Read multiple genre tags in Local Music

[certuna]

• Device model: any iOS/iPadOS device
• Version of operating system: any version
• Version of djay: 5.6.4

A) SUMMARY OF ISSUE:

• Apple Music cannot read multiple genres in id3 tags, we all know this - this is a 25+ year old limitation

• However, djay Pro can parse id3 tags and read multiple genres, it already does so when loading files from the Files app (“On My iPad”, iCloud folders etc)

B) DETAILED STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

1. Import an MP3 track tagged with multiple genres (“House”, “Techno”) into Apple Music

2. Within Apple Music, the track shows as “House” as it only capable of reading the first value of a multi-valued tag

3. Sync track to iPad/iPhone

4. Play/Analyze in djay Pro

C) EXPECTED RESULTS:

• when analyzing, djay Pro should read the id3 tag and pick up the multiple genres

• just like it does with loading music from Files

D) ACTUAL RESULTS:

• djay Pro does not read the id3 tag, just takes what Apple Music wrote into the Music db

[Slak_Jaw]

Hi @certuna, thanks for the detailed breakdown.

1. What file formats are you using?
2. Can you please share some screenshots of the genre tags in Finder and in djay?
3. If possible, can you please also send me some example songs in a DM? Thanks!

[certuna]

1. mp3 with id3v2.4 tags, but behaviour is the same with aac/alac-in-m4a
2. Here’s two screenshots from djay (desktop version, but mobile does the same). Exact same track.

Orange one loaded from folder (“My Files”): both genres in the tag are read.

Black one loaded via the Apple Music app (“Local Music” in djay): one genre:

Below screenshot is from MusicBrainz Picard tag editor:

3. sure, coming your way

Now, I’m not certain if djay as an app has access to the raw file+id3 tag of tracks from the Music database. But surely it must, if can do bpm detection/beat gridding/etc?

[Slak_Jaw]

Thanks for the additional info and mp3 file @certuna. I’ve passed these onto our engineering team for further review and comment.

[Slak_Jaw]

Hi @certuna, I heard back from engineering. djay does not have direct access to the audio files in the Local Music source and can’t read the ID3 tags. This is a iOS restriction.

It’s best not to use multi value ID3 string tags and to just comma separate the genres into one string. That way Apple Music will be able to read them and djay already has support for splitting CSV strings into separate values.

[Slak_Jaw]

Hello! It’s been a week since my last reply. I’m going to consider this topic completed for now so I can focus on others. However, please feel free to respond and we can definitely revisit this. Thanks!