Possible to show artist name in browser view?

[sizetwo]

I have my music organized as /Genre/Artist - Album (year) as folder structure - however, its all properly tagged, and I would like to show the artist name i browser view. Is this possible? I cant find anything in the settings that will do this, and since Im installing this on a NAS box (Synology, using the pkgs from http://www.eg-blog.de) I really dont know how to edit the files should it be necessary. Is this not possible using my type of folder structure?

[GJ51]

Strange. There is a check box to do that on the Settings/Personal page but it doesn't seem to be working. I have "Artist" checked for both the browse window and the playlist, but it only shows in the playlist. Never noticed that before.

The behavior is the same in Subsonic 4.7.

Somebody should squash that bug!

[sizetwo]

Yes I did try that, and nothing happened. Would be great if it worked....

[pemholder]

The artist only shows if there are different artists in an album.
This has been so in Subsonic all the time.

[GJ51]

Got it - I didnt think to check a various artists album. Thanks

I did think the feature a bit redundant as single artist albums show thw artist name at the top when selected.

Makes sense now.

[sizetwo]

So in other words it assumes that the root folder contains the artist name folders - not various genres, which then will only list the name of the albums as opposed to both the artist name and the album name in browse view. Surely this would not be too hard to do something with?

[GJ51]

I think what happens is that it looks at the Artist tags for the selected Album and does not display the Artist for individual tracks in the upper window if all the Artist tags are identical as it would just be redundant as it is a single artist album.

If you select a various artists album and the Artist tags are different for each track, they then populate in both windows.

I just tested this in a test library and confirmed that this is what happens. I took a Billboard top 100 Album that was tagged with the Artist - Track Title in the Title tag and in the Artist tag all tags were labeled Billboard 1960. I then edited the tags on the first 3 tracks and input the individual artists names in them. Doing that then populated the Artist column in the Main Browse window as well as seeing it in the playlist (lower) window.

Of course the Artist column in the upper display needs to be enabled for the main window to see this change take effect.

[sizetwo]

Ok - this is quite inconvenient, and means I will go back to vanilla Subsonic. Thanks for helping out, though. I also noticed that Subsonic does not derive tag names from the ARTIST tag, but rather the ALBUM ARTIST tag - which is also a bit strange on various artists album, as the various artists tag will be in the ALBUM ARTIST tag and the actual artist wil be the the ARTIST tag. Oh well...

[GJ51]

I may have misspoken or we may have a disconnect.

It appears to me that Madsonic works properly and Subsonic is what drops the Artist in the Browse window when all the tracks are ny the same artist.

[sizetwo]

Okey - well the issue I have is this: Since my root folder contains folders such as Hiphop_90s, Jazz, Funk, etc., each subfolder will in turn contain albums. In this case it will simply show (in the "Funk" subfolder), named as [1980] Cameosis and so on. Here I really need to see the artist (in this case Cameo). This makes it unusable for me. And it doesnt matter if I choose to show the artist name in the settings either, no difference. I would need it to say [1980] Cameo - Cameosis in this example.

[GJ51]

The latest release of Madsonic gives you several options that I would recommend you try first.

In the latest beta, Version 4.8.3306.beta3, here are the options:


Show albums year
Show albums year in REST-API (Apps)
Sort albums by foldernames
Sort MediaFile Folder Selector
Sort files by filenames

I'm actually a bit too simple-minded to understand exactly what you're up against with your particular storage strategy, but I would think that if things worked fine for you in ver 4.6, then using the option to sort by foldernames might work for you. There's also some flexibility and customization associated with using the sort MediaFile Folder Selector that can probably address your particular issue, as it was more complex than I was interested into getting into deciphering exactly what it was doing.

Perhaps if you send a msg directly to MadEvil he can sort it all out for you.

HTH

EDIT: I think this may be relevant, but again I never took the time to figure out what was going on, but you may be able to look at it and make sense out of it. If you do, maybe you can explain it to me.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10445&start=0

The post is towards the bottom of the page.

[sizetwo]

I appreciate you taking the time here. Well, its really not hard. Imagine this: I have a root folder say, Music. As I have quite an extensive collection (I have been Djing for many years) it would not be a good idea for me to have it sorted by artist, as it is way too many artists, and also, I find it confusing to find what I want to listen to. If I am in the mood for Jazz, I prefer to have the albums that are in the Jazz genre in this folder. So there I would put the folder "Miles Davis - Birth of the cool (1949)". Now, when I click the Jazz folder on the left hand side, all that comes up is the year and the name of the album, not the artist. I dont know if this made it any clearer for you. Either way, yeah, I could contact the developer. However Im sure that there others in the same position as I am, so certainly there should be someone else having this issue. Oh well. Oh, also I cannot just update the client as I am using a Synology NAS, and I am in the hands of the dutch guy who ports it to the NAS I am using; untill he creates an update I cannot do much Im afraid.

[GJ51]

Well, sorry I couldn't be more helpful. I hope you get it sorted out. Please repost if you find a good solution that may help others with the same issue.

EDIT: One last thought, you might also look into the Music Cabinet variant as he has also done some unique thing with that mod which may help.

[sizetwo]

Yes - I did look into it. However, it is implemented in the package for the Synology NAS, so no dice. Besides, it implies the same type of folder structure as Madsonic; root folder populated by album folders.

[maxslug]

I have a root folder say, Music....Now, when I click the Jazz folder on the left hand side, all that comes up is the year and the name of the album, not the artist.

Anyone ever find a solution for this ? I am in a similar boat -- I have my music in the form :

/ GENRE / Album / Songs

Subsonic 4.6 does the right thing
Subsonic 4.7 ignores file names and folders all together
Madsonic seems Keeps the Genre/ but then does weird things with the Album list like truncate out the artist name

Any help would be most welcome,
thanks,
-m