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Library 4 min read Updated October 2026

Sort your music by composer

For classical music, film scores or simply knowing who wrote what, the performer isn’t enough. Since version 0.4.3, RustMusic also organizes your library by composer, using the composer tag of your files.

01

The Composers view

In the Artists tab, the switch at the top toggles between “Artists” and “Composers”. Your choice is remembered: if you mostly listen to classical music, the Composers view opens straight away next time.

The list can be filtered like the artist list, and each composer can be played, shuffled or added to a playlist from their “…” menu.

02

A composer’s page

  • Albums: the records that include their works.
  • Tracks: all their works in your library.
  • Performers: the artists who perform their works, most present first. Handy for comparing several versions of the same piece.

“Play all tracks” plays their whole body of work; the “…” menu also lets you shuffle, play next, add to the queue or add to a playlist. If the composer is also an artist in your library, a link takes you to their artist page.

03

Composers everywhere

  • A track’s page: each composer links to their page.
  • Composer column in track lists: one link per composer.
  • Search (Ctrl K, ⌘ K on Mac): composers have their own results and filter.
04

Where composers come from

RustMusic reads the composer tag of your files (COMPOSER in FLAC, TCOM in MP3, the iTunes composer field in .m4a). Lists like “Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard” are split into two composers, and meaningless credits like “Various Composers” are left out.

A composer is missing? Fill in the tag in the RustMusic tag workshop (right-click an album → “Edit tags”), by hand or with “Complete online” from MusicBrainz, which knows composers very well. Deezer doesn’t provide them.

05

Composer photos

Each composer gets an image: the photo of the artist with the same name if they are also in your library, otherwise a Deezer portrait, fetched when you open their page or with “Artist images” in the library’s Manage menu. Failing that, two colored initials.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Composers view work with a Navidrome or Jellyfin server?

For now, it covers local libraries: tracks played from your folders and drives.

Why doesn’t a composer show up?

Their name is probably not in the composer tag of your files. Fill it in in the tag workshop, then rescan if needed.

Are my files modified?

No. The Composers view only reads your tags; only the tag workshop writes to files, when you ask it to.

Can I find every version of the same work?

Yes: a composer’s page lists their tracks and performers, so you can find and compare the different performances in your library.

Classical music, finally well organized

RustMusic organizes your music by composer, with a page for each one. Free, open source, no account.

Download RustMusic View the code on GitHub

Further reading