How the sorting works¶

The app follows the way a collection is sorted on real shelves: related music together, older artists first, and an artist's records never scattered.

flowchart TD
    A[Cluster<br/><small>in the order you set</small>] --> B[Era band<br/><small>the decade the artist started</small>]
    B --> C[Artist or family<br/><small>alphabetically</small>]
    C --> D[Original release year]
    D --> E[Title]

🧩 Clusters¶

A cluster is a group of artists that belong together by sound. You name the clusters and set their order across the shelves on the Clusters screen; related clusters follow each other, such as the jazz clusters. Each artist belongs to exactly one cluster.

For a new artist the app proposes a cluster:

the cluster of the artists Discogs closely connects it to — its other names, or a band of its own;
otherwise the cluster most of its albums' Discogs styles point to.

A proposed cluster is marked proposed until you confirm it; the artists to check are listed under Artists → To check.

When a new purchase makes an artist's styles point to another cluster than the one it stands in, the app says so and waits: Move the artist, or Keep it where it is. Nothing moves by itself.

👪 Artist families¶

A family keeps an artist's other names, bands and side projects together as one unit. The app suggests families:

from the names — Chet Baker gathers Chet Baker Quartet and Chet Baker & Crew;
from Discogs — an artist under several names, or a person with the bands they are in: Nick Cave gathers Grinderman and The Birthday Party.

On the Families screen you accept a suggestion (leaving out members you don't want), turn it down for good, or make families by hand. Accept all asks first how many families it is about to make.

🕰️ Era bands and order¶

An artist's start year decides its era band: before 1960, the 1960s, and so on to the 2020s and later. The whole catalogue of an artist stays in that band, so reissues and late albums don't scatter it. When the start year is not known, the earliest original release year among its albums stands in; you can always set it on the artist's page.

Within a cluster, artists stand by era band, oldest first; within a band alphabetically by name as written, so The Stooges is under T; an artist's own albums by original year, then title.

📐 Filling the shelves¶

The sorted albums are stood on the shelves as one continuous row, in the order of your cabinets: a shelf is filled until the next album no longer fits, then the row runs on to the next shelf. A shelf without a width, a showcase, and a cabinet kept outside the sorting are skipped. What doesn't fit is not forced in: it is left without a place, and the proposal says how many.

📍 Location rules¶

A rule binds a cluster, a family, an artist or a single album to a cabinet. A proposal places it there and nowhere else, and keeps everything without a rule out of that cabinet. The most specific rule wins: an album's own, then its artist's, its family's, its cluster's.

The Rules screen also suggests rules from your layout as it stands: when everything of an artist stands in one cabinet where a proposal would not put it, it suggests binding it there. Nothing is added until you say so.

🎛️ The sorting proposal¶

On the Proposal screen you generate a sorted layout. It stands next to your real layout: you can browse it, and adjust it in Layout, without anything changing on your shelves. Accept makes it your layout and saves it as a version; Discard leaves everything as it was.

🆕 New purchases¶

You don't need a new proposal for every record you buy. A new album gets a suggested spot in your shelves as they stand: next to the artist's other albums, or among the artists of the same era in its cluster. Find it under Unplaced, or on the Dashboard.