Local Characters - Merge Artists' Names!

- pete44 said...
- User
- 8 Aug 2008, 15:35
Local Characters - Merge Artists' Names!

I have got an issue with the use of local characters in artists names.

Why it is possible for some artists to scrobble different name variations as one artist (for example Sigur Ros as Sigur Rós) ...

... and for other artists, it is not possible? For example extremely popular song-writer Jaromir Nohavica is an English-only-characters (AKA English-friendly) tag for Jaromír Nohavica, but it is flagged red, tagged as incorrect and blocked from editing. Even though the publisher decided to up-load artist's tracks under the non-local-character name variation. There are seven albums available for last.fm users under the "wrong" name and none for "correct" one.
There are number of them, for example performer Iva Bittova, Zuzana Navarova, Zuzana Smatanova,Andrej Seban, Slobodna Europa.

I recommend to use a feature that would allow users to nominate artist's name variations to merge into one account/scrobbling name.
(It is very frustrating, all that mess. it is very frustrating that it is possible for some artists but not available for others, and it is very frustrating that some Dutch moderator will decide on "correct" names in language he does not "live in")

alternative electronic female vocalists folk indie indie pop indie rock pop rock seen live singer-songwriter

Generate your own musical cloud.

[quote][b][user]pete44[/user][/b] said: I have got an issue with the use of local characters in artists names. Why it is possible for some artists to scrobble different name variations as one artist (for example Sigur Ros as [artist]Sigur Rós[/artist]) ... ... and for other artists, it is not possible? For example extremely popular song-writer [artist]Jaromir Nohavica[/artist] is an English-only-characters (AKA [b]English-friendly[/b]) tag for [artist]Jaromír Nohavica[/artist], but it is flagged red, tagged as incorrect and blocked from editing. Even though the publisher decided to up-load artist's tracks under the non-local-character name variation. There are [url=http://www.last.fm/music/Jaromir+Nohavica/+albums]seven albums[/url] available for last.fm users under the "wrong" name and none for "correct" one. [i]There are number of them, for example performer [artist]Iva Bittova[/artist], [artist]Zuzana Navarova[/artist], [artist]Zuzana Smatanova[/artist],[artist]Andrej Seban[/artist], [artist]Slobodna Europa[/artist].[/i] I recommend to use a feature that would allow users to nominate artist's name variations to merge into one account/scrobbling name. [i](It is very frustrating, all that mess. it is very frustrating that it is possible for some artists but not available for others, and it is very frustrating that some Dutch moderator will decide on "correct" names in language he does not "live in")[/i][/quote]
Edited by pete44 on 12 Sep 2008, 12:27

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- Champ213 said...
- Subscriber
- 10 Aug 2008, 09:57
I believe that most of the redirects like the one for Sigur Rós originate from years ago, when there still was a user voting system in place for merging artists. So, the feature you suggest existed at one point, I don't really remember why they got rid of it though.

[quote][b][user]Champ213[/user][/b] said: I believe that most of the redirects like the one for Sigur Rós originate from years ago, when there still was a user voting system in place for merging artists. So, the feature you suggest existed at one point, I don't really remember why they got rid of it though. [/quote]

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- pete44 said...
- User
- 10 Aug 2008, 17:55
there are a number of cases: "and" turns into "&" (and vice versa) ... "the" is excluded or added to the name as needed ... "e" turns into "é" in French stuff ... even "verdi" is scrobbled as "Giuseppe Verdi"

... in fact, the last.fm alters the "name from tag" into the "last.fm name" quite often ... SO WHY NOT TO ALLOW IT ... FOR ALL ARTISTS?

alternative electronic female vocalists folk indie indie pop indie rock pop rock seen live singer-songwriter

Generate your own musical cloud.

