Getting Artists to show up correctly in the Zune software
Ever have an artist not show up where you expected in the Zune software? Ever swear it's correctly labeled 'Red Hot Chili Peppers' yet it's showing up under 'Unknown Artist' instead? How about this one, you can find it in the software but under the Zune it's in the wrong place? The culprit here is the Zune software's really weird use the artist and album artist metadata bundled inside the file. I consider this a huge and highly annoying bug.
A lot of tracks out there only have the 'Artist' field filled out while a second, less-used field 'Album Artist', sometimes called 'Band', is empty. The Zune, instead of defaulting to the artist when it has an empty album artist, puts all those tracks under the dreaded 'Unknown Artist' section.
I just had this comment on an older blog post showing just how frustrating this can be, Shad said...
I am having a hell of a time getting CDs that I recorded in my commercial recording studio to show up as anything other than Unknown Artist. I finally got the folders that I have labeled (by right clicking and renaming them) to show up in the software but when I sync to my PC and update the Zune, they do not show up as "Unknown Artist" in the Zune. I cannot find them at all on the Zune. Any ideas?
I answered him in the comments but thought I'd repeat the steps I use to fix this issue here:
- Download and install mp3tag or any other tag editing program. I just like this one because it's straight forward, free, and small in size.
- After you install it run the software.
- On the menu go to Tools, then Options.
- Select the 'Tag Panel' node on the left.
- Click the 'Add Field' icon on the right, looks like a rectangle with a star.
- Under 'Field' select BAND.
- Under 'Name' type 'Album Artist' or 'Band'. Doesn't matter, it's for your eyes only.
- OK out of everything.
- Drag & drop the files or folder of files you want to edit into the main white area of the app.
- You'll notice on the left side you can edit all the metadata about your tracks. Make sure to edit both 'Artist' and 'Album Artist' to be the same thing.
- Save.
- Sometimes the Zune software will pick up on your new information, sometimes you have to kick it a little by renaming the file.
- Everything should be rocking now!
Another great thing about mp3tag is that it can rename your files using your metadata, can add cover art or look it up from Amazon and guess at what the metadata should be based on filename. It supports pretty much every single audio format I've thrown at it as well that supports metadata. The renaming is nice because the Zune software lacks the ability to customize how your files are named.
Any questions drop them in the comments.
12 Comments
Anonymous said
February 27, 2008
Thanks so much, it really works. Although i love Zune i admit that the software sucks, especially if u don't live in the US.
mirvance said
February 27, 2008
Is there anything else I can do to make the Zune software change the album artist? I've tried two different metadata programs and neither is making things stick.
Shawn Oster said
February 27, 2008
Nice! The lack of a solid tag editor in the new Zune software is really playing havok with some libraries out there.
caneim said
February 27, 2008
I was directed here and for the first time since they got this new software, I have been close to getting this cleared up AND BELIEVE ME I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING. I am so close but still no cigar. The band is messed up so you are right this is where the problem is. I change the band info and it allows me to save however Zune doesnt recognize the "new data" so I drag it into my zune software but still it is going into the wrong place! The changes have taken in the mp3tag but zune is still doin what it wants.
Anonymous said
February 27, 2008
So do you have to save after every time you change a song? or can you do something else?
Anonymous said
February 27, 2008
After editing the songs in the MP3Tag program some had changed and some didn't when I returned to the Zune software. What do i need to change on the ones that still listed under "unknown artist"?
TlingitSoldier said
February 27, 2008
Thank you so much! The inability to edit information like this is the about the only reason that I hate the new Zune software.It's been so frustrating for me when I change an artist name and it either stays as unknown artist or the software decides that it wants to split up one album into five albums. It's also nice when I have an album with multiple artists but I just want one main artist to group them all into one album.Thanks again for the advice!
Dorf said
February 27, 2008
Thanks for advice about the MP3Tag program.I had a TON of songs in a collection and some of them showed up in Zune as the artist, and some of them showed up in the Various Artist section. It was very weird.What I found was I did your steps, then drug all the songs into the program, but instead of editing any tags, I just clicked the save button. It went through and saved them all (I made no changes.) But when I relaunched ZUNE.. BAM, I had a few hundred more artists listed!
Shawn Oster said
February 27, 2008
"So do you have to save after every time you change a song? or can you do something else?"You have a few options, if you're doing a group of songs at once, using multiple select, you change the Album Artist and then hit save.If you're tweaking each song one by one you can either do it on the left-hand side and hit save or you can edit it directly in the grid and when it you hit enter it'll move down to the next track.Personally I just select the entire album and then set the album artist and hit save. If you're doing a huge number of tracks I'd suggest downloading my custom Action that will automatically fill the Album Artist with Artist.
caneim said
February 27, 2008
Here is the problem more in depth. I am soooo frustrated! I have an albumn (soundtrack) that has 3 different artists songs. I can delete all of them from my zune and I can delete on the mp3tag all mention of this stupid soundrack and when I choose randomly one of the artists to start and put the song back in the albumn automatically poops up w/the song. Not a problem yet. I go to add the other COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ARTIST but it has the same albumn which the info I also deleted on mp3tag to have no mntion of the albumn, when I drag it into Zune, it goes immediately to to the albumn in the first artist I choose to add. I have tried this numerous times deleting and putting them in to each of the artists and when I go to add artist #2, it goes immediately where the 1st artist is and the albumn art is always automatically there. Please help. Why is this stupid albumn, controlling the other artists songs if I have completely disassociaed the song from it?
Anonymous said
February 27, 2008
Dude, u nailed it!!! The "Band" field was mess'n up stuff for me, but I was going into the Advanced Tag Editor every time to check BAND. Your sugg. to add a band column is perfect!!! Thanks,Carl, in SeattleBAND Example: couldn't figure out why one of k.d.langs(Torch&Twang) tunes(#4) insisted on showing up as a separate album in PC-Zune, but finally noticed that it's BAND field was "k.d.lang & the reclines" instead of "k.d. lag and the reclines".
Liz said
January 02, 2009
umm..i can't figure out step number four and im totally lost !! i feel like an idiot. what is a tag panel node? and it says nothing about it in tha progrom on this options window that pops up. it just says "mp3, wav, flac, ogg, wma, decode files to show file length, support external images, and warn when write access is denied" its really frustrating. i havnt tha slightest idea how to "Select the 'Tag Panel' node on the left." and there is nothing related to "Click the 'Add Field' icon on the right, looks like a rectangle with a star." that i can find. any one know what tha heck that is?