[vorbis] (Classical) Request for Standardization of expanded TAGS

[Craig Dickson]

Jon Shiring wrote:

> So you're saying, "Because most people get tags wrong, let's force them to 
> only list one album, even if the song appears on more than one"?

I'm not arguing in favor of forcing ALBUM to be a singleton; I'm just
arguing against encouraging people to put multiple ALBUM tags in. Of
course, a more fundamental objection is that other album-related tags
(track number, release date, record label) would be utterly useless with
multiple ALBUM tags, because you can't tell which TRACK or RELEASEDATE
tag goes with which ALBUM tag, since there's no structural relationship
between tags.

> Not only does it remove a feature that MIGHT be useful, it seems
> contradictory to say, "We need to be able to list what ensemble as
> opposed to performer performed this song, but we should prevent people
> from listing all of the albums a song is on. They are too dumb to do
> it right."

That's not a contradiction _for_ _me_, because I'm said repeatedly that
I think the PERFORMER/ENSEMBLE distinction is a bad idea. I'd rather
drop ENSEMBLE and list the "performer" (whether a single person, a duo,
an ensemble, or whatever) in PERFORMER (or ARTIST, though I agree that
PERFORMER is a better name). Especially since Jonathan has made it
clear, through examples, that he expects PERFORMER to be used whenever
the "artist" is a single person, even if the name used obscures that
fact (e.g. a "rock group" that is really just one guy overdubbing all
the instruments). That's guaranteed to cause confusion, and to be used
incorrectly. The ENSEMBLE tag is simply unnecessary. "PERFORMER=Yo Yo Ma
(cello), PERFORMER=Los Angeles Symphony" is every bit as good as
"PERFORMER=Yo Yo Ma (cello), ENSEMBLE=Los Angeles Symphony". I think we
all know that a symphony orchestra is an ensemble, right? Do you really
need a tag to tell you?

> Again, not only is it possible for some people to use it correctly,
> but only limiting it to one album doesn't fix the problem -- the dumb
> people will still put the wrong album in.

How likely is that, though, when the album is right in front of them?
(Assuming that people tag their files immediately after ripping, or even
as part of the rippig process if their tools allow that.) Sure, there
will be a few people so stupid that they can't get it right even then,
but that's surely a smaller minority than the people who can't tell the
difference between two slightly different mixes of a song (who may not
be a minority at all, he said, cynically).

Craig

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