# Change Artist, The to The Artist in the Filename
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 19, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202 "2020-03-19T01:59:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DTW](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DTW)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/1 "2020-03-19T01:59:22Z")
I have been successfully using a regular expression to change Artist, The to The Artist in the Artist field.
(.\*),\sthe$
Replace matches with
The $1
Currently the:
Album Artist Filed has: Artist, The
The Filename field has: Track No Artist, The - Title
And Artist filed has; The Artist
I am wondering whether or not to change the Filename field to
Track No The Artist - Title
Is there any way to do this for the Filename field so that Artist, The would become The Artist but leaving the rest of the filename in tact?
ie
05 Beatles, The - Norwegian Wood
Becomes
05 The Beatles - Norwegian Wood
Also I take it that it is ok that the Filename and Artist field can be The Artist while the Album Artist filed is still Artist, The.
I am assuming that changing any of the fields on mass does not make any changes to the actual music content except the metadata involved?
Thanks
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2020, 5:45am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/2 "2020-03-19T05:45:30Z")
> [@DTW](#):
>
> Also I take it that it is ok that the Filename and Artist field can be The Artist while the Album Artist filed is still Artist, The.
Yes. And it could be totally different e.g. for compilations.
> [@DTW](#):
>
> I am assuming that changing any of the fields on mass does not make any changes to the actual music content except the metadata involved?
Yes.
> [@DTW](#):
>
> Is there any way to do this for the Filename field so that Artist, The would become The Artist but leaving the rest of the filename in tact?
As you rewrite the whole string anyway, I would use the function Convert\>Tag-Filename with
Format string: $num(%track%,2) \_ %artist% \_ %title%
(I use the underscore as separator as this is usually not part of the tag field text whereas a space or a hyphen is. You may replace them with anything of your liking.)
---
### Author:  [@DTW](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DTW)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2020, 6:40am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/3 "2020-03-19T06:40:34Z")
ok thankyou...
Thinking I may just leave Filename and Album Artist as they are is and just have the Artist field as The Artist.
Does not sound like there is anything to really to gain from doing it.
Thanks again.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2020, 7:10am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/4 "2020-03-19T07:10:27Z")
Just a philosophical question:
If you include the artist's name in the filename ... wouldn't it be more straightforward to put the artist first, then the number and then the title?
The way it is now, I would get all the number 1 tracks from all the artists, sorted by artist.
I would have looked for an artist and then see which tracks he/she has.
And along that line: if the artist is included but the album is left out, why see first all number one tracks across all the albums, then the number twos?
If you have grouped the files in folders by artist and then by folder, I would assume that mentioning the artist in the actual filename would be too much information.
If you need the files outside the folder structure then the current information is too little as the album is missing. (And the order needs updating, too.)
But that was just my philosophy.
---
### Author:  [@DTW](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DTW)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2020, 7:48am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/5 "2020-03-19T07:48:47Z")
Yes are right about possibly too much info.
When I ripped I used the following dynamic naming for anout 8 years or more
[IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[IFCOMP]Various Artists[][IF!COMP][artist][][][album][track] [artist] - [title]
(which seems to be the default dbpoweramp dynamic naming)
The only thing I changed since ripping ( besides fixing some typos and lower/uppercase mistakes) is to have The Artist instead of Artist, The.(in the Artist field)
Everything presents well when playing and I use Asset from a Synology NAS.
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@DTW](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DTW)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2020, 9:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/6 "2020-03-19T21:15:37Z")
Could I ask a question about mp3tag and how many files idealy you should make a change to or do a save on at one time.?
For instance I have over 73000 tracks.
When I do a mass change on all files e.g. converting Artist, The to The Artist ( or possibly any other action)
I select the whole directory of my FLAC files:
Then "select all files"
Run the action to convert Artist, The to The Artist
Then do a "save"
This obviously does take a fair amount of time. The time does not necesarily worry me as I realise a lot of work is being done to achieve the result.
I am wondering if there is a suggested / recommended limit on the total number to perform an action on at once?
Or would it be better to be aiming at maybe doing 50% of the files at once or some other percentage as opposed to doing the whole lot at once?
I am usining an i7 4 core PC with 8GB RAM.
Thanks again.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2020, 5:30am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/7 "2020-03-20T05:30:56Z")
> [@DTW](#):
>
> PC with 8GB RAM.
As long as MP3tag is a 32-bit-application it can address no more than 4GB.
If you treat a large amount of files, then I suggest that you turn on the library function (if you have not already done so). Otherwise you may experience "out of memory" errors rather soon.
I would filter for files that should get treated like
`%artist% HAS ", The"`
or even
`%artist% MATCHES ", The$"
This should reduce the number of treated files which may soothe your troubled mind a bit.
---
### Author:  [@DTW](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DTW)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2020, 9:12pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/8 "2020-03-20T21:12:09Z")
That was a great idea..14650 files instead of the who lot.
Is my troubled mind that obvious 🙂
Thanks again.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/9 "2024-05-14T14:42:36Z")
A post was split to a new topic: [Count spaces before a "("](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/count-spaces-before-a/64679)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2024, 2:43pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/change-artist-the-to-the-artist-in-the-filename/48202/10 "2024-06-13T14:43:31Z")
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