As discussed in this community thread, it would be desirable to standardize artist name variations (but not artist name changes) by default. For example:

• Hootie & the Blowfish instead of Hootie and the Blowfish
• The Three Tenors instead of The 3 Tenors
• *NSYNC instead of 'N Sync
• The Prodigy instead of Prodigy
• Johann Sebastian Bach instead of Bach

The main issue with the current "Use standardized artist names" option is that it can't distinguish between an artist name variation and an artist name change. While artist name variations like the ones listed above should usually be standardized, an artist name change (e.g. Bob Dylan instead of Blind Boy Grunt) might or might not be standardized, depending on user preference.

Following this, the "Use standardized artist names" option should not just be a simple boolean, but there should be three possible settings instead:

• Do not standardize artist names. This will always use the artist credit names as before.
• Standardize artist name variations only. This should be the new default setting. A suggested technical implementation is given below.
• Standardize artist name variations and artist name changes. This will always use the standardized artist names as before.