Sort by Year should sort by month/day as well

[jaredean]

I want the ability to have the Sort by Year to put albums that are in the same year in the correct order - i've got several albums this way, but have also included the month/day with the year column like this:

1994 04 05

DBPoweramp automatically tags this way as well...i want to have it sort by the entire date, instead of just the year when sorting albums...

thanks
jared

[bukdub]

I think thats a cool idea, but where would I get the data from? I guess I could read it from the ID3 tag on the tracks, is that what youre thinking?

At what level are you suggesting this? Genre, Artist, or Album? If in Artist, say they have multiple albums, which album date would you sort by? See the problems? I could probably easily add the ability to sort by year when viewing the Artist I would dig into each album that I find, get the year off the first MP3 that I find, then sort that way.

Would that do what you want? Would you want to see the year when displaying the album?

Thanks for another idea, please keep them coming...

Ross

[jaredean]

Sorry it took a bit to reply, I didn’t see your response had come through (didn’t get a notification)…yes, that is exactly what I’m thinking – getting the data from the ID3 Tag…I use dbPowerAmp to rip my music to FLAC and will lookup (or it will lookup for me) the date of the release, usually with a month and day. The tag has the field in the following format (2011 10 22). I’ve checked these files in winamp, and it is pulling that info into the date field, so it should be usable.

I like to sort my music by album, so when I click on an artist it shows the albums from newest to oldest. If that artist came out with 2 albums in the same year (or various EP’s in the same year) then it is currently random on how they are displayed. I would LOVE to have them pull the month and the day for the sort so each album is in order of when it was actually released.

So, yeah, grab the first date on an album from the first MP3 and then sort them that way. You could also display the full date as well. Make sense?

Thanks for looking into this!

[tynmon]

Right, there is a standard DATE ID3 tag. It should be used in my opinion. If one wishes to sort albums by year, or by album artist, then by year, DATE should be supported as artists/bands often release more than one album or single in year.
The other tag category Winamp lacks support for so long of are the various sorting tags, i.e. SORTARTIST, SORTALBUMARTIST, SORTALBUM, SORTTITLE, SORTCOMPOSER. They all are well supported by iTunes/iPod and make surfing through the library much easier.

[seanlsyyy]

thank you

[ron2112]

Originally Posted by tynmon

Right, there is a standard DATE ID3 tag. It should be used in my opinion. If one wishes to sort albums by year, or by album artist, then by year, DATE should be supported as artists/bands often release more than one album or single in year.

Nothing substantial to add to this, just another vote for this much-needed feature. Despite what Winamp currently thinks, Caress Of Steel does not come before Fly By Night.

thanks
ron

[sweatervest]

Originally Posted by jaredean

I want the ability to have the Sort by Year to put albums that are in the same year in the correct order - i've got several albums this way, but have also included the month/day with the year column like this:

1994 04 05

DBPoweramp automatically tags this way as well...i want to have it sort by the entire date, instead of just the year when sorting albums...

thanks
jared

I do this as well and would really like to see this feature so that multiple albums from the same year show up chronologically. Currently Winamp will display the full year tag of the file it is playing at the top, but it cannot sort by the whole year tag. One more vote for adding this feature (or just adding a "date" column to the albums view)! Thanks!

[Aminifu]

Year and date are not the same thing. Just because some other app (and some users) treats them the same does not make them so, imo. If you want WA to support a date tag, just ask for that.

The problem stems from different tagging standards specifying different tags and some apps trying to cross-match them. Cross-matching works well when the specified contents of the tags are the same and only the tag name differs. It only confuses things when the contents of the tags are not the same (close to being the same should not count as being the same).

[sweatervest]

Right there is a "date" tag and a "year" tag and each can store its own data. I would slightly rather have Winamp support month/day info in the "year" tag, since my library is already tagged that way and I think that's what other players like iTunes and Foobar do (that way my library can work as is with all those programs). But if Winamp uses the "date" tag and allows me to sort the album list by it then that would be fine too. However the year tag can certainly store more than just the year (I already use it to store month, which Winamp can see when playing the file), so I think just getting Winamp to sort by the whole tag instead of just the first integer in the tag is the easiest way to go, and probably better than getting Winamp to support the "date" tag as distinct from the "year" tag (which I can see causing confusion and incompatibility).

