Before I go dumpster-diving into the many Wiki pages made for the many media player packages available for Linux, I thought I might take a swing at the community. Let's hope we can prevent some cases of asthenopia with this thread.

I am searching for a very specific media player that may or may not be available. Here are the following criteria:

1) Local media database (aka Library)
2) Metadata read/write capabilities (ID3v2 and whatnot)
3) Rating database

I might note that the rating database is the most important factor. I remember the days of WinAmp with the main database main.dat, used to store all ratings. Localization into one file made it easy for backup, however the necessity of a music file to stay where it is doesn't satisfy me. If I mistakenly name a directory Michel Bublé instead of Michael Bublé, I want to be able to change the directory name and re-Add the contents; I don't want to have to rate them all over again.

The only solution that comes into my mind, apart from intuitive software that realizes the contents of Michael Bublé/ are the same files that used to be in Michel Bublé/ and copies the ratings automatically, is for ratings to be stored in a meta tag (such as ID3v2 or any other alternative) of the music file itself rather than a single database.

If I knew more about programming languages, I would try to make this software myself (or try to make a plugin for already existing software, such as XMMS). Sometime down the line, after many eye treatments, I'll produce something.

Thanks guys.