Compilation albums in iTunes 11

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Compilation albums in iTunes 11

This thread is as a result of a post in December 2012, in another thread ( https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3566848?answerId=20450908022#20450908022 ) by jacdan. I felt it would be preferable if this discussion was kept separate from the original post.

Until now, iTunes regarded a Compilation Album as one with multiple artists, but the music industry and consequently a lot of the entries on Gracenote regarded an album by a single artist - but with songs from various stages of their career - as a compilation. Looking at the Artist list in iTunes, there was no entry for "Various Artists", and albums were instead listed under "Compilations". This has meant for example, that not only was "Now XX listed under Compilations, but so too was "The Whole Story" by Kate Bush (a compilation of her earlier work). If that was the only album of hers in my Library, her name would not be listed in the Artists section. I also found it necessary to fill in the Album Artist field on Compilation albums with "Various Artist".

With iTunes 11, in the Artists section of the Library, Compilation Albums (by various artists) are now listed under Various Artists. I discovered several albums in my Library that did not have "Various Artists" in the album name field and these were listed under "Compilations" instead. Completeing the Album Artist field has sucessfuly moved those albums to Various Artists. The "Compilations" within the Artists section has now disappeared.

However, what is not quite clear, is when or how albums do get put into the Compilation section. I have experimented with the Kate Bush album, and a Mike & The Mechanics album, to see if I could get them to be entered into the "Compilations" section, but without success.

So perhaps this is actually a fix in iTunes 11. It just remains tro sort out why I cannot get Kate's "The Whole Story" into the Compilations section.

Phil

Posted on Dec 1, 2012 4:08 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

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Dec 1, 2012 5:31 AM in response to the fiend

Hi Phil,

I think that under iTunes 11 Artists > Compilations contains tracks where Part of a compilation is true and Album Artist is <Blank>. In contrast, Songs > Column Browser > Artists > Compilations shows all tracks where Part of a compilation is true, without the additional filter.

tt2.

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Answer 2

the fiend Author

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Dec 1, 2012 12:19 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi Steve,

well, currently I still cannot force an album to show in Artists as a Compilation. There certainly appears to be a discrepancy, as you suggested. Here are some screenshots, with odd things happening;

I've tried with the album part set to Compilation, but in these shots, the complete album is set as a Compilation. If I look in songs, there it is, between White Island Fever and Why Don't We Do It In The Road?;

but if I then look under Artists, there is no heading for Compilation albums shown at all (not even the other ones we can see in the first picture);

although, when I first found them, Compilations was shown immediately below All Artists. The Whole Story isn't hiding under Various Artists either;

Even more odd is this, in the songs view:

you'll notice that Get Info (an option I use a lot) is greyed out. I then changed views a few times, without modifying the album in any way. Eventually, after several attempts, when I return to the songs view, I can now use the Get Info...

Just teething problems I'm sure. But I can imagine lots of hysterical posts from users who see Get Info greyed out. I'm sure you've noticed that the OTT posts about the delays in the release of iTunes 11 have now been replaced by yet more hysteria asking to go back to iTunes 10 because they don't like 11.

You couldn't make it up!

Phil

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Answer 3

the fiend Author

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Dec 1, 2012 12:58 PM in response to the fiend

Ha! Further experimentation suggests that someone is having a bit of a joke.

In the Songs view, if I click on the arrow next to a song (on a single artist album), the following menu appears, showing "Go to "artist x";

and clicking on it takes me to - the artist in Artist view:

However, selecting the same thing for a song on a Various Artist album shows...:

and takes me to - the Various Artists list in Artists:

I can find no reference to "Mr Trick" anywhere!

Someone somewhere is being a 😝 👿.

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

274,970 points

Dec 1, 2012 1:13 PM in response to the fiend

After a bit of house keeping I have this one remaining compilation album with no data in the Album Artists field. If I set Album Artist=Various Artists as below and click OK it vanishes from this display, and Compilations also disappears from underneath All Artists in the left hand column. If I track down the album, select its tracks, get info. and clear the Album Artist field back to <Blank> then the album shows up again under Artists > Compilations.

tt2

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Answer 5

turingtest2

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Dec 1, 2012 1:16 PM in response to the fiend

Certainly looks like someone's Mr. Trick, I mean missed a trick. 😀

tt2

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Answer 6

the fiend Author

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Dec 1, 2012 1:25 PM in response to turingtest2

😁

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

274,970 points

Dec 1, 2012 1:27 PM in response to the fiend

I've just shut down my library for a backup session but I'll try to see if I can reproduce and get a handle on this new mystery later when I get home.

tt2

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Answer 8

the fiend Author

Level 7

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Dec 1, 2012 1:28 PM in response to turingtest2

That's exactly what I experienced (with Compilations appearing beneath All Artists), but with one minor difference.

