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[raym]

Apologies in advance as I'm sure this has been discussed numerous times but I couldn't find what I'm after by doing a search. Perhaps someone could help me out?

Basically I have all my cover art stored in a single folder but I want to now adopt the "beside file" Folder.jpg approach. How do I achieve this?

Thanks for any help on this.

[prod]

I did this recently myself like this;

(I'm making the assumption cover art is called "Artist - Album.jpg")

1) Import all cover art into MC
2) Select all cover art in MC, right-click and select Library Tools->Fill Properties From Filename
3) Type [Artist] - [Album] into the Filename text box, make sure Directories is checked off, Click OK
4) Make sure all cover art is selected again, right-click and select Library Tools->Rename File From Properties
5) Directories should be checked on, your music Base Path set to the correct path (e.g. D:\Music), rule would be [Artist]\[Album], Filename checked on, Rule should just be "Folder" (without the quotes obviously), click OK.
6) Make sure all cover art is selected again, right-click and select Delete
7) Check "Remove from Media Library" and click OK
Go to Tools->File Location, Location Rule should be "Next to file (Folder.jpg)".
9) Select all your albums, right-click, go to Cover Art->Remove Cover Art, select NO when it asks if you want to delete for files.
10) Select all your albums, right-click, go to Cover Art->Quick Find in File / Cover Art Directory

I'd try this on a few files first before going for the "big push". Also, this won't work for (Multiple Artist) albums, but it can be adapted to; in point (5) replace the Base Path with, for example, D:\Music\Assorted, and the rule to just [Album].

Hope this helps some, your directory structure and cover art filenames need to be pretty well organised for it to work well.

And please don't sue me if it buggers something up, this is all at your own risk! All I can say is it worked great for me.

[raym]

Thanks Prod. That worked pretty well!!

So now that I've adopted the "Folder.jpg" approach, am I right to assume that if you do a "Library Tools > Move Disk/File", MC still doesn't move the cover art with the files? Is there a reason for this?

Thanks.

[prod]

You're welcome, glad it worked for you.

Yeah that's correct. I think because the Folder.jpg is not strictly part of the MC Library, it has no right to mess with it.

Also, if you were moving several songs from different directories into one directory then I'm not sure how MC would handle several files called Folder.jpg, and I suppose the point of having a Folder.jpg in that case would be lost.

[Alex B]

Thanks Prod. That worked pretty well!!

So now that I've adopted the "Folder.jpg" approach, am I right to assume that if you do a "Library Tools > Move Disk/File", MC still doesn't move the cover art with the files? Is there a reason for this?

You don't need to remove cover art (the steps 7 & 8 ). If the cover art files are part of the media library you can use MC for moving them as well.

Just make a new view scheme that can show the cover art images and the music files simultaneusly and use this view scheme whenever you move files. Since you added the Artist and Album tags to the cover art files (the steps 2 & 3) you can also use searches for finding a certain album and its associated cover art file.

Also, this won't work for (Multiple Artist) albums, but it can be adapted to; in point (5) replace the Base Path with, for example, D:\Music\Assorted, and the rule to just [Album].

The actual naming rule for cover art in a separate folder is [Album Artist (auto)] - [Album] so if the music files from various artists albums use the same location rule (i.e. are placed in the (Multiple Artists)\[Album] folder structure) the same system works with them too.

[prod]

The actual naming rule for cover art in a separate folder is [Album Artist (auto)] - [Album] so if the music files from various artists albums use the same location rule (i.e. are placed in the (Multiple Artists)\[Album] folder structure) the same system works with them too.

MC uses Assorted\[Album] as a location to put (Multiple Artists) albums, I haven't seen any place to configure this.

[Alex B]

MC uses Assorted\[Album] as a location to put (Multiple Artists) albums, I haven't seen any place to configure this.

Untick "Assorted" and use [Album Artist (auto)] instead of [Artist] everywhere in the location rules.


