Is there a way to get a renamed Artist's alias's sort order in Picard?

, ,
1

For examples, Sea Power, previously British Sea Power

Picard fills the sort order variables with “Sea Power”, not “British Sea Power” for albums released as British Sea Power.

image

1 Like
2

I don’t believe so, because Picard is providing the value returned from MusicBrainz, and the sort name is returned as “Sea Power” because that’s what is stored in the MB database as the sort name. MB does not provide different sort names for each alias or “credited” artist name.

3

No - [PICARD-2197] Use artist aliases to find a more appropriate artist sort name for the artist credit - MetaBrainz JIRA

4

There are actually sort names for aliases, but they do not do anything to artist credits. https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/MBS-12143

In this case, the new name is a variation on the old group name, so a separate profile isn’t justified, either.

5

You’re right. My mistake.

I’ll give this some thought and see if I can do something with my “Additional Artists Variables” plugin to try to match the “credited” artist name to an alias and then provide the sort name from the alias as a new variable. I think that all the necessary information is there, and it just needs a small bit of processing.

1 Like
6

@chiark and anyone else interested…

I’ve updated the “Additional Artists Variables” plugin to add the following new variables:

Album Variables

  • _artists_album_primary_cred_sort - The primary / first album artist listed (sort name as credited)
  • _artists_album_additional_cred_sort - All album artists listed (sort names as credited) except for the primary / first artist, separated by strings provided from the release entry
  • _artists_album_additional_cred_sort_multi - All album artists listed (sort names as credited) except for the primary / first artist, as a multi-value
  • _artists_album_all_cred_sort - All album artists listed (sort names as credited), separated by strings provided from the release entry
  • _artists_album_all_cred_sort_multi - All album artists listed (sort names as credited), as a multi-value

Track Variables

  • _artists_track_primary_cred_sort - The primary / first track artist listed (sort as credited name)
  • _artists_track_additional_cred_sort - All track artists listed (sort names as credited) except for the primary / first artist, separated by strings provided from the track entry
  • _artists_track_additional_cred_sort_multi - All track artists listed (sort names as credited) except for the primary / first artist, as a multi-value
  • _artists_track_all_cred_sort - All track artists listed (sort names as credited), separated by strings provided from the track entry
  • _artists_track_all_cred_sort_multi - All track artists listed (sort names as credited), as a multi-value

The cred sort values are taken as the sort name from the alias that matches the “as credited” name if it exists, otherwise the sort name from the artist (standardized name).

I will submit the changes to the official plugins, but for now the DRAFT updated plugin can be downloaded from my repository on GitHub to install manually.

For the album The Decline of British Sea Power the new variable values are:

  • _artists_album_primary_cred_sort = “British Sea Power”
  • _artists_album_additional_cred_sort = None
  • _artists_album_additional_cred_sort_multi = None
  • _artists_album_all_cred_sort = “British Sea Power”
  • _artists_album_all_cred_sort_multi = [‘British Sea Power’]
  • _artists_track_primary_cred_sort = “British Sea Power”
  • _artists_track_additional_cred_sort = None
  • _artists_track_additional_cred_sort_multi = None
  • _artists_track_all_cred_sort = “British Sea Power”
  • _artists_track_all_cred_sort_multi = [‘British Sea Power’]

To update the metadata values, you would need a tagging script like:

$set(albumartistsort,%_artists_album_all_cred_sort%)
$set(artistsort,%_artists_track_all_cred_sort%)

If you decide to give it a try, I would appreciate any comments, especially if you run into any bugs. Thanks.

4 Likes
7

Had a quick go.

It works for British Sea Power/Sea Power, but I can’t seem to get working for Isa & The Filthy Tongues/The Filthy Tongues.

Could be because they have both names as aliases?

8

That’s because they are credited as “Isa & The Filthy Tongues” but there is no alias by that name. The alias is “Isa and the Filthy Tongues” (spelling out ‘and’ rather than using the ampersand). Since it can’t find an alias that matches the “as credited” name, it uses the sort from the standard name.

1 Like
9

Added the alias and it works.

Did find it doesn’t work with VA releases, so I have the code as

$if($ne(%compilation%,1),
  $set(artistsort,%_artists_track_all_cred_sort%)
  $set(albumartistsort,%_artists_album_all_cred_sort%)
)
1 Like