Tagging: Artist vs. Album Artist?

[Michael S.]

Here's something I don't understand - in Metadata tagging, what is the difference between "Artist" and "Album Artist"?

I usually just make them the same. Is there any distinction to be aware of?

[BrodyBoy]

There is o difference if you want there to be, and none if you don't. Not helpful? lol Let me explain.

ARTIST is usually pretty self-explanatory.....it's whoever you consider to be the main artist making the piece of music. (This does get tricky with classical music, but we'll ignore that for now.) In this sense, I think of it as a defined tag, like the name of an album. It just is what it is.

ALBUM ARTIST, on the other hand, is actually a made-up tag...it can literally be whatever you want it to be. It's importance and utility derive from the fact that most playback devices use (or let you opt to use) ALBUM ARTIST for grouping and sorting. You can use that fact to organize your library in ways that make the most sense to you. Here's an example:

Let's say I want Bob Dylan's work with The Band to be grouped with all my Bob Dylan albums. My Dylan albums have "Bob Dylan" in both the ARTIST and ALBUM ARTIST fields, while The Basement Tapes album has "The Band" as ARTIST and "Bob Dylan" as ALBUM ARTIST. When playing that album, my players show "The Band" as the artist, even though it's listed (when I navigate and search my library) with Dylan's albums.
I do this a lot. I similarly group a couple Golliwogs albums with CCR by putting "Creedence Clearwater Revival" in their ALBUM ARTIST field, and Tourists get listed with Eurythmics. "Bruce Springsteen" is the ALBUM ARTIST on everything he does, whether with the E Street Band or solo. All Lennon's work with Yoko Ono has just him as ALBUM ARTIST, and so on and on. It's not right or wrong- it's just my preference because that's how I think of these artists.

This is a very powerful tool for making your library more cohesive and navigable. Most often, you'll probably want ARTIST and ALBUM ARTIST to be the same, as you're doing. But when you want the occasional "orphan" album to be grouped under a different artist name, you can use the ALBUM ARTIST tag to accomplish that.

(As a side note, most players will default to ARTIST for grouping functions when the ALBUM ARTIST tag is missing.)

[simbun]

ARTIST is usually pretty self-explanatory.....it's whoever you consider to be the main artist making the piece of music. (This does get tricky with classical music, but we'll ignore that for now.) In this sense, I think of it as a defined tag, like the name of an album. It just is what it is.

ARTIST isn't the main artist, it's all the artists that have performed on that track.

Using an example album from MusicBrainz, Elton John is the ALBUM ARTIST and Elton John & Dua Lipa are the ARTISTs on track 1.

Some media servers accept multiple ALBUM ARTIST tags but most don't.

[vilsen]

Here's something I don't understand - in Metadata tagging, what is the difference between "Artist" and "Album Artist"?

I usually just make them the same. Is there any distinction to be aware of?

ALBUM ARTIST has the purpose of holding an album together, e.g. if it has multiple ARTISTs, but isn't always required by the server or player. I think it's good practise to use it on all albums for consistency and for the benefit of browsing by ALBUM ARTIST.

The Basement Tapes album has "The Band" as ARTIST and "Bob Dylan" as ALBUM ARTIST. When playing that album, my players show "The Band" as the artist, even though it's listed (when I navigate and search my library) with Dylan's albums.

This is a nice little trick, just be aware that some crappy players show ALBUM ARTIST whilst playing. And you would either lose "The Band" for browsing or else populate multiple ALBUM ARTISTs, which might not be supported by the server or player.

[BrodyBoy]

This is a nice little trick, just be aware that some crappy players show ALBUM ARTIST whilst playing. And you would either lose "The Band" for browsing or else populate multiple ALBUM ARTISTs, which might not be supported by the server or player.

I don't use crappy players. :o)

In all seriousness....I've been doing this for a really long time and I've gotten pretty good at conforming search/navigation/organization matters for my own purposes. I never rely on multiple tags in a single field because it's so variable whether any given codec or player will recognize or use them. (I'd much rather my library be universally accessible to any new player I might bring into the fold, than have to go back and re-tag decades of music to make it compatible.) Since I think of Bob Dylan when I think of that particular album, that's where I want to find it when I browse.

In my experience, players either default to ALBUM ARTIST or allow you to choose to, which I always do. I actually use ALBUM ARTIST, ARTIST, and ALBUM in ways far more extensive than the simple examples I've described here, specifically for classical music and huge multi-disc sets, but that's well beyond the scope of the OP's question.

I agree with you 100% that it's good practice to use it on all albums for consistency.

[vilsen]

I don't use crappy players. :o)

I was only pointing it out for the OP, even if it came out directed at you, sorry. I'm sure you know how to optimise your library.

A "universal" goal is impossible for me to achieve. My home library (served by Asset UPnP) is highly customised with many non-standard tags. My car & portable libraries are derived from the home library, but limited and adjusted to their abilities. Two different worlds in terms of user experience.

[simbun]

A "universal" goal is impossible for me to achieve. My home library (served by Asset UPnP) is highly customised with many non-standard tags. My car & portable libraries are derived from the home library, but limited and adjusted to their abilities. Two different worlds in terms of user experience.

I'm in exactly the same boat. My master collection is only really usable in my UPnP server (and mostly foobar), but Tailscale means I have access to it everywhere.
The only exception is my portable music player that I use for running which has very limited tag support, but for that I have a routine in foobar that performs the necessary conversion and manipulations e.g. the Title tag becomes:
%tracknumber%. %title%[ '('%subtitle%')'][' - '%artist%][' - ['%tracktype%' Track]']