What ID3v2 could have been
I still run into challenges with ID3v2 tags on a regular basis trying to manage my offline music collection.<p>One of the most frequent problems is how to organize various pressings of an album. Specifically, if I have an album that was originally released in 1970, but my copy in question is a Remaster from 2001, what do I use for the year? 1970, or 2001? You might initially think to pick the Remaster year, but let's assume that this is Album II of Famous Band, and I don't happen to have a rip of the original release. Now when I'm navigating through the band chronologically (as I usually do), the order looks like this:<p>Famous Band - 1968 - Album I<p>Famous Band - 1969 - Album II<p>Famous Band - 1974 - Album IV<p>Famous Band - 1980 - Album V<p>Famous Band - 1990 - Album VI<p>Famous Band - 2001 - Album III (Remastered)<p>My solution thus far has been to tag the album with the original release year, but then change the Album Name to "Album III (Remastered, 2001)". It's still not perfect, though.<p>It's somewhat gratifying to see that streaming platforms have the same problem, though, as I can see on Spotify/Tidal/Youtube Music that they regularly disagree on the release date of an album if their source is the remaster or re-release pressing.