[Rhythmbox-devel] Remove ordering between browser parts, add a notion of album

[Stefan Monnier <monnier iro umontreal ca>]

On my wish list right now (other than finally getting MP4 to work ;-):

- when I change the "artist" or "genre" selection it should not
  systematically clear my selection in "album" (and in "artist" when
  changign the "genre").
  E.g. in iTunes I often do things like:
  - Select artist "Café del Mar", then select album "Café del Mar - Volumen
    6", then select artist "all".  This shows me all the songs on "Café del
    Mar - Volumen 6", even those that are not by "Café del Mar".
  - Select genre "Jazz", then select artist "Astor Piazzolla", then select
    genre "all".  This gives me all the songs/albums by Astor Piazzolla,
    even those that are not jazz.
  In Rhythmbox such things don't work because as soon as I select "all" in
  artist, my selection of album "Café del Mar - Volumen 6" is forgotten,
  and as soon as I select "all" in genre, my selection of artist "Astor
  Pizzolla" is forgotten as well.

- I was thinking again about this issue of "too many artists" which appears
  typically with compilations, and I think it may be useful to introduce
  the notion of an "album" object with fields similar to the fields
  of songs.  This way you could have a song by MoJo-Tire on an album by The
  Big White Elefants.  And you could distinguish the year of a song from the
  year of its album.  You could also have electronica songs on an album
  that's you'd rather classify overall as jazz.

  Most album objects could be created automatically:
  - if all songs of an album are from the same artist and from the same
    year, it's trivial.
  - else call it a compilation album with unknown artist.

  Then the "artist" and "genre" list could be either applied to songs or to
  albums, where the "artists of albums" view wouldn't suffer from the "too
  many artists" problem.


-- Stefan