Internal Tags

Quod Libet stores a number of tags internally, that are either not stored in files themselves, or are derived from the values in the files.

String Tags

  • ~basename: The last component of the full path name
  • ~dirname: Everything but the last component of the file path name
  • ~filename: The full path name
  • ~format: The file format (e.g. “MPEG-4”)
  • ~codec: The audio codec (e.g. “AAC LC”)
  • ~encoding: Encoder name, version, settings used (e.g. “LAME 3.97.0, VBR”)
  • ~length: The length of the file in H:MM:SS format
  • ~mountpoint: The component of the full path name that corresponds to the file’s immediate parent mount
  • ~performers: A list of performers
  • ~people: A list of all people involved in the song
  • ~rating: A string representation of the song’s rating (e.g. ★★★☆). Note that in most formats these are per email address.
  • ~uri: The full URI of the song
  • ~year: The release year, derived from the date tag
  • ~originalyear: The original year, derived from the originaldate tag
  • ~playlists: Comma-separated playlist names in which the song is included
  • ~filesize: Human formatted size (e.g. 4.5 MB)

The ~people Internal Tag

The internal ~people tag combines the following tags to one: albumartist, artist, author, composer, ~performers, originalartist, lyricist, arranger, conductor in this exact order.

For sorting, this means that all album artists come first followed by all artists and so on. For song collections / albums, the values of each included tag are sorted by frequency.

Variants:

~people:roles includes roles e.g. "The Parley of Instruments (Orchestra), David Thomas (Bass)". The roles are either derived from the source tag name (composer=Joseph Haydn → Joseph Haydn (Composition)) or from the performer role (performer:composition=Joseph Haydn → Joseph Haydn (Composition)). For the latter see the ~performers tag.

~people:real excludes Various Artists, commonly used as a placeholder for album artists on compilations, etc.

The ~performers Internal Tag

The internal ~performers tag combines all the artists specified in the performer tags to a single one.

Example: performer:vocals=Brandon Patton, performer:banjo=Béla Fleck

~performers will then display "Brandon Patton, Béla Fleck"

Variants:
~performer:roles includes the roles as well. For the above example it will display "Brandon Patton (Vocals), Béla Fleck (Banjo)"

Song Collections / Albums

  • ~length: The length of all songs in H:MM:SS format
  • ~long-length: The length of all songs in “H hours, M minutes, S seconds” format
  • ~tracks: The real number of songs in the collection in “# track(s)” format
  • ~discs: The number of different discs in “# disc(s)” format
  • ~rating: The average rating in music notes
  • ~filesize: Total Human formatted size (e.g. 4.5 MB)

All other tags return a list of values retrieved from all songs, without duplicates, sorted by their number of appearance.

Numeric Tags

  • ~#added: The date the song was added to the library
  • ~#bitdepth: The bitdepth of this song
  • ~#bitrate: The bitrate of the song, in kilo bits per second
  • ~#disc: The disc number of the song (the first half of the discnumber tag)
  • ~#channels: The channel count
  • ~#discs: The total number of discs in this song’s collection
  • ~#filesize: The size in bytes of this song
  • ~#lastplayed: The time this song was last played through
  • ~#laststarted: The time this song was last started
  • ~#length: The length of the song, in seconds
  • ~#mtime: The time this file was last modified
  • ~#playcount: The total number of times you’ve played the song through
  • ~#rating: The rating of the song, as a number between 0 and 1.
  • ~#samplerate: The sample rate of this song
  • ~#skipcount: The total number of times you’ve skipped through the song
  • ~#track: The track number of the song (the first half of the tracknumber tag)
  • ~#tracks: The total number of tracks in the album
  • ~#year: The release year, derived from the date tag
  • ~#originalyear: The original year, derived from the originaldate tag

Note some numeric tags have string tag equivalents (see above) for human-readable format.

Song Collections / Albums

  • ~#tracks: The real number of songs in the collection
  • ~#discs: The number of different discs in the collection

For all other numeric tags it is possible to define numeric functions by appending :numeric_func to the tag name (~#playcount:avg for example). All internal numeric tags use a default function in case no function is given. For user defined numeric tags the average value is returned by default.

  • avg: Returns the average value (~#rating)
  • sum: Returns the summation of all values (~#length, ~#playcount, ~#skipcount, ~#filesize)
  • min: Returns the smallest value (~#year)
  • max: Returns the largest value (~#added, ~#lastplayed, ~#laststarted, ~#mtime)
  • bav: Returns the Bayesian average value (~#rating)
    Being most appropriate for ratings, the parameter is adjusted globally under the preferences for ratings.