I couldn't get the Compilations section to re-appear when I re-entered "Various Artists" into the Album Artist field. (I will survive though!)

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Answer 9

turingtest2

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Dec 1, 2012 1:33 PM in response to the fiend

the fiend wrote:

That's exactly what I experienced (with Compilations appearing beneath All Artists), but with one minor difference.

I couldn't get the Compilations section to re-appear when I re-entered "Various Artists" into the Album Artist field. (Shoud be delete!)

Compilations will appear beneath All Artists (in that view) as long as there is at least one track with Part of a compilation = True and Album Artist = <Blank>.

tt2

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Answer 10

the fiend Author

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Dec 1, 2012 2:10 PM in response to turingtest2

turingtest2 wrote:

Compilations will appear beneath All Artists (in that view) as long as there is at least one track with Part of a compilation = True and Album Artist = <Blank>.

Yes, I'm very clear on that point, don't worry. Tried it, but no joy. Or at least, not with my Kate Bush album. It does work for a various artists album though

I guess whatever is causing this issue is the same vaugeness that's causing my greyed out Get Info issue.

However, I'm not going to lose sleep over this. Speaking of which...

Phil

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Answer 11

turingtest2

Level 10

274,970 points

Dec 1, 2012 4:22 PM in response to the fiend

Cracked it...

Compilations will appear beneath All Artists (in that view) as long as there is at least one track with Part of a compilation = True and Album Artist = <Blank> and there is more than one different value of Artist associated with the same value of Album.

Kate Bush doesn't appear there even when you set the compilation flag and clear album artist because all the tracks are by Kate Bush. iTunes is attempting to automatically "undo" the incorrect (IMO) use of the compilation flag for a retrospective collection by Gracenote. This of course leaves those who actually liked the old behaviour with no way to put things the way that they liked them. 😕

tt2

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Answer 12

jacdan

Level 1

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Dec 1, 2012 11:53 PM in response to turingtest2

I had most of it cracked too, but you found the holy grail which is the last part. You need more than one different value of Artist associated with the same value of Album.

Now my history of buying a ton of single tracks from a ton of artists haunts me. As I love having those in Compilations, and now I have to change album names to get them listed there. Can´t really think of another way to "clean" up my Artists view. Any other ideas?

I guess it is not a bug, just a new approach to the difficult topic of Compilations. At least now we know how it works. Thanks!

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Answer 13

the fiend Author

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Dec 2, 2012 10:04 AM in response to turingtest2

turingtest2 wrote:

Cracked it...

Well done.

Hurrah for the new iTunes! It's meant I've cleared up one or two anomilies in my Library - Kate Bush for one! (There was probably a rogue space in the Artist field on one or two tracks.)

Phil

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Answer 14

the fiend Author

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22,980 points

Dec 2, 2012 10:11 AM in response to jacdan

jacdan wrote:

Can´t really think of another way to "clean" up my Artists view. Any other ideas?

What exactly are you trying to do?

Okay, so you have lots of single tracks by "a ton" of artists. (Did you weigh each one? 😝) I have too, but I leave them as single tracks. So what precisely did you want to achieve in relation to them? Group all of them into "one album", or group separate singles by one artist into a "pretend album"?

Whatever it is, it can almost certainly be done and Steve (tt2) is bound to have some ideas. (I might, but he's smarter than me... And I probably got the method from him anyway.) 😉

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Answer 15

Dec 2, 2012 6:21 PM in response to the fiend

Oh, this stuff has done my head in. All I'd like to do get back to is what I had in the std view in iT10 but hopefully spread across some of the new views;

Compilation Albums, those with multiple Artists and Compilation=Yes show up in the Compilation section under Songs. (Currently I have the Album Artist for these as Various Artists, although I have no reason to insist on that.)

and

Where the Artist has an existing Album, that song shows up under their name as well.

As I'm am obviously unschooled in iT11, I can only observe the following;

Song view: it does

Album view: it doesn't (unless you do a search on the artist)

Artists view: it doesn't (even if you do a search on the artist)

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