Trying to solve an action problem set ALBUMARTIST to Various or not

Support
1

I am currently using a part of an action Format Value of "%Allbum Artist%" and Format String of "Various Artists" which works fine.

However, I have had to double up my actions to cater for non various albums where there is only one contributor to the album.

What I would like to achieve is something like "if the album has various performers then put Various Artists in the album artist field OTHERWISE show the artist who performs on the album"
I have no idea whatsoever if this can be done but any guidance would be helpfull.

2

The field should be called ALBUMARTIST - one word, and if you select that as field name, then do not use the % characters.

This will not be possible as MP3tag does not compare the contents of tag fields in different files.
If the albumartist is "visible" e.g. as part of the path or filename, you could compare that with the contents of ARTIST and then set the values accordingly.

3

Even if Mp3tag would recognise multiple tracks as an entire ALBUM (it does not!), there would still be the problem of defining "various performers".

Would you count "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" as various performers?
Or "Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band"?
Or "Duke Ellington and His Orchestra"?
What about "Simon & Garfunkel"?

4

Thanks. For your answers. I was just hoping that there was a solution.

As for field names I put the % in accidentally as I was writing the question from memory and got a bit confused :face_holding_back_tears:

“Would you count "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" as various performers?
Or "Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band"?
Or "Duke Ellington and His Orchestra"?
What about "Simon & Garfunkel"?”

I treat groups as one artist

I would treat albums where every track is a different artist as Various Artists

5

The easiest way would be to set the data correctly at the moment of the initial ripping/tagging.

A workaround may be:
Filter for the 1st file in each album.
Use the data from ARTIST to rename the folder e.g.
%album%_%artist%
Remove the filter.
Use an action of the type "Format value" for ALBUMARTIST
Format string: $ifgreater($strstr($lower(%_path%),$lower(%artist%)),0,%artist%,Various Artists)

An then you filter for all 2nd files in an album, rename the folder again this time with
%album%_%albumartist%
and filter for the 1st tracks and apply the same action/converter again.

6

I treat groups as one artist

I would treat albums where every track is a different artist as Various Artists