Hi @dylan
if i can summarize the overall discussion, there are 2 scenarios:
scenario 1: import settings with “prefer roon” for multi-part. then even if you tag files with a composer (and/or a composition=WORK) tag the tracks remain “orphan” with no composition associated. composers are shown under the tracks (if settings ask to), but no more than that: added composers do not exist in the library and the links are not active. this happens not every time, but is quite likely if allmusic has only some tracks without composition.
scenario 2: import settings with “prefer file” for multi-part. then if (and only if) you add both a COMPOSER tag and a WORK tag… the tracks are associated to a composition (=WORK) and the composer becomes real in the library and the link near the tracks is active.
this second behavior is, in my (i think our) opinion, what should be considered as “normal”, whatever settings one chooses. the existence of a composition associated to EVERY track is, for some of us, something which is the real “magic” of roon: something that allows to explore our own library looking for interconnections between albums and artists.
at this point, we can say that the problem is “solved”, as the workaround in scenario 2 seems to work. at the moment, i’m going through a massive tagging task to add the WORK tag to all my files (except classical music, that already has it).
clearly, it’s a workaround: as pointed out by @Tony_Casey, changes in roon code could spoil it, so it’s important for me (us) it does not happen.
besides, it’s not a real solution: in the beginning of my roon experience, i had “prefer file” in the multi-part settings. but that created some peculiar errors in some of my classical music library: parts of composition seen as single compositions or (even worse!) as separate discs of a multidisc set. that’s why i reverted to “prefer roon”
now, the intersection between “classical” and “album with problems if file-preferred” and “album with problems if roon-preferred” could be… null or… just a few.
anyway… hope this helps.