Popularity Field; How is it used?

[dzangger67]

Hello. I was looking into the RATING tag that some of my audio files have. I've noticed that some software uses different values to represent this field. Some like AIMP3 uses values 0-5 and writes to RATING WMP. Others programs like Mp3Tag and TagScan allow you to add the RATING tag and enter any value you like. If I enter a decimal value into TagScan, it just deletes the tag all together. For example, if I enter .50 it will delete the tag.

Sorry, I know it's confusing.

1. If I add RATING tag using TagScan, set the value to 50, Mp3Tag shows tag RATING WMP with 50. Popularity = .1 (RATING not in additional fields)
2. if I add RATING tag using Mp3Scan, set the value to 75, TagScan shows RATING with 75. Popularity = 0 (RATING is in additional fields)
3. If I use AIMP3 Tag Editor, set the User Rating to 4 - Mp3Tag shows RATING WMP = 4, TagScan shows RATING = 196. Popularity = .1 (RATING not in additional fields)

Trying to understand how to use RATING and Popularity. Are they connected in this library?

Thank you

[Zeugma440]

You're right, there's no unified way of rating files, and every tagging system has its own quirk.

For more information about the innner workings of each format, you may read the TrackUtils.EncodePopularity / TrackUtils.DecodePopularity implementations.

As for how to actually tag files, ATL provides an unified way to set the rating across all formats and handles the specifics under the hood.

All you have to do is to set Track.Popularity. Accepted values range from 0.0 to 1.0 :

• 0.0 means 0% = 0 stars
• 0.5 means 50% = 2.5 stars
• 1.0 means 100% = 5 stars

[Zeugma440]

If your question aims at understanding why behaviour differs across TagScan, Mp3Scan and AIMP3, according to what you're saying, and assuming the tagging system you're using is ID3v2, my guess is that :

• Mp3Scan uses a rogue RATING field that isn't standard
• TagScan directly lets you use the ID3v2 scale that ranges from 0 to 255
• AIMP3 offers a simplified rating from 0 to 5 that it calls "RATING WMP", while also writing to the standard ID3v2 rating field using the ID3v2 scale

[dzangger67]

Thank you so much for this. I will check out the implementation and try to understand what is going on. I appreciate your help.

[dzangger67]

I'm analyzing an MP3 file and this is what I'm seeing. According to the code, I should have some non-zero value.

[dzangger67]

I guess I'm not understanding the difference in behaviors between the files. From what you've seen, do you have any suggestions on how I might be able to utilize the RATING in MP3 files? Thanks again!

[Zeugma440]

Looks like the softwares you're using don't make it easy at all 😅

I don't have any actual suggestion as I don't really use rating when tagging my library.

From what you've written, AIMP3 sounds better than the others, but I'm surprised to see a rating of 196 having a Popularity of 0.1. It should actually be 0.8. Could you double check that?

[dzangger67]

Probably got confused with all the tags. AIMP3 writes the RATING WMP field and Popularity is .8. Maybe I should write RATING WMP instead of RATING.

[dzangger67]

And you're so right. It's definitely confusing using all these applications especially when they're all slightly different. Thanks for your assistance.

[dzangger67]

and just for fun, here is the MP3 with RATING WMP = 4 in TagScan

[dzangger67]

And here is a FLAC. I added a RATING = 4 value to it

[Zeugma440]

That one's correct. A four-star rating is equivalent to 80% => 0.8

[Zeugma440]

Also note that the rating you set doesn't appear on AdditionalFields because it's been set to a standard field (probably VorbisTag's RATING).

[dzangger67]

I was happy to see the FLAC file worked :)

[dzangger67]

So for flacs:
RATING returns an accurate Popularity.
RATING WMP will return 0.
POPULARIMETER wil return 0.

For MP3s:
POPULARIMETER returns an accurate Popularity.
RATING WMP returns accurate Popularity and has priority over POPULARIMETER
RATING will return 0.

I'm glad this is so cut and dry. I can see how difficult it is to write software to manage all of this.

[dzangger67]

When I use ATL to write the RATING/POPULARIMETER tags to AdditonalFields, Popularity value doesn't pick them up. If I use 3rd party tools like Mp3Tag to write these tags, Popularity does reflect it. I know you mentioned something about standard fields and I don't understand what that means. Are these tools writing to fields that ATL doesn't write to? Is there a way for me in ATL to write to these standard fields? Thank you.

[Zeugma440]

I don't know why you're using AdditionalFields for that; you're making it way more complicated than it should.

Just set Track.Popularity and that's all.

Accepted values range from 0.0 (0 stars) to 1.0 (5 stars) :

• 0.0 means 0% = 0 stars
• 0.2 means 20% = 1 star
• 0.5 means 50% = 2.5 stars
• 1.0 means 100% = 5 stars

[dzangger67]

I thought I needed to write those tags. I'm on a mission! Thank you again.

[dzangger67]

thank you for all your help. I'm setting Popularity.