# "Artist" -vs- "Album Artist" in mp3 Tags **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057 "2009-09-14T17:52:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/1 "2009-09-14T17:52:27Z")
I am just about finished tagging my CD’s I ripped and I was wondering what is the difference between the “artist” tag and the “album artists” tag. While I understand you can apply your own meaning to any tag, I was tryng to figure out what others use them for? Is it for compliations of different artists or somethig? ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/2 "2009-09-14T18:31:59Z")
Soundtracks and compilations for the most part. So for the song Bang Bang, I’ll put Kill Bill V1 OST as the album artist and Nancy Sinatra as the artist. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/3 "2009-09-14T18:45:54Z")
iTunes can be set to automatically find album art. If you are trying to find a compilation album, it won’t be listed under the artist performing the song. In that case, you can set the artist to whomever, and the Album Artist to “Various Artists,” and the art can be found in the database, if it exists. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/4 "2009-09-14T19:12:28Z")
If an album is “by” one person, but a particular track is a duet with a guest, then the Album Artist is the main artist, but the Artist gets both singers. ---
**Author:** ![ianjohnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ianjohnson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianjohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/5 "2009-09-14T19:19:35Z")
I am so glad they added Album Artist. I’ve recently had to re-rip my CD collection and it has made things easier. The music is organized into folders by Artist, with Album subfolders. Before, if there were guest artists on an album, a folder would be created for them, a subfolder named for the album, and then the single track that they appeared on. The tracks for an album would get scattered around among these artist folders, and when I would view by artist in the player software, there would be all these contributing artists I had never heard of or cared about. It was especially bad for albums with various artists. Now folders are created by Album Artist, so if a No Doubt track has Bounty Killa in it, it stays in the No Doubt folder. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/6 "2009-09-14T21:50:11Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > iTunes can be set to automatically find album art. If you are trying to find a compilation album, it won’t be listed under the artist performing the song. In that case, you can set the artist to whomever, and the Album Artist to “Various Artists,” and the art can be found in the database, if it exists. iTunes finding album art? HA! ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artist-vs-album-artist-in-mp3-tags/510057/7 "2009-09-15T12:46:26Z")
If you have a large library and don’t want to set all your album artists by hand, you can use [this script](http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=artisttoalbumartist) to automate the process.