[Aminifu]

Hi sweatervest,

I agreed that de facto standards have a way of making official standards irrelevant. Standard makers should look more to consolidation rather than duplication (adding stuff just for the sake of being different or to avoid paying royalties). As a former engineer and programmer, I know the bind this puts devs in trying to serve 2 masters; popular user preferences (quicker to change) and interoperability dictated by official standards (slower to change).

Some apps go one way, some the other, and some try to split the difference. This form of competition is not a good situation for all concerned, especially the user. It only increases cost, complexity (leading to errors), and confusion.

Winamp was the 1st major app of it's kind and hasn't seemed overly concerned with interoperability with it's competition. It does try to satisfy it's user base, so maybe this thread's wish will be granted at some point. Some standard would still be needed. Year-day-month or year-month-day or something else (WA is used internationally) and what to do if only year is entered.

Tags can be, and are, used in non-standard ways, but I think it could be better to have Winamp support the Date tag that is already defined.

[MrSinatra]

personally, i would suggest that all year tags be 4 numerals, and just leave it at that.

then i would suggest new fields:

MONTH
DAY

and perhaps a third one, to do 3 char month abbreviations that winamp internally would convert to numerals. so "Apr" is displayed but winamp knows its 4 or 04.

imo, its better to segment this data into specific fields, rather than try to jam it all into one. certainly easier for programmers to then handle it, as they don't need to worry about users knowing how to enter the data, or write complex rules for sorting, and its more flexible too.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

imo, its better to segment this data into specific fields, rather than try to jam it all into one. certainly easier for programmers to then handle it, as they don't need to worry about users knowing how to enter the data, or write complex rules for sorting, and its more flexible too.

Sounds logical, but without multi-column sorting this would not solve the OP's issue. Lack of multi-column sorting is hindering WA's file management capability. After that issue addressed, all manner of currently defined and new tags could then be added and used effectively.

Someone needs to take on the challenge of adding multi-column sorting. This one thing would go a long way in supporting WA's lead marketing line, "It's how you listen, watch and manage music, video, podcasts and internet radio on your desktop and devices.".

[MrSinatra]

well, thats kinda true, and as my sig shows i've long supported multiple column sorting, and i have lots of ideas about how to do it seamlessly in winamp; but the way i would implement this req to work now WITHOUT M.C.sorting is if you were to click on year, you could ascend/descend as you can now, and any in the same year would be alphabetical.

if you clicked on month, it would be the same, EXCEPT it would AUTOMATICALLY account for the years as well, (in other words, it would assume when you clicked month, you also wanted year taken into account, a logical assumption 99% of the time). and then same thing for day.

not the ultimate solution, but one that could work with winamp the way it is now.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

if you clicked on month, it would be the same, EXCEPT it would AUTOMATICALLY account for the years as well, (in other words, it would assume when you clicked month, you also wanted year taken into account, a logical assumption 99% of the time). and then same thing for day.

not the ultimate solution, but one that could work with winamp the way it is now.

If Month and Day are added why do you think the 2nd order sort would work the way you suggest? Or are you also suggesting that the 2nd order sort work that way? If the current devs can do that, they should be able to give us multi-column sorting. I agreed the current 2nd order sort seems to be alphanumerical, but by what; artist, or album, or title? It seems to be artist most times in my experience (ignoring a "The" if the artist name begins that way).

If you have figured out the logic of the 2nd order sorting currently being used, please tell us. I thought it had something to do with the columns being shown and their left to right order, but this does not seem to be the case, at least not consistently.

There could be some logic to it or maybe it's just random. Maybe whoever developed it is no longer around and did not document what was done. I've spent a few hours (now and then) trying to figure it out by trial and error and every time I thought I was close to a working theory, I tried a test case that broke the theory.

The only thing that currently works consistently is single column sorting. Adding a date tag and column should be easy to do and would solve the OP's issue without any other changes. Year should remain a 4 character field, imo.