VariousArtistsLogic

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Various Artist Logic

What

The various artist logic is supposed to determine when an album is by different artists. This allows the album to be displayed under a various artist label instead of there being multiple entries under each of the artists names.

For example

Maximo Park - Going Missing - Top Indie Hits Vol 27

Arctic Monkeys - I bet you look good on the dance floor - Top Indie Hits Vol 27

Would be displayed under both Maximo Park and Arctic Monkeys with various artists turned off but just various artists with the option turned on.

How

I just spent all afternoon editing tag information. Much to my disappointment SS does not appear to deal with Album Artist correctly. Even if I make the Album Artist "Various Artists" it still lists all of the Artists that make up those albums when I Browse Artists. I am using SS 6.2.1 right now. I even went to Server Settings

> Behavior

> Compilations and set the first option to "Group compilation albums together" and the second field to "List albums by band

"Group compilation albums together" and "List albums by band" are the right first steps, but selecting those settings is not enough.

There is a "part of a compilation" tag (I don't know what that tag is actually called) that needs to be set. I use Tag&Rename for editing tags; within T&R at least, the "tag editor" screen has a checkbox marked "Part of a compilation" which needs to be checked.

edit: I believe the tag you need to set as "compilation = 1". If you don't wish pay for Tag & Rename (which is shareware) you can use the excellent, complex but free Mp3tag program instead. There is a list of other good tagging tools at the BeginnersGuideToTagging.

In Mp3tag first press /Ctrl D/ to change your directory to the location of the album files. In the right pane your music files should be listed, so select them (/Ctrl A/) and then right click your mouse over one of the selected files to bring up a options menu. Select /Tags/ and in the pane entitled /Metadata/ click the /Add fields/ button. This brings up a small dialog, which for the /Field/ select or type in "COMPILATION" and for the value type in "1" and press okay. -Ipggi

Also, if your files are in WMA format, there is a bug in slimserver where the "Album Artist" tag actually needs to be blank for things to work properly (I believe that this problem is unique to WMA?). If you use T&R to blank it out, make sure you go to "Options" - "Tags" and uncheck the "Auto copy Artist data into Album Artist tag field if clear", otherwise you'll clear them and they'll come right back (I've done this to myself more than once).

edit: I have found this to be incorrect. For my properly tagged WMA encoded albums while using SlimServer 6.2.2, I need to set the "ALBUM ARTIST" tag to /Various Artists/ (combined with the COMPILATION=1 tag) in every WMA file that it part of a compilation. If "ALBUM ARTISTS" is set to blank then SlimServer doesn't report it properly in the ALBUM view and instead uses the artist name from the last song listed in the album.

Again you can use Mp3tag to implement the ALBUM ARTIST tag using the same method I listed above for COMPILATION.-Ipggi

BTW ... with Tag&Rename, you can make this change for all your compilations at once using the "Multi File Tag Editor" function (though be prepared for a long wait while it writes all the new tags). I assume that other tag editors have a similar function ... not trying to sell T&R here, it's just the only tag editor I have experience with ...

Points to note

1. The code is buggy, so it may not work as you expect it to.

2. If your files are WMA, it will definitely not work as you expect it to.

3. The first step is to set "Group compilation albums together" and "List albums by band" ... and pray.

4. If that doesn't work, use T&R to set the "Compilation" tag, or create a "COMPILATION=1" tag if you are using another tagging tool.

5. Once you've done this, you need to rescan, but rescanning for "new and changed" music does not always work so it is better to "clear library and rescan everything" and best to just stop slimserver, delete the cache, and restart.

6. Some non-compilation albums still have multiple artists and may cause you some grief (which was the original question posed in this thread).