"Album Artist" Tag

[khelsing]

I know MM4's handling of the "Album Artist" tag has been discussed several times, but IMO the following clearly is a bug.

When opening the properties of a track which doesn't have the "Artist Album" tag filled, MM4 shows the content of the "Artist" tag in the "Artist Album" field. After editing any of the other fields (for example "Comment"), but not the "Album Artist" field, and then clicking "OK" MM4 writes the content of the "Artist Album" field (which it created on its own) to the file.

This behaviour is very annoying, esspecially when dealing with compilation albums, for example something along the lines of "The 50 Greatest Hits of the 60's".

[Lowlander]

Already covered at length, this needs to be done.

[khelsing]

Already covered at length, this needs to be done.

I searched for a corresponding ticket, but couldn't find one.

Just to make myself clear: I'm not talking of the fact that MM4 displays the name of the artist in the "Album Artist" field if the file's "Album Artist" tag is empty, but that it writes the inferred content to the MP3 file even if the "Artist Album" field hasn't been edited.

[Lowlander]

I know, but any discrepancy between DB and files is also unwanted, especially when there is no way of knowing if user appreciates the auto-filling of Album Artist or not. Based on forum posts only a few people seem upset with the Album Artist tag and most don't actually use it in the first place.

[khelsing]

most don't actually use it in the first place.

That's exactly where the problem starts. I'll give you a concrete example.

Let's say I downloaded a compilation album named "Screaming Hits of the Sixties" with 20 tracks by different artists. For obvious reasons the "Artist Album" tags of the files are empty. Because the date field is filled with "2002" (as this is the year the compilation has been released) I want to change the dates of the tracks to the years in which the songs were recorded.

When I open the properties of the first track MM4 populates the "Artist Album" field with the content of the "Artist" tag. I edit the "Date" field and click "OK" and MM4 writes the "Album Artist" it created on its own to the file. Repeating this step for every track leads to 20 files which all have a different album artist.

If I cycle through the tracks with the "Update & Next Song" button MM4's behaviour is even worse, as it will only populate the first track's "Album Artist" field whereas for all following tracks the field will remain empty.

[Lowlander]

I meant that those who complain about the Album Artist field being auto-filled often don't actually use the field.

[nohitter151]

For obvious reasons the "Artist Album" tags of the files are empty.

And what obvious reason is that? Because it should not be empty. It should have something like "Various artists" in that field.

[khelsing]

It should have something like "Various artists" in that field.

Tell that to Amazon, Apple, CDBaby, Media Markt, etc.

You guys don't get it. I give up.

[nohitter151]

It should have something like "Various artists" in that field.

Tell that to Amazon, Apple, CDBaby, Media Markt, etc.

You guys don't get it. I give up.

I purchase mp3s from Amazon regularly. They use the album artist tag.

[Lowlander]

I rip with EAC and it uses the Album Artist tag too.

[Jake Ames]

khelsing - I posted about this a few years back and invoked the wrath of the forum as they didn't get it either. The point I had tried to make was not that MM used the Album Artist tag but that by default it did exactly as you have noted. No other id3 tagger of which I am aware automatically autofills the album artist field in the same way MM does.

I can't find the thread but Rusty also posted on the similar topic maybe 2 yrs ago (?) noting the 'pecularity' was really not in compliance with the original id3 tagging convention (but as of today so much liberty has been taken, there is little convention left). It was on a to fix list.

So onto the tag behaviour I did not realize this was what MM ws doing in particular to compilation or tribute albums, until I tried to queue one up to play and realized there were ie 20 'albums' to queue when I thought there was just one. It was more than annoying when it got down to me needing to spend hours, a lot of them, to retag music that should not have needed the extra attention. Once I understood how MM was creating its tags (not why just how) for similar compilation albums I put in something meaningful like the name of the album to keep it separated from the ubiquitous 'Various Artists'.

It would be good if there was a choice to autofill or not.

cheers, jake

[nohitter151]

khelsing - I posted about this a few years back and invoked the wrath of the forum as they didn't get it either. The point I had tried to make was not that MM used the Album Artist tag but that by default it did exactly as you have noted. No other id3 tagger of which I am aware automatically autofills the album artist field in the same way MM does.

I can't find the thread but Rusty also posted on the similar topic maybe 2 yrs ago (?) noting the 'pecularity' was really not in compliance with the original id3 tagging convention (but as of today so much liberty has been taken, there is little convention left). It was on a to fix list.

So onto the tag behaviour I did not realize this was what MM ws doing in particular to compilation or tribute albums, until I tried to queue one up to play and realized there were ie 20 'albums' to queue when I thought there was just one. It was more than annoying when it got down to me needing to spend hours, a lot of them, to retag music that should not have needed the extra attention. Once I understood how MM was creating its tags (not why just how) for similar compilation albums I put in something meaningful like the name of the album to keep it separated from the ubiquitous 'Various Artists'.

It would be good if there was a choice to autofill or not.

cheers, jake

It doesn't automatically fill the tag, unless you open the track properties and save the edit.

[PatMcQ]

Unless I'm not "getting it", this seems a minor inconvenience. I like when MM autofills the Album Artist using the Artist info as 98% of my albums are artist-specific. In the other 2%, I sort (or find or whatever) by Album, select all the tracks in that Album and edit them, putting "various artists" in the Album Artist field. Takes less than a minute.

[JoePublic]

Count me as one who uses Album Artist. I like it when I'm editing Artist and MM fills in a previously blank Album Artist field with the same Artist value, but it would be OK with me if it didn't do that. I do not like it when MM overwrites a previously filled-in Album Artist when I edit the Artist field. The "Various Artist" situation has already been discussed. I also use Artist to indicate when a track has multiple artists, but I want Album Artist to continue to show whose album it is (only). For example, a track on a Perry Como album might show "Perry Como; The Andrews Sisters" while the Album Artist is simply "Perry Como". In another situation, I like to use Album Artist to show the best-known name for an artist so I can search for everything by a given artist easily. A good example is John Mellencamp. He has recorded as John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, and John Mellencamp. For his John Cougar tracks, I put "John Cougar" as the Artist and "John Mellencamp" as the Album Artist. Besides being able to search for Mellencamp and getting all of his music, I have my auto-organize rules set up to use the Album Artist to create a folder, so all of the Cougar/Mellencamp albums are subfolders under a single "John Mellencamp" folder. So, I find the Album Artist tag very useful and wish MM would not change pre-existing values.

[tommycrock]

I find the Album Artist tag very useful and wish MM would not change pre-existing values.

Ditto