Mod_rewrite, with exception that refers to another rule

Question

i want to use mod_rewrite on my page and already have some rules

now i want to redirect to artist.php?name=(PARAMETER) except it matches another rule

at the moment i use a "a/" before artist.php because i dont know how to solve this problem so if i want so see the artist "Alex" ist just have to type domain.com/Alex and if i want to go to the about page i just have to type domain.com/about (just like facebook or twitter)

of course i'm thankfully for each improvement

Here is the .htaccess

    RewriteEngine On 
RewriteBase / 
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f 
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d 
RewriteRule ^cover/([0-9]*)(s|m)?\.jpg$ /cover.php?id=$1&size=$2
RewriteRule ^dl/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /download.php?$1=$2
RewriteRule ^track/([^/]*)\.mp3$ /song.php?id=$1
RewriteRule ^my(/)([^/]*)$ /my.php?requested=$2
RewriteRule ^album/(.*)-([0-9]{0,6})$ /album.php?id=$2
RewriteRule ^a/([^/]*)$ /artist.php?name=$1
RewriteRule ^a/([^/]*)/music$ /music.php?name=$1
RewriteRule ^(artists|about|charts|contact|myprofile|editprofile|mymusic|uploadsongs|logout|genres)$ /$1.php
RewriteRule ^t$ /t.php
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?domain.com(/)?.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(mp3)$ - [F,NC]

ErrorDocument 404 /errors/404.php

ps: i'm sorry for my bad english

Answer 1

You need to rearrange some of your rules, and add L flags so they don't accidentally get applied:

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteBase / 

RewriteRule ^cover/([0-9]*)(s|m)?\.jpg$ /cover.php?id=$1&size=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^dl/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /download.php?$1=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^track/([^/]*)\.mp3$ /song.php?id=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^my(/)([^/]*)$ /my.php?requested=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^album/(.*)-([0-9]{0,6})$ /album.php?id=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^a/([^/]*)$ /artist.php?name=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^a/([^/]*)/music$ /music.php?name=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(artists|about|charts|contact|myprofile|editprofile|mymusic|uploadsongs|logout|genres|t)$ /$1.php [L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?domain.com(/)?.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(mp3)$ - [F,NC]

# assume anything else is a username
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)$ /artist.php?name=$1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/music$ /music.php?name=$1 [L]

ErrorDocument 404 /errors/404.php