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[juice370]

I have approx 150GB of music files with missing or wrong Genre data. What is the best/easiest/fastest way to add or amend this Genre Data to these music files?

Thanks
Ian

[tunetyme]

I am sure there are a number of ways to do it.  What I generally do is sort by Album & Artist.  I then highlight the artist\album\and songs.  The select action\tags click on genre and select from the list or type in the genre.  It goes pretty quickly.

[juice370]

Is there an independent software to do this guys as I have 50% in iTunes and 50% just as files ready to import as one when all complete into MC?

Thanks
Ian

[pcstockton]

Tag and Rename

[Vincent Kars]

MP3Tag

[juice370]

Thanks for the heads up tunetyme, pcstockton & Vincent Kars, appreciate it.

Ian

[roopertd]

For editing genre i do this:
1)Use a view with album artist in the fist pain, album in the second and genre in the third.
2)Select one or more album artists at a time and edit the genre manually in the tag window.
3)Select soundtracks and other various artists then edit the genre on each album.
That is all.


Why do i do it like this?
-Tagging databases(in general) will have many different genres for the same band, and
 manually editing will keep it consistent for each artist.
 (this is assuming they didn't radically change there music style mid career)
-Many artists fit into multiple genres so its best to manually choose one.
-I know the genres of the music I listen to better than the databases
-Databases(in general) are terrible for years and genres.
-I can use a typical genres for all my music like:
 Alternative, Rock, Classical, Techno, Hip-Hop, Punk, P-Funk, Industrial, Country, Pop, Reggae, etc.
-I can avoid ridiculous genres like Avant-garde metal, New prog, Rock and roll, Retro Acoustic Steel Guitar, etc.

90 percent of my music is tagged as alternative. Keeps things simple.
For oldies(60s-70s) i use rock.
Country, techno, and hip-hip are far and few between so it is easy to single them out.
Pop is assigned to ALL my girlfriends music because its terrible and i can exclude Pop from all my views.



 

[tunetyme]

roopertd has a sound method.  The reality is genre is a very general classification such as rock, jazz classical etc.  I think what you are looking for is the ability to set sub-genre or styles such as fusion, metal etc.  The problem is many artist and their songs fit into multiple styles.  This is a time consuming process to set this up.  I use AMG as my starting point and I listen to the tracks to set the style(s).  I don't know of a place where you can download that info but if anybody knows of a good source I would like to know.  I also break my music down into moods as well.  I believe you can set up keywords in the styles field and enter multiple styles.  I haven't tried it yet as I am still experimenting with it and trying to consolidate my list of styles from the AMG list. 

Tunetyme

[rick.ca]

The problem is many artist and their songs fit into multiple styles...

I agree. Here I comment on Genre vs. Style and my practise of assigning one arbitrary style, using Allmovies as a guide in choosing that one style. And here I describe adding all of Allmovie's styles to [Keywords].

[struct]

musicbrainz picard will add genre and a lot more data from last.fm (with the plugin loaded) such as mood, year, grouping (a type of genre I guess), etc.

Craig

[tunetyme]

I've used both of them.  The problem is there are no standards when using musicbrainz and last fm.  The results are all over the place.  Rock listed as Jazz, Jazz as classical.  It is mor of a problem to clean up than it is help.

Tunetyme

[pcstockton]

....Meshuggah listed as Pop/Rock.  Seriously??

[rick.ca]

....Meshuggah listed as Pop/Rock.  Seriously??

If Meshuggah is properly associated with various Metal Styles, then they're properly classified in the Pop/Rock Genre.

[raldo]

If Meshuggah is properly associated with various Metal Styles, then they're properly classified in the Pop/Rock Genre.

I see what you mean but it's funny anyways. It just shows that some bands defy classification. In my opinion, they should have been in genre Jazz, style metal.

[rick.ca]

In my opinion, they should have been in genre Jazz, style metal.

That's interesting. My collection of Heavy Metal Jazz is rather thin—I should have a listen.

[pcstockton]

Rick,

See, Meshuggah, Naked City, Zu, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Mirthkon... for starters.

[rick.ca]

No avant-garde progressive experimental art-rock for me, thanks. It's heavy metal jazz or bust! 

[justsomeguy]

How do you store your files on the hard drive?
If they are mostly albums you have and all tracks for that album are stored in the same Artist/Album folder then it wouldn't be too hard to go through your Artist folders and moving them into a relevant genre folder. Most any including MC should allow you to add a tag based on folder structure.

the way I save my files...
\Music\Albums\genre\artist\year - album\artist - album - track# - title.mp3
or
\Music\Singles\genre\artist\year - album\artist - album - track# - title.mp3

[rick.ca]

it wouldn't be too hard to go through your Artist folders and moving them into a relevant genre folder.

But it would be even easier to record the genre artists belong to directly in MC. Then, if you wish to store the files by genre, you can use Rename, move & copy files to do so (more consistently than if it were done manually).

My Rock music (the bulk of my collection) is saved as \Audio\Rock\[Style]\[Artist]\[Year] [Album]\, but I often wonder why I included [Style]. Even though I only use 11 Rock styles, it means I have to remember how I categorized an artist to find it in my file system. It just makes it unnecessarily difficult, and prone to errors. Sometimes I get the style wrong, and then forget to move the files to where they "belong." And MC doesn't care—it's going to remember the path no matter what it is.

