iPod Classic - Hiding Compilation Artists

Re. Cover Flow trouble that I mentioned (which may well have something to do with what's been reported in this discussion), it apears to be a known problem. Perhaps it's a good idea to report your POV to our friends at apple, http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html

Aughh!! I was afraid of this, as I didn't see the setting in the various menu screen shots out there. I can't believe they've pulled it from the Classics. It's absolutely essential for those of us with large libraries.

Apple hasn't put the Compilations setting on either the Apple TV or iPhone, either. At least it's still in iTunes.

I suggest using Apple's Product Feedback form to ask for the return of this setting - unfortunately the form for the new iPods is not yet up but I imagine it will be there shortly.

I cannot believe they pulled this. My artists list is **** near impossible to navigate now. ARG!!! Bring this back!

I have to say, right now the Classic feels like a step down from my previous iPod Photo.

I have numerous dj-mix CD's on my itunes. Of course, the individual tracks are produced by different artists. iTunes "Cover Flow" on my Mac computers seems to have no problem displaying the albums correctly (one album, many artists, a compilation). However, the Cover Flow on my new iPod Classic 160 Gb seems to display the albums by each **** artists' track. Consequently, in the Cover Flow mode on the iPod, one album can appear many times,... Perhaps, you know what I mean. Is this the same problem you guys are talking about from a different angle? Of course, my itunes library is listed according to the "album" (not, album by artist or album by year). Any ideas? Or should I just send a mail to apple? Thanks, Peter B.

This is really, really poor.
I can't believe Apple have missed this feature, I'm beginning to regret buying my new classic.

I hope we see a firmware update soon. **** even an explanation from Apple why they removed this essential option would be nice - but I guess that's very unlikely.

i reported it - for being such a huge selling point on the new iPod offerings how could they release it in such a sorry state? I understand that with new releases there's bound to be a few bugs, but to go to such great lengths to impress upon us how great and awesome cover flow in the new iPods will be, to make the big hyped deal out of it that they did, and then not even bother to release this huge big-time one-of-the-reasons-to-buy-apple feature properly makes me feel like a chump. Makes me feel like the old 'we're apple, our sheeple will buy anything with our sticker on it cus we say it's great' stereotype doesn't ring so hollow as it once did.

I found a way, even if it takes some time and work...
I used the Tag "Artist (sorting)" (i'm not sure of the translation as my itunes is in Italian and tag is "Artista (per ordinare)"), putting the name of the compilation in this tag.
This way, in the Artist list it shows the name of the 1st artist in the sorting order where the compilation title should be displaied. I will also try putting "Various Artists" in the field. This also solves the problem of multiple cover display in the Coverflow menu.
Hope this helps.

This is also REALLY bugging me (i've got 12,500 songs currently on my Classic. It's making browsing via Coverflow or Artists really annoying).

Just thought i'd post another comment to show another irritated person incase anyone checks the thread. I've also submitted feedback ofcourse. Come on Apple 🙂

I'm right with you guys - i've got 10,000 songs, 1500 of which belong to multi-artist compilations, makes cover flow a REALLY messy experience.

Just wanted to sound off my similar disappointment, and my hope that apple will get this issue straightened out in a timely manner.

For those who can't be bothered to wait, like me, i've found a couple work around procedures if you're interested in being able to experience cover flow comfortably.

The first i don't deem acceptable as it destroys the value of my meta data: changing all the artists in a multi-artist comp to a common artist ie: changing all the artists to "Various Artists" will get this album to show as one entry, however, that totally ***** as a solution.

The other procedure i found was much better, but tedious: going to the sorting tab when you 'get info' on a song and changing the 'Sort Artist' field to 'Various Artists' will get the album to sort properly in cover flow if done for every entry in your multi artist compilations.

However, this can be farggin' tedious work; there is no batch operation from within iTunes that will let you change multiple items' "sort artist" data at the same time!!

If any of you are familiar with the advanced sorting features you may know that you can change a "sort" field like "sort artist" then right click that file and 'Apply sort field" to all tracks with the same artist for instance, but there is NO way to tell iTunes to apply specific sort field data to multiple items discreetly selected by YOU.

You can still automate this process however. If you're on a mac there's an apple script out there that will let you automate the changing of sort data, i forgot with it was called... look for dougs apple scripts i think...

on the PC i found no such suitable meta data tagger that would change the 'Sort' fields. What i ended up doing was downloading a simple macro program, recorded a paste operation to the 'sort artist' field and a next operation, then ran the macro 1500 times while i watched some baseball. came back and it was all done for me.

seems like a big freckin' hassle just to use a feature that apple peddled to us a that next greatest thing for ipods, blah blah blah then didn't even bother to release it in a state that could handle compilations gracefully.

And this is by no means a permanent solution either! If you bother to take the time to go through all this, you will be happy to see your compilation displayed as one entry in cover flow, but if you examine the album cover flow will credit the artist of the first track on the album as the artist for the ENTIRE compilation album... argh!

close, as close as it will get without some love from apple, BUT, at least cover flow will look pretty for you.

Maybe is much better if we use a software for changind the id tag.
The best one is http://www.mp3tag.de/en/
but we must know "which is the tag" that iTunes call "Sort Artist"

I really hope that apple fix this problem. This's my first iPod and i'm getting mad!

Message was edited by: logaen