Do not use Artist when Album Artist is present

[badewanne1234]

Hi

I'm not entirely sure how "Album Artist" is used in MA context and compilations, I do have an idea how to make it better (at least from my point of view) in the context of "Genre".

Today, in MA when you add a compliation with the following ID3 tags, just as an example:
Track: [Trackname] Lady in Black
Artist: [Artist] Uriah Heep
Albumt Artist: [Compilation Name] 100% Rock
Genre: [Genre Name] Rock

Then in MA, if you go to Genre, it lists the Artist, but NOT the Album-Artist:
Rock --> Uriah Heep --> Lady in Black (with the Artist on the second line)

In contrast: in Apple Music if you do the same, it will show you Genre --> Album Artist --> Trackname:
Rock --> 100% Rock --> Lady in Black (with the Artist on the second line)

This compilation has 100 tracks, with probably as much individual artists. For most of these artists, I do not have an album, only the track on this compilation. Which means, the DB is "flooded" with artists that only exist on a compilation.
I dont have too many compilations, but still enough that it is cumbersome. I would believe that for a user with loads of compilations, this can be quite disruptive.

Since the ID3 tag "Album Artist" is mandatory , I have the following suggestions:

1. Do not show the track-artist under "artist view" and "genre view", instead only show album-artists (if album-artist exists, else fall back to track-artist). Like Apple Music does.
2. Maybe this can be achieved with a toggle so that users have the choice
3. Improve consistency between Genre and Artist views: When you go to Genres and search in the Artist search-field for the compilation artist (100% Rock), it is not coming up. If I do the same under the Artist view directly, it is showing.

[OzGav]

You should be marking the album artist in compilations as “Various Artists”

[badewanne1234]

I do have "Various Artists" on another compilation too (Genre: Various). Artists which only exist in that compilation in my library, are still showing...

So if I go to the genre "Various", I can still see all artists from that compilation with album artist "Various Artists". I do want to hide the artist (but show album-artist instead) because there are hundreds of artists with only one track within a compilation in my library, but I do not own a album of them. it floods my library and makes it confusing... Is there a way to achieve that, other than removing the artist from the artist field and moving it to the track field? I'd like to avoid the that...

Thank you

[OzGav]

OK Genre has nothing to do with the tagging of artist and album artist. In the artist view there is an album artist filter https://www.music-assistant.io/ui/#view---artist--album--track

[badewanne1234]

oh yes that would do the trick! Unfortunately, filter by album-artist is only available in the artist view, it is not an option when you are viewing the artists in genres, no option in the artist subfilter to select that - can "Toggle album-artist filter" be added as an option to genre --> artist subview?

Artist view:

Genre view with artist sub-view:

[OzGav]

Correct. That would be a feature rquest

[badewanne1234]

Done with https://github.com/orgs/music-assistant/discussions/5470 thank you