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[rael71]

Hi,

I've a pair of request for Album Artist field.

For what I know it's not possible to change Album Artist data type from String to List (semicolon delimited) as Artist Field; is it possible to have this feature in the future?
I'd also like Album Artist field to become a linkable column:  is it possible to have this feature in the future?


Thanks in advance

Andrea

[kstuart]

+1 on Album Artist becoming a List data type, since Artist is a List data type, for all the same reasons.

[6233638]

I thought Album Artist existed specifically so that you could single out the "main" artist on an album, rather than it falling under (Multiple Artists) or Various Artists.

[syn-ack]

I concur.. Album Artist is for the main artist. Artist field is for all artists contributing to a particular song. Album Artist needs to stay the same, as sorting would be a nightmare if it had multiple entries.

[rael71]

I think that it would be fine to let every user choose if he prefer to have Album Artist Field as string or data type

Bye

Andrea

[kstuart]

I thought Album Artist existed specifically so that you could single out the "main" artist on an album, rather than it falling under (Multiple Artists) or Various Artists.

But suppose you have an album which is a collaboration between two artists:

John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana

That will only show up as that artist and not under "John McLaughlin" or "Carlos Santana".  So, if you go to "Carlos Santana" because you want to hear him, you never see that album listed.

If you use Artist that has List Datatype, you can use:

John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana ; John McLaughlin ; Carlos Santana

and then it shows up under all three possibilities.

But this makes "Album Artist" useless, because you immediately want to change all the Views to use Artist instead of Album Artist (and in fact, I have done so).

If "Album Artist" and "Album Artist (auto)" also became List Datatype like Artist, then that restores the normal distinction between Artist and Album Artist.

BTW, there is no problem sorting "Artist" (List Datatype) right now - it uses the first entry only.

[6233638]

Fair enough. Usually that sort of thing is "Artist X with Y" and would be listed under Artist X, but I can see why you might want that.

[syn-ack]

BTW, there is no problem sorting "Artist" (List Datatype) right now - it uses the first entry only.

The sort issue comes into play when you want to view all albums with a specific artist.

For example:

Sarah Brightman vs Sarah Brightman/Andrea Boccelli

The Sarah Brightman/Andrea Boccelli album would show up under what artist? Just Sarah Brightman cause it is listed first? Or under Sarah Brightman/Andrea Boccelli? Or Sarah Brightman AND Andrea Boccelli?

None of those options make sense to me, and probably to those who created the standard.

[kstuart]

The whole point of the List datatype is that it shows up under all three:

Sarah Brightman
Andrea Boccelli
Sarah Brightman & Andrea Boccelli

For those MC18 functions that require one single entry - such as making a new "Artist" folder - then it uses the first entry, which is why you would usually want the collaboration listed first:

Sarah Brightman & Andrea Boccelli ; Sarah Brightman ; Andrea Boccelli

and then MC18 would know to put the album in a new folder called (for example):

F:\Music\Sarah Brightman & Andrea Boccelli\

[Vincent Kars]

To the best of my knowledge almost all media players, taggers, rippers, etc use ALBUMARTIST=single value and ARTIST=multiple value.
If JRiver would set ALBUMARTIST to multiple, it will become incompatible with almost any other application.

I would love to see linkable columns for ALBUMARTIST and COMPOSER.
I can also use it for my custom tags like COMPOSITION

Best would be to make it a user configurable option. For each field the user can decide to make it linkable or not.

[syn-ack]

The whole point of the List datatype is that it shows up under all three:

Sarah Brightman
Andrea Boccelli
Sarah Brightman & Andrea Boccelli

For those MC18 functions that require one single entry - such as making a new "Artist" folder - then it uses the first entry, which is why you would usually want the collaboration listed first:

Sarah Brightman & Andrea Boccelli ; Sarah Brightman ; Andrea Boccelli

and then MC18 would know to put the album in a new folder called (for example):

F:\Music\Sarah Brightman & Andrea Boccelli\

Just seems to me in that case you could set album artist to sarah brightman and andrea boccelli, and then list them both separate in artist field, sarah brightman/andrea boccelli, and you would accomplishment what ya want.

I dunno, the system as-is, works great for me. But maybe I'm not getting what it is you're wanting to do. I am on vacation at the moment, so my brain has somewhat turned itself off. 

[kstuart]

"Just seems to me in that case you could set album artist to sarah brightman and andrea boccelli, and then list them both separate in artist field, sarah brightman/andrea boccelli, and you would accomplishment what ya want."

But then I have to use Artist for everything, and remove Album Artist from all Views that I use, because the album would not appear in the individual artists' listings.

Vincent stated:
"To the best of my knowledge almost all media players, taggers, rippers, etc use ALBUMARTIST=single value and ARTIST=multiple value.
If JRiver would set ALBUMARTIST to multiple, it will become incompatible with almost any other application."

That same objection was made in the discussion of whether to make Artist into a List Datatype, so all that is being requested is to make consistency with Album Artist.

In actuality, in the files, the data is stored as:

Artist =  John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana
Artist =  John McLaughlin
Artist =  Carlos Santana

so I don't see any reason why you could not have:

Album Artist =  John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana
Album Artist =  John McLaughlin
Album Artist =  Carlos Santana