Ordering composers/artists by last name, then first

[Robstockwell]

Had an exchange with Mr Spoon on this and his advice is that if I want to order artists and composers by last name/then first name, I need to make the changes manually in the meta data - if needs be, track by track. I have a lot of classical and there are lots of composers that I just don't know by first name and that is not how they are generally known. Record shops and libraries (yes, they still exist) also order their stock last name/first name - so I wouldn't search for Haydn under F(ranz Josef) or even for Dylan under B(ob). Also on a CD with many composers, I'd like to be able to locate tracks by those composers using a search by last name. Altering everything manually is very laborious. Has anybody developed an easy fix for this in Poweramp? I'd be grateful for any help.

Or, am I the only one old-fashioned enough to want to do it this way?!

Still new to this. Ripping my CD library using Dbpoweramp beta 12 for Mac and a WD MyCloud Mirror as NAS. The controlling app on iPad and iPhone for my Cyrus equipment is Cyrus Cadence.

Thanks for any help.
Rob

[L'enfer]

Re: Ordering composers/artists by last name, then first

I run into this a lot as well seeing as all my music is "Classical" I basically do it manually. Although I had no idea there was a bd for Mac even in beta...

I just wanted to let you know your not alone sorry I couldn't be much help.

Kind Regards,

L'enfer

[Dat Ei]

Re: Ordering composers/artists by last name, then first

Hey Rob,

Or, am I the only one old-fashioned enough to want to do it this way?!

maybe. As long as the ID tag standard does not differentiate last and first names and as long as metadata databases are organized like today, you have to fight the system. But what is it good for? Is it worth the effort?

I had similar thoughts like you. Is it better to store "Beatles, The" instead of "The Beatles" or not? At the end I came to the conclusion that all depends on the software I use to access my music library. In a file browser it might be easier to look for "Haydn, Franz Josef" instead of "Franz Josef Haydn", as long as you search with your eyes. If you use the search function (like in the Windows file explorer), it doesn't matter if you have stored "Franz Josef Haydn" or "Haydn, Franz Josef" - just type "Haydn".

Most modern music and entertainment systems organize the media files in databases. You search and browse in your media files by looking for parts of your metadata. I.E. OpenELEC doesn't care if the file name or even the ID tag is "Franz Josef Haydn" or "Haydn, Franz Josef". That is a form of separation of the old fashion organisation by file and directory names versus a powerful organisation by metadata.


Just my 2 cents

Dat Ei

[Robstockwell]

Re: Ordering composers/artists by last name, then first

Hey Dat Ei
Thanks for that (and to L'Enfer for letting me know I wasn't quite the only one). That all sounds sensible. The only problem I have is that the the iPad/iPhone app that Cyrus have designed to work with their streamers does not have a search function as such - so visual browsing is what you do (with the ability to jump to a certain section of the list). I'll try Cyrus and see whether they can incorporate the kind of functionality you describe in an upgrade to their app.
Rob