MM3 not importing multi-artist tracks correctly

ddiction · Post by **ddiction** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:04 pm

As I understand it, MM3 supports the tagging of multiple artists by separating each artist with a semicolon. My problem is that I am migrating to MM3 from Windows Media Player, where all of my multi-artist tracks are already correctly separated with semicolons.

When MM3 monitors the folder and adds the tracks to the library, it REPLACES all of the semicolons with forward slashes, effectively taking what used to be a correctly coded field and mashing it all into the "old" format. I have verified that if I take one of the newly imported tracks and replace the slash with a semicolon, the artists are correctly separated and are addressable individually (meaning they no longer show up in the Artist category as the mashed-together versions, and instead each individual artist has his/her own listing).

I have WAY too many mp3s (over 60,000) to go through and replace all of the slashes with semicolons by hand, and I don't understand why I should have to, since the actual ID3 tag does contain the semicolons already. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Seems that if the semicolons are supported, it should recognize tracks that are already coded that way.

ddiction · Post by **ddiction** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:01 pm

I think I solved my own problem. When looking at the tag info in the file's properties in Windows, the artists are separated with semicolons, but this may just be how Windows parses it. I installed mp3tag to examine the actual tag data, and sure enough, it looks like WMP stores the tags with forward slashes even though WMP visually represents the delimiters as semicolons.

So I created a batch command in mp3tag to replace all forward slashes in the Artist field with semicolons (good thing I can't stand AC/DC). Then I reloaded MediaMonkey, and to my delight, it immediately set to work replacing all of my slashes with semicolons, so now all is right in the world again.

Sorry, MediaMonkey! I apologize for all the bad things I said about you under my breath.

nohitter151 · Post by **nohitter151** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:13 pm

This is good to know, thanks for presenting the info here for everyone to see.

grommet · Post by **grommet** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 12:06 pm

Not like it really matters, but do note the ID3v2.3 informal standard (which is the de facto standard, unlike ID3v2.4) defines forward slash "/" to split multiple artists... so WMP 11 is doing the "correct thing" by parsing and storing it that way in MP3 files. AC/DC has an explicit workaround, by the way.

The reality is, very few people actually support this so it isn't odd MediaMonkey doesn't.

Only a few handle it outside of Microsoft... dbPowerAmp, Slimserver... maybe a few others. The whole concept of having multiple discrete names is foreign to most media applications.

ddiction · Post by **ddiction** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:53 pm

It just boggles my mind that the tags haven't become standardized by now. I'd think that with all the explosive growth in MP3 players, and with the increasing number of people converting their entire CD collections to MP3, there would have been a mass revolt of people upset at having to scroll past a hundred different variations of their favorite artist's name because of all the other artists who collaborated with them on a single track on a single album.

grommet · Post by **grommet** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:26 am

The latest beta build of MediaMonkey now supports ID3v2.3 correctly, and will read and store multiple entries in applicable MP3 tags with the internal "/". UI still presents with semicolon, just like Explorer shell, WMP 11, etc.

So, ddiction, you can undo your workaround now and stay compatible.