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Topic: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling) (Read 1230 times) previous topic - next topic
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Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Hi there,  :D

I’ve noticed an issue with the mobile version of foobar2000 when it’s used together with external scrobblers like PanoScrobbler (in my case), and I wanted to ask if support for the album artist tag could be added.

Right now, foobar2000 mobile doesn’t seem to pass the album artist metadata to the scrobbler. This causes problems when scrobbling compilation albums or soundtracks. Since the scrobbler doesn't receive the album artist info, Last.fm defaults to using the track artist as the album artist – which leads to incorrect album entries.

For example:
If I play "Jungle Boogie" by Kool & the Gang from the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack, Last.fm ends up creating an album "Pulp Fiction" under Kool & the Gang. This happens for every artist on the album, resulting in multiple “fake” albums instead of a single Various Artists – Pulp Fiction entry.

This is how it's supposed to look like:
https://www.last.fm/user/Nick-Valentine/library/music/Various+Artists/Pulp+Fiction

foobar2000 on PC handles this correctly and includes the album artist tag when sending info to the scrobbler. It would be great if the mobile version could do the same.

Thanks a lot for reading, and for all the work on this great player!

Best regards,
Mike

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #1 –
Please test version 1.6.8 beta (standalone download, in review on Google Play), I made album artist info forwarded to the system.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Peter on
Please test version 1.6.8 beta (standalone download, in review on Google Play), I made album artist info forwarded to the system.
Nope, same result.

Edit: The new version still does not submit the album artist:

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #3 –
Thanks for testing.
Apparently passing "albumartist" field to com.android.music.metachanged isn't good enough.
Seems like I should send album artist info in "artist" field? Perhaps with an option.
What other Android player that you use gets this right? Perhaps I can examine what it does.
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #4 –
I only use foobar on both PC and Android. I tested two other players, but the result was the same. However, I did NOT use the tool shown in the screenshot. It was suggested to me by the developer of PanoScrobbler.

Quote
Seems like I should send album artist info in "artist" field? Perhaps with an option.
But that would mean that when playing a compilation, every artist is submitted as "Various Artists"?

Edit: I just tested Media Monkey and this app does provide the album_artist metadata and it scrobbles perfectly. You might have done it the wrong way.

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #5 –
What is that app you use to check the info?
 

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Peter on
Thanks.
Try 2-
https://www.foobar2000.org/downloads/foobar2000-mobile-v1.6.8-2025-04-30.zip
Using "album_artist" this time, was "albumartist" in first build.
I will later today. But first I'll forward this message I got from the PanoScrobbler dev after I suggested to chime in on this conversation:

Quote
Hi, I tried to create an account there but apparently their Recaptcha doesn't work? I get the error "ERROR for site owner: Invalid domain for site key". Anyway, the correct field for reporting the album artist is documented here: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/MediaMetadata#METADATA_KEY_ALBUM_ARTIST

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #8 –
Thanks.
(Fixing ReCaptcha too)
Microsoft Windows: We can't script here, this is bat country.

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #11 –
Hi,

Developer of Pano Scrobbler here.
Scrobblers hook into other apps' MediaSession events (https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/session/MediaSession)
and get the data using MediaController.Callback (https://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/session/MediaController.Callback#onMetadataChanged(android.media.MediaMetadata))

What you did was put "album_artist" in the com.android.music.metachanged broadcast. Broadcasts are no longer a reliable or standardized way to receive media events after the MediaController API was introduced. Many media players don't even use them. So, scrobblers such as Pano Scrobbler, Scroball do not look for data in there.

Re: Support for "Album Artist" tag in foobar2000 mobile (for proper scrobbling)

Reply #13 –
Quote from: Peter on
Just figured it out, thanks for the replies.
New build, this time verified working against the test app-
https://www.foobar2000.org/downloads/foobar2000-mobile-v1.6.8-2025-04-30-v2.zip
Yes, that's it! It finally works. Thanks a lot, Peter! Now I (and others of course) can finally properly scrobble literally everything on mobile. 😊👍