Album Artwork now matching using Album Artist tag (PA build 889+)

[Absinthequ]

So you lose your image art on any composer or artist that is split. Re selecting a new image does nothing. This goes for Artist and Composers categories. You also lose your image in Album Artist category, but not all of them... I haven't figured out why you lose some that are split but others that are split you don't...

EDIT: I found out why. When it wiped out all of my artist images because of splitting. I tried to manually add a new image for a couple of artists. When I went into poweramps selected_aa folder they were wiped out and replaced blanks. Which is what happens if you select "No album art"

WARNING; Do not try to replace your artist or composer image, it will wipe it out to a blank image in this version. The image may not show in this version, but it is still there in the Poweramp image folder as long as you don't try to change it.

[andrewilley]

17 minutes ago, Absinthequ said:

When I went into poweramps selected_aa folder they were wiped out and replaced blanks.

selected_aa is the cache folder for user-chosen Album cover image files, not for Artist images. User-selected Artist images are stored in selected_artist.

I had a look anyway, and as it happens one of the dozen or so Artist images that I had chosen in the past was for an artist who now appears in several split-artist tracks. I updated her image with a new downloaded photo chosen using the 'Image;' menu option, and it worked fine: my new chosen photo was correctly applied to that artist in the list, and the accompanying JPEG file was saved into the selected_artist folder as expected. No other saved artist images were affected.

I was also able to change another artist image, one who also appears in the Album Artist category, and that worked fine too.

Haven't tried Composer as I don't use that category.

Andre

[Absinthequ]

3 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

selected_aa is the cache folder for user-chosen Album cover image files, not for Artist images. User-selected Artist images are stored in selected_artist.

I had a look anyway, and as it happens one of the dozen or so Artist images that I had chosen in the past was for an artist who now appears in several split-artist tracks. I updated her image with a new downloaded photo chosen using the 'Image;' menu option, and it worked fine: my new chosen photo was correctly applied to that artist in the list, and the accompanying JPEG file was saved into the selected_artist folder as expected. No other saved artist images were affected.

I was also able to change another artist image, one who also appears in the Album Artist category, and that worked fine too.

Haven't tried Composer as I don't use that category.

Andre

Sorry I meant selected_artist. But my photos are are all still there, but I can't see any of them... 100's of artist images that don't show up. When I select a new one from search, nothing happens and when i go back to that folder, it's now a blank.

[Absinthequ]

Here is a video showing :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Ec64rGnpb6zJk6HpWyaXNQCNhhpSJKr/view?usp=sharing

when i choose an image from my sd card nothing happens and then when i check it using file Explorer its a blank image. When i choose an image from the Web nothing happens and when i check it with file Explorer it's there,  but not showing in Poweramp.

[andrewilley]

21 minutes ago, Absinthequ said:

But my photos are are all still there, but I can't see any of them... 

What are the old filenames? Did you create them in a previous version of PA using a combined name, such as a song like "Under Pressure" which might be listed as being by "Queen ; David Bowie" ?

Previously that joint artist would have been saved as an image file called "Queen _ David Bowie.jpg", which I assume will no longer be used for that track in build 899 as it is now listed under two separate artist names. Not sure if that is relevant here anyway.

Andre

[Absinthequ]

IN the video I chose the blueish/green color image twice, opened file explorer to go to Poweramp folder and you can see it saved it, but I cant see it in Poweramp. Went back and chose a different one and then back to file explorer to see Poweramp updated it. but i still can't see it in Poweramp.

[Absinthequ]

23 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

What are the old filenames? Did you create them in a previous version of PA using a combined name, such as a song like "Under Pressure" which might be listed as being by "Queen ; David Bowie" ?

Previously that joint artist would have been saved as an image file called "Queen _ David Bowie.jpg", which I assume will no longer be used for that track in build 899 as it is now listed under two separate artist names. Not sure if that is relevant here anyway.

Andre

The two songs in the folder are simply tagged as:

Artist: Yelawolf; Caskey; Doobie
Album Artist: Yelawolf
Album: Trunk Muzik 3

Artist: Yelawolf; DJ Paul
Album Artist: Yelawolf
Album: Trunk Muzik 3

I can see the image fine in Album Artist category. Just not Artist category.

