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One song in multiple albums?

I know this has not been possible in earlier versions of iTunes, but I hope Apple has addressed it by now. It makes a great deal of sense. If, for example, one has a song in the album in which it was originally released and also has a copy as part of a Greatest Hits album, we should not have to retain two copies of the song to be able to hear it no matter which album we choose to play. Aperture and iPhoto seem to manage this with images—why not in iTunes? Is it possible to do this yet?


If not yet possible, could someone remind me of the feedback URL?


Thanks,


Ben

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 1, 2012 1:05 PM

Reply
9 replies

Apr 1, 2012 3:15 PM in response to CSTRabbi

This would only be useful for in a very few cases. Some "duplicates" are not really duplicates and may be similar but are not the same duration, or not quite the identical mix, or may be live vs. studio, etc. Assigning one track to multiple albums would also be pretty complicated given the way music tagging (labeling) operates. Yes, iTunes maintains its own database of labels, but it synchronizes those with labels actually embedded in the music files. You would have to implement a method of multiple sets of identical tags (album1, album2, etc.) for tagging of music files. This would require an industry-wide adjustment of tagging standards, all for a relatively minor inconvenience. With the large size of modern drives, if one in every couple of hundred albums happens to have one or two duplicate tracks, adding a few MB isn't going to make a lot of difference in the way of things, especially with the huge amount of complexity it would add to tagging files.


By all means write to Apple but I would not hold my breath waiting for this to appear

Feb 10, 2014 1:34 AM in response to CSTRabbi

i personally would love this.....


I have all of an artists albums.... PLUS i have all of the singles from that album...

I would love the same track that is on the album, and on the single to show in multiple album titles....


Eg the song;


Step Back In Time is Track 02 on the Album "Rythm of love"


however it is Track 01 on the single "Step Back In Time - CD 1"


and also


Track 01 on the Single "Step Back In Time - CD 2"


So i have to choose which album i want this to show on... as i am unable to have the one track show up on multiple albums..... even tho it is all the same track....... yet, if i listen to "Step Back In Time - CD 1" it means i cannot listen to the title track as it is linked to a different album......

Apr 30, 2014 3:18 PM in response to jq371

Maybe this answer is not right for you, but sometimes you can create multiple copies of tracks by using iTune's File menu's Create New Version command.


If you don't change the file format, the new version will have the same format and sound quality as the original, the only difference being the Date Added attribute.


You can then use Get Info to manually change the album title, track number, and so on, so that the duplicate track is included in your chosen sequence on the other album.


I did this with the 2008 Yep Roc reissue of Nick Lowe's first album, which had overlapping yet differently sequenced content in the original 1978 UK and USA releases; now I can listen to either version as I prefer.

Apr 30, 2014 6:08 PM in response to Little Angus

I don't think you're understanding the issue ... these users want one copy of the song (meaning one native file) be able to appear in more than one album. Your suggestion just creates a separate native file for each album, which means taking up extra disk space on the computer (which the OP wants to avoid). There is no way to have one native file appear in multiple albums, due to ID3 tagging within each song file.


Besides, the users above already have separate files for each song, no need to create more files.

Apr 18, 2016 2:54 PM in response to sarinth


  • Go to Album folder in Finder
  • Make copy of song you want in other Album
  • Paste the copy into folder of Album you want
  • Make the song play (from new folder)
  • Edit song in iTunes (mainly Album title)

So you end up with two native files for the same song ... that does not address the OP's issue since they wanted to save disk space, i.e. one native file referenced by two different library entries.

One song in multiple albums?

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