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Multi-Genre Tagging

Music rarely fits in a single box. A track might be Rock and Electronic and Ambient all at once. FLAC files let you tag all three. Other formats are limited to one. This guide explains multi-genre support in BitDek and how to make the most of it.

The FLAC Advantage

Section titled “The FLAC Advantage”

FLAC is the only format where BitDek supports multiple genres per track.

How it works:

  • Store multiple genres in the GENRE field, separated by commas, semicolons, slashes, or backslashes
  • BitDek parses each genre as a separate entry
  • The track appears in all matching genre categories

Example:

GENRE=Rock, Electronic, Ambient

This track appears when you browse Rock, Electronic, or Ambient. Three genres, one track.

Separator Formats

Section titled “Separator Formats”

BitDek recognizes four separators in FLAC genre fields:

Comma (preferred): Rock, Alternative, Grunge

Semicolon: Rock;Alternative;Grunge

Forward slash: Electronic/Ambient/Downtempo

Backslash: Electronic\Ambient\Downtempo

All work. Commas are the most readable and match BitDek’s edit fields. Pick one separator and be consistent across your collection.

Spaces around separators are trimmed:

  • Rock , Alternative → “Rock” and “Alternative”
  • Rock,Alternative → “Rock” and “Alternative”

Primary Genre

Section titled “Primary Genre”

When multiple genres exist, the first one listed is the primary genre. This affects:

  • Default sort order in some views
  • Any future features that need a single “main” genre

Order your genres from most to least descriptive:

GENRE=Jazz, Fusion, Instrumental

“Jazz” is the primary. “Fusion” and “Instrumental” provide additional categorization.

Why Other Formats Are Limited

Section titled “Why Other Formats Are Limited”

MP3, M4A, AAC files support multiple genres in their tag specifications. The limitation is in iOS.

BitDek reads non-FLAC files through iOS AVFoundation. AVFoundation only returns the first genre value, even when multiple exist in the file. This is a platform limitation, not a BitDek design choice.

What you’ll see:

  • MP3 tagged with Rock\Metal → BitDek shows only “Rock”
  • M4A tagged with multiple TCON frames → BitDek shows only the first

If multi-genre organization matters to your listening, FLAC is the format to use.

Workarounds for Other Formats

Section titled “Workarounds for Other Formats”

Primary Genre Strategy

Section titled “Primary Genre Strategy”

Accept the single-genre limitation and tag each track with its most relevant genre. Browse by that genre.

Playlist-Based Organization

Section titled “Playlist-Based Organization”

Instead of relying on genre fields, create playlists that span genres. A “Chill Electronic” playlist can include tracks tagged Electronic, Ambient, or Downtempo.

FLAC Conversion

Section titled “FLAC Conversion”

Convert your MP3/M4A files to FLAC. This doesn’t improve audio quality (you can’t restore lost data), but it enables multi-genre tagging going forward.

Only worthwhile if genre organization is important to you. Otherwise, keep your existing files.

Tagging Multiple Genres in FLAC

Section titled “Tagging Multiple Genres in FLAC”

Using MusicBrainz Picard

Section titled “Using MusicBrainz Picard”
  1. Load your FLAC files
  2. Select a track
  3. Find the Genre field in the tag editor
  4. Enter multiple genres separated by commas: Rock, Alternative
  5. Save

Picard may automatically fetch multiple genres from MusicBrainz if configured.

Using MP3Tag

Section titled “Using MP3Tag”
  1. Load your FLAC files
  2. Select tracks to edit
  3. In the Tag Panel, edit the GENRE field
  4. Enter multiple genres: Electronic, Ambient, Downtempo
  5. Save

Using Kid3

Section titled “Using Kid3”
  1. Load your FLAC files
  2. Select tracks
  3. Find Genre in the tag list
  4. Add multiple values or use separator format
  5. Save

Genre Organization Strategies

Section titled “Genre Organization Strategies”

Broad Categories

Section titled “Broad Categories”

Use high-level genres: Rock, Electronic, Jazz, Classical, Hip-Hop

Pros: Simple, easy to maintain, good for quick browsing Cons: Loses nuance, large genre buckets

Detailed Subgenres

Section titled “Detailed Subgenres”

Use specific genres: Progressive Rock, Ambient Techno, Bebop, Baroque, Boom Bap

Pros: Precise categorization, better for focused listening Cons: Many small categories, harder to maintain consistency

Combined Approach

Section titled “Combined Approach”

Tag with both broad and specific:

GENRE=Rock, Progressive Rock

The track appears in “Rock” for quick browsing and “Progressive Rock” for specific mood.

Mood-Based

Section titled “Mood-Based”

Add mood tags as genres:

GENRE=Electronic, Ambient, Relaxing, Late Night

This blurs the line between genre and mood but can be useful for discovery.

Common Pitfalls

Section titled “Common Pitfalls”

Inconsistent Naming

Section titled “Inconsistent Naming”

“Rock” vs “ROCK” vs “rock” - BitDek treats these as the same genre (case-insensitive matching).

But “Hip-Hop” vs “Hip Hop” vs “HipHop” creates three separate genres. Pick one spelling and stick with it.

Too Many Genres

Section titled “Too Many Genres”

Every track tagged with 10 genres defeats the purpose. Aim for 1-3 genres per track. More than that usually means at least one doesn’t really apply.

Empty Primary Genre

Section titled “Empty Primary Genre”

If your first genre is empty or whitespace, you get unexpected results:

GENRE=;Rock;Alternative  ← Empty first genre

Always start with an actual genre name.

Mixed Separators

Section titled “Mixed Separators”

This works but looks messy:

GENRE=Rock,Alternative;Grunge  ← Multiple separators

Pick one separator (commas recommended) and use it consistently.

Browsing by Genre in BitDek

Section titled “Browsing by Genre in BitDek”

When you select a genre in BitDek, you see all tracks tagged with that genre. For multi-genre tracks, this means:

  • Select “Rock” → Shows tracks tagged Rock (including multi-genre)
  • Select “Electronic” → Shows tracks tagged Electronic (including multi-genre)

A track tagged Rock, Electronic appears in both lists.

The Genres view shows all genres present in your library, with track counts. Multi-genre tracks are counted in each genre they belong to.

Technical Details

Section titled “Technical Details”

FLAC Vorbis Comment Parsing

Section titled “FLAC Vorbis Comment Parsing”

The GENRE field in Vorbis comments is a single text string. BitDek splits it on commas, semicolons, forward slashes, and backslashes.

Each resulting segment is trimmed of whitespace and stored as a separate SDGenre entity. The track maintains relationships to all its genres.

Genre Entity Deduplication

Section titled “Genre Entity Deduplication”

Genre names are deduplicated during import. “Rock” entered on multiple tracks creates one SDGenre entity with multiple track relationships.

Case-insensitive matching prevents “Rock” and “rock” from creating duplicate entries. The display preserves the case from the first occurrence.

AVFoundation Limitations

Section titled “AVFoundation Limitations”

iOS AVFoundation uses AVMetadataItem to expose metadata. The genre property (commonKeyGenre) returns a single String?. Even formats that support multiple genres at the file level are flattened to one value by the system API.

This limitation affects all iOS apps using AVFoundation, not just BitDek.

Further Reading

Section titled “Further Reading”