Hi Mike,
Yep, this new feature is still confusing. And it's not done. This
is useful feedback.
The basic goal here was to do what iTunes does pretty well, which is
when you have a "compilation" album from a bunch of artists, not
pollute your artists listing with all those singular songs.
Problem is that there are different definitions of "compilation". I
think a "compilation" is an album with a bunch of songs from a
variety of artists. iTunes' "Group compilations when browsing"
option is described like this in the help file:
"To see all the songs on a compilation CD grouped together in your
library, make sure "Group compilations when browsing" is selected in
iTunes preferences. If this checkbox is deselected, artists from
compilation CDs appear individually in the Artist list (in browse
view)."
That's what our first setting under "Compilations" is supposed to do
too.
Some folks think that a "compilation" can be a bunch of songs from a
single artist that are compiled into an album. I'm not sure that
this is right, since every album could be considered a compilation of
songs. One question for you: What do you expect the "Compilation"
checkbox to do? How should the presentation of albums be different
if it's a compilation?
This is all complicated by other ID3 and Vorbis tags that identify
ARTIST, ALBUMARTIST and TRACKARTIST.
I think we're still a little confused about what the right way to
handle all this is, but we're working on it.
On Aug 25, 2005, at 5:39 PM, mikerob wrote:
I'm somewhat confused by the new functionality for compilation albums
that has appeared in recent 6.2 nightlies.
I first noticed this when "Various Artists" appeared when browsing by
artists.
In my collection I don't actually have any albums with multiple
artists
or artists called "Various Artists". I do have a large number of
dance/DJ mix compilations but have tagged the artist as something
descriptive like the DJ/label and tagged the tracks as "track name -
artist" to avoid having thousands of different artists.
I generally use iTunes for ripping CDs and a number of albums have
been
tagged as "compilations". It appears that Slimserver is now listing
these albums under "Various Artists".
This includes single artist albums such as "Best of..." type
collections which are, well, compilations, of tracks by the same
artist
so quite logically they have been tagged as compilations.
I therefore can't see the justification for assuming that the
compilation tag means Various Artists.
I'm also a bit confused about the "Compilation" settings under Server
Settings / Behavior.
The default settings are "List compilation albums under each artist"
and "Don't include compilation artists in artist list" However with
these settings, compilation albums aren't listed under the artist.
Some
artists which only have "compilation" albums have disappeared from the
Browse Artist listings. So if you had a Sinéad O'Connor album, "So
Far... The Best of Sinéad O'Connor" which iTunes tags as a compilation
because it is, well, a compilation, then the album doesn't appear
under
Sinéad O'Connor but is listed under Various Artists.
I would imagine this change to previous behaviour will be confusing to
many users when they find artists and albums disappearing from where
they expected.
Would it not be better for the default behaviour to be the same as
previously - ignore the compilation tag and Browsing by Artist or
Album
is purely based on the Artist or Album tags.
Doing clever things based on the compilation tag would then be purely
optional.
iTunes doesn't show anything in my collection called Various Artists.
My iPod doesn't show anything in my collection called Various Artists.
Music Magic Mixer doesn't show anything in my collection called
Various
Artists.
Slimserver didn't used to show anything in my collection called
Various
Artists.
How do I get rid of the Various Artists?
Yes, I could remove the compilation tag but I don't think this is the
right thing to do. Firstly, because I think it is a mistake to assume
compilation = Various Artists and secondly because I believe the
default Slimserver behaviour should be "what you see is what you've
tagged" so if you browse by artist, you see what you have put in the
artist tags - nothing more, nothing less, and this isn't what is
happening at the moment.
--
mikerob
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