File Explorer and MP3's

How do you get the artist visible on a single MP3? In other words, if I have a number of mp3's in a folder and I want the artist to be visible, the ribbon gives me the ability too show "Album artist", View>Add columns>Album artist, the MP3's in the folder are single, non album MP3's, however each MP3 has an Album which is visible in File Explorer.. What's rather odd is that I have 2 MP3's that are showing the artist, yet the rest are blank. Is this a fluke or is it not possible to do what I want. If it works on albums why not single MP3's, after all, each album would have a single entry for each track. All MP3's have metadata to include artist.

Actually I really can't upload the MP3 and the reason why is because I have about 2289 that are acting the same way, However I noticed in your screen shot that you are using MP3Tag, which I use which is 13:16:09, latest one. My Windows is 10 Pro, Version 1803, OS Build 17134.285. I will upload a screenshot which I highlighted to give you some idea of what's happening. You will notice jpg files in the screen shot, that's because I'm checking album and record covers but that should have no impact on the subject at hand.

Do you want something like this?

I get that by using the "view" menu and choosing "list" from it. And then "sort" by "name ascending".

The files are all tagged with MP3Tag so that the tag matches the artist and song title.

As I was working in the folder, trying to work on album covers and record covers, something just popped up, have no clue where it came from or how it got ther cause I surely didn't go into VIEW and check the box but it's there. Instead of using "Album Artist" use "Contributing artists" instead and you'll have the artist for any MP3. Duh, I don't know why I didn't try that but the problem is now solved thanks to whatever caused "Contributing artists" to appear.
Here's a screen shot.

I know this is off topic but I'm curious as to how long you've been using MP3Tag? I myself have been using it for at least 5 years, I think, at least it seems that long.

xpac5896 said:

I know this is off topic but I'm curious as to how long you've been using MP3Tag? I myself have been using it for at least 5 years, I think, at least it seems that long.

I've been using it ever since I began using mp3 files--close to 15 years.

My 27,000 mp3s are ALL single songs. No CDs; no "albums"; just single songs.

I don't care about any tags other than artist and song title and it's easy to use MP3Tag to force tags to agree with file name. My playback is nearly always random. I don't use "playlists" or anything like that.

The MP3s are all subdivided first by genre and then by artist---just like a record store.

ignatzatsonic: I'm kind of a stickler for tags myself. I've been listening to music ever since I can remember, and I'm 70 years old. My mom use to sing on radio back in the 40's, not a known artist but she had one heck of a voice, so I've been brought up, basically in music. I wanted to be a drummer but my mom would have no part in that. I love to sing, like my mom, but my voice is to deep so that was out.I love all kinds of music, except rap, to include long hair.. The music of today has no meaning if you can't understand the words and most often than not it's mostly screaming or just to blame loud. I 've been brought up in the better times where music meant something, had meaning, had melody and most of all you could understand what they were singing about. So, I don't have too many, basically from mid to late 40's to 80's to include singles and albums, only about 5000 mp3's, I would have had more but I lost my hard drive, went belly up. I've basically have had to reconstruct my mp3s because of he loss. I do tags so that whoever gets these will know when and where they came from and hopefully they'll appreciate the music.
It's rather interesting that when I come across an old song and the comments always seem to say" Why don't we have music like this today". Understanding music tastes change with the times but it's the old records that always get the recognition.
I'd be lost without MP3Tag cause if you use the freedb or other automatic tagging they have, it will never give you the original album that the song either came from or is on. I've tried them, no thank you, I'll spend the time doing it myself. Thanks











but the ones I do have