Music Artists
Authored by Claude · Last updated AI generated documentation written by reading the source codeAn artist represents a performer, band, or entity credited on one or more releases in your music library. Artists are created automatically by Cardinal Media Server during indexing — there is no manual creation step.
How artists are created
When Cardinal Media Server indexes a music file, it reads the file's metadata and determines which artist to attribute the track to. If an artist with that name does not already exist in the library, a new artist record is created. If one does exist, the track is linked to it.
Name matching is case-insensitive, so The National and the national resolve to the same artist record.
Artist name sources
Cardinal reads artist metadata from three sources, in descending priority:
| Priority | Source | Field(s) used |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Embedded tags | ALBUMARTIST, then ALBUMARTISTSORT, then ARTIST |
| 2 | Folder structure | The artist-level folder name |
| 3 | Fallback | Unknown Artist |
The ALBUMARTIST tag takes precedence over ARTIST so that compilation albums and releases with featured performers are attributed to the primary credited artist rather than to each individual performer. If your files have neither tag and are not in a named artist folder, they are grouped under Unknown Artist.
See Music indexing for the expected folder structure.
Multi-artist tracks
A single track can be linked to more than one artist. This happens when the ARTIST tag on a track lists performers that differ from the ALBUMARTIST. Cardinal creates or matches each unique name and associates all of them with the track.
The artist page and the artists list reflect the album-level artist (ALBUMARTIST). The per-track artist associations are visible on the track itself.
Browsing artists
The Artists page in Cardinal Music lists every artist in your library in a virtual scrolling list. Use the toolbar to control how artists are displayed.
Sort by:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Alphabetical by artist name |
| Date added | When the artist was first indexed |
Both sort options support ascending and descending order.
Layout: Toggle between grid and list views using the layout control in the toolbar.
Library filter: If you have multiple libraries configured, the library switcher limits the artist list to artists whose releases belong to the selected library. See Libraries for details.
Artist page
Selecting an artist opens their page, which lists all of their releases grouped by type:
- Albums
- EPs
- Singles
- Compilations
- Soundtracks
- Live
- Remixes
- Other
Only release type groups that contain at least one release are shown. Releases with an unrecognized or missing release type appear under Other.
Each release links to its own page. See Music Releases for more information.
Required capabilities
Browsing artists requires the MusicArtists.Read capability. Users without this capability will not see the Artists page or any artist data.
See Role-Based Access Control for information on assigning capabilities to roles and roles to users.
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