How to manually reset playcount using Playback Statistics?

2023-06-17 04:05:29

Hello,

Background:
I don't really retain playlists, instead I add all songs by an artist and then remove the songs with low playcount. Unfortunately, if I've listened to a song that I dislike many times, this system falls apart. Therefore I would like to manually decrease the playcount of some songs.

Question:
Using the Playback Statistics plugin, how can I decrease the playcount / set it artificially?

Things I've tried:
1. Adding a field called %PLAY_COUNT% with the new play count to the track in properties -> Metadata (nothing happens, the new line disappears).
2. Editing the "Play count" field in properties -> Details (nothing happens, this field can't be modified).

Note I tried running foobar as Administrator for both of these tasks just in case that made a difference.

Additional info:
I am willing to consider switching plugins, but ONLY IF it would be easy to keep all of my existing playcounts.

Thanks!

Re: How to manually reset playcount using Playback Statistics?

Reply #1 – 2023-06-17 10:57:55

You can copy and paste from other track (with the playcount number you need) with a keyboard shortcut. You can copy and paste from several tracks as long as the number of tracks is the same.

Re: How to manually reset playcount using Playback Statistics?

Reply #2 – 2023-06-17 14:12:51

Hi there,

Playback Statistics will not let you decrease the PLAY_COUNT tag (by using 'Import From File Tags' in right-click context menu), it only lets you increase it.

You can use right-click context menu to 'Reset Statistics' - but this erases first/last played dates as well as play count. This menu is where you can 'Copy/Paste Statistics' as michtar mentioned, but that also replaces first/last played. Not the best.

It sounds like a hassle to do things this way. Why not just use ratings? - Give the tracks you dislike a 1-star rating. This is what ratings are for after all. Then you have a few options. You could use a library viewer like Re/Facets or Library Tree to filter out 1-star tracks before adding them to playlists. Or you could install Skip Track component to simply skip those tracks in a playlist, which it does by default. (You could do the same things with play counts, but the point is you cannot control play counts as easily as you can ratings).

Re: How to manually reset playcount using Playback Statistics?

Reply #3 – 2023-06-17 17:24:02

With something like Facets or CUI Filter panels you can also add multiple filters for each thing you are tracking: one for rating (which should have a designated value for marking tracks as to-be-skipped, like '-1') and one for playcount. Then you can easily cherry pick any combination of those you like.

I like to keep playcount and ratings separate (but track both), because people tend to rate new tracks very enthusiastically initially (everything is a 4/5 or 5/5), but after the honeymoon period is over those ratings become obsolete as they get tired of the song. In contrast, playcount is always consistent since you can't really fudge it easily. But just because you played a song many times does not mean you automatically love it. Maybe you just had it for a long time, therefore it naturally accumulated more plays than others.

I also prefer to make ratings into more of a favorite/likes counter instead of a rigid 1-5 scale. If you enjoy the song, you can increment the counter by 1 with a keyboard shortcut. If you want it to reach a high rating, you have to rate it many times to compete with the other highly rated tracks. There is nothing stopping you from doing that in one go - except that its a nuisance to do so - by design. In my experience this keeps overenthusiasm in check and allows for more granual and more accurate separation of track "value". Those tracks that reach the top had to be rated enthusiastically on multiple separate occasions.

If i had a simple solution for it, I might even consider adding a decay function, that would gradually lower the counters back towards 1 over time (unless you manually rate them upwards again - which would indicate you still have not grown tired of them).

There is also this project, which tries to estimate the rating based on track age vs playcount which is better than just relying on %play_count% alone:
https://www.giantpygmy.net/studio/?post=dada-music-auto-rating-algorithm-foobar2000