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I'm in the process of ripping my disks into MTU Hoster and I'm finding that some of the databases list the Artist as Lastname, Firstname while others list them as Firstname Lastname.

I want to keep my songbook consistent and I want to do it right the first time. How do you enter your artist names?

thanks for the help.

Never mind, the convention seems to be lastname, firstname so I'll go with that .

Last name, first name is what I do now. Although even that seems to confuse people. Up until about 2 years ago i'd have it listed first name last name, but it would still be alphabetized by last name. This was never a problem up until about 05 or so when we started getting a bunch of new 21 yo's that did not understand the Dewey Decimal System and thought my books were completely out of order. I tried to educate them (as much as you can do in a bar) that if you are looking for Garth Brooks, do not look in G for Garth, look in B for Brooks. They sort of understood that but when they got to B, they wondered why there were G (Garth) names included in the B's (Brooks). Oh well, succumbed to the education system (or lack of) & went last name, first name.

More info than you probably needed

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We were last name, first name but I recently changed it to first name, last name. Just got tired of the people who were both solo and band acts. It was easy to do Diana Ross & the Supremes as Ross, Diana & the Supremes but when you got to groups like The Charlie Daniels Band or The Brian Setzer Orchestra, it just seemed weird to do, Daniels, Charlie Band, The or whatever.

Then, let's just say that Charlie Daniels went off on his own. Then you had Charlie Daniels Band in one part of the book and Daniels, Charlie in another (just using that as an example--can't think of the one that was actually driving me crazy.) So I just made it all "as is." Of course it solved some problems and created others. People might still think we had no Wynona as they would look under Judds and then Judd, Wynona and not find her even though she is just "Wynona," anyway.

Guess all of the possibilities have their pitfalls.

hmm maybe I should make it firstname lastname and only print books sorted by song title.

Yeah, but then you have Bon Jovi and Jon Bon Jovi, so you can't win.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

post them both. one as just bon jovi and the other as Bon Jovi, Jon

Our Artist books are more popular than the Title ones.

Bon Jovi, Jon Bon Jovi is a good example of how confusing it can be, no matter how you do it.

Bands with names in them get entered as "Bon Jovi" or "Charlie Daniels Band" If Jon Bon Jovi has solo stuff, not as his band, it is "Bon Jovi, Jon" and ditto with Charlie Daniels (not the band) Daniels, Charlie. When I copied my Hoster rtf to excel and started weeding for dupes, I was amazed at how many of the songs were entered as firstname lastname. GRRR.

Wouldn't bother with many books by song title - universally speaking, the artist books are going be far more in demand.

If this phone thing takes off, I may not worry about printing books again.....! Nah I probably still will, not all have a phone, but I am seriously thinking about adding Chips kiosk to a couple spots as well.

That is a nice thing with the phone app, they can just type in Bon Jovi & all artists Bon Jovi & Jon Bon Jovi will appear.

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Petty, Tom
Petty, Tom & The Heartbreakers

McCartney, Paul
McCartney, Paul & Wings

Solo
With their band


I thought that solved the problem but I don't like the look of:

Matthews, Dave Band

Alphabetize by last name if it is a real person's proper name. But then you run into Alice Cooper and Jethro Tull and Mungo Jerry and without a little music trivia knowledge, those will be in the wrong place. Stage names. Is it Hammer, M.C. or simply Hammer?

And another thing is how to name duets consistently when it comes to Artist. Do you go alphabetically by surname or do you always put the female first if it is a female/male duet? I've considered listing each individual duet twice by each artist's last name for example: DUETS_NEWTON-JOHN, OLIVIA & JOHN TRAVOLTA and DUETS_TRAVOLTA, JOHN & OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN.

I've wasted too much thought on this. Confused yet? Doesn't even matter if you ditch the books for kiosk and/or pdf files or "the phone thing".

Duets I put who's ever album it is actually on as the primary. Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow - Picture gets listed under Kid Rock.

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I list mine Last name, First name. Almost every song book I have seen at other shows seem to follow the same format.

With Chip's software, one can have it show Jon Bon Jovi when you actually have the file named Bon Jovi, Jon.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Is it that difficult to look up "JETHRO TULL" under the letter "T" and if it's not there; to look it up under the letter"J"?

I mean really! You have to wait at least a half hour or more to get up on stage to sing another song. That should be plenty of time to look up a song in any way that it might be listed. It's not rocket science. It's the frikkin' alphabet!

Oh, the tales that one could tell.......

Jethro Tull is actually the band name, not any individual artist.

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