· None of the above quite fits
· None of these quite match
· Roon track artist is wrong, but I don't see an option to prefer Artist (vs Album Artist) metadata from file
· hardware/networking environment is not relevant
Hi @Michael_Arones,
Can you please provide the name of the album/track and an accompanying screenshot?
Roon does not have a global setting to prefer Track Artist over Album Artist from file metadata.
If a correction is needed, it must be done on a per-album or per-track basis: you can edit an individual track’s primary artist via Edit Track, or set an album to prefer file metadata via Edit Album → Metadata Preferences.
But we’ll be able to suggest specific steps if we know the case to which you’re referring.
I do not see an option for setting presences of the Artist (track artist) (roon vs file) - either when editing the album metadata preferences (for all tracks) or when editing an individual track’s metadata preferences.
As for the problem I was trying to patch by forcing it go use the track file’s tags - it turned that I had forgotten to Cleanup Library before re-importing the modified files.
But I still find it strange that Roon does not allow one to set metadata preferences for the track artist.
I just noticed that you referenced “Primary Artist”. Is that Roon’s equivalent to the “Artist” tag that is normally used to identify the artist(s) for the individual track?
But that is only settable for the Album. Seems to duplicate the purpose of the Album Artist. It is not settable on a track by track basis.
Hi @Michael_Arones,
There’s not a simple answer here because we’re talking about two different metadata models: tag-based (linear, like iTunes) and object-graph (Roon). Roon doesn’t have a single, user-editable “Track Artist” preference in the same sense as file tags like ARTIST vs ALBUMARTIST because Roon doesn’t link metadata in a chain at the track-level using tags. In this sense, Roon is not choosing between two text fields for Track Artist and Album Artist. It is resolving which credited artist roles apply to that track and then presenting them according to pre-determined rules.
In Roon, a Primary Artist is an album-level credit, meaning the main credited artist(s) for any given album as a musical work. Album Artist as a file tag is a curatorial shorthand that Roon may ingest, but once the album is identified, Roon replaces that concept with its own album entity and credits.
At the track level, Roon does not expose a simple “Artist” field that you can flip between file and Roon metadata. Instead, each track has a list of artist credits (Primary, Featured, Remixer, Performer, Composer, etc.). Those credits can be edited per track under Edit → Credits, not via a single field for “track artist”. The displayed Track Artist is derived from those credits, not from a preferred tag.
Sorry for any confusion before. You need to add the preferred Primary Artist and then uncheck the Album Artist as the Primary Artist. This step is under the Edit menu at the individual track level under Edit Track → Edit Credits
Thank you for that clear explanation. It helps a lot.
In my folder structure (holding music files, mostly FLAC) & tagging, I use the Artist\Album/Track folder hierarchy. The Artist folder name is equal to the Album-Artist tag.
[My CD ripping tool uses Album Artist tag (usually from an internet metadata database) to match to an existing Artist folder or create a new Artist folder.]
For an album where individual tracks have different main artist(s) combination,s I set the Artist tag to that group name or main artist combination.
For Example, if the Album Artist was Mr. Piano and the album Retrospective had him with various jazz groups or with different famous singer, each track would have a different combination or names for the Artist tag.
For example, “Mr Piano & His Jazz Junglers” vs “Mr Piano; ” vs “The Sophisticated Swingers; Mr. Piano”.
I do not try to include full credits of other instrumentalists or backup sings in that Artist tag.
What I now understand is:
that my “Album Artist” relates to Roon’s Album object’s: Primary Artist
and
that my track “Artist” relates to Roon’s Track object’s: Primary Artist (as a Credits field).
[ It took a bit for my thick head to understand that Roon had two different “Primary Artist” fields.]
Plus, I gather that what Roon displays is based on a algorithm that uses the various Roon information as input.
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