AlbumArtist Issues - creates more Albums

[DavidHB]

(27-09-2014 15:57)Pastim Wrote:  I am, probably erroneously, assuming that I used an alias for AlbumArtist, multiple values could then be supported.

Forgive me for continuing, but there's a point it might be useful to discuss, which is the relationship between the Album and AlbumArtist tags, and why we might need both.

It is important to recognise that there is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to use these or any other tags. So far as I am aware, there is no official, authoritative definition of what tags should contain, other than the names given to them. There is some custom and practice, but it is by no means standardised. So what you are doing is different from what I am doing, but it cannot be 'erroneous'.

For me, the only point of having two separate tags is that Artist relates to the specific track, and AlbumArtist relates to the whole album of which the track is a part. It only makes sense to have an AlbumArtist entry if (1) the artist(s) in question define or are in some other way associated with the whole album and (2) the AlbumArtist entry can be the same for all the tracks of the album. Artist entries, by contrast, can and do vary from track to track.

Here is an example. In my collection, I have the sampler album of the Hyperion Schubert Edition - 27 Lieder all sung by different singers, but all with the same pianist (Graham Johnson). For each track I have two Artist entries - the singer of that particular Lied and Graham Johnson. The Album Artist for all tracks is Graham Johnson (only), because he is the one constant in the artist line-up of the album as a whole. If, as in a compilation or one of those arbitrarily coupled albums you sometimes get, there is no constant in the artist line-up, I leave AlbumArtist blank.

I find that this approach works for me, and it goes with the grain of the way MinimServer works, which makes things easier. I don't know, and don't really care, whether it is 'right' or 'wrong'. But, if a different approach has advantages I haven't thought of, I am very willing to consider it as an alternative.

David