Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MusicBringer]

Can I ask you about the fields Artist, Album Artist, (and Album Artist Auto).
Yes I have read the wiki.
Yes I have read the wiki more than once.
Yes I have read previous posts, yet again.
I am still none the wiser - I simply cannot understand it.

Please clarify the bit about when the album has more than one Artist.
Compare and Contrast the Options of Artist1 and Artist2; or Artist1, Artist2; or Artist1; Artist2.
thanks,

[Wheaten]

You can separate multiple Artist by Artist1; Artist2; Aritst3
 As far as I am aware this will not work for AlbumArtist

[dtc]

Tracks on an album can have tracks by different artists. For example, an album might be primarily by a single artist, but several tracks may have an additional artist or a different name. So, for example, 10 tracks have ARTIST set to Bob. But the 11th track has ARTIST set to Bob and Mary. And the 12th track has ARTIST set to Bob and Jane.  If you set ALBUM ARTIST to a common value, say Bob or Bob and Others, then all the tracks will be seen as a single album. To be a single album all tracks should have the same value for ALBUM and ALBUM ARTIST. 

ALBUM ARTIST (AUTO) is a special case where MC looks at the album name and if the ARTIST field is different for each of those tracks and ALBUM ARTIST is blank it puts in (Multiple Artists) for ALBUM ARTST (AUTO).  Then the album is defined by the album name and the artist (Multiple Artists).

So, the approach that gives you the most control is to set ALBUM ARTIST to a common value for all tracks that you want to be a single album.  That overrides MC setting Album Artist (Auto) for you and using that.

I just looked at one of my John Coltrane albums, which is a compilation of some of his best tracks from multiple albums.  Some of the ARTIST fields are set to John Coltrane Quartet. But some are set to just John Coltrane. So, unless I specify ALBUM ARTIST, MC will set ALBUM ARTIST (Auto) to (Multiple Artists). Since I want the album to be displayed and sorted by just John Coltrane, not by (Multiple Artists) I just set ALBUM ARTIST to John Coltrane. However, when I list the tracks, I can display ARTIST and it will show me the original artist entries.

Hope that helps.

[MusicBringer]

Hope that helps. Yes. A lot thanks

Take for example an anthology album of Steve Winwood.
There are tracks by Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith, Traffic, maybe stuff he's done with Eric Clapton or Jummy Page, and Steve Winwood himself.

Artist OR Album Artist
The album belongs to Steve Winwood.
The track might be performed by Spencer Davis Group.

So Steve Winwood goes in ALBUM ARTIST.

If the track is by Steve Winwood with Eric Clapton how should I specify the Artist name.
Steve Winwood with Eric Clapton - Steve Winwood & Eric Clapton - Steve Winwood; Eric Clapton ❓
thanks,

[Dawgincontrol]

For two artists it works best to either separate them with a semi-colon ( ; ) or an ampersand ( & ) in the artist field.

This comes in handy for other listings you may later use which MC will recognize as individuals.

[rsg]

I have a question about this too. I get the point about Album Artist. The 2020 double album, The Best of Rory Gallagher, has 4 tracks by Taste (Rory's 1966-70 band). Obviously 'Rory Gallagher' goes in Album Artist so that this album lists with all of his other albums. For some reason, in tagging, Artist shows up as [Varies]. Therefore, although the album appears in the RG canon, it is referred to as The Best of Rory Gallagher by Various Artists [/i]. Obviously, changing Artist to Rory Gallagher will make every track, including the Taste ones, list out as Rory Gallagher, but it's a bit weird to have the album listed as Various Artists. Is there a way to avoid that?

[dtc]

I have a question about this too. I get the point about Album Artist. The 2020 double album, The Best of Rory Gallagher, has 4 tracks by Taste (Rory's 1966-70 band). Obviously 'Rory Gallagher' goes in Album Artist so that this album lists with all of his other albums. For some reason, in tagging, Artist shows up as [Varies]. Therefore, although the album appears in the RG canon, it is referred to as The Best of Rory Gallagher by Various Artists [/i]. Obviously, changing Artist to Rory Gallagher will make every track, including the Taste ones, list out as Rory Gallagher, but it's a bit weird to have the album listed as Various Artists. Is there a way to avoid that?

If you display Artist for the album it will give you various, since the tracks have different artists. If you display Album Artist it will give you Rory Gallagher.

[rsg]

If you display Artist for the album it will give you various, since the tracks have different artists. If you display Album Artist it will give you Rory Gallagher.

Yes, I just wondered, and this is bit picky I admit, if an album can , for instance, be called (in Library View) The Best of Rory Gallagher by Rory Gallagher, which is what it says on the CD cover, and what the true name of the album is, AND have some of the tracks listed under a different name, in this case, Taste (still Rory right?).

[dtc]

Yes, I just wondered, and this is bit picky I admit, if an album can , for instance, be called (in Library View) The Best of Rory Gallagher by Rory Gallagher, which is what it says on the CD cover, and what the true name of the album is, AND have some of the tracks listed under a different name, in this case, Taste (still Rory right?).

If you are referring to the top line of the files section of a library view, I do not know how to change that.  I do agree it would be nice to be able to use ALBUM ARTIST for that.  The display in my Thumbnail view using Album Artist and  in the file view listing Artist for each track are OK, but the file view header is Various Artists.  Sorry.

[MusicBringer]

I have a question about this too.

@rsg, thanks for joining in ☺

I still need to understand this.

[rsg]

I still need to understand this.

I get it now...but it doesn't look like MC is able to list albums with tracks by different artists (even the album is basically focussed on ONE artist, as in my Rory Gallagher example and the John Coltrane example above) as an album by that artist. Instead, it lists as Various Artists (in disagreement, as I said, with the CD cover and therefore proper name for the album).

[MusicBringer]

I get it now...but it doesn't look like MC is able...

btw I like your example using Rory Gallagher.  You obviously have Taste.
Many years ago I made a detour on a Cork Crawl 🍺 to visit Crowley's Music Shop in McCurtain Street, Cork 🎸 🎵

[rsg]

btw I like your example using Rory Gallagher.  You obviously have Taste.

Thanks! And have you figured out the Artist / Album Artist issue? Maybe it should go under 'Feature Request.'

[EnglishTiger]

That "by Various Artists",  shown in dtc's image, that gets displayed when MC encounters  an Album where there are more than 1 Artist is hard coded  into MC and therefore can not be changed by the user.

To me it looks like the decision about what to put there is using the database Mix Album field, which would get set for any Album where there are Multiple Artists performing the individual tracks, regardless of what is in the Album Artist field/tag.