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[AlcoPop]

Hello One and All,

Not a frequent poster as JRiver just works beautifully as the software to drive my DAC and HiFi.
Really, really happy with it!

But I have a question regarding the metadata in my music library, I've been using artist names as is. EG: The Rolling Stones, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Who.
I'm sure you get the Idea.

I'd like to know if there is an easy way of converting the artist name to Rolling Stones, The. Smashing Pumpkins, The. Who, The.

Also, if this conversion is possible, does it just affect the JRiver database or does it also modify the metadata tags on the files themselves?

Thanks to anyone taking the time to reply!

Alco

[JimH]

You can tell MC to do that in Options.  Search Options for "articles".


If you try a few, you should be able to see what it's doing.

[EdBrady]

Whether JRiver changes the tags depends upon how you have it configured. Check the setting Options -> General -> Importing & Tagging -> "update tags when file info changes"

[Dawgincontrol]

You could do a find and replace under Tools>Library Tools>Find and Replace for each Album Artist and Artist.

     Find: The Rolling Stones
Replace: Rolling Stones

etc. etc.

[lepa]

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/String_Manipulation_Functions#MoveArticles

So your options is either run the expression function to all your songs artist field or you can create a new field which has articles moved or just make dynamic calculated field for views you want to show artist with articles moved

If you want to change artist field tag permanently (first option) then you can just select it to edit mode and insert
=MoveArticles([artist])

Test with couple of files first to familiarize yourself with the expression. When you think you are ready select all songs and insert the expression to artist field to handle every song.

As always make a library backup before you start

[blgentry]

Did you know that MC can ignore "The" and "A" and other articles when sorting Artists?  Just turn on the option at:

Tools > Options > Tree & View > Sorting > Ignore Articles > (checked)

Just above that is a list of articles (the, a, and others).  You can modify this list if necessary.

For me this fixed any desire I had to remove leading articles from Artist names.

Brian.

[AlcoPop]

Oops!

I completely forgot I asked this question!

Much belated and humble thanks to all that responded.

Best regards,

AP

[HPBEME]

I'd like to know if there is an easy way of converting the artist name to Rolling Stones, The. Smashing Pumpkins, The. Who, The.

Here is one other option that may interest you.

I leave the Artist field exactly as auto-populated, but create my own user field called Artist Sort. This field is calculated and uses the [Swap] expression.  This way, any time I import new music, articles are automatically moved to the end (with a comma preceding it) for the custom Artist Sort field.  In addition, it sorts artist names to last name first.  So for artist Billy Joel, my custom Artist Sort field is automatically set to Joel, Billy.

That said, it will also rearrange names that you may not want rearranged. For example: Big Head Todd & The Monsters will be calculated to: Monsters, Big Head Todd & The for the Artist Sort field.  This is not terribly problematic however, as long as "Allow Custom Data to Override the Expression" box is checked.  It will still automatically switch the name around for Artist Sort, but you then just copy the unchanged Artist field and paste that into Artist Sort, and the override will stick.  And better yet… if you decide that you actually prefer the calculated value, simply type "=" in the artist sort field and it will recalculate it back.

As always, backup your library (File/Library/Back Up Library…) before applying global changes.

Picture for custom library field with with expression to calculate its value: https://i.imgur.com/d3tni7f.png