pdd Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 I have several albums named "Greatest Hits". Poweramp groups them all into one big album. I'd rather it didn't. It would be nice if Poweramp separated tracks that had identical Album names but different Album Artist tags. (Or used some other tag to help distinguish.) I suppose one possible workaround is add the artist's name to the Album tag: "Newsboys Greatest Hits", "Blood, Sweat & Tears Greatest Hits", etc. But I don't find that a particularly elegant solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 28, 2015 Share Posted March 28, 2015 Yes, the current workaround is to name the albums uniquely, and a batch tag editor will accomplish this in moments. I guess that does make more sense generally, as the full album title is technically not "Greatest Hits" but "Newsboys' Greatest Hits". (For example if you went into a shop and just asked for an album entitled only "Greatest Hits" you'd get some strange looks). Handling of Album Artist tags (for this reason and others) is a fairly commonly requested feature here - but as it has been so for about three years already, so I think you may need to use this workaround for a while yet. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdd Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 Well, it's debatable whether "Greatest Hits" is the full album name or not. For instances like "More Greatest Hits of the Monkees", where the phrasing gives a strong hint, I would say yes, the artist's name is indisputably part of the album name. (In those cases, that's how I have the Album tag, and separation is not an issue.) But when the album art puts the artist name and the "Greatest Hits" at opposite sides of the cover, and/or in different fonts, different colors, different sizes, such separation does seem to indicate that the name of the album is just "Greatest Hits", in much the same way that "Van Halen Diver Down" is not the name of the album, but just "Diver Down," which is by Van Halen. While it's true that I might get funny looks if I went into a shop and just asked for "Greatest Hits", that doesn't prove that it is not the name of the album, it only demonstrates the obviousness that I am not giving the shop sufficient information to fulfill the request. If I were to provide the artist's name along with the ambiguous album name, it would help the shop worker disambiguate the album name, in much the same way that providing the Album Artist tag could help Poweramp to disambiguate the ambiguous album name if it chose to do so. That said, I nevertheless acknowledge it's grey enough to be open to interpretation. If you choose interpret "Greatest Hits" as not the whole album name, well, I'll deal with it. I just felt compelled to express the other point of view before letting it drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdd Posted March 31, 2015 Author Share Posted March 31, 2015 Sorry, one last point... Some of my mp3's (at least 2 discs worth) with Album tag == "Greatest Hits" were acquired by sticking the CD in my PC and letting Media Player rip it. So whoever it is that provides the tag info that Media Player sticks on the mp3's agrees that, in some cases, the name of the album is "Greatest Hits". And it would appear that Media player uses some other tag (I think Album Artist, but I suppose it could be some other) to disambiguate, because Media Player doesn't have any of my Greatest Hit's albums grouped together. Now, far be it from me to assert that if Microsoft does it, it must be right. (I frequently espouse the opposite point of view.) But I am not above conceding (grudgingly) that on those occasions where Microsoft does something that makes sense, and especially where other's seem to agree, it might not be a bad idea to go along with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewilley Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 I completely agree with you that cross-checking for an Album Artist tag would be a better solution, but I was just warning you that from past history, it might be a while coming... So in the meantime, editing the Title tag is the best work-around solution. As I'm sure you've realised, cross-checking with the regular Track Artist tag would not work, as that would break any multiple-artist compilation albums from being displayed as a single album. Andre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.