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[mattlovell]

Is it possible to add grouping and newlines to the Artist view, as requested in this 2018 question?

Library view Album by Artist, new line for each Artist
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=115023.0

I think the second screenshot -- showing the Album by Artist view from Windows Media Player -- in that thread is a nice one.

I could envision doing something similar for, say, Genre.  One could have a given Genre, all the albums that fit that Genre label, then a newline (or some other visual separation) prior to the next Genre, and so on.

Thanks!
  Matt

[HPBEME]

I did quite a bit of experimenting trying to achieve the layout shown in the WMP screenshots you referenced, and I'm fairly confident when I say it is not possible for MC to display thumbnails in this manner.

It is already possible to group by artist, or any tag field for that matter, but "display groups" are only shown in the bottom half of the main content area, which is where MC displays the media files themselves.  These can be shown in several different ways, but none of them mimic anything close to what you're looking for.

If you simply want to isolate album thumbnails for a selected artist(s) (filtering out everything else except for the selected items), that can be achieved in a number of ways.  The most efficient way is to use the Panes view style. Using panes will also allow you to simultaneously filter on genre, or decade, or any tag field you desire to filter on. 

Below is my Panes layout - maybe something similar to this would work for you? The first screenshot shows my full library with nothing filtered.  The seven column groups along the top represent the tags I chose to quickly filter what is shown.  The second screenshot is after I filtered on genre jazz(sub-style fusion) for the decade 2000 to 2009.

If you are interested in using my layout as a starting point, I could save it off and upload it to wherever J River stores user custom views. I know that is possible, but I confess I've never actually done it. Anyway, I hope this helps in some way.

[mattlovell]

I'm fairly confident when I say it is not possible for MC to display thumbnails in this manner.

Agreed.

I'm nevertheless hopeful that the JRiver developer's might consider the request.  From my limited perspective, such a layout option could be integrated into either the existing "List Style" or "Thumbnail" choices for existing views.  If adding to the "List Style" choices, the user could pick between "Thumbnails", "Details", and a new "Grouped Thumbnails".  The layout could alternatively be viewed as a (very) different form of fanned thumbnails.  Rather than showing a fanned stack of thumbnails, each grouping would

• take the group title (e.g., Artist or Genre) and render it on a newline (in what I'm naively thinking of as the canvas for the View);
• show the thumbnails as per the usual "Thumbnail" view;
• and stop the thumbnail array, padding out the current grid line, upon the next group title (e.g., next Artist or next Genre).

I do have an existing "Artists & Albums" view as you suggested, HPBEME, with sorting by Year and then Album title for each artist.  I'm seeking additional visual whitespace between each Artist (or between each Genre) with this feature request.  I'd still like both "Play" and "Files" options for each Album thumbnail, with "Files" opening the bottom pane (all the behavior that presently exists).

In your screenshot, HPBEME, how did you achieve the decade grouping for Years in the Pane view?

Thanks!
 

[HPBEME]

In your screenshot, HPBEME, how did you achieve the decade grouping for Years in the Pane view?

Go to customize view, select the year tag to edit, and at the bottom of the edit window there is a checkbox for grouping, and enter 10 for the group size.

[HPBEME]

You might want to re-post with FEATURE REQUEST: show all album thumbnails for each artist as a standalone group in a scrollable view (or something less cumbersome ) as the subject line. 

That said, there are other media players that don't do exactly what you're saying, but are closer to it. Those players display sort of a hybrid of how WMP and MC do it.  I have to admit, I do prefer how they function vs. how MC does it, and someday I may put together feature request of my own with mock-ups showing it. 

That said, MC's capabilities for tagging, the EQ & plug-ins, super easy to add any column you want for detailed lists, swapping skins on the fly, etc. are simply unbeatable. MC has so many customization options that no other player that I have tried has… And I have tried a lot of them!  But...  some players do have a few, very desirable, features/functionality that I would love to see MC incorporate (mainly around improving the GUI). Just because MC is the best, that's no reason to stop making improvements!