How to show ARTIST tag when album artist = "Various Artists"

[paulgj]

Hi there,

I couldn't find a definitive answer to this after searching the forums but I have a compilation album where I have set the ALBUMARTIST tag to "Various Artists" and set the ARTIST tag to the individual artist.

When I play back these songs on my receiver it shows the artist as Various Artists. Is there a way to say that just for compilations show the artist instead of album artist?

I assume compilations are defined as albums having the albumartist set as above?

Thanks!

[simoncn]

MinimServer doesn't do anything special for compilations or for "Various Artists" as an ALBUMARTIST tag value. For all tracks, it sends the renderer the track artist (ARTIST tag value) and the album artist (ALBUMARTIST tag value). It is up to the renderer how it displays this information.

[paulgj]

thanks Simon.

I don't suppose there is a way to alter this behavior? maybe send the artist in place of the Album Artist on certain conditions?

[simoncn]

You can configure the way that AlbumArtist information is sent to the control point. In the tagCustom property on the Advanced page, the default setting for AlbumArtist is

AlbumArtist.displayRole={artist}

You can change this to

AlbumArtist.displayRole={author}

or you can remove it completely. Some control points prefer the author setting and some control points prefer to have it removed completely. You can try both of these to see which produces the best result with your control point.