Michael, I feel your pain. All I can do at this point is say that server is a music listening application, and yet even though that's all it does, (it doesn't edit tags, it doesn't rip cds, it simply plays files), it doesn't have some very basic features for browsing that you would find in just about any other music app of consequence. that should be reason enough to get this done.
my advice to you then at this point, would be to simply try to implement two artist browsing modes, and then be as open to feedback as possible about how it could be refined / done more efficiently after the fact. too much of this talk is theoretical what-iffery, we need a beta release to test against, to say what does and does not work properly / could be better. I would suggest: 1. one mode be album artists, as that is inline with other apps, like iTunes, winamp, wmp, and so on. It should reflect either explicit album artist tags, or album artist values server assigns (however it does so) when explicit album artist values are not present in tags. that is basically what server does now. 2. I would suggest the other mode be configurable, but by default represent just artists. [in id3, this is the TPE1 value, every standard has its own similar way] neither mode should take comp status into account for creating those lists! neither list should query comp status as it's irrelevant [or rather, should be] to creating either list. (& both lists could have a pref to allow them to be renamed, but home > album artists, and home > artists, by default would be in line with the marketplace at large) 3. create a separate home > comps list, and put simple direct links to home > comps in the artist lists to mimic where VA links are now. why not have a stab at just doing the above any way you see fit to do it, and then putting it out as a beta release, and seeing if it carries the water or not? (I have faith in you, I think it will!) Using: Win7 64 and LMS 7.8 & Duet with ipads and the logitech app, and ipeng on an ipod ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BJW's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=58242 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=101264 _______________________________________________ beta mailing list beta@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/beta