Author Topic: How to group different album artists as one  (Read 1676 times)

chrctrlmt

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Can someone please explain how to group different album artists as a single album artist?  I can't use the artist tag because I sort by album artist, using the thumbnail explorer and grouped this way in the main panel.

For example, I would like album artist 'Campfire Songs' to be grouped with album artist 'Animal Collective', as that was an early name of the band.  Sorting by this tag simply places it underneath Animal Collective, but I'm trying to group it all as one, not two adjacent, separate groups.

What I want is to see both album artists listed in the main panel when I select Animal Collective from the thumbnail explorer.

Any ideas?
Last Edit: June 16, 2021, 09:54:31 PM by chrctrlmt

chrctrlmt

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In the thumbnail explorer I am now listing by 'other tags>sort album artist' which is working the I want, however in the main panel it's not grouping the right way. 

I want to have it grouped by album artist, then sorted by year (descending) per album artist  Unfortunately, that splits up the groups so it's listed like so:

Clint Mansell (albums in 2021)
Clint Mansell & Kevin Kliner (albums in 2020)
Clint Mansell (all albums 2020 and prior)

I don't want album artist to be split into two groups but can't figure out the sort settings for that to work.  I've figured out how to group different album artists together but am stuck on this part.  Help!


chrctrlmt

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I messed around with getting the sorting to display as album artist>album year (descending) using sub-groups but it was still jumbled up as far as I could figure it.  It's a little confusing how there is a difference between adding a sort as value directly to a tag, and the 'enable custom sort values' option in the preferences.  I guess the latter is only written to the MusicBee database.  Using filters may be the way to go here and seems easier.   

FWIW the scroll wheel doesn't work under the Preferences>Sorting/Grouping/enable custom sort values...>artists window.

Thanks

The Incredible Boom Boom

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What is the purpose of the grouping tag?

Depending on the view you're using, this is will get you what you want without having to mess around with sorting, custom sorting and sub-groups.
Just add "Animal Collective" to the <Grouping> tag in the relevant files.