How are artist names sorted?

[itm]

Can anyone explain how the sort sequence is determined in the Artist list in SC 7.0.1? For example, "Elvis Presley" is listed under "E", whereas "Elvis Costello" is listed under "C", even though my folder names and ID3 tags are always constructed the same way - i.e. forename first.

???

[Siduhe]

Check your mp3 files with an advanced tag editor like mp3tag or similar. Look for an ARTISTSORT tag. The ARTISTSORT tag is often "silently" set by tagging software and isn't always visible in a basic tagger. Which software are you using to check your tags? I suspect you have tags "Elvis Presley" and "Costello, Elvis" respectively.

If ARTISTSORT is set, it takes priority in Squeezecenter (if there is no ARTISTSORT tag then the sorting is done by ARTIST).

HTH

[itm]

I use Tag&Rename to manage my tags, and it doesn't provide access to the ARTISTSORT property. I actually use this to manage all of my tags, so I'm puzzled as to why this one artist would be treated differently to the others.

I'll download MP3tag later and investigate further...

[snarlydwarf]

SC merges ARTIST and ARTISTSORT as part of the scan process. A single file with ARTISTSORT will set the sort order for every occurence of that artist.

(Ie, it makes no distinction between "Elvis Costello"'s with and without sorts defined... if any Elvis Costello track defines the artistsort, it will carry onto all tracks.)

So you will have to look at every track with Elvis Costello as artist to see if it has the sort defined. Note that this can be defined in multiple ways even on mp3: not just a TXXX ARTISTSORT field, but also TSOP or musicbrainz tags. It may also come from iTunes integration or MusicIP, I think, if you use those.

[itm]

I'm using MP3Tag but I can't see a field called ARTISTSORT - only BANDSORTORDER - is that what you mean?

[itm]

I've read all of the other threads on ARTISTSORT but all of my files are MP3's so presumably they don't have this tag?
MP3Tag doesn't even list ARTISTSORT as one of the extended tags, so I have no idea how to diagnose this further.
Is there anything else which can cause this sort of anomaly in the how the artist is sorted?

[snarlydwarf]

I've read all of the other threads on ARTISTSORT but all of my files are MP3's so presumably they don't have this tag?
MP3Tag doesn't even list ARTISTSORT as one of the extended tags, so I have no idea how to diagnose this further.
Is there anything else which can cause this sort of anomaly in the how the artist is sorted?

The TSOP (Text Sort Order Performer) is how ARTISTSORT is set on mp3.

If you are using iTunes, it adds a few more.

[itm]

I'm sorry but you've lost me (please excuse my ignorance) - I don't use iTunes, but how do I set the TSOP?

[snarlydwarf]

I'm sorry but you've lost me (please excuse my ignorance) - I don't use iTunes, but how do I set the TSOP?

Looked at http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...nt_In_the_File?