Source of this request.TL;DR
There can be several (sonically different) versions of the same album which someone would like to keep. Original releases and later remasters are an example. Deluxe editions are another good example which often include bonus tracks or an extra disk. Currently, the only way to keep these as unique 'albums' is by adding something unique to the album title to make MC keep them as a separate and unique album. This leads to various concerns and problems:
- They are not actually unique albums, they are unique versions of the same album.
- Any information I add to the album field is extraneous; its not suposed to be there (its not actually part of the album title).
- It makes long album names even longer and long fields are cut off which makes album versions indistinguisable from each other in JRemote, Panel and Theater View.
- It messes up other features like finding online information.
I would like to request if we can get some some control over how MC determines what is album. I thought of two ways that I would like to provide as possible solutions:
- Add a tickbox to library fields for MC to include that field to determine its a unique album. It could go below 'Data' and could be called something like 'Include field to determine unique album'.
Or:
- Introduce a new right-click option below "Library Tools", which for example could be called "Create new album". A user could now select the tracks that belong to a unique album version (that MC grouped with another version with the same artist and album title), right click them and select this new option to create a new version with those files. MC would then treat it as a unique album and keep it separated from other albums from the same artist with the same album title.
Both ways won't change how MC currently works and it won't change anything for existing libraries.
Thanks for reading and more importantly, for considering!