# Separate artists with custom syntax?

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/separate-artists-with-custom-syntax/85>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [April 30, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/separate-artists-with-custom-syntax/85 "2017-04-30T16:55:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zoroaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/848f3c/32.png) [@Zoroaster](https://discourse.beets.io/u/Zoroaster)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/separate-artists-with-custom-syntax/85/1 "2017-04-30T16:55:15Z")

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I’m wondering if it’s possible to separate artists with either commas or semicolons instead of the word “feat”? My music library app can distinguish artists if there’s a semicolon between them.

Thanks for the consideration!

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**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/separate-artists-with-custom-syntax/85/2 "2017-05-01T19:22:58Z")

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We don’t currently have an option like that. The “join string” comes directly from MusicBrainz, and it’s usually something like “and” or “feat.”.

However, this is a fortuitous time to be asking about this. Recently, the MB style guide changed to allow a broader variety of join strings, so the “client side” has been asked to provide ways to normalize this for users. Here’s the discussion regarding Picard:  
[https://github.com/metabrainz/picard-plugins/issues/85](https://github.com/metabrainz/picard-plugins/issues/85)

Maybe we need a ticket of our own to request the ability to customize these? Perhaps with a dedicated config option (or set of options) to the MB data source?

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**Author:** ![Zoroaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/848f3c/32.png) [@Zoroaster](https://discourse.beets.io/u/Zoroaster)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/separate-artists-with-custom-syntax/85/3 "2017-05-01T19:38:42Z")

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That sounds awesome! Are you recommending to start a ticket at the picard-plugins page? Just want to make sure I ask the right people. Thanks again for the heads up on this development.

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**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 7:51pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/separate-artists-with-custom-syntax/85/4 "2017-05-01T19:51:24Z")

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Great! Actually, I meant to ask you the favor of opening an issue in _our_ GitHub repository (i.e., the beets repository). If you don’t mind giving some context by linking to the Picard issue too, that would be awesome!