FLAC tags

[Eddie Armstrong]

Erik Hovland wrote:
> Xiph has been clear in the past that they don't really want a comment
> standard beyond what is already provided. They provide the flexibility
> to put in whatever you want after that. You are better off coming up
> with a convention that works for forums like Hydrogen Audio.
>
>   
Maybe xiph are part of the problem - they don't want to create a more 
comprehensive standard so no one dares introduce new fields in case they 
are incompatible with other peoples usage. (yet their spec says; "We 
will generally collect the more useful tags here to help with 
standardization.")
Again Xiph states "Below is a proposed,/ minimal /list of standard field 
names with a description of intended us" (my emphasis) and "Individual 
'vendors' may use non-standard field names within reason. The proper use 
of comment fields should be clear through context at this point." So it 
appears field names may be added/altered within reason. It seems 
reasonable to suggest field names reflect the data you wish to store 
concerning your record collection.
I would like to see the tagging in Amarok meet my needs but also as it 
is such a useful program I am sure music  collectors would like to use 
it to catalogue their collections and all users would like it to 
facilitate organisation and searching..
This is what it looks like to me so far (corrections welcome) and Amarok 
seems to have non-standard tags all ready:
    Xiphs List                                                Amaroks 
Tags                             

TITLE                                                                    
           TITLE
VERSION  (multiple versions in one album)                ------
ALBUM                                                                    
        ALBUM
TRACKNUMBER                                                           TRACK
ARTIST         (for classical=conductor)                         ARTIST
PERFORMER(for classical=orchestra etc)                 --------
COPYRIGHT                                                                
    ---------    
LICENSE  (licensing info                                                
------------
ORGANIZATION  (e.g.record label)                                ----------
DESCRIPTION    (of contents                                         
-----------
GENRE                                                                  
           GENRE
DATE           (date TRACK recorded)                            YEAR
LOCATION     (where TRACK recorded)                       ----------
CONTACT     (creators or distributors contact)             ---------- 
                  
ISRC            (int. std. recording code)                            
-------------                          
 --------                                                                
                DISC NUMBER    
------------                                                           
                 COMMENT
-----------                                                             
                COMPOSER

Proposed Extra Tags
(as I do not collect classical music I think others better qualified 
should suggest tags for them, e.g. 'soloist' )
1:    Adopt *all* xiph's tags.
2:    Keep Amarok's extra tags
          make YEAR=albumyear, ARTIST=albumartist
3:    And add:   trackyear, trackartist,
4:    introduce multiple field for some tracks as per this xiph example
"Field names are not required to be unique (occur once) within a comment 
header. As an example, assume a track was recorded by three well know 
artists; the following is permissible, /and encouraged/: [my emphasis]

              ARTIST=Dizzy Gillespie 
              ARTIST=Sonny Rollins 
              ARTIST=Sonny Stitt 

(this would particularly help jazz collectors but also help, say, duets, being tagged by each artist)
Some people like to keep track of the 'personnel' playing on each track so I imagine a personnel tag might be useful

Hopefully this would form the basis for discussion re tags' lists.
Eddie"