New Plugin: Titlecase

.github/CODEOWNERS

@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@
 * @beetbox/maintainers
 
 # Specific ownerships:
-/beets/metadata_plugins.py @semohr
+/beets/metadata_plugins.py @semohr
+/beetsplug/titlecase.py @henry-oberholtzer

beetsplug/titlecase.py

@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+# This file is part of beets.
+# Copyright 2025, Henry Oberholtzer
+#
+# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+# a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+# "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+# without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+# distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+# permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+# the following conditions:
+#
+# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+# included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+"""Apply NYT manual of style title case rules, to text.
+Title case logic is derived from the python-titlecase library.
+Provides a template function and a tag modification function."""
+
+import re
+from typing import Pattern
+
+from titlecase import titlecase
+
+from beets import ui
+from beets.importer import ImportSession, ImportTask
+from beets.library import Item
+from beets.plugins import BeetsPlugin
+
+__author__ = "[email protected]"
+__version__ = "1.0"
+
+# These fields are excluded to avoid modifying anything
+# that may be case sensistive, or important to database
+# function
+EXCLUDED_INFO_FIELDS = set(
+    [
+        "acoustid_fingerprint",
+        "acoustid_id",
+        "artists_ids",
+        "asin",
+        "deezer_track_id",
+        "format",
+        "id",
+        "isrc",
+        "mb_workid",
+        "mb_trackid",
+        "mb_albumid",
+        "mb_artistid",
+        "mb_artistids",
+        "mb_albumartistid",
+        "mb_albumartistids",
+        "mb_releasetrackid",
+        "mb_releasegroupid",
+        "bitrate_mode",
+        "encoder_info",
+        "encoder_settings",
+    ]
+)
+
+
+class TitlecasePlugin(BeetsPlugin):
+    preserve: dict[str, str] = {}
+    preserve_phrases: dict[str, Pattern[str]] = {}
+    force_lowercase: bool = True
+    fields_to_process: set[str] = set([])
+
+    def __init__(self) -> None:
+        super().__init__()
+
+        # Register template function
+        self.template_funcs["titlecase"] = self.titlecase  # type: ignore
+
+        self.config.add(
+            {
+                "auto": True,
+                "preserve": [],
+                "fields": [],
+                "force_lowercase": False,
+                "small_first_last": True,
+            }
+        )
+
+        """
+        auto - Automatically apply titlecase to new import metadata.
+        preserve - Provide a list of words/acronyms with specific case requirements.
+        fields - Fields to apply titlecase to, default is all.
+        force_lowercase - Lowercases the string before titlecasing.
+        small_first_last - If small characters should be cased at the start of strings.
+        NOTE: Titlecase will not interact with possibly case sensitive fields.
+        """
+
+        # Register UI subcommands
+        self._command = ui.Subcommand(
+            "titlecase",
+            help="Apply titlecasing to metadata specified in config.",
+        )
+
+        self.__get_config_file__()
+        if self.config["auto"]:
+            self.import_stages = [self.imported]
+
+    def __get_config_file__(self):
+        self.force_lowercase = self.config["force_lowercase"].get(bool)
+        self.__preserve_words__(self.config["preserve"].as_str_seq())
+        self.__init_fields_to_process__(
+            self.config["fields"].as_str_seq(),
+        )
+
+    def __init_fields_to_process__(self, fields: list[str]) -> None:
+        """Creates the set for fields to process in tagging.
+        Only uses fields included.
+        Last, the EXCLUDED_INFO_FIELDS are removed to prevent unitentional modification.
+        """
+        initial_field_list = set(fields)
+        initial_field_list -= set(EXCLUDED_INFO_FIELDS)
+        self.fields_to_process = initial_field_list
+
+    def __preserve_words__(self, preserve: list[str]) -> None:
+        for word in preserve:
+            if " " in word:
+                self.preserve_phrases[word] = re.compile(
+                    re.escape(word), re.IGNORECASE
+                )
+            else:
+                self.preserve[word.upper()] = word
+
+    def __preserved__(self, word, **kwargs) -> str | None:
+        """Callback function for words to preserve case of."""
+        if preserved_word := self.preserve.get(word.upper(), ""):
+            return preserved_word
+        return None
+
+    def commands(self) -> list[ui.Subcommand]:
+        def func(lib, opts, args):
+            write = ui.should_write()
+            for item in lib.items(args):
+                self._log.info(f"titlecasing {item.title}:")
+                self.titlecase_fields(item)
+                item.store()
+                if write:
+                    item.try_write()
+
+        self._command.func = func
+        return [self._command]
+
+    def titlecase_fields(self, item: Item):
+        """Applies titlecase to fields, except
+        those excluded by the default exclusions and the
+        set exclude lists.
+        """
+        for field in self.fields_to_process:
+            init_field = getattr(item, field, "")
+            if isinstance(init_field, list):
+                cased_list: list[str] = [self.titlecase(i) for i in init_field]
+                self._log.info(
+                    f"""
+                    {field}: {", ".join(init_field)} ->
+                    {", ".join(cased_list)}"""
+                )
+                setattr(item, field, cased_list)
+            elif init_field and isinstance(init_field, str):
+                cased: str = self.titlecase(init_field)
+                self._log.info(f"{field}: {init_field} -> {cased}")
+                setattr(item, field, cased)
+            else:
+                self._log.info(f"{field}: no string present")
+
+    def titlecase(self, text: str) -> str:
+        """Titlecase the given text."""
+        titlecased = titlecase(
+            text.lower() if self.force_lowercase else text,
+            small_first_last=self.config["small_first_last"],
+            callback=self.__preserved__,
+        )
+        for phrase, regexp in self.preserve_phrases.items():
+            titlecased = regexp.sub(phrase, titlecased)
+        return titlecased
+
+    def imported(self, session: ImportSession, task: ImportTask) -> None:
+        """Import hook for titlecasing on import."""
+        for item in task.imported_items():
+            self._log.info(f"titlecasing {item.title}:")
+            self.titlecase_fields(item)
+            item.store()