[andrewilley]

@Absinthequ Sorry, all I can say is that I can't duplicate the issue you seem to be having. It works fine for me doing basically the same thing as you (picked a new download image in the Artist category for someone who appeared in a multi-artist track, which was then applied correctly to that Artist's view and as their own thumbnail, and the JPEG file was saved into the selected_artist folder). The same new image was also visible in the Album Artist category, if that name  happened to be present there. I suspect this is one for Max to look into.

Andre

[Absinthequ]

On 3/11/2021 at 7:29 PM, andrewilley said:

What are the old filenames? Did you create them in a previous version of PA using a combined name, such as a song like "Under Pressure" which might be listed as being by "Queen ; David Bowie" ?

Previously that joint artist would have been saved as an image file called "Queen _ David Bowie.jpg", which I assume will no longer be used for that track in build 899 as it is now listed under two separate artist names. Not sure if that is relevant here anyway.

Andre

I found out how to replicate this every time on two different devices. If the artist doesn't exist already and is created with a split, that's when the bug appears. If the artist already exists before the split, the artist image is fine.

Try editing a tag of an existing song in Poweramp to create a brand new artist to split that doesn't currently exist in your library. Then try to edit the image of that new artist.

[andrewilley]

7 hours ago, Absinthequ said:

Try editing a tag of an existing song in Poweramp to create a brand new artist to split that doesn't currently exist in your library. Then try to edit the image of that new artist.

I created a new file with the Artist tag set to "Artist One ; Artist Two" and the Album Artist tag set to "Album Artist One ; Album Artist Two". A quick Rescan picked up the two Artist names fine, but oddly not the two Album Artist names - in fact the Album Artist details did not appear at all, either split or unsplit. Same result after I did a Full Rescan.

In the Artist category list, PA quickly auto-download an image for "Artist One" and "Artist Two", which seems to have been saved in the _com.maxmpz.audioplayer/artist_art folder as just "Artist One _ Artist Two.jpg", not as different "Artist One.jpg" and "Artist Two.jpg" files as I would have expected.

I then tried to manually choose an image for Artist One, which PA allowed me to do but did not then display the new image, still showing the same auto-downloaded image for both artist names. When I checked in the selected_artist folder, it had saved my newly chosen artwork under the expected "Artist One.jpg" filename. I then used a File Explorer to rename that newly saved file to  "Artist One _ Artist Two.jpg", at which point both the list picked up the same new image for both artist names.

So it seems that the problem is that both the auto-downloaded code and the Artist Category list are using the old-style unsplit tag name (which should now only be used when the 'Show Unspilt Combined Categories' mode is used) while the manual-download page is saving new artwork correctly using individual split names.

There also appears to be a separate issue of the new Album Artist tag not showing up at all, either split or unsplit.

Andre

[Absinthequ]

4 hours ago, andrewilley said:

So it seems that the problem is that both the auto-downloaded code and the Artist Category list are using the old-style unsplit tag name (which should now only be used when the 'Show Unspilt Combined Categories' mode is used) while the manual-download page is saving new artwork correctly using individual split names.

Thanks for taking the time to verify that. I feel better that it's not an anomaly on my specific device, because now it should definitely get fixed.

Aside from the obvious bugs, This Multi Artists feature was set up exactly how it should be! I was worried about how the albums would be displayed when using this feature, but I'm still able to keep my Album Artist tag as the main artist listed under each album instead of Artist tag. I also took your recommendation of removing the Album Artist tag from artists that only have 1 or 2 songs (to condense the Album Artist category to more popular artists). Because Maxmp chose to display the full unsplit Artist tag for songs missing the Album Artist tag, it worked out great! 

By using "ft." and ";" as splitters:

Song: Lift Off ft Chino Moreno & Machine Gun Kelly
Artist: Mike Shinoda; Linkin Park; Machine Gun Kelly; Chino Moreno
Album Artist: Mike Shinoda

I can go to any of the artists Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park, Machine Gun Kelly, Chino Mareno and I'll simply see "Mike Shinoda -  Lift Off ft Chino Moreno & Machine Gun Kelly"

and for songs without an Album Artist tag:

Song: Waiting For Tomorrow
Artist: Martin Garrix ft. Mike Shinoda; Linkin Park
Album Artist:

I can go to any of the artists Martin Garrix, Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park and I'll see "Martin Garrix ft. Mike Shinoda; Linkin Park - Waiting For Tomorrow"

My Artists category is in the thousands, but my Album Artists category is only a few hundred.

