[black_eagle]

Edit: Split out from the general testing discussion, deserves it's own thread for pre-design discussion

I do think that the rules for identifying a compilation need to be slightly changed, there are some anomolies, there is even a Trac ticket for it. One delemma is do anthologies, like "Greatest Hits" by single artist, count as compilations?

I don't think that they should count as compilations, no. I want my compilations to just be 'true' compilations, like the Now series for instance. Even though an anthology in it's purest sense can be considered a compilation of tracks by an individual artist or band I would not treat it as a compilation in the same way as Now 93.

[jjd-uk]

I do think that the rules for identifying a compilation need to be slightly changed, there are some anomolies, there is even a Trac ticket for it. One delemma is do anthologies, like "Greatest Hits" by single artist, count as compilations?

I don't think that they should count as compilations, no. I want my compilations to just be 'true' compilations, like the Now series for instance. Even though an anthology in it's purest sense can be considered a compilation of tracks by an individual artist or band I would not treat it as a compilation in the same way as Now 93.

Why do we even need rules for identifying compilations? there is a compilation tag so simply use that so it's under user control what they considering a compilation. Personally I'm with black eagle, although I'm probably old school as I organise my music like how I would have found it in a music store (when those existed), so to me compliations will always mean various artist compilations like the aforementioned Now albums.

[DaveBlake]

OK 3rd post, really this should be at the top.

For songs without mbid Kodi uses the following logic to determine if an album is a compilation.

1) album name is non-empty
AND
2a. the songs have different artists
OR
2b. all tracks are marked as part of compilation
AND
3a. a unique primary artist is specified as "various" or "various artists"
OR
3b. we have at least two primary artists and no album artist specified.

Otherwise if all the songs have mbids and compilation = 1 tag then the album is stored as a compilation, it does not matter what the song or album artists are. Also note that Musicbrainz will flag anthologies (songs have all the same artist) as compilations, or sometimes use an album artist that isn't "various artists".

This leads to some unexpected behaviour - albums with songs with mbids being taken as compilations when the same without mbids is not, and vice-versa.

Why do we even need rules for identifying compilations? There is a compilation tag so simply use that so it's under user control what they considering a compilation.

Well "album" is a derrived concept concocted from song tags, and we have been doing that from the beginning of the library, IMO now is not the time to stop. There are still substantial music collections out there with songs that don't have an albumartist tag, and Kodi builds them into the library to the happiness of the user, there is no need to stop that.

Also strictly speaking "compilation" is not a standard ID3 v2 tag, we can not expect users to have tagged their music as a compilation although many may have.

However it makes sense to me that if all the songs are tagged as compilation then the album should be taken as a compilation (even if it does not have mbids). This is the way I would like to tweek the current rules.

I would also like to be clear that an album is a compilation when and only when a internal flag is stored rather than try to use the language specific various artists string as an indicator on the fly. This goes wrong if the user changes language settings etc.

~

Clearly it is popular (jjd_uk and black_eagle so far) to classify various artist compilations separately from anthologies. But the fact that the huge MB database does not limit compilations in this way means it is not a universal view. Persoanlly, oblivious the the compilation tag or rules, I added a compilation genre to my tagging so that I could create my own smart playlist/node of compilations including anthologies.

I think it would be good for Kodi to be able to split/complbine both at the users choice.

[black_eagle]

Why do we even need rules for identifying compilations? There is a compilation tag so simply use that so it's under user control what they considering a compilation.

The 'bCompilation' tag is specifically an Itunes/Ipod thing and although Kodi respects this tag, people moving from other players that do not support it may well not have it included in their tags at all.

However it makes sense to me that if all the songs are tagged as compilation then the album should be taken as a compilation (even if it does not have mbids). This is the way I would like to tweek the current rules.

I would also like to be clear that an album is a compilation when and only when a internal flag is stored rather than try to use the language specific various artists string as an indicator on the fly. This goes wrong if the user changes language settings etc.

Fully agree with both points here. If an album is tagged as compilation then it should be stored as such, regardless of the presence or not of MBID's. Is there not already a flag in the database for this very purpose ?

Clearly it is popular (jjd_uk and black_eagle so far) to classify various artist compilations separately from anthologies. But the fact that the huge MB database does not limit compilations in this way means it is not a universal view. Persoanlly, oblivious the the compilation tag or rules, I added a compilation genre to my tagging so that I could create my own smart playlist/node of compilations including anthologies.

I think it would be good for Kodi to be able to split/complbine both at the users choice.

Yeah, I personally think MB is wrong here, but I can handle it by changing the compilation tag when I tag stuff.

I take it from the last line that you mean split or combine anthologies and VA compilations ? The option to list all or one or the other would be cool Would this be tag based or genre based or do you have something else in mind ?

[DaveBlake]

For interest Musicbrainz says this

A compilation, for the purposes of the MusicBrainz database, covers the following types of releases:

• a collection of recordings from various old sources (not necessarily released) combined together. For example a "best of", retrospective or rarities type release.
  
  
• a various artists song collection, usually based on a general theme ("Songs for Lovers"), a particular time period ("Hits of 1998"), or some other kind of grouping ("Songs From the Movies", the "Café del Mar" series, etc).
  

I generally listen to whole albums (not playlists), I like the artist's album concept - these songs together at this phase in their musical development etc. For my favorite artists I have some anthologies too, duplicating many tracks on other albums, but I tend to treat them much like the VA compilations I have. I need to be in the mood for what often feels to me like "mixed up" music, usually working on something rather than relaxed serious listening (if that doesn't sound a contradiction?). Thus I get the MB definition of compilation, but I know others differ.

I also wonder that when making a party mix you could want to exclude anthologies to avoid duplicate tracks? I don't know, it is not my thing (old dog not got that new trick!).

I take it from the last line that you mean split or combine anthologies and VA compilations ? The option to list all or one or the other would be cool. Would this be tag based or genre based or do you have something else in mind ?

My current thinking is we allow for both anthologies and VA compilatons to be flagged internally as compilation albums (determined via song tagging and improved rules). Then, having also fixed the VA language dependancy issue, allow nodes and smart playlist rules to separate anthologies from VA compilations, and from the artist's other albums as required.

My genre approach was just ignorance, although it got me what I wanted.