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[Humbledore]

Hi,
Before I started with MC I was a WMP user. One thing I miss from WMP is the fact that very often I ripped a CD, info for the Composer field was added to the library. In MC, however, that is not the case. Not once have I seen a value for Composer... Why is that?
Thanks!

[WeeHappyPixie]

I think it's because M$ use AMG as there metadata source and JRiver use there own internal system. AMG are a commercial company and M$ pay a royalty to use it's database.

John

[Humbledore]

Thanks,
I understand these differences, but if MC can store Artist, Genre, Year etc, why could they not store Composer?

[AndrewFG]

There are other ripping applications that link to multiple online music databases.

e.g. http://www.dbpoweramp.com/cd-ripper.htm which uses AMG, GD3, SontaDB, Musicbrainz & freedb

[JimH]

JRiver Media Center uses both YADB and FreeDB.

[Listener]

Thanks,
I understand these differences, but if MC can store Artist, Genre, Year etc, why could they not store Composer?

I've been involved in a number of discussions about providing better online tag database content for classical music.

JimH has asked for ideas but the discussion gets bogged down when a number of people dogmatically push their own method as the only rational one.  JimH then retreats as any sensible person would.

One problem is that some people want to preserve full compatibility to other devices such as iPhones or other music player software.  Those people want to stuff the Composer value into the Artist, Album or (track) Name tags.  And these people don't agree on how Composer, Work Name, Performer and movement name should be stored in the lowest common denominator set of tags.

Even the people who favor using the Composer tag don't agree on the form of that name or the form and placement of the Work Name, Performer and movement name information.

I figured out the way I wanted my tags to be used and used JRiver's excellent tagging tools to hand edit the tag info when I rip each CD.  It takes me about 1 minute to gets the tags right for a typical classical CD with 3 works by a single composer.  A multi-composer, multi-performer CD might take 5 minutes to get the tag info done.

When I was ripping my CD collection in 2006, I often used 2 DVD drives so that I could overlap the tag editing with the time JRiver needed for the actual ripping operation.

(I have used dBpoweramp which populates the Composer tagbut I found that editing the tags it produced was more work than just doing it by hand in JRiver.)

[Humbledore]

Listener, thanks for your elucidation!
I can just add, for example; when I ripped a Mozart CD in WMP, the composer field was added with Mozart, if I ripped a Beatles CD, McCartney and Lennon were added. That suited my needs...

[astromo]

If you want something comprehensive, you could look here:
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Classical_Music_FAQ

Apparently musicbrainz.org and freedb.org have some level of cooperation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedb

To my mind, if JRiver chose to work to a standard (i.e. style guide) then re-invention of the wheel wouldn't make sense. I'd go with an established philosophy, e.g.:
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Classical

[Listener]

If you want something comprehensive, you could look here:
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Classical_Music_FAQ

Apparently musicbrainz.org and freedb.org have some level of cooperation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedb

To my mind, if JRiver chose to work to a standard (i.e. style guide) then re-invention of the wheel wouldn't make sense. I'd go with an established philosophy, e.g.:
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Classical

When MusicBrainz came out with a style guide, I read it through with high hopes.  After lots of rhetoric about how rigorous they were and how unsatisfactory other work had been, they settled for cramming the composer info together with the work name rather than keeping it in a separate field.  I don't see the point of all the bluster. I certainly would not want JRiver to be held hostage to such narrow minded, uncreative zealots. I'd be outraged if JRiver set out to improve the classical music tag situation and wound up with a crippled approach like MusicBrainz's.


Existing JRiver database entries have the composer name somewhere in the LCD tags for almost all cases.  However, since most of the entries were submitted by users with no agreed upon way to entry info for classical music, entries are not consistent. 

Trying to find the composer name, work name, performer name and movement name in existing entries will not be easy and will produce some zany screw-ups.

My main point was that JRiver users with large classical music collections don't agree on the way info should be distributed among tags.  Any new approach will please some and produce howls of protest from others.  My disagreement with astromo's suggestion is an example of that reaction.

[Vincent Kars]

An obvious first is the support of the composer tag.
In the past almost nobody did. Hence all kind of workarounds to put the composer somewhere
Today support for this tag is much better.

JRiver, MusicBee, Foobar they all support this tag
Likewise DLNA servers like Minim or Android players like UPnPlay do.

Personally I don’t see any reason to use any workaround, just select the right software supporting the composer tag.

Another problem is populating this tag.
Internet databases like AMG or GD3 do.
They probably ask $2,- per seat so I don’t expect them to be supported by JRiver.

In case of FreeDB it is coming.

How to get the composer tag populated in JRiver?

As far as I know, JRiver support YADB and FreeDB but the latter only at rip time.
As the OP stated, most of the time you won’t get the composer using JRiver

As others mentioned, dBpoweramp is an excellent source for meta data but it is rip time only.
You can’t tag tracks already in the library.

You might try a nice piece of freeware like MP3tag
Is uses the usual suspects Amazon, Freedb, MuzicBrains, Discog

In case of classical I use the Musichi Tagger.