Rename any file based on existing metadata with SongKong

SongKong 4.6 released with a number of improvements. 

Most notably the Rename files based on Metadata when Matched checkbox has now become a combo called Rename files based on metadata.  

Previously SongKong would only rename files when your files were matched to either a MusicBrainz or Discogs release. This ensured we only renamed files when were sure we had a good match, we had album metadata and all the songs of the same release were matched.

But the drawback of this approach was that if you had songs with perfectly good metadata but not matched by SongKong then you could not use SongKong to rename them.

Also if SongKong could identify the song but just not decide on the release then again you could not use SongKong to rename them. This was a particular problem for DJ's where often the album metadata was not really important anyway.

 

Rename Files from Metadata Options

By default this option this set to No. It can be very useful to name files based on the current metadata but this can cause problems for any other applications that index files by their file name. For example if you are using a music manager application and rename a file that is under the music managers control then it will not be able to find it, it is usually better to use SongKong on songs before adding them to a music manager. But if you are using iTunes then SongKong can inform of iTunes of changes that SongKong makes so that iTunes does not lose the file.

This option is not simply Yes or No, you can decide to rename songs based on how and/or.if they have been matched. Often the best choice is Yes if matched to a release this ensures that songs are only renamed if matched to a MusicBrainz or Discogs release, this in turn ensures that complete albums of songs are renamed and therefore kept together.

Alternatively the Yes if matched to a release or song option can be used, this additionally allows songs that have been matched to a MusicBrainz song but not a release. This ensures that all the songs renamed will have reliable basic metadata, but if you have a folder of songs representing an album and they have only been matched to a song it could cause them to be put into different folders.

The Yes if has metadata option allows any song to be renamed even if not matched by SongKong as long as it contains the basic metadata of Title, Album and either Artist or Album Artist. This option allows SongKong to be used for any collection of songs even when the songs could not be found in the MusicBrainz or Discogs databases.

The Yes, for all files option takes this a step further allowing any song to be renamed regardless of the status of it's existing metadata.