I selected three albums by the same group (The Pretty Things) and added Phil May to the list of people.
Selected each album individually and there he was.
Selected all three again to add Viv Prince but old Phil had vanished.
Also in updating the artist list to reflect that Viv was the drummer this seemed to appear in one album only.
This was an easy case where you could select each album individually and enter the same five names and roles three times. Imagine doing it for ten albums by the same group - you wouldnāt bother.
So could there be a way to edit people in multiple albums without deleting all that has been entered before?
And if an artist has a particular role (eg guitarist) could this be displayed in all instances where he or she appears?
In Music Collector, the Edit Multiple function works to replace your existing list of artists/musicians/other lists with the one youāre creating in the Edit Multiple albums screen.
This is not something that can change.
In Music Connect (our web-app) you actually get the option to either Add to your existing list, or replace (or remove certain ones etc.).
Iām afraid that function is not available in Music Collector though. Sorry about that.
This is something that several of us wanted back in the days of the Old Forum. Discussion got a bit heated with Alwin having the last word, of course, and basically telling us to shut up, it would stay as it was - any new entry erased existing data. He implied that it could done technically - you seem to be saying that there are structural/programming reasons and that it canāt be done in MuC.
Iām still curious, because this is a āfeatureā thatās caused me to spend many, many extra hours of extra labor adding whole lists of names rather than just tacking on one new one.
Is it something that canāt be done, or just policy?
Many years ago I had some wonderful music collector software by Davilex that included this feature. Then Windows āwhateverā came along and it wouldnāt run. I moved to CLZ where they imported my existing collection of albums for which I was very grateful.
Still it would be a great enhancement well worth the annual sub.
Itās a good feature, and it made its way to Music Connect. You can use it there.
Technically, yes, possible on Windows, but a lot lot harder to program than it was on Music Connect.
Idea:
If you have lots of work to do where this feature would come in handy, you could fix up a month of Music Connect, sync, and make your changes there, then sync back to Windows!
Good idea and great lateral thinking. All that stops me is the sheer number of albums (2500+) by groups (300+). Entering all that data would require months of slow and steady work. My fault for having too much music - hold on, you can never have too much music!
Music Collector has lots of excellent features; this would have been a ānice to haveā but is not essential
Reallyā¦ can we please stop bringing up these warm and fuzzy āAlwin told us to shut upā memories from the old forum? That must have been over 10 years ago. This is 2024, different times, different forum. It was fun when Club CLZ just started, now it is getting old.
Another example of how Music Connect is better software.
If you want to call it āpolicyā, then yes, I would say it is more of a policy issue than a ācanāt be doneā issue.
Of course, it would be technically possible to improve the Edit Multiple system for Artists and Musicians, allowing the adding, removing of persons, instead of replacing the entire list.
However, that would be quite in an investment of development (several weeks easily), by a developer who has already switched to work on Connect full time. It would also be a risky update, possible generating bug reports and bug fix updates for weeks afterwards.
That is just not an investment that is feasible for us, to a desktop version that is obviously āon the way outā, while the feature IS already available in our main and recommended web-based platform Music Connect. Even the CLZ Music mobile app already has a better Edit Multiple tool.
We are planning to keep maintaining the software (for now), and keep it compatible with CLZ Core, CLZ Cloud, CLZ Scanner, possible Windows updates, etcā¦ But It is unlikely that there will ever be a another feature update for the Music Collector desktop software.
But you already knew that, right?
I mean, if you take a look at our release log for Music Collector:
youāll find that the last actual feature update we did was in Feb 2022, over 2 years ago. All updates after that were just compatibility or maintenance updates.
Appreciate you taking the time to explain this in detail.
I worked on a Windows based software system for the Royal Navy some 25 years ago. Eventually newer ships with newer systems came along and we were relegated to the status of a legacy system. Although the system worked improvements were still feasible but were deemed not cost-effective. The ships continued in service for many years but were all scrapped by 2015.
Bit of a parallel here so I guess Music Collector is a legacy system. It works very well but as itās āon the way outā thereās not much point in a further subscription unless some future version of Windows causes problems. If indeed a fix would be implemented,
Subscriptions are not only about updates. In fact, updates are only a small part of that, especially for legacy software like this. The point of a subscription would still be:
- using the software
- getting access to CLZ Core for adding albums
- getting access to CLZ Cloud for syncing to cloud and the CLZ mobile app
- getting customer support
This has been a very enlightening thread for many reasonsā¦ history and future. I suspected Music Collector was legacy/dead software but seeing it definitively explained here from leadership removes any guessing. I hadnāt looked at the website for a while, and now I see the change in product positioning.
This is too bad because I LOVE the Windows software. A web-based solution doesnāt appeal to me and Iām not interested in using a mobile app on my small phone screen. Unfortunately, it seems itās time to start seeing whether a suitable replacement exists before this one is no longer supported.
The last three items are self-explanatory, but how about 1? If you do decide to discontinue product support, would currently-installed MuC Windows still function as local apps, but without server connections?
Why not? Ever tried it? Itās really good.
The CLZ Music mobile mobile app is not meant as a replacement for the desktop software.
Music Connect is the replacement.
(though there are thousands of users who ONLY use the mobile app)
Some of our long-time competitors with music database software for Windows:
- CDTrustee by base40.com (dead now)
- CATtraxx by fnprg.com (dead now)
- Music Label by codeaero.com (dead now)
- OrangeCD, by firetongue.com (still available, but not developed anymore)
Really, if you are coming from Music Connect, THE best alternative is the Music Connect web-based software.
We stopped support for the Mac editions in Feb 2019 and the Mac programs still work, even with server connections.
Thereās also a program called My Music Collection. I downloaded the free trial version and imported 20 albums (trial limit) from Music Collector (via an xml export from the latter). Brought in all I need including the cover art. GUI is not as slick as Music Collector
When my subscription expires will have to make the decision especially if the sub remains the same as the fully supported and evolving Connect
Orā¦ Consider switching to Music Connectā¦