Artist column in column browser, a question

[Acoustics]

Hello,

In the Main panel, column Browser, the default layout Genre > Artist > Album is almost OK for me, except for the column Artist. In this column I want that artists in compilations appear in a unique entry Various Artists. So replacing Artist by Album Artist in this view is perfect for this aspect BUT, in this case, the split function for the artists is lost.

Is there a way to have the both, a unique entry Various Artists for compilations AND artists split ?

Thanks.

[psychoadept]

Hello,

In the Main panel, column Browser, the default layout Genre > Artist > Album is almost OK for me, except for the column Artist. In this column I want that artists in compilations appear in a unique entry Various Artists. So replacing Artist by Album Artist in this view is perfect for this aspect BUT, in this case, the split function for the artists is lost.

Is there a way to have the both, a unique entry Various Artists for compilations AND artists split ?

Thanks.

You could tag Various Artists albums with a hidden artist tag, Various Artists.  You would have to do it manually, but you can do it en masse, without disturbing your existing tags, using the Tag Inspector (NOT Tag Editor, which would overwrite any currently split tags you have).

[c-Row]

Or you could mark them as "iTunes compilation" in the track settings and make MusicBee handle such entries as Various Artists compilations (which is hidden in the settings somewhere)

[psychoadept]

Or you could mark them as "iTunes compilation" in the track settings and make MusicBee handle such entries as Various Artists compilations (which is hidden in the settings somewhere)

That's in Sorting/Grouping, but it only does Album Artist.

[Acoustics]

"You could tag Various Artists albums with a hidden artist tag, Various Artists.  You would have to do it manually, but you can do it en masse, without disturbing your existing tags, using the Tag Inspector (NOT Tag Editor, which would overwrite any currently split tags you have)."

(sorry, I don't know how to quote)

I don't really understand.. how this new hidden tag could help ? How to use it ?

An idea I have is to create a virtual tag "Artist" to use in column browser  (Probably I can't use this same name ?) which would have the value ot the artist field except if total tracks in the library for the artist is < 5, then the value is "Various Artists". I can consider that when the number of tracks for an artist is > 5, even if they are singles,  it's worth to show the artist in the list.

The best solution would be a splittable Album Artists field, but I've read that it isn't planned. Too complicated.

[psychoadept]

I don't really understand.. how this new hidden tag could help ? How to use it ?

This would be shown in the column browser, but not in the main panel.  If you want your various artist tracks shown only there and not shown under their specific artist, use the multiple artist splitter to remove the other artist tags, leaving the track artist only in the "display artist" field.

The trouble with virtual tags is that you still won't get the split values.