Classical music—and perhaps some other genres—are likely to be organized in some manner different than \[Artist]\[Album]. That's a sufficient reason for maintaining them in a separate folder, not that they're a different genre.

[juice370]

Any one else care to detail how you store your music files? Great info guys...

Thanks
Ian

[syndromeofadown]

I store mine based on file type and source.
It works well for me but won't for everyone, because i don’t use j river to move files.

The basic setup:
I start with 2 folders in my audio folder: [Tagged] and [UnTagged]
Untagged contains all music that need tags checked and album art added
I stock pile huge amount of music until i get around to sorting it out.

[Tagged] contains sub folders for each filetype:
[FLAC] [FLAC HD] [mp3] [ogg] [ape] [mpc] etc.

Each of the above folders contains sub folders for the source:
[Ripped] [Purchased] [Official]

Each of the above folders contains the following if needed:
[A] [ B ] [C] etc
[- Soundtrack]
[- Various]
[- Split]
[- Converted]
[- NeedsReplaced]

Each of the above folders contains Albums.
Each album has its own folder named [Album Artist] - [Year] - [Album]

It can get a little more complicated because of the way I backup my music and
also because I keep original copies of official releases and converted audio.
If anyone cares I can post a very detailed description.

Meanings of some of the folder names:
Ripped - Albums ripped by me
Official - Officially released free downloads ie promos, and thank you's
NeedsReplaced - rips of poor quality that need a better copy.

[joh]

I have three root folders: Lossless, Lossy and Classical. The Lossy and Lossless are then broken down into [Album Artist (auto)]\[Album] and the Classical into [Album Composer*]\[Album]. (Album Composer is a user defined field). I like to maintain all the logic within the MC Library (and in the tags), rather then in folder structure (can't see the benefit of the latter). For a long time I did not even use a artist - album breakdown, but just had all the tracks in one very large folder.

[tunetyme]

From my perspective I focus on genre(Rock, Jazz etc.)\Artist Name(Beatles, The)\Album\Track (name) and cover art.  This keeps it simple for me.  I can find what I am looking for very quickly.  I also use for artist - Young, Neil as opposed to Neil Young.  This allows me the ability to find all my music easily.  The track number is in the tag so I don't need it in the filename.  When I rip a Various Artist disc I create an album folder under each artist.  I tried dealing with singles separately but it became a nightmare.

Taking time now to decide how to structure your file system is very smart.  I have over 26,000 songs in my database.  MC handles it beautifully.

Tunetyme

[roopertd]

I find it useful to keep the track number in my filename.
I use [Track #] - [Name] for regular albums.
I use [Track #] - [Artist] - [Name] for compilation albums.
That way the tracks are usually ordered correctly when viewed in windows.
It also helps to view music, on my sd card for my mp3 player, that isn't in the players database.
I kind of think of it as backup of my tags too.
By having all important information in the filename and containing folder i never have to worry about loosing tags.
The only problem I have had with loosing tags was when a few hundred were changed by my girlfriends cat slept on my open laptop.
I tag all artists by first name last name. Whatever is on the cd is what goes in the tag.
Except for "the". I remove leading "the"s from all band names.
This works well for me, but keep in mind i don't listen to classical music.

[pcstockton]

I find it useful to keep the track number in my filename.
I use [Track #] - [Name] for regular albums.

That way the tracks are usually ordered correctly when viewed in windows.

absolutely!!!  There can be no other way!

I keep it as simple as possible.  Artist/Album/01 - Title

[Alex B]

Any one else care to detail how you store your music files? Great info guys...

Here's what I use:

Directories:
[Album Artist (auto)]\[Album]\

Filename:
If(IsEmpty([Disc #],1), [track #], CD[Disc #] - [track #]) - If(IsEqual([Album Type], Multiple Artists /(complete/), 1), [Artist] - [Name], [Name])


Some examples of the resulting filenames:

Single Artist, no disc number:
\The Cure\Japanese Whispers\06 - Speak My Language.mp3

Single Artist, disc number:
\Bob Marley & The Wailers\Burnin' (Deluxe Edition)\CD2 - 08 - Kinky Reggae.mp3

Multiple Artists, tagged Album Artist, no disc number:
\Tiësto\Elements Of Life\03 - Tiësto feat. Julie Thompson - Do You Feel Me.mp3

Multiple Artists, automatic Album Artist value, disc number:
\(Multiple Artists)\Champs-Élysées Café\CD2 - 04 - Chateau Flight feat. Beretta 9 - Down At The Rotisserie.mp3

-- The text string "CD" will be added if the "Disc #" field has a value.


Marko has posted a nice example of a comprehensive renaming rule here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51475.msg351347#msg351347    

[tunetyme]

As you can see, everyone has their own methods.  You need to decide how you want to structure your database.  While I agree that track number can be nice if you look at things based on track number.  I find it easier to look-up things in windows alphabetically.  It's your database do what works best for you.  The problem I've had with just taking what comes up for artist is that I end up with multiple folders as there are a lot of missed spelled words and names.  With exception of Jazz I have one folder for each artist or classical composer.  With Jazz sometimes there are more than one big name artist in the artist name and I keep that as a folder name.  Think it through and decide what will work best for you. 

Tunetyme