[Absinthequ]

This issue appears to be fixed with artists but i found the same bug exists with albums.

If i have multiple artists split in one album:

Artist: Band 1; Band 2

Album: Project 1

 

And 

 

Artist; Band 1; Band 3

Album: Project 1

i can not change the artwork of Project 1 album in Poweramp or by placing an image in album_art folder. I tried band 1_ band 2 - project 1.jpg and band 1 - project.jpg

[andrewilley]

9 minutes ago, Absinthequ said:

This issue appears to be fixed with artists but i found the same bug exists with albums.

i can not change the artwork of Project 1 album in Poweramp or by placing an image in album_art folder. I tried band 1_ band 2 - project 1.jpg and band 1 - project.jpg

I've not looked into this in detail, but didn't Max say in the last release notes that he was now going to use the Album Artist tag (along with Album Title obviously) for identifying an album artwork? So the contents of the individual track Artist tag ought to be ignored. Worth a try using the Album Artist wording anyway.

Andre

[Absinthequ]

15 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

I've not looked into this in detail, but didn't Max say in the last release notes that he was now going to use the Album Artist tag (along with Album Title obviously) for identifying an album artwork? So the contents of the individual track Artist tag ought to be ignored. Worth a try using the Album Artist wording anyway.

Andre

I just tested it and That appears to be the problem. I don't have an album artist for half my library.

I was hoping i wouldn't have to tag album artist so at least one of my two artist sections wasn't 1000's of artists. That feature request i made "hide album artists in album artists category with under "x" number of songs" soundes better and better.

Edit: I did test this and it works fine if there is only one set of artist splits. It's when they're is two different artist splits in the same album the artwork doesn't work. 

[andrewilley]

20 minutes ago, Absinthequ said:

Edit: I did test this and it works fine if there is only one set of artist splits. It's when they're is two different artist splits in the same album the artwork doesn't work. 

If there is a valid Album Artist tag, that tag should now be used in its entirety (so unsplit) in conjunction with the Album Title to find and store cover artwork, and the cached image filename will be based on that combination. It shouldn't matter whether any individual track artists vary from song to song, or even if any track artists have split contents. 

If there is no Album Artist tag, then every track Artist tag should match exactly anyway - otherwise those individual songs won't get grouped as albums at all. I assume that if there is no Album Artist tag, PA will fall back to using the unsplit Artist tag, but I haven't tested that.

Max mentioned this briefly elsewhere:

Andre

[Absinthequ]

Yeah that's what's happening. It's fixed by creating album artist tag. That just bites because would like that section to be small.  I would use "Various Artists" tag,  but i would stuck seeing that for thousands of artists in Artists category because i use the "view album artist instead of artist" options. I guess it's not really a bug. 

The feature i mentioned above would be ideal or a favorites category you mentioned before that you could put artists in.

[andrewilley]

@Absinthequ If you only have one or two tracks by an artist - so you don't want to have them show up in Album Artists list - why do you want album artwork for them at all? What's wrong with just track artwork?

I've got lots of one-off songs too, which fall into general subject areas but not actual Albums. I use the Album Artist tag to group them under identities such as "(Singles)" , "(Film Music)" , "(TV Themes)" , "(Disney)" , etc. I enclose the name in brackets to force those entries to the top of alpha sorted lists, but that would be up to you of course, you may prefer them at the end (in which case, use square brackets). If I also wanted cover artwork for each grouping, I could easily add that.

Andre 

[MotleyG]

1 hour ago, Absinthequ said:

I just tested it and That appears to be the problem. I don't have an album artist for half my library.

If you don't have AlbumArtist filled for these albums with different Artists, how are you keeping these Albums together in your library? Just curious, as that is the whole purpose of the AlbumArtist tag.

[Absinthequ]

7 hours ago, MotleyG said:

If you don't have AlbumArtist filled for these albums with different Artists, how are you keeping these Albums together in your library? Just curious, as that is the whole purpose of the AlbumArtist tag.

Before i always moved all of the featured artists into the song title so there was no issues with album grouping.

now that multiple artist split exists i'm moving them back to the artist tag and it's causing the issue grouping the albums and viewing the correct artwork.

