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# AlbumTypes Plugin

The `albumtypes` plugin adds the ability to format and output album types, such as “Album”, “EP”, “Single”, etc. For the list of available album types, see the MusicBrainz documentation.

To use the `albumtypes` plugin, enable it in your configuration (see Using Plugins). The plugin defines a new field `$atypes`, which you can use in your path formats or elsewhere.

A bug introduced in beets 1.6.0 could have possibly imported broken data into the `albumtypes` library field. Please follow the instructions described here for a sanity check and potential fix. #4528

## Configuration

To configure the plugin, make a `albumtypes:` section in your configuration file. The available options are:

- types: An ordered list of album type to format mappings. The order of the mappings determines their order in the output. If a mapping is missing or blank, it will not be in the output.

- ignore_va: A list of types that should not be output for Various Artists albums. Useful for not adding redundant information - various artist albums are often compilations.

- bracket: Defines the brackets to enclose each album type in the output.

The default configuration looks like this:

    albumtypes:
        types:
            - ep: 'EP'
            - single: 'Single'
            - soundtrack: 'OST'
            - live: 'Live'
            - compilation: 'Anthology'
            - remix: 'Remix'
        ignore_va: compilation
        bracket: '[]'

## Examples

With path formats configured like:

    paths:
        default: $albumartist/[$year]$atypes $album/...
        albumtype:soundtrack: Various Artists/$album [$year]$atypes/...
        comp: Various Artists/$album [$year]$atypes/...

The default plugin configuration generates paths that look like this, for example:

    Aphex Twin/[1993][EP][Remix] On Remixes
    Pink Floyd/[1995][Live] p·u·l·s·e
    Various Artists/20th Century Lullabies [1999]
    Various Artists/Ocean's Eleven [2001][OST]