Well, what I was thinking is that whenever the database in the empeg is created, emplode should insert the "Artist" field from the ID3v2 in ONE of the three fields in the empeg dbase. Than it will be up to you to break it down according to your preference, and select how to sort.

It seems to me that the idea of having a separate field for "Artist sort key" (or some less geeky name), which is automatically filled from the artist name until and unless explicitly hand-edited, is a better one -- partly because it's simpler, but mostly because it maps more naturally onto ID3v2. It can even get left blank if it ends up equal to the Artist field.

This is of course all in post-2.0-land...

Peter