Music collects by track artist. not album artist

[tyrfing666]

Server Version#:1.40.3.8555
Player Version#:1.95.2.166-92c7babe

My Music library, when I sort by “Album Artist”, sorts by “Track Artist” instead. I have updated the metadata in the MP3s involved, and rescanned. The tracks that have a different track artist still show as separate from the rest of the album.

As an example, I have an album which I ripped from CD. The rip filled in the track artist field but not the album artist. A couple of the tracks had guest artists, so they have a different track artist value.

I used MP3Tag to update the album artist field for only the tracks with guest artists. So most of the album tracks still have a blank album artist field.

The thinking is that Plex would use the album artist if it was available, falling back to the track artist.

The result after rescanning is that I still have two entries showing up, with identical “artist” values.

This happens on both my Windows player and the app for my Samsung TV, so I think it has something to do with the library data, not the player as such…

[OttoKerner]

@tyrfing666

The result after rescanning is that I still have two entries showing up, with identical “artist” values.

You can use “Merge” at the album or artist level.
Or perform the Plex Dance “lite” (omitting step 4) with both albums/artists.

If you want Plex to respect your meta tags, you need to check “Prefer local metadata” in the library properties.
But you need to be careful about the folder structure that you put your music in.
See Music artwork does not show the right one - #4 by OttoKerner

as well as How to mirror tags update to library? - #12 by OttoKerner

[tyrfing666]

Merge seems to do what I want.to have happen.

Thank you!

[BanzaiInstitute]

@tyrfing666

I used MP3Tag to update the album artist field for only the tracks with guest artists. So most of the album tracks still have a blank album artist field.

AFAIK Plex will not like that. I think best practice is to have all tracks in an album using one value for the Album Artist tag, isn’t it?

[OttoKerner]

@BanzaiInstitute

I think best practice is to have all tracks in an album using one value for the Album Artist tag, isn’t it?

Absolutely. If you add the Albumartist tag, do it for all tracks on the album. And fill it with identical content in all tracks of a particular album.