# Copy Artist tag to Album Artist tag

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-artist-tag-to-album-artist-tag/48123>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [March 9, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-artist-tag-to-album-artist-tag/48123 "2020-03-09T04:21:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paulindr](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@paulindr](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/paulindr)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 4:21am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-artist-tag-to-album-artist-tag/48123/1 "2020-03-09T04:21:18Z")

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Sorry to ask again but what I read doesn't work.

I need to COPY (and retain) the ARTIST tag value so it also appears in the ALBUM ARTIST tag.

According to another help topic, I do this:  
_Action type:_ **Format value**  
_Field:_ **BAND**  
_Formatstring:_ **%album artist%**

When I do that, the ARTIST tag value disappears and nothing enters the ALBUM ARTIST filed. Presumably I don't understand the 2 instructions above.

I know to open an action type of FORMAT VALUE. I can see FIELD and FORMATSTRING. If I type AR into the top FIELD, ARTIST appears automatically (with no % signs). I then type %ALBUM ARTIST% (and I also tried %ALBUMARTIST%) in the bottom Formatstring field. When I click OK, the ARTIST field empties and nothing appears in the ALBUM ARTIST field. If I repeat this but surround ARTIST with % signs, it makes no difference to the result.

Please, what am I doing wrong?

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**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-artist-tag-to-album-artist-tag/48123/2 "2020-03-09T05:34:58Z")

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> [@paulindr](#):
>
> Please, what am I doing wrong?

Several things.  
The correct field name for the album artist is ALBUMARTIST.  
If you want to assign that what you find in ARTIST, you "format" the tag field ALBUMARTIST, so select that for "field name" and use for  
Format string: %artist%.  
If you do it the other way round, you are assing the non-existent contents of ALBUMARTIST to the filled field ARTIST which results in that what you experienced: the contents of ARTIST gets deleted.

Anything like BAND or ALBUM ARTIST lead to user-defined fields - which you may see if you open the extended tags dialogue (Alt-T). So, the use of user-defined fields may hide the contents from you.  
If these user-defined fields are filled (now), you can recycle their contents back to the original field, again with an action of the type "Format value".

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**Author:** ![paulindr](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@paulindr](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/paulindr)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-artist-tag-to-album-artist-tag/48123/3 "2020-03-19T22:06:44Z")

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ohrenkino.

Of course! Stupid of me.

Thanks for your help and your tolerance.

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**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/copy-artist-tag-to-album-artist-tag/48123/4 "2020-04-18T22:06:58Z")

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