Multiple Credited Artists (not various artist) -- how best to handle with plex?

Plex Media Server Metadata & Adding Files
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Server Version#: Version 1.28.1.6041
Player Version#: Version 4.88.1

Let me start with a few examples to explain what I’m asking about:

Using Adding Music Media From Folders | Plex Support as a reference I don’t see this explicitly called out. What I have been doing for scenarios like this is placing the files in the following folder structure:

First Credited Artist - Album Name → Tracks (example below):

  • Lady Gaga → A Star Is Born Soundtrack → Tracks …
  • Hayley Westenra → Paradiso → Tracks …
  • Tony Bennett → Love for Sale → Tracks …

I’ve done this so I can have the albums grouped by the main (first) artist in plex. I also have the embedded album artist tag as the first credited and artist set per track …

Screenshot from 2022-08-14 10-24-17
Screenshot from 2022-08-14 10-24-17855×215 31.2 KB

These match okay and come up in plex okay but I have noticed one oddity. Again, lets stay with the Lady Gaga -> A Star Is Born Soundtrack. If I check in plex the artist profile I see the following (notice sort artist):
Screenshot from 2022-08-14 10-26-00

I suspect plex is using the last scanned tag it scans and for this it then becomes Cast getting it from the artist.

So, is this is a bug with how plex is detecting the sort artist ? Is the way I have structured the files incorrect on disk ? How are others doing multiple credited artists (not various) for music in plex ?

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Plex cannot handle double/multiple credits. At all.
You will have to decide under which album artist the album shall be sorted.
Then change the folder name and the AlbumArtist tag accordingly.

The only place where multiple artist can appear is in the TrackArtist meta tag. But even there you will have to write all names into one tag, not create several because that will either be ignored or you will end up with a list of names, separated by semicolons.

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Thanks. That confirms my assumptions.

I have done as you suggest above but the artist track sort gets pulled into plex which in the example above is then wrong/odd. Folder name and AlbumArtist is Lady Gaga but the sort artist is getting picked up in plex from the track itself, Cast!

Is this just a limitation or could there be a bug with how the sort artist is getting picked up in plex ?

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I have a suspicion that this sort artist is a remnant from your previous attempts to add the album with multiple credits. Once an album artist record has been created in the Plex database, its properties won’t get changed when you change the metadata of an album of this artist.
It’s a matter of hierarchy. The artist sits above of the album. The album doesn’t affect the artist unless the artist is created for the first time.

You can only cleanly reproduce this by Plex dancing all albums at once which have Lady Gaga as their album artist.

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Sure, good idea. I’m remote from my plex server ATM so will attempt that later. Thanks.

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Plex Dance at the artist level all Lady Gaga albums including A Star Is Born Soundtrack which is stored on disk under that artist. As I danced all albums I then force refreshed the artist. This did indeed fix the Sort Artist which is now Lady Gaga instead of Cast.

Thanks for your help on this.

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