docs/plugins/titlecase.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+Titlecase Plugin
+================
+
+The ``titlecase`` plugin lets you format tags and paths in accordance with the
+titlecase guidelines in the `New York Times Manual of Style`_ and uses the
+`python titlecase library`_.
+
+Motiviation for this plugin comes from a desire to resolve differences in style
+between databases sources. For example, `MusicBrainz style`_ follows standard
+title case rules, except in the case of terms that are deemed generic, like
+"mix" and "remix". On the other hand, `Discogs guidlines`_ recommend
+capitalizing the first letter of each word, even for small words like "of" and
+"a". This plugin aims to achieve a middleground between disparate approaches to
+casing, and bring more consistency to titlecasing in your library.
+
+.. _discogs style: https://support.discogs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005006334-Database-Guidelines-1-General-Rules#Capitalization_And_Grammar
+
+.. _musicbrainz style: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style
+
+.. _new york times manual of style: https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/946964415
+
+.. _python titlecase library: https://pypi.org/project/titlecase/
+
+Installation
+------------
+
+To use the ``titlecase`` plugin, first enable it in your configuration (see
+:ref:`using-plugins`). Then, install ``beets`` with ``titlecase`` extra:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    pip install "beets[titlecase]"
+
+If you'd like to just use the path format expression, call ``%titlecase`` in
+your path formatter, and set ``auto`` to ``no`` in the configuration.
+
+::
+
+    paths:
+      default: %titlecase($albumartist)/$titlecase($albumtitle)/$track $title
+
+You can now configure ``titlecase`` to your preference.
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+This plugin offers several configuration options to tune its function to your
+preference.
+
+Default
+~~~~~~~
+
+.. code-block:: yaml
+
+    titlecase:
+        auto: yes
+        fields:
+        preserve:
+        force_lowercase: no
+        small_first_last: yes
+
+.. conf:: auto
+    :default: yes
+
+    Whether to automatically apply titlecase to new imports.
+
+.. conf:: fields
+
+    A list of fields to apply the titlecase logic to. You must specify the fields
+    you want to have modified in order for titlecase to apply changes to metadata.
+
+.. conf:: preserve
+
+    List of words and phrases to preserve the case of. Without specifying ``DJ`` on
+    the list, titlecase will format it as ``Dj``, or specify ``The Beatles`` to make sure
+    ``With The Beatles`` is not capitalized as ``With the Beatles``
+
+.. conf:: force_lowercase
+    :default: no
+
+    Force all strings to lowercase before applying titlecase, but can cause
+    problems with all caps acronyms titlecase would otherwise recognize.
+
+.. conf:: small_first_last
+
+    An option from the base titlecase library. Controls capitalizing small words at the start
+    of a sentence. With this turned off ``a`` and similar words will not be capitalized
+    under any circumstance.
+
+Excluded Fields
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+``titlecase`` only ever modifies string fields, and will never interact with
+fields that it considers to be case sensitive.
+
+For reference, the string fields ``titlecase`` ignores:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    acoustid_fingerprint
+    acoustid_id
+    artists_ids
+    asin
+    deezer_track_id
+    format
+    id
+    isrc
+    mb_workid
+    mb_trackid
+    mb_albumid
+    mb_artistid
+    mb_artistids
+    mb_albumartistid
+    mb_albumartistids
+    mb_releasetrackid
+    mb_releasegroupid
+    bitrate_mode
+    encoder_info
+    encoder_settings
+
+Running Manually
+----------------
+
+From the command line, type:
+
+::
+
+    $ beet titlecase [QUERY]
+
+Configuration is drawn from the config file. Without a query the operation will
+be applied to the entire collection.

pyproject.toml

@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ pydata-sphinx-theme = { version = "*", optional = true }
 sphinx = { version = "*", optional = true }
 sphinx-design = { version = ">=0.6.1", optional = true }
 sphinx-copybutton = { version = ">=0.5.2", optional = true }
+titlecase = {version = "^2.4.1", optional = true}
 
 [tool.poetry.group.test.dependencies]
 beautifulsoup4 = "*"
@@ -161,6 +162,7 @@ replaygain = [
 ] # python-gi and GStreamer 1.0+ or mp3gain/aacgain or Python Audio Tools or ffmpeg
 scrub = ["mutagen"]
 sonosupdate = ["soco"]
+titlecase = ["titlecase"]
 thumbnails = ["Pillow", "pyxdg"]
 web = ["flask", "flask-cors"]