I have edited all of my music files to a format of 'Surname, Given Name' in 'Artist tag' and 'Given Name Surname' in the 'Album Artist' tag.

For example, Audra Hardt is 'Hardt, Audra' in 'Artist tag', 'Audra Hardt' in 'Album Artist tag'.

My preference is that the left-hand Library Panel should show the 'Artist tag' - which, indeed, it does - and the right-hand Playlist Panel to show the 'Album Artist tag'. I have created and edited my own Playlist Layout which specifies the 'Album Artist tag' but the displayed text is still 'Surname, Given Name' (ie the 'Artist tag').

It would seem that Amarok does not recognise the 'Album Artist tag' (although it appears as a configuration option), and defaults to the 'Artist tag' - is this so, or am I missing something?

i don't think that was the whole idea of the ALBUM ARTIST tag, but i can confirm that it doesn't work for me either. albums with an ALBUM ARTIST tag set just don't get an artist displayed at all.

amarok 2.2.0 kde 4.3.5

Fifoxtasy wrote:i don't think that was the whole idea of the ALBUM ARTIST tag, but i can confirm that it doesn't work for me either. albums with an ALBUM ARTIST tag set just don't get an artist displayed at all.

amarok 2.2.0 kde 4.3.5

Mmmm ... in the much maligned iTunes this is exactly how the 'Album Artist tag' works in relation to the 'Artist tag' - so you can sort on one or other tag as and when you choose.

I also maintain my collection in iTunes on Windows because that is how I maintain my iTunes account (although I only play music on my Ubuntu machine).

I'm not in love with Amarok, I regard it as the best of a pretty poor bunch. If Amarok won't play the game in this way, however, it is not critical - just disappointing.

as far as i know the ALBUM ARTIST tag is intended to be used for various artist disks. album artist as opposed to track artist, which would be the ARTIST tag. that way you could display that an album by is by DJ ? but the individual tracks still are by artist a,b,c,d...
apple misusing tags doesn't surprise me at all, as they also use the comment field of music and picture files to store technical information.

may you should try gmusicbrowser. it's quite flexible on how to display your tags..

Fifoxtasy wrote:as far as i know the ALBUM ARTIST tag is intended to be used for various artist disks
...
may you should try gmusicbrowser. it's quite flexible on how to display your tags..

I think you are right about the Album Artist tag being intended, primarily, for compilations - 'though I don't regard it as 'misuse' to use it for sorting purposes and, anyway, it's not critical.

I'm taking a look at the gmusicbrowser website as i write - I'm quite happy with Amarok, but I might give gmusicbrowser a try to use as an alternative when dealing face to face with enquiries from friends, acquaintances and clients.

Thanks for your help.

you're welcome

for me the ultimate music player and manager is still foobar2000
but it's not open source and no linux version available
i sometimes used it under wine but i try to use linux players, gmusicbrowser and amarok.