Like other software that manages music collections, Plex has Various Artist Syndrome. Despite having such an artist-oriented focus, it is a pointless hot mess when managing albums that feature tracks that don’t share artists.
It’s correct to manage an album as a group of tracks… when I am viewing albums. At that point it’s a group of files linked to an album name, despite its other classifications. But given Plex’s backstream of data, I shouldn’t be seeing a folder for “Various Artists” when I am viewing my library by artist. I have never heard of an artist named Various.
When I open an artists’ folder, I should see the tracks that appear on collections, compilations, and OSTs. But I don’t. I have a massive Ennio Morricone box set. Most of the work is his film scores and they don’t have individual artist credits, so they’re credited to Ennio. In addition, he released some non-film Euro-pop stuff that he recorded and there’s some tracks performed by big names of the time that are credited to them directly, so this collection squarely falls into the Various Artist category when we’re talking the “Album Artist” field. I’ve uploaded to Plex two Morricone albums so far - this box set and a single OST of his. When I look at the artist category, only the OST shows up and the VA box set tracks are persona non grata where they should appear (at least those credited to him as “Artist” field, but they don’t.
Same with all of the tracks on my many record label collections etc. It’s annoying when I am looking for a specific song by a specific artist that I know exists in my collection gets penalty boxed because it was featured on a VA album. Please, Plex, fix this annoying gaff in your system.