EDIT

A quote that explains the logic from my old post:

(from MC's Help)

Multiple Artist Albums

Media Center comes with a number of tools to help automatically identify compilation albums that include various artists.


Album Artist (auto)

This is a built-in automatic field.  It auto-completes as follows:

- If something is manually typed in the Album Artist field, that content is included in the Album Artist (auto) field as well.
- If the Album Artist field is empty, then the Album Artist (auto) field gets completed as follows:
     - Single-artist name in the case of a single-artist album.
     - (Multiple Artists) in the case of a multiple-artist album*.

* In order for (Multiple Artists) to appear automatically, the album must be in its own exclusive directory (i.e., if there are files from more than one album in a directory, the program will not label it as Multiple Artist).

Here is the logic. A track is a mix if all the files with the same [Album] value in the same directory:

- have more than one [Artist] value among them
- have no other [Album] values used by any other file in the same directory
- are Audio and have a non-empty [Album] value


Automatic Assorted

When you rename files (right click > Library Tools > Rename Files from Properties), the window that appears provides the option to "Use Assorted for [Artist] on multi-artist albums". This is just under the Directories Rule. When selected, the files will be saved in a directory called Assorted if you have included the [Artist] rule in the directory rule.

Example:

Artist: Stackabones, Album: Best of Truck Driving Songs

Directory Rule:
Base path: M:\Music\
Rule: [Artist]\[Album]
"Use Assorted [Artist] on multi-artist albums" is checked.

Result:
M:\Music\Assorted\Best of Truck Driving Songs\Filename rule


Complete Albums

Media Center can automatically display complete and incomplete albums. An album is considered complete if all the files with the same [Album] value in the same directory:

- are sequentially numbered tracks starting at 1
- have at least 2 files or 10 minutes of audio
- are Audio and have a non-empty [Album] value.

View Schemes for Multiple Artist Albums
Create the following scheme to view Multiple Artist Albums:

1. Right click on Audio in the tree.

2. Select Add View Scheme.

3. Click "Add", Standard View Item, and add the following:
- Album Type (shows multiple vs. single artist albums, and whether they are complete or incomplete). Note: you may have to scroll up the list to get Album Type. Press Ok.
- Repeat, and add Album

4. Or display fields for each of the items displayed in #3:  Album Type, Album Artist (auto), Complete Album, Album.

You can now quickly view your Multiple Artist albums, and better yet, you can view all of your complete and/or incomplete albums. Complete albums are indicated by a "1", and "0" displays incomplete albums.

Here is an example from my library:

Here is a real-life example of how I use the Album Artist field.

I just bought this record: "Louis Armstrong & Friends - What A Wonderful Christmas." I filed it like this:



I wanted this album to show up besides the other Louis Armstrong albums instead of "multiple artists" or "Louis Armstrong & Friends". Also, I saved the disk files in the "Louis Armstrong\What A Wonderful Christmas" path, not in the "Louis Armstrong & Friends\...". With this filing system I can search for track artists as well. For example, I can search for Eartha Kitt's songs even she is not an Album Artist in my library.

.


EDIT 2.

The default [Album Artist (auto)] value is (Multiple Artists) if the album has more than one artist, but the example album has its cover art named as "Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful Christmas.jpg" because I overrode the default value by adding a custom value to the [Album Artist] field.

The [Album Artist] field is separate from the [Album Artist (auto)] field. Normally the "auto" field should not be touched.

[prod]

Untick "Assorted" and use [Album Artist (auto)] instead of [Artist] everywhere in the location rules.

Very simple and effective! Not thought of doing that.

The default [Album Artist (auto)] value is (Multiple Artists) if the album has more than one artist, but the example album has its cover art named as "Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful Christmas.jpg" because I overrode the default value by adding a custom value to the [Album Artist] field.

Thanks Alex, this is all very useful stuff. I wasn't aware that was how it worked - I've wanted to do exactly what your doing on some albums for some time.