# Reformat Artist tag for use in Album Artist tag
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 13, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779 "2020-11-13T21:55:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/1 "2020-11-13T21:55:56Z")
I would like to convert the artist tag from first name second name etc. last name to Last name, first name second name etc and place that into the Album Artist tag
Thanks
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2020, 10:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/2 "2020-11-13T22:07:06Z")
See the FAQs to see how to copy the contents from one field to another:
> [@Actions and batch-operations](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions-and-batch-operations/967/15):
>
> How to copy one field value to another field? Example how to copy the content of the ARTIST field to the ALBUMARTIST field: Create a [new action](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/actions/967/2) in an existing action group or make a new action group. Action type: Format value Field: ALBUMARTIST Format string: %artist% Note: If you want to copy all possible values of a field (in case you have multiple artist fields), the internal scripting function [$meta\_sep](https://docs.mp3tag.de/scripting) can be used in the format string, e.g., $meta\_sep(artist,\\\\)
see e.g. this thread on the problem when swapping name parts:
> [@How to rearrange artist name](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-to-rearrange-artist-name/13887):
>
> I have a Karaoke Library with 20,000 songs that I'm cleaning up. Examples of the way the majority of the songs are formatted: Jackson, Alan - Don't Rock the Jukebox Down, 3 Doors - Be like that I need to clean up the rest of the songs to the same format. How can I write a script that will change: Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man to the same format. In this example it would be changed to: Band, Allman Brothers - Ramblin' Man. [:huh:] I need to take last string of characters in the Art…
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### Author:  [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2020, 5:08am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/3 "2020-11-14T05:08:23Z")
I was able to copy the artist to album artist tag so that was OK. As for the second reference, it lead me to a lot of comments as to how stupid it was to do this. Not much use.
My need is to;
1.list individual artists as last name first, then the rest.
2. Bands will go unchanged except I strip the "THE " at the beginning.
3. For titles with multiple artists I only want to reverse the first listed artist leaving the remainder the same.
4. Final for artists with listings such as "Bob Moore & His Orchestra" or "Cathy Jean & The Roommates" I again only want to reverse the first name leaving the rest unchanged.
To that end after some searching I did find a post suggesting "Format string: $regexp(%ARTIST%,'([^;]+)(\s[^;]+)','$2, $1')" or "$trimLeft($regexp(%ARTIST%,'([^;]+)(\s[^;]+)','$2, $1'))". They do work for 1, individual artists. but not for 2, 3 and 4.
I have not yet figured out exactly how or why this code works but will look into that. Once I figure that out maybe I can come up with a solution.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2020, 8:54am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/4 "2020-11-14T08:54:39Z")
> [@Kuchlei](#):
>
> Not much use.
You may have overread that there is a link to
> [@Regular Expressions](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/regular-expressions/521/6):
>
> Another one, that switches first and last names (for instance, Jacques Brel will become Brel, Jacques): Regular Expression: ^(.+)\s(.+)$ Replace with: $2, $1
So technically, it is more or less clear what to do.
I still don't see the use of doing it, esp. as you found so many exceptions yourself.
> [@Kuchlei](#):
>
> Bob Moore & His Orchestra
may be something that one could cope with. But what about
Bell, Book & Candle
Siouxie & The Banshees
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch
The phantastic Alex Harvey Band
An example: "Oliver Onions" is a band name, not an artist's name - how would that be transformed? Like an individual because it looks like forename/lastname or like a band because you "know" it is a band?
Would "Uriah Heep" really be found easier under "Heep, Uriah", "Led Zeppelin" under "Zeppelin, Led"? "AC/DC" becomes "DC, AC/"?
I seriously have my qualms about that.
And as this apparently will only be applicable for the field ALBUMARTIST - how would you treat compilations - and find the artists in those?
And if you always have to remember whether it actually is a band or an individual and then have to navigate to that part of the alphabet instead of just using the search of the player or the filter where type in the name that you can read on the record label this naming scheme will not facilitate the search but lead to confusion.
Also, you would always have to modify the fields according to those rules - an additional step.
I do not think that any of the web sources will actually prepare fields for this kind of transition.
So I still think that, even though it is technically possible and MP3tag will do that in a jiffy, in respect to ease the handling of the collection it is a step backwards.
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### Author:  [@Kuchlei](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Kuchlei)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/5 "2020-11-14T17:14:51Z")
I have a large library of music on my computer. The folder structure is drive:/Music/"A" thru "Z"/Artist/mp3 files. I will use the reformatted albumartist tag to build the folders.
Bob Moore & His Orchestra will be Moore, Bob & His Orchestra.
Bell, Book & Candle will stay Bell, Book & Candle.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch will be Dee, Dave, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch.
The phantastic Alex Harvey Band will be Harvey, Alex Band
Group names will basically remain the same, minus the leading The.
Group names like Gary Puckett & The Union Gap will be Puckett, Gary & The Union Gap.
To be frank, I was not asking for opinions on this, rather how to achieve it without spending hours and hours doing it manually. This setup works for me and allows me to find certain track more easily.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/6 "2020-11-14T18:46:39Z")
> [@Kuchlei](#):
>
> To be frank, I was not asking for opinions on this
That is fine with me.
So please use the search function in this forum, the FAQs and HowTos as they feature loads of examples to swap words around.
Just a note:
My mistake: it is not the "Phantastic Alex Harvey Band", it is "The Sensational Alex Harvey Band"
([https://www.discogs.com/artist/426655-The-Sensational-Alex-Harvey-Band](https://www.discogs.com/artist/426655-The-Sensational-Alex-Harvey-Band))
So "Sensational" would still be part of the band name... but apparently that name is currently not part of your collection, so no worries.
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reformat-artist-tag-for-use-in-album-artist-tag/50779/7 "2026-02-09T12:28:55Z")