Managing Compilations in iTunes Library

.02 wrote:

Not true. I've got several comps like this in my library, all different artists grouped as one album.

Either because it is marked as a compilation or you are using iTunes menu View > Column Browser - Use Album Artist.

Sounds like the OP has not not done either of these.

Steve MacGuire aka turingtest2 - iTunes & iPod Hints & Tips - Grouping Tracks Into Albums - http://www.samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp (older post on Apple Discussions http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9910895)

Quick answer: Select all the tracks on the album, File > get info, and either give them all a single "album artist" or check the "compilation" flag.

You could give all the tracks the same album name, that willl group them together into a single album.

Even if they have the same album name, if they have different artists (as a compilation album likely will) it will still split them up thinking it is several albums with the same name by different artists. You have to use album artist or the compilation flag to get them to identify as a single album with multiple artists.

And do you have the compilation tag set, or an identical album artist? Of course they also need the identical album tag too, but even if they do have that it won't get them to group with different artist unless you do as I suggested -- at least not in the last 10+ versions of iTunes I have seen discussed here in the last 6 years.

Yes, the "album artist" is the same as the "album" name, which may be a dealbreaker for some, but not for me. The seperate "artist" field lists all the different artists. I don't bother checking compilation.

.02 wrote:

Yes, the "album artist" is the same as the "album" name,

Album Artist is whoever created the album, such as Santana (or Various Artists). Album name is trhe nam,e of the album such as Greatest Hits.

What Limnos said originally should work

Quick answer: Select all the tracks on the album, then go to File > get info, and either give them all a single "album artist" or check the "compilation" flag.

But also, if there are blank spaces after the - album artist name - in the get info window, that can throw iTunes sorting off too, if different tracks have any variation at all in album artist name among the songs, then they probably won't sort together. Also the same applies to the album title field, even differences in extra blank spaces can make iTunes think there are different albums (I have had this happen). Also in get Info you might want to look at the - sorting - fields, sometimes variations in those can cause songs to not appear as a single album. What you are describing sounds like a metadata problem that you should be able to correct with Get Info tags.

Hope this helps, good luck.

I have had some obstinate tracks and I found that selecting the album, adding a spurious letter such as X to the end of the album name, saving, then removing the spurious letter got the tracks to group. I have no idea why this works. I also have one or two albums where there is a track that refuses to group no matter what I do. Again I have no idea why. Since these are mp3 files I will run them through a mp3 editor (MP3Trimmer) that does not re-encode, and then add that version which seems to fix the problem.

I would also try selecting all the tracks in the album and hand typing the album title for them all in one go so you are absolutely sure the album information is identical.

It might help at this stage to know what format files you are using.

I'm having the same problem and have tried all these tricks -- except for renaming, Limnos, I'll next give that a try. Frustrating on regular albums, too. Case in point: The "Some Nights" album by Fun includes one track that has a cameo by a guest artist. That single track will NOT be grouped with the other tracks no matter what I do. I've renamed, etc. etc.

Work slowly through the article on Grouping tracks into albums. The cause, and the workaround, for each particular issue should become apparent.

For a cameo I would use <Song Name> [<Cameo Artist>] as the track name, then set the <Artist> to be the same as the <Album Artist> for all the tracks at once.

If the tracks still won't group as one album do the add a trailing X trick, close iTunes and reopen.

If you're still getting stuck post back a screenshot.

tt2

I have the same issue. It drives me mad. If I have say 10 albums, each with say 15 tracks, then in album view, it shows me 150 albums, i.e. itunes is so stupid id doesnt realise two tracks with the same album name belong to the same album. I have tried for about 5 years to fix this, its why I have switch to using android and windows to play my tunes.

I have tried everything to fix this, not found anything which works.

E.g. if I have say cafe del mar volume 12, and select all the tracks, and say get info, it shows that all tracks do indeed have a single correct album name. If I tick the compliation flag and say "yes", it has absolutely no effect on anything, it doesnt work at all. Its broken.

No idea what album artist is for - why dont they just group tracks with the same album as belinging to that album? Why dont they do this if you explicitily mark the tracks as belonging to a compliation? Why?

OK, just tried this album artist hack. Made the album artist "cafe del mar" for example. This has "fixed" the bug in intues which cant group by album name, great! but now its broken the artist view. Now I just see a single artist "cafe del mar" under the artis view. Noooooooooooooooooooo. Why? Why is itunes, and all devices which use it so broken? Basically, Itunes only has two fields, artis and title. To group any kind of compilatoin, which is probably 50% of my music, you have to hack it by effectivly setting the artist to be the name of the album. Seriously itunes?

Take a look at the Grouping tracks into albums article. Grouping by Album title alone won't work because album titles aren't unique. In fact it is not unheard of for an artist/group to release more than one Greatest Hits album via different labels. When you buy a CD in a shop they are really organized by Album Artist, the artist or group responsible for the album, rather then potentially located in multiple places because some tracks have a different Artist. iTunes is trying to work in the same way.

Go to the Songs view and see what is ticked under View > Column Browser > Group Compilations and View > Column Browser > Use Album Artists. There is also another setting in the Artists view under View > Show View Options (CTRL+J). Experiment with the different settings here and filling in Album Artist or leaving it blank. Hopefully you can find a combination of settings and tag detail that fits your needs. In some cases you may need to close and then reopen iTunes to see the effect of a change.

tt2

You could give all the tracks the same album name, that willl group them together into a single album.

Not true. I've got several comps like this in my library, all different artists grouped as one album.