Artist Organization issue

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Artist Organization issue

I have been working on this for hours, and I remember doing this before in some matter but I can not remember how for the life of me

The Problem is that I use 'Artist' on my iPod and there is a issue with sorting.

In iTunes, I am unable to figure out how to clump a multiple artist CD Together

What it looks like is something like this:

*
Artist
Artist
Artist
Various Artist
Multiple Artist CD
Multiple Artist CD
Multiple Artist CD
Multiple Artist CD
Multiple Artist CD
Multiple Artist CD
Various Artist
Artist
*

What Im basically doing is trying to make it so that the Artists will go into the Various artist Category, whilst in iTunes, and on the iPod, without going into 'Get Info' and changing Artist to Various Artist, As this replaces all the original artists names with 'Various Artists' And I lose that info

Matt

Windows XP

Posted on Feb 15, 2011 7:37 PM

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Answer 1

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Feb 15, 2011 9:41 PM in response to Wadorator

Set the *Album Artist* to Various Artists and mark it as a Compilation.

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Answer 2

Wadorator Author

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Feb 15, 2011 10:20 PM in response to Chris CA

That doesnt do anything at all, I managed to get the iTunes part sorted but it still all shows up as their own individual artist right above Various Artist

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Feb 16, 2011 12:05 AM in response to Wadorator

See my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topics Missing Artist or Album not with others by same artist and One album, too many covers.

All albums should have an appropriate value for *Album Artist*. If you set the multiple artist albums as compilations and enable at least one of the compilation menus on the iPod then the albums should be grouped together at the right hand end of cover flow. The artists menu on the iPod should list all artists who have at least one non-compilation track.

tt2

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Answer 4

Wadorator Author

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Feb 16, 2011 6:52 AM in response to turingtest2

That for some reason, doesnt help either, all that happens when I enable compilations and its for multiple artists, is that in itunes, it makes a new artist called 'Compilations', its still the same on the iPod

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Feb 16, 2011 7:09 AM in response to Wadorator

You can choose whether or not iTunes displays the Compilations artist entry with *View > Column Browser > Group Compilations*.

On your iPod you need to turn on at least one of *Settings > Main Menu > Compilations* or *Settings > Music Menu> Compilations* in order to group these tracks together. The iPod Classic takes no account of Album Artist.

tt2

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Answer 6

Wadorator Author

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Feb 16, 2011 7:34 AM in response to turingtest2

Well That did make some progress, but not the right progress, I enabled compilations and now, yes! There is a way to play that album from selecting one thing and it DOES keep the artist information, but in the Artist Menu, it is still clogged with so many artists. thats why I was hoping to stick, say, my UK Top Singles of 2010 into various artists, as right now
the Artist Menu is just a mess since I cant put all the Artists into Various Artists
What I want to be able to do is this

Music>Artists>Various Artist>UK Top Singles 2010>Songs(Still with the individual artist info)

As right now if I do this the one way I know it will look like

Music>Artists>Various Artist>UK Top Singles 2010>Songs(Artist names are unknown and is now registered to Various artist instead of Chris Brown, Ke$ha, Train, Plan B)

If Needed I could show a picture of what I am trying to say.

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Feb 16, 2011 7:52 AM in response to Wadorator

A picture will might help but I'm sure I understand anyway. It is all in that article I linked to earlier, but the recommend approach to compilation albums with multiple artists is to set the *Album Artist* to *Various Artists* and *Part of a Compilation* to Yes. In iTunes *Album Artist* trumps Artist but the *Part of a Compilation* setting will be needed for an iPod Classic. As noted somewhere in the article there is a bug in recent builds of iTunes that temporarily misclassifies some tracks as Unknown Artist when you change their compilation status. Closing and restarting iTunes resolves this. If you want only *Album Artists* listed in the Artists column then enable *View > Column Browser > Use Album Artists*. This assumes you've set suitable *Album Artist* values, otherwise the Artist value is used instead.

tt2

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Answer 8

Wadorator Author

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Feb 16, 2011 7:58 AM in response to turingtest2

See this is the part that just shuts me down,

I have the column viewer in iTunes, and well here it goes perfectly as to what I want

My artist listing even goes right

-Vampire Weekend
-Vanna
-Various Artists
-Various Dubstep
-The Veronicas

But on the iPod in between Vanna and Various Artists, There is about 50 individual artist listings, Which should be in Various Artist since the Album Artist is set to Various Artists and they are also listed as a compilation.

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Answer 9

turingtest2

Level 10

272,719 points

Feb 16, 2011 8:46 AM in response to Wadorator

Hmm, are we talking iPod Classic or iPod Touch? On an iPod classic if they are correctly set as part of a compilation and one of the compilations menus is enabled then the tracks of artists *who only appear on compilations* will all be listed under the Compilations menu and should not appear in the Artists menu at all. The iPod Touch/iPhone work differently and always list all artists.

Other thoughts... Reseting the iPod might help. Also I've assumed so far that you haven't been using something like *Sort Artist=Various Artist* to try to coax the values together. The sort fields can be used to control where a particular value ends up, but should be distinct for different values of the corresponding field.

<Artist 1> <Sort Artist 1>, <Artist 2> <Sort Artist 2> etc is OK
<Artist 1> <Sort Artist 1>, <Artist 2> <Sort Artist 1> leads to problems

tt2

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Answer 10

Wadorator Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 16, 2011 1:23 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you, I double checked that fact and yes, the album was moved to compilations after I reset my iPod Classic.
Thank you, Now My Artist Menu wont be so cluttered

Regards
-Matt

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