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[DavidHB]

This is an old discussion, going back at least to the early days of MinimServer, but it is always interesting.

Like, I am sure, many others, I encountered the issues with tagging classical music (and therefore with using my music library effectively) when I first started streaming music a decade or so ago. I found that poor tagging was certainly an issue, but that the root problem was the fixation of the music industry on the Artist>Album>Track system of organising music, which simply doesn't work with classical material. In fact, there is no single basis of organisation that works with every classical recording. This is why intelligent browsing in MinimServer is so useful; it doesn't constrain you to one way of doing things.

Like the OP, I stated off using folder view and trying to maintain a coherent folder structure, which I still do, to keep the library manageable. But it soon became apparent that I would have to confront the tagging issue. I eventually came up with a 'layered' system for dealing with tags.

Layer 1 is the download or ripping stage. For ripping, I use dBpoweramp, which not only accesses several libraries (thereby offering a selection of tagging options), but also has facilities for basic tag editing before the ripping process takes place. With downloads, I try to use suppliers who take tagging reasonably seriously; both Hyperion and Linn are pretty good in this regard, for example, as was Channel Classics in the days before it (sadly) closed its download library.

Layer 2 is fine tuning the tags, particularly to make sure that I use consistent naming of composers and works. For this I use MP3Tag, which has a really good 'consistency' feature, whereby one can open several albums at once, go to the tag where there are inconsistent values, and use a drop-down menu of all the values in the current track selection. Selecting one of these values (or just entering a new value once) and saving the result makes the tag values consistent. Tricks like this make the tagging process bearable (in fact, I found it to be quite therapeutic), as well as giving the user a new appreciation of his or her music library.

I also make use of the ComposerSort and CompositionSort tags to deal with oddities and inconsistencies. This allows me to deal with problems in alphabetical listing (Ludwig van Beethoven, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Josquin des Prez) and issues such as the ordering whichever of Domenico Scarlatti's 550 or so keyboard sonatas are in the library (I simply put the Kk number of the sonata in the CompositionSort tag, which is not actually displayed).

All in all, I'd argue that systematic tagging of classical music is well worth the effort. I suspect that most of us reach the stage at which the pace of new acquisitions slows down, and then maintaining the library requires very little work, while we continue to enjoy the benefits of earlier work delivered through the good offices of MinimServer.

David