[wazzac]

Hi Guys

This is a repost in feature requests due to lack of response in the support forums.

Request summary - that the previous behavior of "Various Artists" displaying in the artist list (when "include artists who appear only on compilations" is disabled) be reinstated.

I have searched and found a few mentions of this but no clear / definitive explanation / rationale for the following change in behavior.

For a long time XBMC / KODI listed an entry for "Various Artists" along with all the other artists

Coupled with turning off the option to display artists that contribute to a compilation album, this provided a logical and intuitive way to catalog and locate compilation albums without "cluttering up" the main artist list.

I'm not sure exactly when the change occurred (I'm moving from Gotham to Helix), but now if you turn off the option to display artists that contribute to a compilation album... then you must go back to the library root and select compilations to view the various artists albums.

ie the artist "Various Artists" no longer displays in the main artist listing.

Is there a reason this functionality had to change? To me it seems like there is no upside to the change, for the sake of one additional entry in the artists list it seems much more intuitive and user friendly than having to navigate back to the start of the library.... particularly for those less familiar with library functionality.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something to regain the traditional behavior, but if I am not.... is it possible to request it changed back?

Thanks for all the great work on an amazing piece of software

cheers

Wazza

[steve1977]

Do you have MBIDs in your tags (i.e., use Picard for tagging)? Your issue may be related to this. Normally, Kodi should list the albumartist (e.g., various artists) once you disable "include artists who appear only on compilations". So, I am not sure what is driving your issue. It may be related to MBIDs, which may overrule some of your tags?

[wazzac]

Do you have MBIDs in your tags (i.e., use Picard for tagging)? Your issue may be related to this. Normally, Kodi should list the albumartist (e.g., various artists) once you disable "include artists who appear only on compilations". So, I am not sure what is driving your issue. It may be related to MBIDs, which may overrule some of your tags?

Thanks for the reply Steve,

I have never used Picard or MBID tags.

I just did a check and copied a various artists album with a modified date of 2 years ago to my test environment for Helix

The album in question results in "normal" behaviour in Gotham - ie there is a "Various Artists" listing under artists etc

Scanning the album into Helix library, there is still no "Various Artists" listed under artists.... it can only be found under compilations.

Interestingly, under compilations, all albums have the artist listed as "Various artists", ie the punctuation has been altered from that stored in the tag

There is some discussion of the issue here http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=200797 however it doesn't really seem to have a definitive reason as to why the behaviour has to be the way it is .... unless I'm not reading the thread correctly??

Cheers

Wazza

[steve1977]

Mmh, can you post your tags for one song.

[Littletycoon]

I have the same issue, changed somewhere 1,5 years ago. I also want the old behaviour back

[wazzac]

Mmh, can you post your tags for one song.

Hi Steve - no problems - what is the best way to view and copy all tags though?

Actually, I'll just paste the header tag info straight out of a txt editor - then you know it is what it is

http://pastebin.com/TR51fddN

cheers

Warwick

[DarkHelmet]

It's true, it was changed at some point in the past. No biggie for me but there's also no apparent reason from a user's perspective why the new behaviour is better than the old one, except that "various artists" is not really an artist. It was a nice shortcut though. So I'd also vote for having various artists back in the artist list.

[steve1977]

I also have a clear preference to have it as part of the artists list. That's how about every other media client works. Besides my personal preference to have it as part of the artist list, it would also be much less confusing for new users of kodi.

Any developer around who could comment on the reason why this was changed and whether there is a chance to have the old behavior back?

[steve1977]

Any thoughts?

[wazzac]

I also have a clear preference to have it as part of the artists list. That's how about every other media client works. Besides my personal preference to have it as part of the artist list, it would also be much less confusing for new users of kodi.

Any developer around who could comment on the reason why this was changed and whether there is a chance to have the old behavior back?

I'm with Steve and still hoping a developer can comment on this / potentially reinstate the old behaviour?

Cheers

Wazza

[Maaarv]

I'd like to see this re-implemented aswell.

In addition, is there any reason why it is not possible to switch between an artist list or an album artist list?

This way anyone who wants to show up various artists can just choose the album artist list

Is this possible?

[Me--]

Up!

+1

[DaveBlake]

I'd like to see this re-implemented aswell.

In addition, is there any reason why it is not possible to switch between an artist list or an album artist list?
This way anyone who wants to show up various artists can just choose the album artist list
Is this possible?

It would be useful if the choice between the music artists view showing (song) artists or album artists was more immediate to the rest of music selection rather than being off under System > Settings > Music as a static setting.

Moreover I would like to be able to categorise artists by their role or relationship to the music rather than have one big bucket of artist credits. My varied music tastes means I effectively have pop performers, conductors, orchestras, composers and soloists all mixed together, others may have DJs or engineers in their too, and I find that mixing is unhelpful.

Would others like to be able to easily switch between listing all artists, album artists (with various option), composers, conductors, featured instrumentalists etc. ? Would you support the necessary changes to the user interface?

[wazzac]

Hi Guys

So those who live mostly in the "Artist" library listing may find this interesting

I noticed that "Various Artists" was appearing again in the "Artist" view but couldn't figure out why (but I was happy as this is the behavior I want)

Much time was spent narrowing the cause down to a 500 track compilation album where I had somehow given 2 consecutive tracks the same track no. in the metadata.

The repeated track number caused that particular album to appear in "various artists" in the artist view, but NOT in the compilation part of the library... however every other various artists album now appears both in "Various Artists" and in the compilation section - Excelent !

The repeated track number threw an error in the log file which led me to this post
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=148798
Which may explain a bit of history about the issue

According to line 658 of MusicInfoScanner.cpp my repeated track number means the album didn't get flagged as a "compilation"
https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/943c92...canner.cpp

Anyway I am convinced that "Various Artists" not showing up in artist view doesn't make sense - items that appear in genre view, can still be found through artist view.

Long story short - for those that want a workaround to get Various Artists back in artist view .... repeat a track number somewhere.

Hope this helps.... also does anyone know how we can get some traction on this with some devs?

Cheers

Wazza

[DaveBlake]

...does anyone know how we can get some traction on this with some devs?

I think the devs are very busy, so the answer is often along the lines of doing it yourself. However....

I am keen to give the music library some love, but as a Kodi nubie finding hard to find a way onto the PR merry-go-round. I am happy to look at this, hoping it has a simple solution, and make it my first pull request. Wish me luck!