Artist search not finding all results

[Spymaster]

I've discovered a weird problem with "artist search" and "artist view"

I'm using the latest version of Asset UPnP for Synology with the latest versions of the Hi-Fi Cast and Cambridge Audio's Streammagic apps on my Samsung Galaxy S21.

All my music is ripped to FLAC.

My artists are tagged Artist1; Artist2; Artist3

If an artist is tagged as Artist2 or Artist3 etc and they appear elsewhere in my collection as Artist1 then they're found by the search with all of their participatory track info intact. But if they don't appear elsewhere as Artist1, e.g. they are more obscure, then the results say "not found" and they're not showing in the artists list either.

If instead I tag the artists as "Artist1 & Artist2" then all artists are found correctly by search (but in this scenario the two artists are displayed in artist view as a single artist so Asset is, presumably, combining them as Artist1)

Is this a fault at the server end?

Thanks!

[Dat Ei]

Not every software is capable to handle multiple value id3 tags the right way. While "Artist1; Artist2; Artist3" results in 3 values and 3 id3 tags, "Artist1 & Artist2 & Artist3" results in 1 value and 1 id3 tag. So if a software can handle single values only, it will find "Artist2" in the single value ID3 tag, but not in the multiple value ID3 tags.

Dat Ei

[Spymaster]

But I think my software CAN handle multiple tags. Because they're finding Artist2 if Artist2 has been listed as Artist1 somewhere else. But not if Artist2 has only ever been listed as Artist2. So it's finding results in some scenarios, but the apps certainly seem to be reading the tags.

So say I tag a track from Labyrinth as "Trevor Jones; David Bowie". If I search for David Bowie he's found, and the Labyrinth track is included in the search results. Similarly if I browse David Bowie in the artists view, the track is there too. (because I have other Bowie albums). But if I tag a Doctor Who audio drama as "Tom Baker; John Leeson" then Leeson is "not found" in either app because he's not a lead artist anywhere else.

Similarly multiple genre tags (Classical; Soundtrack) can be searched for, or browsed, perfectly by both my apps. So the problem doesn't appear to be with the apps...

So that second ID is being read, surely, but only in some scenarios?

[simbun]

Hi-Fi Cast is indeed failing to return results for secondary artists, and I was about to say that it must be the fault of Hi-Fi Cast as it works with BubbleUPnP, yet the Hi-Fi Cast search works with MinimServer, so I'd say it's probably a combination of the two.
It might be worth trying other control points to see if it's something that AssetUPnP or Hi-Fi Cast should address.

EDIT: I just tried the Linn app, and my secondary artist was found under both Artist & Track in MinimServer but only under Track in AssetUPnP, so something with AssetUPnP doesn't look quite as robust as it could be, whereas the "main" artist was found under both.

[Spymaster]

That's very interesting. I get the exact same bad result (failure to find second, third, etc. artists) with Cambridge Audio's Streammagic app, which is the control point for all their top-level streamers. It seems to me, at least, that something at the server end (Asset UPnP) isn't being returned properly.

Can I request that a developer looks into it?

[simbun]

That's very interesting. I get the exact same bad result (failure to find second, third, etc. artists) with Cambridge Audio's Streammagic app, which is the control point for all their top-level streamers. It seems to me, at least, that something at the server end (Asset UPnP) isn't being returned properly.

The UPnP search being used is:

SearchCriteria=(upnp:class = "object.container.person.musicArtist" and dc:title contains "<<named artist>>") StartingIndex=0 RequestedCount=5 Filter=* SortCriteria=

but as we can see it's only bringing back the first artist, so yes I think it needs to be fixed.

BubbleUPnP is performing many more searches than Hi-Fi Cast which is how it's matching the secondary artists, but I don't think it should need to, unless the spec states to only return the first from this particular search.

Can I request that a developer looks into it?

Unfortunately whilst the community is pretty quick to reply it can be a little different with the devs, hopefully this additional insight will help speed things up.

[Spymaster]

Thank you so much for confirming that this is an issue, and for clarifying why.

Does this also explain why those secondary artists are not being displayed in the "Artist" browse list?

Fingers crossed the developers can pick this up quickly.

[simbun]

Does this also explain why those secondary artists are not being displayed in the "Artist" browse list?

I had missed that aspect of it, and no it wouldn't. With this in mind I had a dig around and found the setting 'Contributing Artists with Main Artists' which when enabled fixes everything.

I don't use AssetUPnP as my main media server, but when I do dip into it I find some of its choices a little strange/confusing, like this default!

[Spymaster]

Oh wow - that has indeed fixed everything - thank you so much!!!