Dealing with artists with the same name

[gnavs]

I've got a fairly large library (130k+ songs) and as my musical tastes evolve and change I'm finding that I now have several different bands under the same name. I'm pretty OCD about ensuring artist / album / track info is accurate so I can filter by things like genre, artist, etc. on the ipod classic that I sync to. With multiple artists sharing a name it can be problematic.

For example, I'm feeling in the mood for some garage rock, so I look for the band Slaves (English garage rock band) on my ipod and end up seeing them plus another band named Slaves (American punk / hardcore band).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to ensure these artists are kept separate, despite having the same name, without resorting to something like what discogs does, adding (1) to the end of the artist name? Perhaps a script that also looks for additional info taken from one of the custom fields?

[dypsis]

I think adding (1) (2) etc is the only way.
It's what I would have suggested.

[Lowlander]

Country of origin or year founded in parenthesis could be an option, but you probably run into bands from the same country with the same name and maybe the same year they were founded.

[gnavs]

Thanks. I currently use one of the custom fields to add the band's country of origin, which works visually. Just wish it would auto-sort referencing that custom field when you sort a playlist or library by artist.

[Lowlander]

I'm not sure if this resolves it, but you can sort on multiple fields by holding down the CTRL key while sorting on additional fields.

[Bob_m_54]

I do like @Lowlander suggested (AUS) or (UK) or (USA) etc, after the name.

[Cienega32]

I've used that format (Lowlander) for some albums that are different in the UK than in the USA. Rubber Soul (Beatles) is one example of that. Also using the year in an album name if a newer remaster (with "unreleased tracks", etc) comes along; using it in the older versions.

I would use it the same way with artist names if I needed to. It's a clean way to do it.

[dypsis]

I've used that format (Lowlander) for some albums that are different in the UK than in the USA. Rubber Soul (Beatles) is one example of that. Also using the year in an album name if a newer remaster (with "unreleased tracks", etc) comes along; using it in the older versions.

I would use it the same way with artist names if I needed to. It's a clean way to do it.

There are also albums that are unique and different in AUS.
In fact, JP get lots of unique releases for some reason.