Probelms with Artist Sorting on iPod

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Probelms with Artist Sorting on iPod

I'm trying to sort my iTunes/iPod in a very particular way and cannot figure it out so any help would be much appreciated!

Currently, when I go through "Music --> Artists" on my iPod, I have a list of every different entry I've made in the Artist field. This means that I have a different entry for each combination of the same artist featuring a different artist. To clarify, here's an example...

Artist
Artist ft. Guest 1
Artist ft. Guest 2
Artist ft. Guest 3

and so on until the next artist starts.

What I want is for this list not display a different entry for each Guest but rather to have it all under the first Artist entry.

Here's the problem...I also want each individual song to have in its Artist display (on my iPod when the song is playing) "Artist ft. Guest X".

In other words, I don't want to have to move the "ft. Guest X" bit out of the Artist display (when the song is playing) and into the Song Name display, for example.

Can this be done...?

If I've not made myself clear, I'll happily try again and/or elaborate.

Many thanks!

Posted on Sep 11, 2009 8:24 PM

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Answer 1

Chris CA

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82,434 points

Sep 11, 2009 9:01 PM in response to AlhasH87

Cant do it because the Artist name is the Artist name. If featuring Mr X is in the artist name then that is part of the artist name.

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Answer 2

AlhasH87 Author

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Sep 12, 2009 10:43 AM in response to Chris CA

Thought that might be the case. Thanks.

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Answer 3

bpmann

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Sep 12, 2009 11:37 AM in response to AlhasH87

Use 'Album Artist'

Take the CD, say something by Kanye West or something that has a lot of collaborators on it. Set the Artist to be:

Kanye West (ft. K-Dog)
Kanye West (ft. Lil Miss Thang)

Whatever/whoever it happens to be, that's the artist field

Then set the "Album Artist' to "Kanye West" , just Kanye West. Then the album will be grouped by that name, and the album will be all together, and you will still have your artist with all the collaborators you want listed

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Answer 4

AlhasH87 Author

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Sep 12, 2009 5:18 PM in response to bpmann

I've tried that, and I've organised my whole iTunes using that method but it doesn't solve my initial problem.

The 'Artist' list on my iPod still has "Kanye West ft. K-Dog" & "Kanye West ft. Lil Miss Thang" as separate entries...I want both to be sorted under just "Kanye West", but still have the collaborating artists in the Artist field.

Maybe it's something that Apple could take a look at. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would rather not sift through a long list of every combination of artist collaborations...!?

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Answer 5

Sep 12, 2009 6:32 PM in response to AlhasH87

I pick the dominant artist -- here Kanye West and delete the extraneous artists from the "Artist" column and I then add the f to the song name (or sometimes I will add to comments instead of there are a lot of extraneous artists.

I have a lot of jazz so I use it for that genre as well.

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Answer 6

AlhasH87 Author

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Sep 13, 2009 6:46 AM in response to Helen Berman

Adding the featured artists to the song name seems like the only plausible option but I'm reluctant to do that. I'm very particular about how I sort things!

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Answer 7

Sep 13, 2009 7:10 AM in response to AlhasH87

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish through "sorting".

There are alternative ways to sort music depending on what your end result is through your use of smart playlists but you would have to have a "goal" in order to choose the criteria creating the smart playlist.

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Answer 8

AlhasH87 Author

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Sep 13, 2009 12:51 PM in response to Helen Berman

What I'm after has nothing to do with smart playlists, or rather they won't solve the issue.

I just want every song by "Artist A", regardless of who they collaborated with, to come under just "Artist A's" name when you view Artists on the iPod. This as well as leaving the collaborative artist(s) name in the Artist field.

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Answer 9

Sep 13, 2009 5:33 PM in response to AlhasH87

Again, I'm curious as to what functionality this provides. What would this enable you to do?

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Answer 10

Sep 13, 2009 6:53 PM in response to AlhasH87

AlhasH87 wrote:
I just want every song by "Artist A", regardless of who they collaborated with, to come under just "Artist A's" name when you view Artists on the iPod. This as well as leaving the collaborative artist(s) name in the Artist field.

Since you can browse by Composer on the iPod and now also in iTunes, you could put the 'main artist' name in the Composer field...assuming you're not using it for something else.

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Answer 11

AlhasH87 Author

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Sep 13, 2009 8:11 PM in response to Helen Berman

No functionality as such. It would just mean that the "Artists" list on my iPod would be better organised.
Instead of having a different entry for every song "Artist X" has collaborated with a different "Artist Y", I could view all of "Artist X's" songs, inclusive of those he/she has collaborated with others, under their single name.

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Answer 12

AlhasH87 Author

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Sep 13, 2009 8:13 PM in response to thelastvoice

Funnily enough I've just been trying that one out. Not the same as having it under the heading "Artists" but it may have to do if a better alternative cannot be found.

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Answer 13

O-M-G

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Nov 16, 2009 1:10 PM in response to AlhasH87

Did you find a solution?
Same problem here, 200 artist in iTunes and over 600 on my iphone... (same library)
Most are cause by (unknown) artist from compilations.
In iTunes they are sorted under VA, but on my phone, I've got them individually listed.
With the 'sort artist' you can list them under the V, but its still annoying.

For those who have a ipod touch or iphone, and don't use the lyrics.
You can add lyrics to a song in iTunes, using the same (right click) menu as for artists, album art, options, etc.
Add your featuring artist as lyrics (just text, nothing special needed).
While using your iphone, tap the album art for shuffle, genius and repeat option. the 'lyrics' appear on top of your album art.

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Answer 14

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Nov 16, 2009 1:45 PM in response to AlhasH87

As Chris said back of the top of the thread, it can't be done. See my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums for an overview of the various issues. I really don't know why Apple continue to use the Artist field in preference over Album Artist. While I might want to see all the contributing artists for a particular track as it is playing, when selecting albums or browsing artists I'm interested in the *Album Artist* every time. Every potential combiniation of main and supporting artist is just too "busy", whether on the iPod or in the column browser. I'm afraid, however, that what we have is what we've got which is why I moved all my featured artist info. into the track names. Even the iPhone/iPod Touch's nod in the direction of Album Artist support only extends to correcting the glaring repeat errors in Cover Flow. The Artist menu is still a list of the different Artist combos when Album Artist is what is really required.

It wouldn't be beyond the wit of the team to give us menus for both Artist & Album Artist each of which we could choose to enable or disable according to our fancy but to be of any real benefit they would have to update firmware for a least a couple of previous generations of iPods. I've just acquired an iPhone but I'm still using my Classic and I can't dispense with a workaround for one model just because a newer one doesn't need it.

tt2

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