Album Artists show no albums, instead "no matches found"

[UnTalBilly]

Hi. I have a lot of albums of classical music where I like to write the album artist as [composer; performer, conductor]. This allows me to search albums within a composer but also within a group of performer and conductor. The problem is that in the latest version neither the artist before the semicolon nor the one after show their albums. Instead they display a "No matches found" in their album artist page. Is this a bug or can I get around this?
Thanks

[Steven]

its not clear what you are doing. A screenshot would be a good start

[Bajak]

Let's say I have The Lion King soundtrack album which contains songs written by Elton John and a score by Hans Zimmer. So logically I put both of them in the album artist field, separated by a semicolon. However, if I then go to Music Explorer, sort the albums by album artist and choose Hans Zimmer, I can only see albums, where there is no other credit. When I choose Elton John, all there is is a note "No matches found.", because I don't have any other Elton John albums.
Is that on purpose? I remember it used to work as desired, though I don't know which update changed that. Is there a way to make it as it was?

Thanks

[frankz]

The field where you can put multiple people separated by a semicolon to have them split into multiple listings is "Artist," not "Album Artist"  

Album Artist is normally either a single artist or Various Artists or however it is you choose to handle "Various Artist" albums knowing they will not get split into multiple fields.  

In the situation you created above, you would find the album listed under the "Album Artist" listing "Elton John; Hans Zimmer" as you entered.  If you had entered "Elton John & Hans Zimmer" (which I believe is the official credit), it would show up that way in Album Artist.

Personally, I'd use Various Artists here.  I know some people would use "Soundtrack" or "Official Soundtrack" in this instance so all their soundtracks would wind up under the same Album Artist (and "Cast" or "Broadway Cast" or "Cast Recording" for Show Tune type stuff for the same reason).  It's all about deciding how you want to handle it and sticking to that convention.

[Bee-liever]

The field where you can put multiple people separated by a semicolon to have them split into multiple listings is "Artist," not "Album Artist"  

No. Album Artist can be split using the ; separator.

The problem is that in the latest version neither the artist before the semicolon nor the one after show their albums. Instead they display a "No matches found" in their album artist page.

Yes, I noticed this too.
It still works correctly in Library Explorer, showing all the albums that each Artist appears on, under each separate Artist entry.
But, alas, it no longer works that way in Music Explorer under 3.2  

[frankz]

The field where you can put multiple people separated by a semicolon to have them split into multiple listings is "Artist," not "Album Artist" 

No. Album Artist can be split using the ; separator.

Ah, OK.  I stand corrected.  That's - odd, non-standard behavior to say the least.  How many albums do you have with a list of different artists running down the spine?  IMO it should either be an artist or various artists.  Album credits are a very specific, defined thing.  But at least I know how it works in MB now.

[Bee-liever]

How many albums do you have with a list of different artists running down the spine?

I admit it's not many.
But when you do have one, they then show up in either artists lists.
Like 'Robert Plant | Alison Krauss  Raising Sand' (which is how it's printed on the CD spine) is entered as
album artist: Robert Plant; Alison Krauss
then Raising Sand appears in both album artists lists

If I entered it as
album artist: Robert Plant | Alison Krauss
it would appear in neither.

[frankz]

How many albums do you have with a list of different artists running down the spine?

I admit it's not many.
But when you do have one, they then show up in either artists lists.
Like 'Robert Plant | Alison Krauss  Raising Sand' (which is how it's printed on the CD spine) is entered as
album artist: Robert Plant; Alison Krauss
then Raising Sand appears in both album artists lists

If I entered it as
album artist: Robert Plant | Alison Krauss
it would appear in neither.

Because it isn't either.  It's, in effect, a new band named Robert Plant | Alison Krauss.  I'm sure they or their representatives discussed who would go first in the naming order of this entity, for example. But as individual artists in Artist, you'd see it under both because they are both artists in the band. 

It's a technicality I admit and, of course, everyone is free to tag and categorize as they choose and I'm not suggesting otherwise.  This kind of standardization thing interests me, though.  Probably not anyone else, so I'll leave it there..

[Steven]

for the next v3.2 update i have put in handling for multiple album artists in the music explorer

[Bajak]

for the next v3.2 update i have put in handling for multiple album artists in the music explorer

Thank you very much.

[Steven]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_2/MusicBee32_Patched.zip
unzip and replace the existing musicbee files

[Bajak]

http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V3_2/MusicBee32_Patched.zip
unzip and replace the existing musicbee files

Amazing, it works well now, thanks again.

[Bee-liever]

Thank you Steven!