As a long time music enthusiast and former database developer, I have a very keen interest in ensuring my (1,500 album) music collection is correctly sorted when displayed on screen. Since before Apple bought and renamed it, I've been using iTunes for this and its ability to sort how I want is exemplary. But it has other issues that mean I am looking to Plex as an alternative and I could do with some help understanding how it works in this regard.
My requirements are simple but rigorous. I like to drill down through Artist -> Album -> Track, well mostly I stop at Album and play that, but I want them listed in what I consider to be the only acceptable sort order:-
Artists should be listed sorted by what I consider to be correct for the artist, e.g. "Edmunds, Dave", or "Dire Straits", or "Beatles, The" etc. I have made extensive use of the Sort Artist tags to achieve this in iTunes.
Albums for an Artist should be sorted chronologically. Again, I use the Sort Album tag to achieve this.
Tracks of an album should be sorted by Disc No, then Track No.
But it gets more complicated for broader groupings:-
All albums should be sorted by Sort Artist/Sort Album
Tracks of an Artist should be sorted by Sort Album/Disc No./Track No.
And of course 'Compilations' should be listed separately.
The point is that iTunes can sort anything any which way, as long as you correctly tag everything, which I have done. However, what about Plex?
From some screen shots, it looks like Plex understands the 'Sort' tags. But:
- Does it use them when sorting?
- Will it actually import them when I add my correctly tagged music files (Copy from iTunes is an option is it not)?
- Will it allow me to sort the lists as I require?
I don't mind having to configure how it sorts, but since as far as I can tell, Plex imports all the tag metadata into a SQL database, sorting any displayed lists is simply a case of using the appropriate column names in the SQL SELECT statement. IOW, VERY easy to choose and change the sort order of the data retrieved. But can I do this? Can I specify the sort order (i.e. columns(s) I want it to use, or am I stuck with whatever has been predetermined by the developers which I am cynical enough to suspect will undoubtedly be wrong as I've never come across one yet who really understood about music data.
Having said that, I realise that not everyone is as concerned as I am and some will require a different order. So my question is, how configurable is Plex? Does it allow the user (administrator) to ensure the required sort order is displayed so everyone can be happy, or does it ignore this altogether and expect us to be grateful for whatever sort order the developers chose?
Although iTunes gives complete control of this to the user, Apple then totally screws it all up with all its different devices. Almost every device onto which you can place/play your music is different. An iPod Classic will sort one way, an iPhone will sort a different way etc. It is truly mind blowing that a company which placed so much importance on the concept of consistency so comprehensively ignores any such value in so many of their current products. Hence my desire to look at Plex (again). But can it do what I need? Can it?