Updates to Album view in Music Library

[wordlover 103]

1. In individual Artist/Album Artist screens below name/image/bio, display Albums before Songs (i.e. move Albums list up); list of all Albums is almost always what users want to see and browse through, not individual songs.

2. At top of "Edit Metadata" popup screen for individual Albums, display source directory in the same way it's shown in "Edit Metadata" popup for individual Songs.

[user24 94]

@wordlover Yes, I totally agree that Albums should be above Songs, especially in the Album Artist page view. The Album Artist view is likely one of the major pages used  by many when browsing a large music library.

One observation with the Emby music pages is that the Album Artist / Artist / Composer pages ALL give the exact same view, so all they are is essentially a top level filter, rather than a selection to view you music library in various different ways. If I select an Album Artist (who happens to also be tagged in metadata as a Composer) then I get the exact same page for all three options.

Perhaps one way for Emby to give more flexibility for different user preferences would be to have a different order for the different pages? E.g:

• Album Artist pages - Albums above Songs
• Artist pages - Songs above Albums
• Composer pages - something to suit Classical? (not my area of expertise)

The most flexible approach would be to allow for a user customisable order across all apps.

If you just use the web app, you can swap Songs and Albums yourself with customised CSS, as follows:

div.details-additionalContent { display: flex; flex-direction: column; } 
div.artistSongsSection { order: 2; } 
div.artistAlbumsSection { order: 1; } 
div.moreFromArtistSection { order: 3; } 
div.appearsOnListsSection { order: 4; } 
div.peopleItems { order: 5; } 
div.similarSection { order: 6; } 
div.aboutSection { order: 7; }

I have also just posted more detail about this in the Web App CSS forum:

Comments and feedback most welcome!

[Tremas 106]

I think you have some very good suggestions and overall feedback, but I disagree with item 1 above.

Top songs that are played most frequently should be listed prior to albums, as is the case in Tidal, Roon, YouTube Music and others.

I understand that there are a number of album-centric users, but may of us are much more playlist-centric or and have many artists in our collection with only a handful of songs, or albums where we want quick access to only a few songs from an album without clicking all the way through to each individual album. I would argue that there are better ways to sort and present the tracks that are in the artist view, but I absolutely believe the hierarchy of top tracks followed by albums is the best layout for both artists and album artists and should not be changed.  

That said, I would be happy for more configurable options but I would rather see that work put into other areas first.

[Vicpa 559]

Hi All,

+1 alot of good ideas! I agree with 

5 hours ago, Tremas said:

I would argue that there are better ways to sort and present the tracks that are in the artist view,

I suggest before changing a view, you need to be specifically selecting a Music Type ("album artist", "artist", "composer")

Currently Emby "masks" the distinction between "artist", "composer" considering the Data types the same resulting in every view to be exactly the same regards of type. 

[user24 94]

Hmmm, yes... Everyone has their own unique & diverse taste in music AND everyone has their own unique & diverse way of viewing and playing it!

I have seen quite a few posts where people have asked to either hide Songs or put them below Albums. This is the first time I have come across someone (Tremas) stating a valid case for Songs. (All good - It's not possible to both Like and Disagree with a post at the same time, perhaps  ???)

What I really like about Emby (so far) is that there is a reasonable amount of flexibility with some page views and, by using the web app and custom CSS, it is possible to hide some elements that I personally don’t use and rearrange others to suit. I'm having fun experimenting at the moment...

I also like different music views depending on what I am wanting to access and play...

One day I might want to view and carefully select from Albums by Date Added for serious listening of a new acquisition on a high-end music system.

Another day I might want to just casually listen to Songs by Random from my whole collection (or perhaps a playlist) on another music set-up.

Currently, there are many Sort By options to independently select from for the Albums page and the Songs page. I can therefore have a DIFFERENT view for EACH page and quickly change between them.

Presently there is no built-in method to change Sections order on the Album Artist/Artist/Composer pages. While I have managed to make some modifications with CSS, I am not a CSS guru and this SAME view still applies on all 3 pages.

For Emby to be even more oriented towards YOUR MEDIA, YOUR WAY, it would ideally be possible to have the option of custom independent section ordering (and hiding) across these three pages (Album Artist/Artist/Composer).

Those people that like the present set-up can keep it as is and those that prefer something else can change it. Everyone wins!

Edited February 12 by user24
minor edit - two words transposed incorrectly

[beckfield 93]

I've found one instance where I want to see the list of songs, and that's for the "Various Artists" artist.  However, even that will not be ideal until the VA artist from Library A shows only the songs from VA albums in Library A.  Right now, if you have 2 or more libraries, and each library has a "Various Artists" artist, the VA songs from all libraries are mixed together, regardless of where you access it from.

[user24 94]

On 2/13/2024 at 7:18 AM, Vicpa said:

Currently Emby "masks" the distinction between "artist", "composer" considering the Data types the same resulting in every view to be exactly the same regards of type. 

I think this distinction is also "masked" at a Song level, from what I can see, by checking a few Artists who are also tagged as Composers elsewhere.

For Albums there is some distinction because we have two Album sections:

• Albums (based on Album Artist tags)
• Appears On (based on Artist tags)

For Songs there is just one section:

• Songs (based on Artist and Composer tags)

So if I want to listen to (say?) a random selection of Paul McCartney performed Songs, I get many other Artists mixed in, where Paul McCartney is listed as the Composer. I suppose I could set up Playlists/Filters/Tags, etc. but that could be a lot of work for a large library, when the Artist choice is likely a random whim of a particular day.

All of the Metadata (Album Artists, Artists and Composers) is already there if the source material is tagged correctly. Would there be any benefit in having:

• Albums (based on Album Artist tags)
• Appears On (based on Artist tags)
• Songs Performed (based on Artist tags)
• Songs Composed (based on Composer tags)

This would perhaps give a bit of "unmasking"? This may still not be enough for classical music where Composed By may also be useful as a separate section for Albums (just guessing - not my genre)???

With any possible implementation of the above (or something similar) it would be useful/necessary to have the option of showing or hiding the sections and being able to do this independently across the three tabs: Album Artists, Artists and Composers.

[Tremas 106]

Great suggestions @user24. These are my favorite type of feature enhancements, and the type that I feel emby should really focus: using the data that is already present in the system to empower new experiences with your media.