MP3 File Tags display problem in WIndows Explorer

Support
1

Hi guys.

I'm new to this forum, and I wanted to ask for help because I don't know how to solve the issue of mp3 tags.

Windows 11, the operating system I use, gives you several options to enter the artist of the song:

  1. Contributing artists ("Contributing artists").

  2. Artist of the album ("Artist of the album").

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As far as I understand, the artist of the song should be reflected in the "Artist of the album". However, as far as I can see, this field is optional, and it only allows you to enter one artist.

On the other hand, in case there are more artists, that is, those songs that mention "featured", for example, they should be reflected through the "Contributing artists" field. In fact, this field allows you to add more than one.

However, Windows 11 understands it the opposite of my reasoning, I don't know why, but not only that, an app that I use for music on my Android mobile phone also interprets it in the same way as Windows 11.

I asked in a Windows 11 forum, and they pointed out to me that through MP3Tag I could "alter" that reasoning of the operating system, or at least that's how I understood it and they also confirmed that it was like that. That is, take the "Album Artist" field as the main performer and the "Collaborating Artists" field as collaborating performers (what I mentioned before about featured).

Much to my regret, I have not been able to find either documentation regarding this last paragraph, nor any more information that would help me give a satisfactory answer to my problem.

Therefore, I would like to ask someone from this forum to help me.

Thank you very much.

Summary

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2

Do not be confused by different labels for fields. Those labels depend on the implementation and probably localization of a program.
In MP3tag the

field Description
ALBUMARTIST The Artist that you find as the one who released the album. e.g. Peter Gabriel' s "So" is by ALBUMARTIST Peter Gabriel and so are most of the other tracks ...which means
ARTIST shows the performer of the individual track and so for "Don't give up" it is Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.

Decent players group files that have the same data in ALBUM and ALBUMARTIST together so that the "Don't give up" would not appear to be on a different album.
If you have a compilation, use a pseudo ALBUMARTIST like "Various Artists".

A file should have the data in the following fields:
ALBUMARTIST, ARTIST, ALBUM, TITLE (and optional: TRACK, YEAR)
Decent players then display files together that belong together.

And a further note: do no use the Windows Explorer as test bench to determine if tags are correct or not. This forum is full of threads that deal with the irriation that the Windows Explorer causes.

3

Let's see if I got this straight:

  1. ALBUMARTIST: is the artist who released the album.

  2. If I have a single song from an album (i.e. I don't have the whole album), I should fill in:

a. Or if it's a single song, ALBUMARTIST with the artist who released the album.

b. Or if it's a playlist, Various Artists.

  1. The ARTIST tag should contain ALBUMARTIST + other artists who have collaborated (as I said in my initial post, those who, for example, appear in the song as "featured").

If we apply this scheme to your example, the tags would be:

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TITLE = "Don't give up"

ARTIST = "Peter Gabriel", "Kate Bush"

a. Single song: ALBUMARTIST = "Peter Gabriel"

b. Playlist: ALBUMARTIST = "Various Artists"

There is one point that is not very clear to me:

"Decent players group files that have the same data in ALBUM and ALBUMARTIST together so that the "Don't give up" would not appear to be on a different album."

--> QUESTION: How do you label if the album is titled with the name of the artist?

Thank you very much.

4

This would be unusual to modify the data in ALBUMARTIST only because a track becomes part of a playlist.
A compilation IMHO would be something like "Bravo Hits" or "Café del Mar".

An album that is called like the artist would have the artist's name in ALBUMARTIST; ARTIST and ALBUM.
e.g.
ALBUMARTIST: B-52's
ARTIST: B-52's
ALBUM: B-52's
Title: Planet Claire
https://www.discogs.com/de/master/53856-The-B-52s-The-B-52s

5

Maybe he didn't explain it to me correctly.

I find it very, very rare that I download an album.

I usually download individual songs, and then add them to playlists that I have already created according to my personal preferences.

Therefore, the possibility of a song being on an album and a playlist will never arise.

6

Of course you are free to assign data to tag fields as you like.
But if you want to use the tag fields in the intended way, then the described procedure would be the correct one.

7

I don't know what the name of the Playlist and the name of the Album have to do with each other. The Album tag field can still be completed as the original source of the song. The Playlist name is usually a filename. I normally wouldn't include a tag field within a song to include a specific Playlist name.

8

I'm so sorry I am not able to explain what I do.

I don't include a tag field with playlist name.

I mean I download a song, but I don't include a tag field with album name because I usually don't know that. Then, I move that song to a folder with other songs from diferentes artists.

9

As I said: you can fill the fileds with whatever data you like.
If you rely on folders and playlists, then you probably do not need tag data at all.
If, on the other hand, you want to be compatible with players that also interpret tag data, then it may be a good idea to get as much data as possible.

Your original question was about ALBUMARTIST and ARTIST - and now it has turned to a discussion about ALBUM ... has the orginal problem been solved?

10

Yes, at all.

Thanks, guys!!!