Introduction

Artshell provides two essential tools for organising and managing your artist records: Tags and Lists.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to create tags, assign or remove them from artists, and how to organise them into manual or automatic lists for more efficient and customised management.

Prerequisites

We recommend reading the following articles before you begin:

Create and manage Tags for artists

Tags allow you to label and categorise artists to facilitate search and organisation. Below are the actions you can perform with tags:

Click the boxes to expand the corresponding section.

Create a new tag

There are two ways to create a tag:

From the artist card:
1. Select an artist and click the  icon at the top of the card to enter edit mode.
2. In the Add a tag field, type the name of the new tag and press ENTER on your keyboard.
3. Click Save at the top to confirm.
From the Manage panel (recommended if you want to add the tag to multiple artists):
Artshell allows you to assign a tag to several artists at once:

1. 1. Select one or more artists using the  icon.
  2. In the Manage panel that appears on the right, click Add tag. If the panel doesn’t appear (for example, due to reduced screen size), click the three-dots icon at the top right.
  3. Click + Create tag.
  4. Enter the desired tag name in the designated field and click Create tag. Click Cancel to go back.
    
    Note: The number in parentheses next to each tag indicates how many artists are associated with that specific tag.
  5. Click the Add button at the bottom right to apply the created tag to the selected artists.

Tip: before creating a new tag, take a moment to check the search bar to see if a tag with the same or a similar name already exists.

Add an existing tag to a selection of artists

1. 1. Select one or more artists using the  icon.
  2. In the Manage panel that appears on the right, click Add tag. If the panel doesn’t appear (for example, due to reduced screen size), click the three-dots icon at the top right.
  3. Use the search bar to find the tag you want to assign, then check the box next to it.
  4. Click the Add button at the bottom right to apply the tag to the selected artists.

Remove a tag

You can remove a tag in two ways:

From the artist card:
1. Select an artist and click the  icon at the top to enter edit mode.
2. Click the X icon next to the tag you want to delete.
3. Click Save at the top to confirm.

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From the Manage panel (recommended for removing a tag from multiple artists):

1. 1. Select one or more artists using the  icon.
  2. In the Manage panel that appears on the right, click Remove tag. If the panel doesn’t appear (for example, due to reduced screen size), click the three-dots icon at the top right.
  3. Use the search bar to find the tag you want to remove, then check the box next to it (you can remove multiple tags at once).
    
    Note: The Remove tag area only shows tags that are currently applied to the selected artists.
  4. Click Remove at the bottom right to delete the tag.

Create and manage Lists for artists

With Artshell, you can organise and group artists into an unlimited number of lists. As explained in the introductory article Organising Content: Tags and Lists, lists can be of two types: Manual or Automatic.

You can access your list overview by clicking the section title at the top left.

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Create lists

Click the boxes to expand each section:

Create a Manual list

To create a manual list – a static list that doesn’t update over time:

Select one or more artists using the  icon.
In the Manage panel on the right, click Add to list. If the panel doesn’t appear (for example, due to reduced screen size), click the three-dots icon at the top right.
Since the list you want to add artists to doesn’t exist yet, click + Create list.
Enter the list name in the field provided, then click Create list. Click Cancel to go back.
Click the Add button at the bottom right to insert the selected artists into the newly created list.

lista artisti.gif

Create an Automatic list

To create an automatic list – one that updates over time – start by using the search bar in the Artists section. Enter one or more criteria that will define your list and press ENTER on your keyboard. The resulting search can now be saved by clicking the  icon at the top right.

Here’s an example where the search targets artists tagged as emerging, and born in London.

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After clicking the  icon, choose a name for the automatic list. Finally, click Save list.

Tip: Include the criteria used to create the list in its name. This will help you identify it more easily later. For example, a suitable name for the above list could be: "Emerging Artists in London – tag 'emerging' + in 'London'".

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Manage lists

Add items to an existing list

Add artists to a Manual list:

Select one or more artists using the  icon.
In the Manage panel on the right, click Add to list. If the panel doesn’t appear (for example, due to reduced screen size), click the three-dots icon at the top right.
Use the search bar to find the list you want to add the artists to, then check the box next to it.

Note: The number in parentheses next to each list shows how many artists it contains.
Click the Add button at the bottom right to add the artists to the selected list.

Add artists to an Automatic list:

To include an artist in an automatic list, make sure they meet the criteria defined when the list was created. The artist will be added automatically as soon as those requirements are met.

Remove items from a list

Remove items from a Manual list:

Select one or more artists using the  icon.
In the Manage panel that appears on the right, click Remove from list. If the panel doesn’t appear, click the three-dots icon at the top right.
Use the search bar to find the list from which you want to remove the artists, then check the box next to it.

Note: The number in parentheses next to each list shows how many artists it contains.
Click the Remove button at the bottom right to remove the artists from the selected list.

Remove artists from an Automatic list:
Artists are automatically removed from automatic lists when they no longer meet the defined criteria. To remove an artist, simply update their details so they no longer meet the list’s criteria.

Customise the order of lists

Click the Artists section name at the top left.
Hover over a list name to reveal the drag handle (hand icon).
Drag each list up or down to reorder them as you prefer.

Conclusions

Effectively using Tags and Lists within your artist directory in Artshell is essential to maintain a structured, efficient, and customised management system.

These tools allow you to categorise the artists and collaborators you work with, create targeted groups for sending, communication, and campaigns, and quickly find the most relevant contacts based on your operational needs. Whether you need a static selection for a specific communication or a dynamic list that updates automatically, investing time in configuring Tags and Lists will help you save resources, improve the effectiveness of your work, and keep your database clean and up to date.