# \[X\] WMA -\> FLAC AlbumArtist
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216
**Category:** No Bugs
**Created:** [September 19, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216 "2008-09-19T10:32:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/1 "2008-09-19T10:32:04Z")
In WMAs, Mp3tag %band% shows my WM/AlbumArtist - fine.
By when I convert WMA -\> FLAC, faithfully transferring WMA/AlbumArtist to vorbis comment ALBUMARTIST=, Mp3tag %band% fails to show the value.
Even though Mp3tag's FLAC mapping is undefined (well, I cannot find a definition in the docs), I'm guessing this is a bug.
Is there a workaround? I don't want to have to retag all 16K files.
And is a fix planned?
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### Author:  [@Hubird](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Hubird)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/2 "2008-09-25T11:32:01Z")
Off Topic:
I might have misunderstood your post.
But....
Are they "Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless" files you are converting ? If not I do not see the point in converting them in the first place.
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### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/3 "2008-09-25T19:03:53Z")
> Are they "Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless" files you are converting ?
Yes.
> If not I do not see the point in converting them in the first place.
FLAC has advantages.
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/4 "2008-09-26T07:33:20Z")
This won't be changed, because changing this mapping would only create further confusion.
The [last time](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/5835/9) I've touched the mapping of this fields I had to revert the change due to massive negative feedback from the users.
A workaround would be to create an action that copies the value of BAND to ALBUMARTIST and removes the BAND field afterwards. This action needs to applied only once after conversion of your WMA files.
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### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/5 "2008-09-28T23:36:16Z")
> A workaround would be to create an action that copies the
> value of BAND to ALBUMARTIST and removes the BAND field
Thanks Florian, but it's not acceptable to change the files' tags just to get Mp3tag to show them properly.
> This won't be changed, because changing this mapping would only create further confusion.
OK, then why not then add a new placeholder that does work properly? I.e. shows the Album Artist consistently across the various formats? This is a pretty reasonable requirement of a 'universal' tag editor.
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### Author:  [@chrisjj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/chrisjj)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/6 "2009-01-04T01:23:18Z")
> why not then add a new placeholder that does work properly?
Please? I really would like to have one column showing/editing Album Artist independent of audio format, and since Mp3tag is trying to give independence of format... can't it help here?
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/x-wma-flac-albumartist/7216/7 "2018-12-28T14:24:23Z")
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