I find that one of the most frustrating features of the music system is that any changes to the artist field wipe out all metadata for all other fields -- so that if you change the artist's name for a CD, you need to re-enter all of other data for the CD, including every single song.
Now, you might wonder why one would need to make changes to the artist field. I doubt that many changes are needed, if any, when dealing with traditional rock/pop CDs. But the problem becomes truly annoying when working with classical albums. Sometimes the artist shows up as the composer (like J.S. Bach), sometimes the artist shows up as the conductor, sometimes the artist shows up as the orchestra, sometimes the artist shows up as the soloists -- all of which makes searching for classical albums by artist a complete nightmare.
The same is true of recordings of musicals. Sometimes the artist is the composer, sometimes it's the lyricist, sometimes it's both the composer and the lyricist, and sometimes it's something really helpful like "Original Broadway Cast."
I would have thought that Kaleidescape would release a music management system that's at least as powerful and as easy to use as free software like iTunes or Windows Media Player. But I guess not. Does anyone know whether Kaleidescape plans to remedy this problem -- or whether they even view this as a problem? I have been in touch with at least one engineer who says that Kaleidescape is aware of the issue and that they intentionally "locked-down" the artist field as a way of preserving all of the metadata associated with a CD. But I find that explanation to be truly unsatisfying.
These guys hit a grand slam with their movie management system. I was truly dissapointed (and slightly horrified) by the inadequacies of their music management system.
Now, you might wonder why one would need to make changes to the artist field. I doubt that many changes are needed, if any, when dealing with traditional rock/pop CDs. But the problem becomes truly annoying when working with classical albums. Sometimes the artist shows up as the composer (like J.S. Bach), sometimes the artist shows up as the conductor, sometimes the artist shows up as the orchestra, sometimes the artist shows up as the soloists -- all of which makes searching for classical albums by artist a complete nightmare.
The same is true of recordings of musicals. Sometimes the artist is the composer, sometimes it's the lyricist, sometimes it's both the composer and the lyricist, and sometimes it's something really helpful like "Original Broadway Cast."
I would have thought that Kaleidescape would release a music management system that's at least as powerful and as easy to use as free software like iTunes or Windows Media Player. But I guess not. Does anyone know whether Kaleidescape plans to remedy this problem -- or whether they even view this as a problem? I have been in touch with at least one engineer who says that Kaleidescape is aware of the issue and that they intentionally "locked-down" the artist field as a way of preserving all of the metadata associated with a CD. But I find that explanation to be truly unsatisfying.
These guys hit a grand slam with their movie management system. I was truly dissapointed (and slightly horrified) by the inadequacies of their music management system.