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[BryanC]

I've always appreciated that [Album Artist (auto)] alleviates the need to manually tag an [Album Artist] when [Artist] is identical across an album. I'd like to extend that functionality by also setting [Album Artist (auto) to the [Artist] if that artist is always the first item in the [Artist] list for each track on an album. Currently, when a second artist is added to the [Artist] list [Album Artist (auto)] is set to (Multiple Artists) even if the album artist is the first artist on every track.

Because a picture is worth a thousand words:

With [Album Artist] set:


Without:


...since Ethan Gruska is the first artist on every track on the album it would make sense for [Album Artist (auto)] to pick him up as the album artist instead of falling back to (Multiple Artists).

[marko]

The topic title made me nervous, but, on reading, really, that makes perfect sense to me.

[EnglishTiger]

Since they say  "A Picture is worth a thousand words" here are 2 that display why this suggestion should never be implemented:-

[zybex]

@englishTiger: The change would not affect those 2 albums, both would remain as (Multiple Artists).

The current rules are something like this:
1. if [Album Artist] is not blank, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = [Album Artist]
2. else, if [Artist] is the same on all tracks, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = [Artist]
3. else, [Album Artist (Auto)] = "(Multiple Artists)"

The request would just add a single word to rule 2:
2. else, if the first [Artist] is the same on all tracks, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = first [Artist]

OK, 3 words. Both your examples would fall into rule 1. And if you clear [Album Artist], they would still fall into rule 3, so the chnage would have no impact for those albums.

[EnglishTiger]

@englishTiger: The change would not affect those 2 albums, both would remain as (Multiple Artists).

The current rules are something like this:
1. if [Album Artist] is not blank, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = [Album Artist]
2. else, if [Artist] is the same on all tracks, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = [Artist]
3. else, [Album Artist (Auto)] = "(Multiple Artists)"

The request would just add a single word to rule 2:
2. else, if the first [Artist] is the same on all tracks, then [Album Artist (Auto)] = first [Artist]

OK, 3 words. Both your examples would fall into rule 1. And if you clear [Album Artist], they would still fall into rule 3, so the chnage would have no impact for those albums.

Zy - Your rule 2 needs modifying the test should be if the Artist tag/field for the subsequent tracks CONTAINS the Artist from Track 1.
Tracks 4, 8 and 10 have 2 Artists Listed so the way you have set up the test the Album Artist(Auto) and by Inference the Album Artist will end up as (Multiple Artists)
Plus, and I'd hate to have to write it, there is another scenario where the result the OP desires would not happen - and that is where Track 1 contains more than 1 Artist but the Artist for all the remaining tracks is only the one whose name appears 1st in the list of Artists for Track 1.

The simplest way of preventing MC from Making any Decisions about what Album Artists and Album Artist(Auto) should contain is for the user to make sure the Album Artist field/tag is never left empty; something that requires no changes to MC

[BryanC]

Tracks 4, 8 and 10 have 2 Artists Listed so the way you have set up the test the Album Artist(Auto) and by Inference the Album Artist will end up as (Multiple Artists)

This is how MC currently works.

Plus, and I'd hate to have to write it, there is another scenario where the result the OP desires would not happen - and that is where Track 1 contains more than 1 Artist but the Artist for all the remaining tracks is only the one whose name appears 1st in the list of Artists for Track 1.

Again this is how MC currently works. So I think you are actually arguing in support of my changes?

The simplest way of preventing MC from Making any Decisions about what Album Artists and Album Artist(Auto) should contain is for the user to make sure the Album Artist field/tag is never left empty; something that requires no changes to MC

If this were the case there would be no need for [Album Artist (auto)] to begin with.

I think there is some fundamental misunderstanding here EnglishTiger. My picture examples in the OP were how MC currently works, not how I am suggesting it should work.

[Matt]

I think this probably makes sense.  I'll try to hook it up.  Thanks.

[zybex]

Zy - Your rule 2 needs modifying the test should be if the Artist tag/field for the subsequent tracks CONTAINS the Artist from Track 1.

My post explained the current rules and the new rule proposed by BryanC, showing that it wouldn't break anything as you were saying before.
What you are now saying with "contains" is a new proposal, different from what Bryan said.

Plus, and I'd hate to have to write it, there is another scenario where the result the OP desires would not happen - and that is where Track 1 contains more than 1 Artist but the Artist for all the remaining tracks is only the one whose name appears 1st in the list of Artists for Track 1.

You still misunderstand the proposal. Bryan is not talking about the Artist of the first file, he's talking about matching the FIRST artist in EACH file. So if you have:
Track1 Artist = John; Michael
Track2 Artist = John
=> Since John is the first artist on EACH file, then Album Artist (auto) would be John. Currently it's set to "Multiple".

Your "Contains" idea is better conceptually, but at the cost of more computation for a small gain:
Track1 Artist = John; Michael; Susan
Track2 Artist = Michael
Track3 Artist = Carl; Louise; Michael
=> MC could figure out that Michael is the common element and set that as the Album Artist (Auto), but it would need to check each of the artist values to find out the pattern. What if there are 2 common artists in all tracks? What about one of the tracks having blank Artist? What if that track is track 1? There are many edge cases to consider.

I think Bryan's idea is a good addon for now.

The simplest way of preventing MC from Making any Decisions about what Album Artists and Album Artist(Auto) should contain is for the user to make sure the Album Artist field/tag is never left empty; something that requires no changes to MC

Right. See Rule 1.

[stubbo]

Apologies for the bump, but was this ever implemented, or perhaps there was there a configuration option that allowed for the suggestion as I'm at the point that I am wanting the same behaviour for Album Artist (Auto).

I am finding this especially with other fields where I am using grouping on Album Artist (Auto) and don't want to have to fill in the Album Artist on every single album to get the behaviour I want.

Given so many artists these days have tracks wit guest artists, it feels like the intended use of (multiple artists) has changed somewhat and it either forces the need to populate every album with an album artist for consistency or to fill in individual albums here and there with an album artist when the principal artist is always the same.

I would actually like to propose a small amendment to the suggestion though.

I use a separate field for Artist, I call it Artist List, so that I can format the artist as Surname, First Name and then semi colon separate them so that the artist field can stay as presented on the release. So for example.....

Artist = Armin Van Buuren & Sophie Ellis-Bextor
ArtistLiset = Buuren, Armin Van; Ellis-Bextor, Sophie

And likewise for featured artists.

Artist = Ashbury Heights Feat. Massive Ego
ArtistList = Ashbury Heights; Massive Ego

That way I can see the artist name as it presents on the record, but be able to filter, select, sort etc. based on the list elements.

So if I could select in the library the rule that determines how Album Artist(Auto) is populated that would be great. Something like the following....

1. Select library field to populate Album Artist (Auto) > (here you could choose Artist, or in my case ArtistList)
2. Behaviour if multiple artists found...
   a) always revert to (multiple artist)
   b) select first artist in list (from 1 above), and only if there are still multiple use (multiple artist) otherwise use the single artist.

That would really give me the level of control I'd be looking for.