I avoid the auto-organise function, reason every time MM launch it scan the whole library, 60,000 songs will take forever.
No, not the continuous/startup auto-organise; the manual version.
There’s a right-click option on selected files, that will move files into directories based on the metadata. There’s a sophisticated path/filename construction system using metadata tags you specify, and any fixed elements you want to put in the path name.
To move selected files to a path E:\Media\Album Artist\Album/01 Track.ext
you would use the construction string:
E:\Media<Album Artist><Album><Track#:2> <Track>
where the items in <brackets> are selected metadata tag names used by MM.
It will show you where it is moving files from and to, and you can reject any that are wrong. If you change the construction string, it will show the changing effect.
It’s the reverse of the ‘Auto-Tag from Filename’ tool, which uses the same tags, and a sophisticated filename parser to extract metadata from the path and filename.
It’s the tool you can use to undo iTunes/iThing file obfuscation, and pull music off an iThing into a sensible folder structure.
So to me there is not reason to create an Album folder.
MediaMonkey, like most decent media library managers, understands the concept of physical and logical views of the library.
I keep all my music in folders, one per CD. This means, should I ever need to re-rip it, it’s easy to find. This is a physical, or location-based view of the library (as it appears under the ‘Location’ browser in MM).
Using metadata, you can create any number of alternative logical views of the library, sorted by whatever metadata tags you want (there are lots to choose from in MM). These are presented by MM as the ‘Artist’, ‘Album’, ‘Genre’ etc views.
If you select the ‘All’ view in either Location or Metadata views, you can use the Detail (track list, rather than artwork) view and sort your music by any of the metadata tags the tracks contain. This allows you to do your playlist selection based on whatever metadata category it is you want for that playlist, be it Genre, Artist, Year, Composer, Contributing Artist, Last Played, Number of Plays, etc. etc. Just right-click on the header banner, and add the columns you want to select with.
The advantage of MM’s auto-organise function is that you can re-arrange the music physical locations however you like. PROVIDED YOUR METADATA IS CORRECT…
