people see things.

[steve1977]

If you have been tagging your music files using Picard (with "use release relationships" and "use track relationships" enabled) then there is a lot of data that Kodi has been missing, the artist list after processing TMCL gave me a surprize. The desire to list lyicists, DJMixers or composers etc. may not be mainstream, but it provides another way to select your music.

This is still not 100% clear to me. Are you saying that we should enable both "use release relationships" and "use track relationships" in Picard to get the full benefit?

Separate question: I am interested to seeing this type of info only for classical music. I assume this would require "custom nodes" to fully split my library into two parts? One being "non-classical" and on "classical" music? Easiest o be done via folksomomy tags?

[corpgator]

I'll be installing it this weekend, but before I do and can't find it, does it support the "work" tag? That way I can do Composer/Work/Conductor

[DaveBlake]

@corpgator
No sorry the work tag is not supported yet. It is something I am personally interested in so I do hope to add that functionality when I get time. Meanwhile I hope that you will enjoy splitting up composer, conductor and orchestra (and soloists if you have tagged them) as a step in the right direction.

@steve1977
Mostly this improvement is for those people that have already been tagging their music with Composer, Conductor, Lyricist or DJ Mixer etc. and been unable to use it in Kodi. But while I was working on it I added support for TMCL/Performer tags too, that is where you can store the musicians or just about any other contribution. Fewer people will have those populated by default, but some people may be interested in the drummer, or violinist on a track. In adding support for that tag I may have created a monster!! As Zag pointed out to me Musicbrainz as over a million artists and potentially now Kodi could end up knowing about all of them. Yikes!

I suggest that you tag your music with the things that are of interest to you. Tagging classical music with composer is a priority to me, but I really don't care too much who composed each pop track. On the other hand you might want to organise your mix collection by DJ (and separate the DJs from the bands etc.) no ensure that is tagged.

I am not a Picard expert, I only used it a bit for testing, and I found that it populated TMCL by default. But it seems there are options, and you may have turned them off. Enabling both "use release relationships" and "use track relationships" in Picard will give a lot of tags, maybe more than you personally want. I am not sure if you think of that as the "full benefit". I suggest that at first you try with the music as it is tagged, and see what you think.

I fear user response will either be "I didn't see anything new" because they don't have any of the added tags populated, or "wow, overload, too much detail" because Picard has filled the TMCL tag and Kodi has made it visible. I hope we can find a happy middle ground.

[DaveBlake]

I am interested to seeing this type of info only for classical music. I assume this would require "custom nodes" to fully split my library into two parts? One being "non-classical" and on "classical" music?

In the example custom nodes (downloaded from here https://www.dropbox.com/s/6jhkz3chn2vf25...s.zip?dl=0 ) ComposersClassical.xml does exactly what you want. Tag all your classical music with the genre "Classical" (along with any other genres) and this will split them out

Code:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<node order="13" type="folder" visible="Library.HasContent(Role, Composer)">
<label>Classical Composers</label>
<icon>DefaultMusicGenres.png</icon>
<path>musicdb://artists/?role=Composer&genre=Classical</path>
</node>

Of course you many people will only have populated the composer tag for classical music, and not the pop/rock, so composer alone would be enough.

[WelshPaul]

Here's a song information page using the info label for composer, just to confirm it's working (in Transparency). I can see purpose of nodes for skin design, but I'm still baffled how to access playlists and create smart playlists in this version, for instance where could I set up a playlist for say Robert Johnson covers with a rating over 4 out of 5. Am I supposed to use a node for that now?

[DaveBlake]

Thank for the screenshot Paul and showing that the info label works. Composer isn't that impressive on pop music really, but for a large classical collection it will really come into its own. Then again it can help with locating cover versions too, I hope that users will find lots of creative ways to use this stuff.

Playlists are where they always were.... unless you accidently put the roles custom nodes somewhere in your music menu hierarchy that has changed your menu/nodes in a way that you can't see them. Something like that has happened, makes more sense of your node questions.

The example custom nodes were intended to go in a Roles folder below userdata/library/music/, leaving albums.xml, artists.xml... playlists.xml,... years.xml all where they were. Sort that out and playlists will reappear.

[WelshPaul]

Ahhh, thanks Dave - that's why. Prior to downloading and copying your roles folder my Userdata/Library folder was empty, so I don't have any of those other .xml files. I've just checked my Fire TV library folder, which is running Isengaard and that's empty too, but playlists sure work on that. So, I'll have to investigate why I don't have those files.

Edit: on my system (Windows 10) all those .xml files are in C:\Program Files (x86)\Kodi\system\library\music.

[zag]

If you put the nodes in your userdata folder it will override the ones in program files.

Basically you can have whatever you want to create nodes for. Its very powerful once you learn how to make the XML files. There is also an add-on that can do it inside kodi GUI which is probably easier. It may need updating for the new database fields though.