J3 + selecting folders to play

[StormMage]

I have my music on my J3 setup such that it is in layered folders of band/album and I am trying to figure out how to select the band folder so that the J3 will play all albums within it but nothing else. Can anyone help me on this?

[DSperber]

Well, you can't actually get it to play all the album folders within that parent artist folder sequentially (i.e. by album) and nothing else. The J3 either can do (a) ALL, meaning everything without boundaries by artist, or (b) FOLDER, meaning everything within a single folder. But there's no way to cycle through all lower-level folders (i.e. albums) under a higher-level parent folder (i.e. artist), playing one album folder at a time.

However, if all of your music for that artist/band is in individual album folders underneath the parent artist folder, and if you don't mind listening to the net sum total of all tracks from all albums by that artist either in (a) alphabetical sequence by song title, or (b) random sequence by song title (i.e. NOT by album boundary, but really summed across all albums for that artist), then you CAN do it.

Of course this also assumes you have tags in your music files.

Start your browse using the Music icon on the main menu, and tap on the [Artists] item, and then scroll your way to the artist/band of your desire. Tap on that artist/band, to reveal a list of all lower-level albums for that artist. Also, at the top of the list is an item named [All Tracks].

If you tap on [All Tracks] you'll now see one single list containing the total of all tracks from all albums by that artist. You can choose to play that list sequentially in the order shown (which is alphabetical), or you can change the play sequence to be "random/shuffle"... but it will remain with that same list, meaning just that artist's music.

That's about the best you can do. Not sequentially by the tracks of each album, but at least nothing but all the tracks by that artist.

[StormMage]

Yeah I was figuring that after playing with it more, a little annoying since many albums feature multiple artists. Thank you.

[DSperber]

Originally Posted by StormMage

Yeah I was figuring that after playing with it more, a little annoying since many albums feature multiple artists. Thank you.

No... that's the beauty of the Music -> [Artists] method of selection and browsing, which is based on the tag data in each music file, not the physical album boundary.

No matter what albums that artist's music is contained on (either a single-artist album, or a compilation album that has some track(s) by that artist) a track that has that artist in its tag will have its "host album" show up in the list of albums for that artist. And yes, some of those albums may be compilations for sure with music by other artists on it.

However if you use the [All Tracks] item under the Music -> [Artists] method, the list of [All Tracks] which is presented to you is not the list of all tracks on the albums shown... it is the list of all tracks JUST BY THAT ARTIST ONLY, on the albums shown.

So once again, if you have proper tags in your music files, to listen to ALL TRACKS BY THAT ARTIST (no matter whether located on single-artist dedicated albums or on multiple-artist compilation albums), the only tracks you will see presented to you when you select [All Tracks] is the set of tracks FOR THAT ARTIST ONLY from the set of albums shown. Any tracks by other artists (on compilation albums shown) will NOT be presented in the [All Tracks] list.

The key to this? Music -> is a browse process based on the tags inside of the music files. Want to play all music from 1961? Go through Music -> [Years] and pick 1961. Want to play all music by Aerosmith? Go through Music -> [Artists], scroll to Aerosmith and tap to reveal all albums on which any Aerosmith track(s) can be found (both single-artist and compilations), and select [All Tracks]. You'll only see a list of Aerosmith tracks... from all those albums.

[dduckquack]

you can also use favorites and just add folders (albums)

[StormMage]

Sorry for late reply. When I meant multiple artists I meant many of the tracks have multiple artists in the Tags, sorry for not being clear.

[dzjc]

Originally Posted by DSperber

No... that's the beauty of the Music -> [Artists] method of selection and browsing, which is based on the tag data in each music file, not the physical album boundary.

Okay, I'm not disciplined at all with my MP3 tagging, and after reading your post, I can see the true value of doing that.

Dale