Re: [flac] Fields "Orig. Artist" and "URL"

[Julian Hughes <julianhughes gmail com>]

On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:04:12 +0100
richard lucassen <mailinglists lucassen org> wrote:

> On Sun, 16 Dec 2012 18:23:21 +0000
> David King <amigadave amigadave com> wrote:
> 
> > >IMHO we need an RFC for tagging.
>......
> "COMPOSER"? Try to tell Apple that the use of the "COMPOSER" field is
> not used anymore. They use it (I think that's right btw)
> 
> Changing the functionality of some fields is not a solution I fear, as
> long as no specific directions exist in this matter :-(
> 
> That's the problem we keep running into...

True.  However perfect the metadata it still will never be displayed by
99% of the hardware players, and hardly even by many software
players/apps.

Vorbis and flac tags are already versatile enough for classical music
and EasyTag allows editing of enough appropriately named fields to do
the task well.  The challenge is to have your player display the tags
that are resolutely ignored by the pop music listeners who wrote much 
playback software.  On BSD or GNU/Linux MPD has several clients which
allow full use of all tags.  On Windows foobar2k is at least as
versatile.  Portable players are more difficult but if your player can
run Rockbox firmware then that is easily customised to display
whichever fields you like, how you like.

I don't see any need for complex schemes where artist no longer means
artist, composer no longer means composer and so on.  There is a famous
acronym KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.  How about:

Composer = composer
Artist = the principle performer
Album = the name of the album as written on the CD case
Title = the title, as denoted in the CD booklet/cover/tray
Comment = whatever you like (secondary performers, location, notable
instruments etc.)

An example:

TITLE=Act I. "Shake the cloud from off your brow" (Belinda, chorus)
ARTIST=Les Arts Florissants & William Christie
ALBUM=Dido & Aeneas
DATE=1995
TRACKNUMBER=2
TRACKTOTAL=26
GENRE=Baroque
COMMENT=Dido: Véronique Gens ; Aeneas: Nathan Berg ; Belinda: Sophie
Marin-Degor ; Sorceress: Claire Brua
COMPOSER=Purcell

which describes a file located in:
/home/julian/Music/Baroque & Classical Music/Purcell - Dido & Aeneas -
Les Arts Florissants & William Christie

or

artist=Colin Tilney
title=In Nomine 6
album=Frühe Englische Orgelmusik
genre=Early
date=
tracknumber=01
composer=John Bull
comment=Knole House Chapel Organ

which describes a file located in:
/home/julian/Music/Early Music/Frühe Englische Orgelmusik - Colin Tilney

If a work is entitled Piano Concerto # then there's no real need for a
"Type of work" metadata field to state for a second time that it's a
Piano Concerto.  Not all works are self descriptive but most are, and
one can always use the comment field if there is something important
but non-obvious that should always be presented. 

So that's how I use EasyTag to arrange my tags, and my players display
it nicely. Inevitably some works will have much more info, far more
than fits comfortably in a small display even with scrolling lines and
alternating fields being displayed, but at that point maybe one is
trying to do things with metadata which is better done by making a
simple text or html file.  Some record companies "solve" this by
creating a Lyrics field and basically dump an essay into it; I have
Hyperion downloads which have Lyrics fields of over 2000 words, and
it's pretty pointless because which player is ever going to do anything
useful with that (I dump it into a plain text file)?  My point is that
because it might be possible to create a Byzantine tagging standard
doesn't make it useful or even truly useable.  I have about 850 albums
of Classical/Baroque/Early music and there really aren't many that
can't be accurately described and organised just by using a sensible
directory structure and tagging scheme, but you do need to choose your
playback software and devices carefully (or luckily).