Same artist and album, different artwork

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Same artist and album, different artwork

So, in 1982 Kiss released their best album, Creatures of the Night. For some reason the record label re-released the album in 1985 with a few of the tracks remixed and a cover that really doesn't make any sense...

Anyway, I'm a collector so i had to have them both on vinyl.

But when I add these to my music library I have to differ them by title to avoid them getting combined. I have tried the sort field (added year of release, numbers 1 and 2, etc.), but Apple Music still combines the two. The only way I have found that splits them apart is by altering the title for one of them. And that is not a very good option.

Anyone know if there's a workaround for this that lets me keep the original title for both albums, and keeping them separated?

I'm attaching a screenshot of the two albums from my library.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jun 30, 2022 1:56 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

278,895 points

Jun 30, 2022 5:05 AM in response to Robert Ronning

You've already hit on the only reliable method, different titles for the two versions of the album. Personally I might go for 'Creatures Of The Night [1982]' and 'Creatures Of the Night [1985]'. I've a thing for Title Case, and I use square brackets to distinguish information about a track or album such as the release year, remix, or featured artist from parenthesis in the song name or album title. If you really want the two titles to look identical (so you can't tell which is which?) you could call one 'Creatures of the Night' and the other 'Creatures of the Night ' (i.e. use a trailing space). Note the sort order of such titles in Music is not guaranteed to be the same on an iPhone etc.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,895 points

Jul 1, 2022 12:54 AM in response to Robert Ronning

You're welcome. 🙂

I wouldn't hold my breath. I think realistically it is working correctly. A more common complaint is that iTunes or Music will sometimes split up an album when all the relevant metadata is identical, which can take a bit of effort to fix.

tt2

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Answer 3

Jul 1, 2022 12:30 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the answer. I was afraid of this, so I'll keep the "alternative" title for the re-release. Gonna check out that trailing space, though.

Hopefully Apple will fix this.

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Same artist and album, different artwork

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