Options that affect how the metadata is stored in our files
Never modify or add these fields
When SongKong identifies songs all the standard metadata such as song title, artist, release title are automatically updated. But there are some specialist situations when you might not want SongKong to update certain fields. With the exception of a few fields always required by SongKong you can specify that certain fields are never modified by SongKong.
You may want to limit the number of fields added to a minimal set and do not want to add fields you have no requirement for.
If are using SongKong to match songs against home compilations tapes that do not exist in the official databases then you may want to maintain your custom track numbering by adding Disc No , Disc Total , Track No and Track Total fields to this option.
SongKong also completes the various Sort Artist fields, this is usually very useful because it allows artists to be sorted more sensibly then using their actual name, in English a particular problem is the number of bands whose name begins with The , but of course it is not usually helpful to have so many bands grouped under the letter T . But if SongKong only matches some of your songs it can cause problems in iTunes if some songs by an artist have an Artist and a Sort Artist and some do not. Some customers just prefer not to use sort artists so they can be disabled.
Only modify these fields if empty
There may be fields that you have entered the data manually or from another source and you do not want SongKong to modify this existing data. With the exception of a few fields always required by SongKong you can specify that certain fields are only modified by SongKong if they are currently empty, so no existing data is modified.
By default the BPM , Mood and Key fields are included in this list
Allow changes to songs existing metadata fields if Song Only match
When SongKong can match a song but not determine the album it will update song metadata such as song title but not album metadata such as Album Title or Track No regardless of any existing metadata. This means that the song is identified and updated with useful metadata without making any changes that would prevent it being identified as part of the same group on a subsequent run of Fix Songs .
However even modifying only Song Only metadata such as the Song Title or Track Artist could still change values significantly so that there is a difference between these songs and the totally unmatched songs. This difference is more likely when dealing with Classical release since there is not a single standard way that these fields are used with Classical music, for example you may have some songs where the work has been included in the song title and others where only the movement is used. If you disable this option then it will only update fields that are currently empty and this may better preserve consistency if some songs in an album are matched song only and some are not matched at all. The disadvantage of disabling this option is this can prevent SongKong replacing existing incorrect metadata with correct metadata.
Romanize non-Latin script artist names wherever possible
If the artist names is in a non-Latin script such as Chinese, Japanese or Cyrillic its Latin equivalent will be used if available. This is very useful for Western speakers who typically only can only pronounce Latin script but may have music from other cultures because then it allows them to pronounce the names of any of the artists in their collection. The Latin name is often stored as an additional alias within the original MusicBrainz database, it maybe a transliteration of the original name or an alternative Latin based name that the artists is known by in the Western world. The SongKong database additionally links Discogs artists to the corresponding MusicBrainz artist if it exists so that now you can often get Latin names even when your songs only match a Discogs album and not a MusicBrainz album.
This option will not just romanize performers it will also romanize all individuals associated with the release such as composers, conductors and engineers.
Use standard Artist name instead of name displayed on cover
Sometimes an artist may use a different name on some of their releases, this can make it harder to manage your collection so if you enable this option then their standard name is always used.
Use Recording Artist instead of Track Artist
The exact same recording can be found on multiple releases and sometimes the recording is credited to different artists (or artists in a different order) on different releases. If you would like to use the same artist credit for all occurences of the song then enable this option.
Use standard song title instead of title displayed on this release
Sometimes a song is given another name on a different release, to force a consistent name to be used enable this option.
When tracks contain featured artists
Sometimes tracks are credited to multiple artists, and with the default Add all contributing artists to the artist field option set all these artists will be used in the artist field for this song. But sometimes this can make it difficult to organize your songs because songs by the same main artist can be split up by your music player if the artist worked with a number of contributing artists. To make things simpler we can ignore these additional artists by selecting the Only use main artist in the artist field and discard other artists option. Alternatively if you don’t want the featured artists information to be completely lost they can be added to the title field instead with the Only use main artist in the artist field and add others to the title field . Note if a song is equally credited to multiple artists then the multiple artists will be added to the artist field whatever option is selected, the options only have an effect when there is a main artist and featured or guest artists.
When albums contain featured albums artists
Sometimes albums are credited to multiple artists, and with the default Add all contributing artists to the album artist field option set all these artists will be used in the album artist field for songs of this album. But sometimes we are just interested in the main album artist so we can ignore these additional artists by selecting the Only use main artist in the album artist field and discard other artists option. Note when the album is equally credited to multiple artists then the multiple artists will be added to the album artist field whatever option is selected, the options only have an effect when there is a main artist and featured or guest artists.
Maximum Album Artists Allowed
Sometimes an album can have alot of album artists, this is particularly the case for some Classical albums. The most important album artists are listed first and it can be neater and less distracting to limit the number of albums artists we add for an album to only the first x artists.