This may sound like a rather simple idea, but I have many artists with only one or two albums only. In these cases it can be rather cumbersome to have to click on the artist to expand it just to see 1 or 2 albums when I sort my collection by artist. Would it not be more useable for many people to provide a view which organizes albums by artist, but eliminates the need to ever expand the artist?

One simple way to achieve this would be to a have an option which always leaves the artists expanded (or an expand all button), while changing nothing else. But, a better option would likely take advantage of this idea and adjust the look and feel of the collection view to make dividers with the artists in them, sort of the way kmail sorts emails by day.

If this is easy to do, I hope that perhaps someone with a few cycles...

Thanks

When my collection was much smaller, I might have agreed with your wish. But now it would be really hard to scroll and scroll and scroll. Much easier to just search for what you want. Might be cool to have the results of your searches auto-open for you....

Of course, I am just asking for another way to sort/group things. I am by no means saying that the current options should go away. If this mode does not suit your needs, it hopefully would not get in the way if you don't chose it. I suspect however, that others besides me would find it the most useful option eventually. Hierarchies just aren't good when you have only 1 or 2 nodes per grouping. The larger the collection, the higher percentage of 1/2 album artists likely, the more this feature is likely needed (despite the space downside you mention which hopefully can be dealt with).

If one is concerned about space, maybe some additional layout optimizations could be done? Maybe one option would group album covers w/o names on one line under or next to the artist's name. This would mean that you could likely fit at least 5 albums on 1 or 2 lines.

Always separate line:

- The Cure
[A] [B] [C] [D]
- Led Zeppelin
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G]

or wrapping only when required:

+ The Cure [A] [B] [C] [D]
+ Led Zeppelin [A] [B] [C] [D] (wrapped)
[E] [F] [G]

Clicking on an album thumbnail would expand the songs for that album.

Clicking on [B], might lead to:
+ The Cure [A] [B] [C] [D]
- Led Zeppelin [A] [C] [D] [E] (wrapped)
[F] [G]
-[B] In Through The Outdoor
- Song 1...
- Song 2...

This idea could be taken even further to allow even a thumbnail only view: eliminate the artist's name (perhaps even pop it back in place when hovering over a line), this would now likely take up no more room than the current view unless an artist has more albums than could fit on a line.

+ [A] [B] [C] [D]
+ [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G]


One step further would give another view/grouping, even more compact: thumbnails only, flowing continuously without line breaks per artists. This is not likely a view I would use, but it sure would be compact and those who are more graphical might well prefer this to having any words. This is probably similar to the current album first view.

[A] [B] [C] [D] [A] [B] [C] [D]
[E] [F] [G] ...


An alternative would be to not make all artists expanded, but to auto expand them as you hover over, thus still eliminating the need to click. With this model you could also put the thumbnails next to the artist's name for a preview (and potential direct clicking), and clicking or hovering on an artist's name could cause the artist to expand. This way you at least have an idea what is under an artist's grouping even if you have to click to eventually select (or to see the album name).

I am sure there are even better ideas than this, I hope that maybe this could inspire someone to at least try the simplest solution (allow auto-expand all)...

Of course, if you want all and only covers, you can use the cover manager.

Otherwise, your idea sounds intriguing. We'll have to see what the developers think of it.

Yes, the cover view could be an inspiration, but obviously, it currently has a different purpose than browsing one's collection and choosing songs...