What is the preferred value to put into the "Album" tag for a single? Should it remain blank, or should it contain a catch-all value like "single", similar to the "various artists" handling of compilations for "Album Artist"? The Album tag is also part of my file naming structure, so a value for singles would be helpful, but don't know how that could adversely affect filtering, displaying, etc.
I use the name of the single, suffixed with " - CDS" to indicate that it's a single.
there is no rule, make it own, that's all
personally, i left it empty but in my playlist viewer or track info panel, i use titleformatting to display "Single" if the tag ALBUM is empty ==> $if2(%album%,'Single')
I would use the name of the main track/A-side because many singles contain other tracks/B-sides that would require categorisation. If necessary, the title could be suffixed by [single], or prefixed if you want singles to be grouped together but without having to invoke another field.
I take the title from the Discogs database (database guidelines on the title are here (http://www.discogs.com/help/submission-guidelines-release-title.html)).
EXAMPLE RELEASE:
Joy Division / Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980) / Original UK Vinyl SingleThis single contains three tracks.
I copy out my Tag scheme for all the tracks and I see:
================================================================================
• TR No: 01
• TR TITLE: Love Will Tear Us Apart (Strawberry studios, Stockport, Mar 1980)
• ARTIST: Joy Division
• ALBUM ARTIST:
• ALBUM: Love Will Tear Us Apart
• DATE: 1980
• GENRE: Rock; Alternative.Rock; Art.Rock
• COMMENT: <PRODUCTID>Single | Vinyl, Factory #FAC 23, Original UK Press, 12" 45rpm | Rip by USER (Jun 2010)</PRODUCTID/>
================================================================================
================================================================================
• TR No: 02
• TR TITLE: These Days (Pennine studios, Oldham, Jan 1980)
• ARTIST: Joy Division
• ALBUM ARTIST:
• ALBUM: Love Will Tear Us Apart
• DATE: 1980
• GENRE: Rock; Alternative.Rock; Art.Rock
• COMMENT: <PRODUCTID>Single | Vinyl, Factory #FAC 23, Original UK Press, 12" 45rpm | Rip by USER (Jun 2010)</PRODUCTID/>
================================================================================
================================================================================
• TR No: 03
• TR TITLE: Love Will Tear Us Apart (Pennine studios, Oldham, Jan 1980)
• ARTIST: Joy Division
• ALBUM ARTIST:
• ALBUM: Love Will Tear Us Apart
• DATE: 1980
• GENRE: Rock; Alternative.Rock; Art.Rock
• COMMENT: <PRODUCTID>Single | Vinyl, Factory #FAC 23, Original UK Press, 12" 45rpm | Rip by USER (Jun 2010)</PRODUCTID/>
================================================================================
I drag and drop the parent folder of the tracks into my fb2k playlist viewer, and the tracks form a group
and the display in my playlist viewer looks something like this:
Joy Division ● Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980) ● Single | Vinyl, Factory #FAC 23, Original UK Press, 12" 45rpm | Rip by USER (Jun 2010) Rock; Alternative.Rock; Art.Rock
01. Love Will Tear Us Apart (Strawberry studios, Stockport, Mar 1980)
02. These Days (Pennine studios, Oldham, Jan 1980)
03. Love Will Tear Us Apart (Pennine studios, Oldham, Jan 1980)[!--sizeo:1--][span style=\"font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\"][!--/sizeo--]NOTE - I am using foobar2000 with "Column UI" (alternative user interface) and the built-in playlist viewer "NG Playlist"[/size]
I've been using Musicbrainz' ReleaseType (http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/ReleaseType) for quite a while now. Hence my ALBUM tag contains the name of the Single itself (which mostly corresponds with the first and title track), and additionally tag RELEASE TYPE to distinguish between releases. One problem with that scheme is when you have multiple singles with the same name, for that I just fell back to use the ALBUM tag to distinguish releases (e.g. append "Single 1", "Single 2").