Artists view, how to not get multiple instance of same track?

[jonap]

Sorry for the bad title, but the size limit made impossible to explain properly
In Artist view, you get a list of artists, and a list of tracks
If you click an artist, only the tracks containing the artist get listed
If you don't click an artist, all the tracks get listed
In the last scenario, all the tracks get listed, but the tracks with multiple artists get listed as many times as the number of artists in the track

Is it possible to avoid that?

[hiccup]

I don't use that view myself very often.
What have you selected under 'grouping'?
A quick look shows me that amongst other options you can choose between 'Album Artist' and 'Artist'.
I would expect 'displayed artist' to be a sensible option for that view, but I see it's not there.

Perhaps other members using the Artist view have some useful input?

[frankz]

Under other tags is Artists:Artist.  This will show only folks who are tagged as artist, and not performer or mixer or guest, etc.  That is the closest you will get, I think.  So only tag the actual artist as artist and tag anyone else as performer, or with their individual role.

[hiccup]

Under other tags is Artists:Artist.

Am I on a completely wrong track here?
I only see these options:

[jonap]

@frankz if a track has 2 artists both tagged as artist, the track will be listed twice
performers/guest/mixer is not the issue

@hiccup grouping by artists, shows duplicate tracks
grouping by artist album doesn't show duplicate tracks (cause a track can't have multiple artist album) but then I won't get the extra artists listed

I guess it's not actually possible and I have to chose between one of these scenario

@hiccup about what frankz said, yeah, I have the same as you, probably was not clear enough what view I was talking and he got confused with other views (like the thumbnail browser) where you can filter between artists:guest, artists:artist, artists:performer and artists:remixer

[hiccup]

grouping by artist album doesn't show duplicate tracks (cause a track can't have multiple artist album) but then I won't get the extra artists listed

As a guess, I think if the option 'displayed artist' would be there too, you would get the result that you are looking for.
If that is the case, you or somebody else would need to create a wish for that to be implemented.

[frankz]

@frankz if a track has 2 artists both tagged as artist, the track will be listed twice
performers/guest/mixer is not the issue

Yes, I think that is what most people are going for when they tag artists. I personally want to see all of the relevant tracks listed under each appropriate artist no matter how many total are displayed.  I think that's appropriate and expected.

If I want tracks to be the main method of navigation, with each track appearing only once, I would of course choose tracks view and display the relevant fields (for your purposes, now that I understand what you're looking for, choosing tracks, showing artist (displayed), and then sorting on that field would probably get you where you want to go here).

But artists view is going to show the entries that are appropriate to that artist, which would include all of the tracks that artist is listed as an artist on.

[hiccup]

grouping by artist album doesn't show duplicate tracks (cause a track can't have multiple artist album)

Regrettably, in MusicBee it can. But let's not go there ;-)

[hiccup]

Yes, I think that is what most people are going for when they tag artists.

Considering this wasn't raised before, you are probably right.

But with large bands having many musicians, let alone classical orchestra's, when sourcing metadata from MusicBrainz or Discogs, you can end up with an enormous amount of 'artists'. I can very well understand you wouldn't want all of them to take up 'artist' space, including their artist pictures.

Since I am not using that view a lot myself, and I am not sure I have a good grasp on everything involved I won't create a wish for this myself.
But to me it looks a valid option and possible improvement to have 'displayed artist' available for grouping.

[frankz]

But to me it looks a valid option and possible improvement to have 'displayed artist' available for grouping.

I believe that if you choose tracks view and group by artist, this is actually what you get.  I'm about 75% sure at this point and still looking.

I think it is only when you are in Artist View that each actual tagged artist gets their own entry, which I think is appropriate.

EDIT BEFORE POSTING: Now I'm 100% sure that what I said above is correct.  I just added an album by Ghost of Vroom, Mike Doughty & Andrew Livingston.  Ghost of Vroom, Mike Doughty & Andrew Livingston is the display artist and each artist (Ghost of Vroom / Mike Doughty / Andrew Livingston) is listed as Artist individually in the splitter.  In tracks view, grouped by artists, the tracks only appear under Ghost of Vroom, Mike Doughty & Andrew Livingston and not any of the three individual artist names.

[hiccup]

I think it is only when you are in Artist View that each actual tagged artist gets their own entry, which I think is appropriate.

Also for classical orchestra's containing 50+ musicians?
As I said, I'm currently not sure about an ideal solution, but I do feel there should be an option for some middle ground.
Having only either 'Artist' or 'Album Artist' doesn't cut it.

[jonap]

@frankz I think you are talking about 2 different views:
Artists and Tracks
in Tracks view, the tracks are not duplicate

But I am talking only of the Artists view, with the panel showing the tracks below
it's there that the duplicate tracks get listed

[frankz]

I think it is only when you are in Artist View that each actual tagged artist gets their own entry, which I think is appropriate.

Also for classical orchestra's containing 50+ musicians?
As I said, I'm currently not sure about an ideal solution, but I do feel there should be an option for some middle ground.
Having only either 'Artist' or 'Album Artist' doesn't cut it.

Well the middle ground is probably to not tag performers like the second chair flute player as an artist.  

I mean, when it comes to orchestral music, the orchestra as a group is an artist, the soloist if there is one is an artist, and the people whose names you don't know because they're not artists probably shouldn't be listed as artists.  

There could be a Displayed Artist view I guess, but that seems very iTunes level simplistic.  

I don't care that much per se, though, so I won't belabor it.  I suggested something that would work for what the OP wants to see and I think that covers my interest in this.

@frankz I think you are talking about 2 different views:
Artists and Tracks
in Tracks view, the tracks are not duplicate

But I am talking only of the Artists view, with the panel showing the tracks below
it's there that the duplicate tracks get listed

No, I understand now.  I'm telling you the view that will show you what you want to see, since the view you want to use can't show you what you want to see.  

Artist view won't do what you want, as we've established.  You can decide if it's more important to see the data as you wish (each track once) or see the view that you want. As hiccup suggested, if artist view won't do what you want a wishlist post is totally appropriate.

[jonap]

oh I see what you mean now, yeah I didn't understand you were suggesting another way
anyway that's not quite the same view, as you don't get the artists shown as picture nor the ability to filter the tracks by click on them
it's an interesting alternative, but not what I was looking for

[hiccup]

oh I see what you mean now, yeah I didn't understand you were suggesting another way

Who/what are you replying to?