Album Artist Viewed Selectively..?

[simoncn]

I have checked the XML metadata that the current version of Asset UPnP sends to the control point for each track. Asset UPnP sends AlbumArtist, Composer and Performer information but it doesn't send Artist information (this seems strange to me). I presume it is the lack of (differing) Artist information for the album tracks that is causing the Naim app not to show Various artists as the overall artist and also not to show the correct artists for the tracks of the album. I don't have any information from Naim about this, so this is just my interpretation of what I have seen.

It is very unfortunate that the UPnP specification doesn't specify rules for what the server should send in this case and what the control point should expect to receive. This means that each server and control point is likely to do something slightly different and many combinations don't produce correct results, as you are seeing. It is also unfortunate that the Naim app shows the overall album artist as Various artists and is ignoring the AlbumArtist value that MinimServer is sending.

MinimServer is observing the normal industry standards (AlbumArtist for the overall album artist and Artist for each track artist) and this works correctly with most control points. I don't know why the Naim app isn't using this information (presumably a bug) and I don't think it would be possible for MinimServer to do anything to improve this situation unless Naim is willing to change things at their end.