I have a few different versions of Kraftwerk albums. Some are not showing under Krafwerk at all - they are not hidden or grouped with other versions. If I go to the Tracks browser and I filter the file path with “Kraftwerk” I see these missing albums. If I click on the album name the album appears as you’d expect. Under the album title there’s the artist “Kraftwerk” and if I click there I go to the Kraftwerk page, but the album does not show in releases!
The album in question is Kraftwerk’s “Techno Pop”, the US version is known as “Electric Cafe”. I see my CD rip of Electric Cafe (which btw does not show the TIDAL and Qobuz version in Versions but that’s not uncommon). But Techno Pop is nowhere to be found in Kraftwerk’s page albums.
Have you made any edits to this content in Roon?
I have done “Unhide Album”. I have gone to the album from the Tracks browser and looked at it. The artist and hyperlink are correct but when I click it it goes to the Kraftwerk page and the album is nowhere to be found.
Is the album identified in Roon?
It is. When accessing it through the Tracks browser all album data looks correct.
Is this content from local files, TIDAL, or Qobuz?
I had this same issue with multiple Kraftwerk albums including the Techno Pop/Electric Cafe variants.
I can’t quite recall how I fixed it but if memory serves Roon was identifying some of the variations as bootlegs.
I think doing one of three things fixed it:
Editing the albums to not be bootlegs.
Changing Metadata settings to use file metadata.
Changing metadata settings from using file metadata to using Roon info. (I can’t remember which method I was using by default at the time this was happening)
I realize this is a bit vague and perhaps not super helpful but the point being with a bit of album editing the errant albums now appear for me.
I know it doesn’t make sense but Roon was identifying Techo Pop as a bootleg and it didn’t appear in my albums.
When I edited it to not be a bootleg I could see it again.
There may be another variable at play here?
I have other albums that are in fact bootlegs and they appear as expected.
I forgot to mention I have this same issue with some other artist’s albums: They don’t appear in the artist’s Overview or as Versions but I can find them by searching manually.
These albums show the correct artist when I open the album edit page.
I think there are several different things going on here that make this a confusing case.
Here is what Discogs says about the release called Electric Cafe vs. the one called Techno Pop:
In 2009 a remastered version was released under one of the album’s working titles, ‘Techno Pop’. On this version the original 8:03 album version of ‘The Telephone Call’ was replaced by two tracks: the 7" mix of ‘The Telephone Call’ (3:50) and the remix ‘House Phone’ (4:57). Both had originally appeared on the single release of ‘Der Telefon Anruf’.
So the Techno Pop version has 7 tracks vs. 6 in the original release.
I use Qobuz, and the only version they offer is Techno Pop, not the original 1986 Electric Cafe version. You appear to have the US CD version released on Elektra, catalogue # 9 25525-2, or 25525-2.
For reasons I’ve been unable to determine, Techno Pop is flagged as being a bootleg. Why this is is not clear to me after looking at what appears on the websites of Roon’s metadata providers, like AllMusic, MusicBrainz, and Discogs. But the result is Techno Pop shows down below Main Albums and Singles and EPs under Bootlegs in the Kraftwerk>Discography view.
I downloaded the same CD you have, and added it to Roon. Using Yate, I first checked to see what metadata was embedded in the flacs, and it was nothing other than the basic Artist, Album Artist, Album, Track Title, and Year Released.
I labeled the folder for the album like this: Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe (1986) [CD Elektra 9 25525 -2], and have “Show album version” enabled under Settings>General>Browsing Preferences>Customize album display>Edit so the info in brackets will appear in Roon to help clearly identify which version it is. I also have “Show hidden tracks and albums” enabled under Browsing Preferences.
If I now look at Kraftwerk>Overview, I see both the CD I just added appearing correctly under “Albums in my library”, as well as the Qobuz Techno Pop version I added and appearing under “Bootlegs in my library”.
So without having to modify any embedded metadata or change any metadata settings from within Roon, Roon was able to correctly identify and match my local files to the proper release.
@miguelito, for artists who have tons of unofficial releases, like the Grateful Dead (Discogs is showing 723), having a separate Bootlegs section can be a lifesaver. In other cases, like here, it can create confusion.
In the case of Techno Pop, I have my suspicions that perhaps it was flagged as a Bootleg in the Roon database as a “fix” for someone who was having trouble getting Electric Cafe to display properly under Albums, which is pretty ironic if you ask me. As you discovered, the “fix” only created more confusion.
As you discovered, the “fix” only created more confusion.