SongKong Jaikoz

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SongKong removes Album Artist tag, splitting up compilation album on iPhone

#1

I have used MP3tag for years to manually clean up tags and add tags like “compilation = 1”. I bought SongKing Pro to add missing or incorrect tags and artwork tonight, and just tried it on a sampling of my library. One problem became obvious: a typical soundtrack album in my library will have “Various Artists” as the Album Artist tag and Compilation=1. That seems to force the iOS Music app to treat such albums as a single album even though the Artist names differ for each track.

After processing that same album through SKP the Album Artist tag is empty, though it kept the Compilation tag as 1. The result on my iPhone is the same soundtrack album now shows up as several albums, one for each artist. Otherwise, SKP did a nice job of correcting the Album name and some other tags. What are the best settings for my application of SKP? (thank you)

#2

Hi. this is Apple specific behaviour, other systems expect AlbumArtist to be set. But you can prevent SongKong updating AlbumArtist for Various Artist albums by enabling Save songs so they work best with iTunes on the Save tab.

#3

Thank you for replying! Upon seeing your reply I opened SKP and went to Fix Songs > Save.

“Save songs so they work best with iTunes” is already enabled (checked, ticked). I guess that’s a default setting.

I opened the original song folder in MP3tag and found an Action I had created to “fix” soundtracks (I recall having this problem way back so I researched it at the time). I see four steps to this action.

I compared these extended tags in the songs within the original folder to their copies in the test folder processed by SKP, and all were intact except for ALBUMARTIST. The tunes in the SKP test folder no longer had Various Artists in that tag. So, I presume SKP deleted the contents of that tag.

#4

Wow, what an amazingly sophisticated program you’ve written! The depth!

I found this report and note that ALBUMARTIST is in red. Am posting screen cap in case any of the info helps. This is a single song but is representative.

890×993

#5

Ah okay I have misread your question, please uncheck the Save songs so they work best with iTunes option and then AlbumArtist will have the expected value.

#6

That fixed the problem. But I’m curious why disabling your feature that makes SKP’s results “work best with iTunes”, and in light of your docs saying,

…both seem contrary to my recent tests of SKP. Could it be because I am not using iTunes to manage and sync my library with my iPhone? (I am using AnyTrans to directly transfer tunes to my iPhone).

Do you or anyone here know at what point iTunes “provide[s] translated versions” as a result of those tags being left blank? I would like to be able to advise my clients based on a better understanding of what’s happening behind the scenes in iTunes.

Thank you again for your prompt support!

#7

Yes I think that is the reason. iTunes doesn’t add translated versions to the files themselves it just displays a translated version of Various Artists within iTunes itself.