Multiple artists

[kochcembalo]

I have multiple artists, separated by an ;. Some times I have it like this ARTIST1;ARTIST2 and sometimes ARTIST1; ARTIST2 (space after . MB makes two different albums which makes no sense. All tracks should be placed into the same album.

[Xyzzy]

Just correct your tags so they are what they mean.

[kochcembalo]

That I thought by myself. You will not believe it.
Because I have ten thousands of albums, it is a long lasting work, for a behaviour that makes no sense.

[psychoadept]

The additional tagging and reporting tools plug-in could help you standardize your tags quickly. Just test on copies or small batches until you're sure it's working as expected.

Also, if you're talking about the Album Artist field, it doesn't handle multiple values the way the Artist field does - precisely because it's supposed to be a single, consistent value for the whole album.

[Zak]

Just correct your tags so they are what they mean.

It's not that easy.
A screenshot would have helped clarify the OPs request, but I think I'm having the same problem.

These are the tag values - in Mp3tag - for an album with only seven tracks:



Each track has two Artist tags - exactly the same, with no extra spaces or anything else to throw things off.

When I add that album to MusicBee, it inexplicably decides that six tracks should separate these two values with a space and just one track should not, which means it doesn't get grouped with the other tracks from the same album:



Showing all tracks from both "albums" in the Tag Inspector in MusicBee shows that it knows the tag values are all the same:


I've made sure there are no values for Sort Artist or Display Artist for these artists in Sorting/Grouping preferences.
I've removed/re-added them multiple times, each time with the same result.
MusicBee is just choosing to display them differently, and there's nothing I can do about it. 


This thread was posted as a Wishlist request, but I think it should be classified as a bug.

[Steven]

Could you send me a link to the files?

[Zak]

Thanks for the super-quick reply.

I've zipped up the seven tracks and hopefully you can access the file on OneDrive here:

https://1drv.ms/ ... [Link removed]

[Edit]
Should have included that the first row in the artwork view is Album Artist which doesn't have a value, so MusicBee is inferring it from Artist.

[Steven]

All working fine here. Perhaps try rescanning the files and then press F5
also are you using the latest v3.6 patch?

[Zak]

Running 3.6.8902 P

(Sorry, I always forget to mention that too)

I've got some pretty convoluted sorting and grouping settings using virtual tags etc, so I'll keep tinkering under the hood to see if I can work it out.
I just can't see how it can be related to anything I've set up if all the tag values are the same though.

Thanks for looking.

[Zak]

I have concluded I just don't understand how the custom sort values settings work.

I selected a track from the album shown on the left, and selected Edit Custom Sort Values in the Tag Editor.
It showed these three values:



I did the same for the one track in the album shown on the right, and it showed an additional entry with the space between the names missing:



I've never had any Sort Artist / Artist Sort or equivalent tags in these files so I don't know where they came from.
If I delete all the values from those settings from all the tracks, they just repopulate again when I re-open the dialog.


[Update]
Success! Sort of.

I was able to fix it by selecting all tracks and using the Artist Splitter in the Tag Editor to explicitly set the Display Artist to both names separated by a space and semi-colon:



Mp3tag shows this added a Display Composer tag too.  



What's weird is that if I delete these two Display tags in Mp3tag now and then rescan them in MusicBee, the tracks still appear correctly as a single album.
So I do wonder if MusicBee isn't doing some caching or somehow not updating those values when the tag values are changed via the Sorting tab in the Tag Editor.

Or as mentioned, I don't understand how those settings are supposed to work.
It's a bit confusing the way those settings in the Tag Editor overlap with some but not all of the same settings in the Preferences.

Thankfully, I only had to fix one album. Not sure if the suggestion to update tag values en masse using the Tagging plug-in will work for the OP.
I've ended up with the same tag values as when I started, so it still doesn't appear to be solely a tagging issue.

[hiccup]

If I delete all the values from those settings from all the tracks, they just repopulate again when I re-open the dialog.

Do you perhaps have some AT&RT function active?
Also, is there a reason why you don't you have Album Artist populated?

[Steven]

I have concluded I just don't understand how the custom sort values settings work.

there is no custom sorting being applied as the 'sort as' values are blank. MB just fills in the left column to make it easier to enter sort as values.
However it is weird you see 4 entries. I only see 3 on all tracks

[Zak]

If I delete all the values from those settings from all the tracks, they just repopulate again when I re-open the dialog.

Do you perhaps have some AT&RT function active?

Nope. I don't use the plug-in at all.

Also, is there a reason why you don't you have Album Artist populated?

I only populate Album Artist for tracks where it differs from Artist.
MusicBee will fall back to using Artist anyway, so I don't see any need to duplicate the tag value unnecessarily.

I use the iTunes Compilation tag for true multi-artist compilations, and let MusicBee substitute the value I've specified in the Grouping preferences automatically.

[hiccup]

I only populate Album Artist for tracks where it differs from Artist.
MusicBee will fall back to using Artist anyway, so I don't see any need to duplicate the tag value unnecessarily.

Ok, but as you are probably aware, Album Artist is–supposed to be–a single-value tag, while Artist is a multi-value tag.
Your issue is (partly) a result of mixing these different concepts.

[Zak]

there is no custom sorting being applied as the 'sort as' values are blank. MB just fills in the left column to make it easier to enter sort as values.

Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. I thought the left-hand side was showing that part of the setting that MusicBee had previously saved.
Tinkering now I see how a value entered there also appears in the overall custom sorting preferences.

However it is weird you see 4 entries. I only see 3 on all tracks

Since I've fixed it, I only see 3 too.
The erroneous entry with no space between the names is gone.

I only populate Album Artist for tracks where it differs from Artist.
MusicBee will fall back to using Artist anyway, so I don't see any need to duplicate the tag value unnecessarily.

Ok, but as you are probably aware, Album Artist is–supposed to be–a single-value tag, while Artist is a multi-value tag.

That gets mentioned a lot and each time I refrain from saying anything, lest it confuse new users.
The truth is, as long as you know what you're doing, MusicBee has supported multiple Album Artist tags for years and does so quite well.

e.g.
An album with multiple Album Artist tags:


Shows a separate entry for each in the Thumbnail Browser displaying Album Artist:


I've been using this setup successfully for over a decade, on thousands of tracks.

Your issue is (partly) a result of mixing these different concepts.

It's not though.

I had 7 tracks, each with identical Album and Artist and Date values (and no Album Artist value) and MusicBee decided to show one of them differently.
And after fixing the display issue, the tag values in all files are the same as they were before.