>I tagged all of my MP3 using MusicBrainz' Picard tagger, and picard by
>default adds 'Various Artists' as album artist for compilations. So
>with the current setup, I get 'Various Artists, REALARTISTNAME .
>ALBUMNAME' in the now playing screen, which definitely is not desired.
>
I guess you are talking about Jive player products' Now Playing screens (eg.
Touch, Radio or SqueezePlay software player). An inconsistency was added with
these newer players, which I would call a fault, but I guess it's unlikely to
ever get fixed.
In Web UI and classic players (eg. SB3, Boom),
>I can probably re-tag with picard, making the album artist empty (is
>'empty album artist tag' equal to 'no album artist tag' in SBS?)
Yes.
>but I don't think I'm the only one tagging compilations with 'Various Artists'
>as album artist.
>
Some do, some don't.
>Do you have an example for a compilation that has a clearly defined
>album artist? 'Best of' albums could be one, but from my POV, that
>would be an album, not a compilation...
Yes - several.
For example, "10 Years" is a normal album by Banco De Gaia. "10 Years Remixed"
is an alternative version of that album, where each song has been remixed by a
different artist. It's a compilation album, but instead of being by "Various
Artists", I have set the album artist to "Banco De Gaia". That means the album
can be viewed when I browse to that artist, and also if I browse to Artists >
Various Artists (as this is the placeholder name for all compilation albums),
and also if I browse to albums by one of the performers of a track, the
compilation albums would also be listed under that artist.
Note that when setting an Album Artist tag for a compilation album in this way,
you may also want to set the Compilation tag (=1).
Note that when I play this album, the details appear in the different players
Now Playing screen as follows:
Web UI:
1. Lai Lah [Eat Static Kitchen Sink Remix]
10 Years Remixed
Eat Static
Touch:
1. Lai Lah [Eat Static Kitchen Sink Remix]
Banco De Gaia, Eat Static
10 Years Remixed
<note that the album artist is displayed as an additional artist for the song,
and the artist(s) and album name are displayed in a different order to the web
UI>
Boom:
<whatever format the NP screen has been configured to display; eg "song
from album by artist", so the album artist is not by default displayed>
Navigating into Song Info shows:
Album Artist: Banco De Gaia
Artist: Eat Static
In my opinion, the Touch NP screen, which is showing a single song that is
playing, should only show the performing artist, NOT the album artist. Or, at
a minimum, the performing artist name should be displayed first, followed by
the album artist name, as the artist(s) line does not even scroll, so often in
these cases, you can't see the actual artist name.
The Album Artist is used for grouping songs under a collective artist name when
browsing albums. It has little to do with a song display on the Now Playing
screen, especially when most of the time it is "Various Artists" (for the
album) and a song from such an album is performed by a single artist.
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