7 hours ago, andrewilley said:

@Absinthequ If you only have one or two tracks by an artist - so you don't want to have them show up in Album Artists list - why do you want album artwork for them at all? What's wrong with just track artwork?

I've got lots of one-off songs too, which fall into general subject areas but not actual Albums. I use the Album Artist tag to group them under identities such as "(Singles)" , "(Film Music)" , "(TV Themes)" , "(Disney)" , etc. I enclose the name in brackets to force those entries to the top of alpha sorted lists, but that would be up to you of course, you may prefer them at the end (in which case, use square brackets). If I also wanted cover artwork for each grouping, I could easily add that.

Andre 

The idea is Artist category is everything by every artist and album artist would be no splitting and as little artists shown as possible.

I use "view album artist instead of artist"  feature so i couldn't use the same workaround you're using. Then i would never be able to see the artist name. I would always see "(singles)" etc

[andrewilley]

(I've moved this discussion to its own thread as it was starting to get a life of its own and clog up the Build 889/900 Release thread)

@Absinthequ I only use the Album Artist tag to indicate that a song is part of an album, or part of a 'pseudo-album' grouping (such as "Singles"). I don't display Album Artist for tracks, as the track Artist tag is always set correctly so that's what I would want to see for an individual song.

For what it's worth (which is very little, as everyone's usage is probably different) this is how I have my options set:

Andre

[Absinthequ]

I think this could be fixed. 

When:

Artist: Band 1

Album: Project 1

 

And

 

Artist: Band 1; Band 2

Album: Project 1

 

These are combined as one album in Artists category and the correct artwork is still displayed. 

Even when Band 3 or Band 4 is introduced the album stays grouped. But that's when it loses the selected artwork.

[MotleyG]

On 3/18/2021 at 6:28 PM, andrewilley said:

 

@Absinthequ

I have exactly the same settings. My personal tagging OCD had me fill in all AlbumArtist tags long ago, even if it matches the only Artist for the whole album. For consistency this made sure there were no gaps with any players. I also use the standard slash only as a separator, also to make sure I didn't have any players that would have issues. So the recent addition of this feature makes me very happy, and works perfectly as expected now.

@Absinthequ I can only recommend this as I have had nothing but great experience with the product so far... mp3tag has a super easy to use interface, and is highly flexible. You can load an entire library at once, and apply filters to see just the files that you want to adjust. Then apply fixes in one go. Whether it is appending the [FLAC] label, or filling in missing tags, it makes it a simple task. It may take a little massaging to get it to apply everything you want. But in the end it will make your library more manageable.

[andrewilley]

@Absinthequ What you seem to be trying to do is force the use of the wrong Track Artist tags to sort albums instead, because you have chosen to use the existing (well defined and already fully-working) Album Artist system for your own purposes. You can always turn the whole splitting feature off if you want (just remove the symbols from the Settings page and rescan) and PA will then behave exactly as it did before for you.

@MotleyG Yes, I too spent an OCD day or two going through 7,000+ songs in a batch tag editor so everything is tidy and works just the way it should. So for me the new splitting feature seems pretty much perfect - as long as the file tagging style is properly used and consistent.

Andre 

[Absinthequ]

1 minute ago, andrewilley said:

@Absinthequ What you seem to be trying to do is force the wrong Track Artist tags to do what you want, because you have chosen to use the existing (fully-working) Album Artist tag for your own purposes. You can always turn the splitting feature off (just remove the symbols from the settings page) and PA will behave exactly as it did before.

@MotleyG Yes, I too spent a day or two going through 7,000+ songs in a batch tag editor so everything is tidy and works just the way it should. So for me the new splitting feature seems pretty much perfect - as long as the file tagging style is properly used and consistent.  

Andre 

I think a lot of people are not going to have an album artist tag and see the wrong artwork in some instances.

Sure you can change your tags to work around it. But why not have the software smart enough to fix it? 

[andrewilley]

@Absinthequ The point being that without any Album Artist tags, if any of the Track Artist tags are different then those different songs will not be shown as part of the same album anyway - so trying to match cover artwork becomes a moot point.

The best solution of all is to embed the correct artwork in the first place of course - which I also did during my OCD tagging days (www.albumartexchange.com was my best friend).

Andre