Song author system doesn't support single word authors, like bands

[Joe Mulloy]

The way the author system is currently implemented you are required to provide both a "First Name" and a "Last Name". This doesn't work for bands who have a single word name. When a band has a multi word name I can work around this issue by putting half in the "First Name" field and half in the "Last Name" field. For single word authors I've worked around this by putting a single space in the "Last Name" field. Ideally each author would have a type, (i.e. Person or Band), and then if you pick Band there would only be a single text field. Having 3 fields, "First Name", "Last Name" and "Display Name" is probably over kill anyways. A single "Name" field would probably be sufficient. I understand that at this point changing fields in the database could be difficult, but it would be nice if there was an elegant way to handle single word authors.

[Simon Hanna (thelinuxguy)]

Are the first and last names actually used somewhere? (It might be the searching, I didn't check)

Currently it is possible to add authors that only have one name. When adding authors from the song edit form, the form doesn't enforce more than one word. Adding one word there, just adds the text to the display name and leaves the first and last names empty.

The way I see it if removing first and last names is no problem, they could be removed. If they are essential, then the song edit form should as well enforce more than one word