Various Artists

Warning! Deleting this artist may remove other artists and scrobbles from your library - please handle this with caution!

Note: You can view albums tagged as 'Various Artists' in your library here.

The term Various Artists is used in the recording industry to designate releases featuring contributions from multiple performers. It commonly appears on compilation albums or collaborative recordings where no single artist attribution applies. On digital platforms such as Last.fm, tracks may be listed under this designation when individual artist information is missing or incomplete in metadata, resulting in automatic grouping under the generic label.

In some cases, singles credited to Various Artists are issued for charitable purposes, particularly when performers collaborate under a collective project name. Examples include Band Aid with the song "Do They Know It’s Christmas?" and USA for Africa with "We Are the World".

On Last.fm, a Various Artists designation may be useful if a user is scrobbling a compilation album, and wishes to keep those scrobbles together as an album for charting purposes. In that case, Various Artists should be used as the 'album artist' and the actual artist should be in the 'artist' field.

The designation Various Artists is also commonly applied to musical theater soundtracks, reflecting recordings that feature multiple cast members or ensemble performances within a single track.

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Artists who actually went by the name Various Artists include

1. Various Artists is also used as a performance alias by German musician Torsten Pröfrock, founder of the DIN label. In addition to this name, he has recorded under several other aliases, including Dynamo, Erosion, Resilent, and Traktor. He has collaborated with Robert Henke and has been a member of Monolake since 2004.

2. The name was also used by a short-lived punk band formed in Bristol by brothers Jonjo and Robin Key, originally from Birmingham. Other members were involved simultaneously in Art Objects, which later evolved into The Blue Aeroplanes; the Key brothers also contributed as songwriters and participants in that project. After the group disbanded, the brothers formed Either / Or.