[quote][b][user]pete44[/user][/b] said: there are a number of cases: "[b]and[/b]" turns into "[b]&[/b]" (and vice versa) ... "[b]the[/b]" is excluded or added to the name as needed ... "[b]e[/b]" turns into "[b]é[/b]" in French stuff ... even "[b]verdi[/b]" is scrobbled as "[b]Giuseppe Verdi[/b]" ... in fact, the last.fm alters the "name from tag" into the "last.fm name" quite often ... SO WHY NOT TO ALLOW IT ... FOR ALL ARTISTS?[/quote]

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- springa said...
- User
- 11 Aug 2008, 23:02
+1

I agree that it's silly, i have several artists in my library that have released albums in their local language and in english and they scrobble separately. I think that last.fm are aware of the problem and are working on the new way to deal with that but it's going to be something different than what it was in the early days (merging two tags together according to the voting system). I hope i'm not wrong about it!

pete44 said:
there are a number of cases: "and" turns into "&" (and vice versa) ... "the" is excluded or added to the name as needed ... "e" turns into "é" in French stuff ... even "verdi" is scrobbled as "Giuseppe Verdi"

... in fact, the last.fm alters the "name from tag" into the "last.fm name" quite often ... SO WHY NOT TO ALLOW IT ... FOR ALL ARTISTS? maybe in song names & and "and" can be seen differently (different release, different version of the song) but there is no reason to separate those two tags in artist names and even in album names. album names with (uk version), (japan version) etc. in the name also don't make sense, too much clutter for nothing. why not to merge all of them together and have b-sides listed in there as well but with a note that they're not on general release?

I know that this's not going to be addressed within a day or even a few weeks, but i really hope that this will change at some point!

[/rant over]

[quote][b][user]springa[/user][/b] said: I agree that it's silly, i have several artists in my library that have released albums in their local language and in english and they scrobble separately. I think that last.fm are aware of the problem and are working on the new way to deal with that but it's going to be something different than what it was in the early days (merging two tags together according to the voting system). I hope i'm not wrong about it! [quote][b][user]pete44[/user][/b] said: there are a number of cases: "[b]and[/b]" turns into "[b]&[/b]" (and vice versa) ... "[b]the[/b]" is excluded or added to the name as needed ... "[b]e[/b]" turns into "[b]é[/b]" in French stuff ... even "[b]verdi[/b]" is scrobbled as "[b]Giuseppe Verdi[/b]" ... in fact, the last.fm alters the "name from tag" into the "last.fm name" quite often ... SO WHY NOT TO ALLOW IT ... FOR ALL ARTISTS?[/quote] maybe in song names & and "and" can be seen differently (different release, different version of the song) but there is no reason to separate those two tags in artist names and even in album names. album names with (uk version), (japan version) etc. in the name also don't make sense, too much clutter for nothing. why not to merge all of them together and have b-sides listed in there as well but with a note that they're not on general release? I know that this's not going to be addressed within a day or even a few weeks, but i really hope that this will change at some point! [/rant over][/quote]

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- Pangonis said...
- User
- 17 Aug 2008, 03:46
Hmm...

This is an incredibly irritating oversight that should have been fixed long ago, and it's continued presence makes last.fm seem like a very amateurish service.

[quote][b][user]Pangonis[/user][/b] said: This is an incredibly irritating oversight that should have been fixed long ago, and it's continued presence makes last.fm seem like a very amateurish service.[/quote]

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- Ubikvitaarinen said...
- User
- 27 Aug 2008, 17:57
Completely agree with you guys. This measure seems somewhat useless in my opinion.

You can't be a successful dictator and design women’s underclothing. One or the other, not both.

[quote][b][user]Ubikvitaarinen[/user][/b] said: Completely agree with you guys. This measure seems somewhat useless in my opinion. [/quote]

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- paintinglines said...
- User
- 31 Aug 2008, 19:31
What ever happened with the voting thing we had just prior to the new site launch? I thought that was finally going to be some sort of response to this problem but it seems to have been abandoned with the new last.fm version...

[quote][b][user]paintinglines[/user][/b] said: What ever happened with the voting thing we had just prior to the new site launch? I thought that was finally going to be [i]some[/i] sort of response to this problem but it seems to have been abandoned with the new last.fm version...[/quote]

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- pete44 said...
- User
- 10 Sep 2008, 20:11
to frame the issue ...

well, to sum up, or frame the question more precisely ... my point is
not about how to decide on the only correct name

but it is about ... how to determine legitimate name variations and then to scrobble these name variations as one artist

alternative electronic female vocalists folk indie indie pop indie rock pop rock seen live singer-songwriter

Generate your own musical cloud.

[quote][b][user]pete44[/user][/b] said: well, to sum up, or frame the question more precisely ... my point is not about how to decide on the only [i]correct[/i] name but it is about ... how to determine [b]legitimate name variations[/b] and then to [b]scrobble these name variations as one artist [/b][/quote]

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