[X] "Album Artist" != "Band" in FLAC, AlbumArtist FLAC tag not being written via Band tag Options

[jakespatz]

I'm tagging FLACs using Mp3tag (v2.42)'s "Band" field, but the results aren't showing up properly under the "Album Artist" heading in Winamp, and it's making a mess of my library.

To be more detailed... I'm RE-tagging FLACs after converting them FLAC > WAV > FLAC. My initial versions all have proper tags, thanks to a prior release of Mp3tag... but now when I re-tag the info isn't getting stored properly. (I have to re-tag after the WAV phase because my audio editor wipes that particular tag.)

This issue was raised earlier, here:
http://forums.mp3tag.de/index.php?showtopic=8212
But nothing was offered in the way of a solution.

As I said, this wasn't an issue before; is there any easy way around it?

[Moonbase]

To add a little explanation: BAND is not and never was intended as »Album Artist«. Apple iTunes and Winamp simply (intentionally) misuse this field. Unfortunately, ID3v2 doesn’t provide for a »native« Album Artist field, so various ways to do it have evolved:

• iTunes and Winamp use TPE2 (BAND) for it.
• The foobar2000 community recommends using "ALBUM ARTIST" (with a blank).
• MusicBrainz Picard (newer versions) also uses TPE2 (BAND) in ID2v2 but "ALBUMARTIST" (no blank) in Vorbis Comments (FLAC, OGG).

I guess the only (half-easy) way to handle it would be to use a Mp3tag Action to convert from (whatever you have now) to (whatever you decide to use in the future), i.e. BAND -> ALBUMARTIST. This can easily be done using a "Format value" action.

Btw, you can easily re-encode FLAC to FLAC, skipping the WAV step. I think that could help not losing the tags.

My Winamp (5.541) shows the FLAC Album Artist in the Info Window when I use the "ALBUMARTIST" tag in the FLAC files, if that helps.

This post has been edited by Moonbase: Dec 31 2008, 14:46

[jakespatz]

Btw, you can easily re-encode FLAC to FLAC, skipping the WAV step. I think that could help not losing the tags.

I need them in WAV for processing during the intermediate stage. The processing itself doesn't change the tags, but the format conversion (WAV) does.

My Winamp (5.541) shows the FLAC Album Artist in the Info Window when I use the "ALBUMARTIST" tag in the FLAC files, if that helps.

I've just seen that Winamp (5.541) will display the ALBUMARTIST tag instead of the BAND tag when both are present (in FLAC). Not sure if this will always be the case-- perhaps someone else can test it more thoroughly.

BUT-- why isn't the ALBUMARTIST field included in the Mp3tag pop-out menus? E.g., when adding/editing a field in the "Tag Panel" section of the Options dialog. The absence of ALBUMARTIST there-- and BAND as the available option-- makes this program (Mp3tag) far more misleading than it has any reason to be.

If this is not going to be taken seriously as a bug (and why not?), I suggest that a post be included somewhere Easy To Find on this forum, to the effect that one may force the ALBUMARTIST field into availability by *typing it in* via the Tag Panel options. The length of the available menu lists gives them the appearance of being exhaustive.

[drbeachboy]

As far back as I can remember "BAND" is the tag name for the TPE2 frame. "AlbumArtist", "Album Artist" are fairly new names (last 4-5 years) for the same frame. Also, players can have a hand in how in how tag names are written & read. foobar2000 writes both "AlbumArtist" & "Album Artist" as a TXXX frame. It's confusing, but you learn to deal with it.

I use Album Artist & BAND tags in my FLAC & MP3 files, because I use foobar2000 (Album Artist) and sometimes iTunes (BAND) if needed for my iPod. By having both, I'm covered for both players.

This post has been edited by drbeachboy: Jan 21 2009, 22:28