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User profile for user: eqteqt
eqteqt Author
User level: Level 1
12 points

Compilations are not supported correctly, artists from the compilation are not always displayed

How can compilations be tagged to work propert?

Summary

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Compilation CDs aren't handled correctly, in my opinion on itunes and the iphone music application.

They are handled inconsistently, which is not good.

Other third party applications such as CS music handle them correctly, leading to the conclusion that the database on the iphone is correct and that

Music application has bugs in it.


itunes 12.12.2.2

ios 15.3


Example:

--------


1. I have an album (cd) of 14 songs, each by seperate artists


The problem is that I cannot tag them so that:


1) All of the songs are shown as being part of the same album AND

2) Each of the artists are listed under artists.


This used to work with earlier versions of itunes and the ipod.


Here's how the songs are tagged:


1) Each song have its own title and artist

2) all songs have the same 'Album' value

3) all songs have Compilation: 'album is a compilation of songs by various artists' set to true

4) album artist set to 'Various Artists'


In Itunes: when I click on:


- Albums, I see one album. This is correct.

- Compilations, nothing is shown. Where is the album? it is a compilation!

- Artists, I see all 'All Artists' and 'Various Artists'. This is wrong. Where are the 14 artists on the CD?

- Songs, I see 'All(0 Artists) and Compilations. The compilation album is showing



If I load another cd - e.g. by James Taylor who also has a song on the first CD, then when I click on:


- Albums, I see two albums. This is correct.

- Compilations, nothing is shown. Where is the album? it is a compilation!

- Artists, I see all 'All Artists', 'James Taylor' and 'Various Artists' in the column browser. This is wrong. Where are the 14 artists on the CD?.

If I click on James Taylor, I just see his CD. It should show the other CD.

- Songs, I see 'All(1 artist), James Taylor and Compilations. If I click on James Taylor, all of the songs on the his CD are shown and the 1 from

compilation CD.


If I say 'Hey Siri, play 'Big Head Todd and the Monsters' (which is on the compilation CD, it is played. So it appears that the list of artists is obviously stored

on the iphone.



Now I sync this to my iphone.


In my library: I click on:

- Albums, I see two albums. This is correct.

- Compilations, I see the one compilation album. This is correct, but inconsistent with itunes(see above)

- Artists, I see all 'James Taylor' and 'Various Artists'. This is wrong. Where are the 14 artists on the CD?

Then I click on James Taylor, I see only his CD listed. This is wrong and inconsistent with itunes (see above), it showed the songs on his CD AND

his song on the compilation.

- Songs, I see all of the songs from both CDs.



On the iphone, if I use another app called 'Cs Music', I get different results.If I click on:


- Albums, I see two albums, this is correct.

- Compilations, I see one album, this is correct.

- Artists, I see all 14 artists listed, each with 1 song except for James Taylor who has 12 on his cd + 1 on the compilation. This is correct.

- Songs, I see all the songs


So, it appears that all of the information is on the iphone and structured so that it can be used in the way I expect.


Overall conclusion is that itunes and the music app have bugs in how they handle compilations. I've read some speculation that the reason why Artists

from compilations are treated differently is to stop '1-hit' wonders from crowding the list of artists. If this is so,

please add a setting to control this!

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 15

Posted on Feb 15, 2022 10:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: the fiend
the fiend
User level: Level 7
22,920 points

Posted on Feb 16, 2022 1:57 AM

eqteqt wrote:

1. I have an album (cd) of 14 songs, each by seperate artists

The problem is that I cannot tag them so that:

1) All of the songs are shown as being part of the same album AND
2) Each of the artists are listed under artists.

This used to work with earlier versions of itunes and the ipod.

II don't recall a time when it did work like that; it has always been the case that the Album Artist field has to contain the text Various Artists and the compilation field has to be ticked (checked).


However, the problem is with the music industry, not Apple (or iTunes). Record companies and even the artists themselves have been inconsistent about how they tag these albums. This may be due to limitations of the software they're using to write the tags (not all tag writing software has all fields ) or simply bored record company employees. I've got into the habit of checking the compilation tag of a CD that I'm importing, before import and then checking the Album Artist field after importing. I check music from other sources too, all before letting the songs onto my iPod.


Once in an iTunes Library, if you look on the Artists section, there is a Various Artists heading, under which all the compilation albums will be listed. In the Songs view, if you use the Column Browser, there is a Compilations listed in the Artists column:


But you're correct, there is no listing for each individual artist unless you also have an single artist album in your library.

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1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: the fiend
the fiend
User level: Level 7
22,920 points

Feb 16, 2022 1:57 AM in response to eqteqt

eqteqt wrote:

1. I have an album (cd) of 14 songs, each by seperate artists

The problem is that I cannot tag them so that:

1) All of the songs are shown as being part of the same album AND
2) Each of the artists are listed under artists.

This used to work with earlier versions of itunes and the ipod.

II don't recall a time when it did work like that; it has always been the case that the Album Artist field has to contain the text Various Artists and the compilation field has to be ticked (checked).


However, the problem is with the music industry, not Apple (or iTunes). Record companies and even the artists themselves have been inconsistent about how they tag these albums. This may be due to limitations of the software they're using to write the tags (not all tag writing software has all fields ) or simply bored record company employees. I've got into the habit of checking the compilation tag of a CD that I'm importing, before import and then checking the Album Artist field after importing. I check music from other sources too, all before letting the songs onto my iPod.


Once in an iTunes Library, if you look on the Artists section, there is a Various Artists heading, under which all the compilation albums will be listed. In the Songs view, if you use the Column Browser, there is a Compilations listed in the Artists column:


But you're correct, there is no listing for each individual artist unless you also have an single artist album in your library.

Reply

Compilations are not supported correctly, artists from the compilation are not always displayed

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