Add Overview Text Section to the Music Genre pages

[user24 123]

Hi Emby team, good work so far with the new Music Genre pages that are progressing well.

Please could you add an Overview Text Section below the Play/Shuffle/etc buttons near the top of the page, similar to what is already on the individual Album Artist etc pages, when you have time. (Perhaps you may be planning to do this anyway, based on how the page is evolving?)

Thanks for considering.

[ebr 14960]

Hi.  Where would the content in this overview come from?

[user24 123]

For me personally, I would just be happy to have a blank section that I could manually fill in, especially as I have many self-created non-standard Genre labels. This would be a very good start and perhaps the easiest for Emby to implement as a first step?

Beyond that, it may be possible for Emby to automatically import from MusicBrainz, but that could mean that people would have to use the exact MusicBrainz Genre label for the importing to correctly work? (You would know more about this than me.)

Here is the MusicBrainz Genre list: https://musicbrainz.org/genres

Here is an example Genre listing (which looks like they got from Wikipedia): https://musicbrainz.org/genre/0e3fc579-2d24-4f20-9dae-736e1ec78798

Another interesting aspect is that MusicBrainz shows sub-genre relationships. There are some other Emby forum topics asking for a music Sub-Genre (or Style) field (not a text overview - just the field) to be imported from embedded tag data...

Having a Genre Overview on the Genre pages PLUS sub-genre fields would be very nice, but now I am getting way ahead of myself and my initial simple request!!!

Edited April 29 by user24

[ebr 14960]

Is the description of what "Rock" is really something that needs to take up valuable, top-line, screen real estate?

[user24 123]

47 minutes ago, ebr said:

Is the description of what "Rock" is really something that needs to take up valuable, top-line, screen real estate?

A 3 line description... (that could be selectable expanded) very similar to the Album Artist etc pages now, would not really be taking up valuable space because in the latest stable version of Emby, a graphic image has been added to the LHS which gives the needed RHS space in landscape layout, e.g.:

I would not consider this as taking up space, rather it is enhancing the Genre view and using currently wasted space. (On mobile apps though, as opposed to larger screens, I concede that it could be an issue - I don't know all the different configurations)

Also, if someone is going to the Genre page (on, say, their PC or TV) they are likely interested in that Genre and may want to learn more (no different than learning more about an individual Artist). Roon (for example) has implemented extensive Genre and Sub-genre info pages, so they must think it is important for all of their customers. I'm not asking for Emby to implement Genres to the same level as Roon, but just to further enhance the newly created Genre pages with the option of being able to add a text overview.

If some people want it, then great. If it is left blank - then what happens to that spare space - does it stay there or do the various responsive? (portrait) page views collapse appropriately and fill in the blank space with the next section below? If this is the case, then it doesn't take up space for those who don't want it to?

At the moment I think that Emby is "halfway" there with the new Genre pages. A few more enhancements, over time, and it will be excellent!

Edited April 29 by user24

[Happy2Play 8361]

5 hours ago, user24 said:

For me personally, I would just be happy to have a blank section that I could manually fill in, especially as I have many self-created non-standard Genre labels. This would be a very good start and perhaps the easiest for Emby to implement as a first step?

Beyond that, it may be possible for Emby to automatically import from MusicBrainz, but that could mean that people would have to use the exact MusicBrainz Genre label for the importing to correctly work? (You would know more about this than me.)

Here is the MusicBrainz Genre list: https://musicbrainz.org/genres

Here is an example Genre listing (which looks like they got from Wikipedia): https://musicbrainz.org/genre/0e3fc579-2d24-4f20-9dae-736e1ec78798

Another interesting aspect is that MusicBrainz shows sub-genre relationships. There are some other Emby forum topics asking for a music Sub-Genre (or Style) field (not a text overview - just the field) to be imported from embedded tag data...

Having a Genre Overview on the Genre pages PLUS sub-genre fields would be very nice, but now I am getting way ahead of myself and my initial simple request!!!

But not sure if it is available to query.

musicbrainz.org/ws/2/genre/0e3fc579-2d24-4f20-9dae-736e1ec78798

Don't see a way

MusicBrainz API - MusicBrainz

[user24 123]

@Happy2Play Thanks for taking the time to look into the technicalities. I don't understand a lot of it, but you're given me something to learn a lot more from about MusicBrainz and potential integration with Emby. (Gee, I have a lot more tagging to do now!)

@ebr I would still advocate for a blank field that could be manually populated. I notice that Music Playlists have an Overview field. I could ask a similar question, "Why would anyone want this?", but the Emby mantra of "Your Media Your Way" comes to mind...

A casual user is likely to only ever want to play the media and may not greatly care about additional details (that is me for movies and TV shows). They possibly just consume the media but don't really collect or curate it. They likely don't care about what media platform they use for this.

A dedicated user (and media collector) will likely care about additional details (this is me for music). These are the people regularly on the Emby forums and those that will champion the use of Emby to their friends and family, if Emby has some nice extra features that other media platforms do not.

Thanks again for considering and the replies I have received so far...

[ebr 14960]

13 hours ago, user24 said:

I notice that Music Playlists have an Overview field

The main difference there is that playlists are user-created while genres are virtual in that they are derived from the metadata of your items - so they come and go without any user intervention or knowledge.

There also can be a lot of them and the number of people who would manually edit an overview for them would be very very small.  However, it should be a relatively easy add and, if harmless for the default case, then is something to be considered.

Thanks.