Sorting of albums chronologically

[Wakizashi]

I searched the forums for what I'm about to address, and to my surprise couldn't find any post regarding this.

To me, this is by far my biggest annoyance: when you access your music library -> artist -> albums, the albums are sorted alphabetically. To me, this doesn't seem logic. Why would anyone want to browse/play an artist alphabetically? Ok, maybe if you have an artist with many albums (like 20+), and you only remember the album name, then it might be easier to find.

To me, it would be preferable to have the albums sorted cronologically, by relase date (year). My best comparison would be WinAmp, as that program has been my preferred music player until now. WinAmp solves this by giving the user the possibility to use the year ID3-tag to sort the albums (since version 5.21 (source)).

Of course, this solution doesn't solve everything, as some artists (especially "Various Artists") release more than one album per year. As far as I understand, the year ID3-tag only takes four digits. But for now, I'll settle for sorting the albums primarily by year, then by album name .

However, I would really appreciate the ability to sort the albums like this. How about making it an optional setting? Or even better, having it assigned to one of the hard buttons below the display (like sort alphabetically when you're browsing cronologically and vice versa).

When I have other users use my Sonos, and they're not as familiar with my music collection as myself, they often want to play the last album by an artist. But today that's not easy to see by browsing the album names.

I can't imagine any artists listing their discography alphabetically .

And further more (this has been mentioned before, but it relates to my paragraphs over), when you access the All on top of all the albums, all the tracks are sorted alphabetically. To me, this seems really useless. In my opinion, this should also sort the tracks by the year they were made (example: track 1-12 of the album from 1999, track 1-15 of the album from 2001, and so on). That way, pressing play when you are highlighting the All category on top of all albums, would play the artists entire works cronologically.

All these thoughts came to mind after the first day of using my Sonos, and they have only became stronger since. I'm sure some people prefer it the way it is today, but I think we should have the option of choosing how we prefer to sort our albums (and tracks).

I have sorted my folders on my hard drive like this: \artist\year - album name\, so by accessing my music by folder, I achieve what I'd like, but I'd prefer to have this in the main music library.

Or am I the only one who thinks this?

[RO53BEN]

Something I've never thought about, but I'm inclined to agree...especially with the alpha sort of tracks when you add all albums...but only as an option.

If I'm looking for a track by an artist and I don't know which album it was on, the alpha sort is invaluable...without it there'd be no hope.

So, whilst chrono sort feels more proper, I think the alpha sort feels more usable.

Incidentally, not sure I've ever press play on all albums before...I generally just press play on each album individually.

[the-gnu]

I agree - I have many cases where I've got several albums by the same artist and I'd like to be able to see their album list chronologically.

Interestingly, Windows Media Player 11 (beta) has this as a feature, which is great.

Would love to see this in the software update v 1.4!

Cheers. Gordon

[rungabic]

This would be a nice option to have -- I have many artists with literally dozens and dozens of albums apiece, and I do find myself wanting to play someone's early, middle, or late work...but invariably I blank out on the actual name of the album.

I'd like to see this optional feature and not have to resort to re-tagging my collection with bastardized album names like "2002 - The Lost Recording"

Brent

[Wakizashi]

Originally Posted by rungabic

I'd like to see this optional feature and not have to resort to re-tagging my collection with bastardized album names like "2002 - The Lost Recording"

Yes, I've been wondering if I'd have to do the same. By using software like MP3 Book Helper this could be done to my entire music collection with a few keystrokes, as it's able to change a directory recursively (change "<title>" to "<year> - <title>"). But doing so doesn't feel right. And it isn't - the artist/group didn't name the album with a year up front. Using other software to play the same music would make the album title tag seem erroneously tagged.

[Wakizashi]

Originally Posted by Genius74

Sometimes (I don't know if it depends on the CD or the database that it gets it's info from) the wrong YEAR can be pulled in if:

1) The Ablum was re-released
2) The Info in the CDDB is incorrect

If the information in the CDDB is incorrect, there isn't much you can do. It's put there by people like us, and people make mistakes. The only accurate way to get the year right is probably to look at the CD-cover's back and check the release year.

Not to mention the fact that albums can be released at different years across the globe (as the artist/group becomes more popular), and then you're stuck wondering "what album release did I just download/buy?".

Originally Posted by Genius74

Sidenote: How would you handle the albums without the year available? Default to the bottom?
Top?
and then Alpha?

I personally would never put an album without all the tags correct into my collection, including the year tag . When in doubt, I often find myself checking Amazon, as they have a wide range of albums available, and the release year is often stated.

But hypothetically speaking, to answer your question, I suppose I personally would prefer them the way I (must?) have albums released the same year, alphabetically.

[buzz]

Issue date is often not very useful if you are following the career of an individual or group.

For example, an LP may have been "issued" in the 1950's, a CD in 1983, and a "compilation" in 2004 for a musican who died in the 1940's (The original recording was an obscure 78 from the 1930's).

When data is available on the jewel case, I'll fill-in both the copyright date of the CD and the recording date if both are available (on a track by track baisis), otherwise I'll use the copyright date for both.

Mostly, I find that CDDB supplies the copyright date. So far, I have not seen any CDs with date tags on a track by track baisis.

[reastoe]

Yup, I think a sort-by-year option would be a great addition.

I too like to see all my albums for an arist in chronological order. At the moment I go in by the filename (I've structured the folders to include the date). I've also tried abusing the Composer tag to do something similar but it's a wee bit pish It would be much neater to be able to sort by year as an option from the main menu.

As a side effect, it'd also be nice to be able to select tracks by year; for those "play me everything from year x" requests.

[geo]

I'm not sure I care that much about this feature. It works for me. I do often have to use "all" under artist and look for a song alphabeticly becuase I can't remember what album it's on.

If you wanted to work around this you could Tag your albums with the year proceeding the names. There are plenty of good tagging programms I'd bet one of them would automate this for you.

[Wakizashi]

Originally Posted by geo

I'm not sure I care that much about this feature. It works for me. I do often have to use "all" under artist and look for a song alphabeticly becuase I can't remember what album it's on.

Sure. What we want is an option. We want both ways to sort our albums and songs.

Originally Posted by geo

If you wanted to work around this you could Tag your albums with the year proceeding the names. There are plenty of good tagging programms I'd bet one of them would automate this for you.

Like I've already explained 5 posts up in this thread, that's not an ideal solution. If you'd read it, I doubt you would've posted what you did . Thanks for the suggestions though .