Should I upgrade to Squeezecenter 7.1 or not?

[GeeJay]

I can't imagine NOT needing tags, but to each his own I guess. Being able to maintain consistent volumes (ReplayGain), ratings (TrackStat)are extraordinarily important to me. CustomSkip is another "must have", as it allows me to filter out particular genres, years, etc.

If you haven't missed having tags up to now, I'm not sure anyone here is going to sell you on it...but most folks find them extremely useful.

[cavediver]

i can't tell you why you should care, but i can tell you that i care about having the tag data b/c i have a very large collection of music and the tag data not only helps me organize it and keep track of it, (what version something is, where it came from), but it also allows me other functions such as replaygain that allow me to maintain essentially a consistent volume in a random mix without altering the actual music data.

to each his own, but i couldn't get by without tags.

as to bw, if your situation ever changes or if you ever want to share your music (to others) or even take it portably somewhere, it matters.

I'm only asking these questions because I've never really understood just what tags can do for someone or how they make a difference. How do tags help you organize your music?

I have mine orgainzed under a main Music folder and in subfolders by artist/album/tracks. They show up on the Squeezebox display just the same and I don't have any problem finding any music I want to listen to.

[cavediver]

I can't imagine NOT needing tags, but to each his own I guess. Being able to maintain consistent volumes (ReplayGain), ratings (TrackStat)are extraordinarily important to me. CustomSkip is another "must have", as it allows me to filter out particular genres, years, etc.

If you haven't missed having tags up to now, I'm not sure anyone here is going to sell you on it...but most folks find them extremely useful.

Replaygain is something I have some interest in, but in the last year since I've been actively ripping and listening to my music via a Squeezebox, I haven't really needed it. What are ratings?

[GeeJay]

Erland's TrackStat allows you to rate your music, typically on a scale of 1 to 5. If you really like a song or album, you give it a 5, if you don't you give it a 1.

The ratings come in handy if you also use his CustomSkip plug-in. For example, I have a random song playlist that will skip anything rated a 1, will skip 2s 75% of the time, etc., with 5s being played anytime they come up in the mix. That way my "random" playlist is heavily weighted towards songs I like.

[cavediver]

Erland's TrackStat allows you to rate your music, typically on a scale of 1 to 5. If you really like a song or album, you give it a 5, if you don't you give it a 1.

The ratings come in handy if you also use his CustomSkip plug-in. For example, I have a random song playlist that will skip anything rated a 1, will skip 2s 75% of the time, etc., with 5s being played anytime they come up in the mix. That way my "random" playlist is heavily weighted towards songs I like.

Now this sounds interesting. Do you rate the song using the Squeezebox remote while or just after playing a song?

[Nonreality]

I'm only asking these questions because I've never really understood just what tags can do for someone or how they make a difference. How do tags help you organize your music?

I have mine orgainzed under a main Music folder and in subfolders by artist/album/tracks. They show up on the Squeezebox display just the same and I don't have any problem finding any music I want to listen to.

It's more about having different ways to access your music than organize. If you were in the mood for say folk music you could just pull up all of your folk music and do a random mix of just folk. Maybe you want to hear just some 70's music, there you go. Tags let you take advantage of having your music on your computer. Right now you are just taking advantage of a small percent of what you could do. It's hard to explain, but once you start using it all most people start to see the why of it.

[GeeJay]

Now this sounds interesting. Do you rate the song using the Squeezebox remote while or just after playing a song?

Both. Particularly with the IR remote, it's easy to rate a song while it's playing (e.g., press and hold the "5" button if you want to give the song a 5 rating). You can do the same thing with the Duet Controller, but it's a bit more involved.

TrackStat also allows you to go back and rate songs earlier in the mix (or even those that aren't on the playlist). You can also rate songs in MusicIP and import them to SC (and vice versa), which is an easier way to "mass" rate songs.

[Nonreality]

Oh btw you have enough ideas now, it's in your hands if it's worth it or not. You can see most here feel it is but still if you want to take advantage or not is up to you. Have fun.

[andynormancx]

I feel the need to point out that Pandora is only available in the US and Canada and that last.fm isn't available everywhere either.

[atrocity]

I chose wav for my archive format because I don't care about storage space as I have a lot and can add as much more when I need it. Storage is not expensive.

If a FLAC file is 60% the size of a WAV file, your storage device is doing 40% less work serving up FLACs than WAVs. It doesn't seem a stretch to assume that will have an effect on drive longevity. Storage may indeed by cheap, but breakdowns are still annoying.