The Case for an Updated Genre Box in Opus
Hi,
Over the last ten to fifteen years or so, Music genres have vastly expanded while others have faded away. However, the "standard" list of Genre in ID3 tags in Opus have largely remained the same.
As there's a need to add new genres to the list, it is as equal of a need to omit/hide the ones that are not being used to avoid cluster in that scrolling pop-up box.
Currenty, about every program with mp3 tag editors allow the user to permanently add genres to their lists; Usually labeled as a USER-DEFINED LISTS. i.e., MP3Tag, Tag&Rename, TagScanner, beatunes, MediaMonkey, etc... Unfortunately, that's not the case for Directory Opus. Mind you, I understand that Opus is NOT a dedicated MP3 Tag editor. However, Opus is one of the most (if not the most) customizable file manager programs that exist. So, I tend to believe that updating that part of it is not a far-fetched request/suggestion.
Now, you might say, hold up! All you must do is click that bracket and enter the genre, right? Yes, that's possible and I've used it that way many times over, but whatever genre is written in the bracket is not permanently added to the list. So, if I encounter fifty files at various times of browsing through my collection through a day, then I must enter each new genre every single time. Well, it quickly becomes an inefficient way to handle Genre tags on a regular basis in Opus.
- What are those Genres I'm talking about?
Well, for context and examples, there have been a good number of main genres and sub-genres that came to prominence and are not listed in the "standard" list included in Opus:
Under the "EDM" umbrella alone: Bass House, Tech-House, Tropical House, Future House, Future Bass, Future Rave, Riddim, Big Room, Minimal, Melodic Techno, Afro-House, Moombahton, Nu-Disco, etc...
Under the Hip-Hop umbrella: sub-genres like Trap, Drill, Bounce, Twerk, etc...
International: Afrobeat, Amapiano, Azonto, Kuduro, Kizomba, Kompa, Basshall, Favela Funk, Reggaeton, etc...
The Need for Further Genre Customization:
Besides adding new Genres as is, I'm writing to suggest and request this update with a DJ mindset and the modern approach of filling the Genre field also.
There have been new developing trends over the streaming (Spotify, Apple) and record pool (DJCity, Beatport) platforms to list two Genres in the Genre field. The reason being is how music over the last decade has tended to be a lot more diverse and genre-bending in their sound and production.
A number of recent songs have been hard to define. So, in that case, we tag them with the ; or / sign [Main Genre;Sub-Genre] which can be translated to Hip-Hop;Trap or EDM/Electro.
That's already possible in other programs as I've mentioned. So, hopefully with an updated Genre panel in DOpus that can allow us to add and pre-fill those Genre combos in the list. Best of all, we'd not have to open an additional program whenever the need arises to make such an edit.
Example of DJ Genres combo:
So, to be clear and conclude this suggestion/feature request post:
I'm NOT asking anybody at GPSoft to go sit down and research every single new genre to add to the standard Opus list. What I'm suggesting is for GPSoft to consider extending the editing possibilities of the Genre metadata by allowing users a way to permanently add new genres either on top of what's already exist in the standard list or allow us to have a User-Defined List in the Preferences area. And while at it, also possibly allow us to hide unused genres in Opus.
User-Defined Example area example:
Thanks for your consideration.