iTunes Multiple Artist Compilation Multiple Album Edit

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dingopuppy Author

Level 1

15 points

iTunes Multiple Artist Compilation Multiple Album Edit

Hello World

Ok so this is MY 'issue':

iTunes splits albums with multiple artists or when the Artist is singing 'with' '&' or 'feat.' another artist.

Now- I get that is because I've not selected 'album is a compilation' on the info drop down menu.

BUT: Can I edit multiple albums to show as compilations... here is my example (please don't judge my music taste- I struggled between my example being 'Now!' Albums and Cafe del Mare Albums! hahaha!

I have a lot of Buddha Bar Albums- various Artists across various Albums. (I have a restaurant & bar...)

Rather than go thru each album highlighting and editing that one album to be a compilation.... can I select on ALL the Buddha Bar Albums and click the compilation button and iTunes will make Buddha Bar - Dinner one album Buddha Bar - Party one album etc etc... OR will it make the whole lot ONE album compilation?

I've hunted about and I can't see any information on this one!

MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013)

Posted on Mar 8, 2015 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Mar 8, 2015 8:00 AM in response to dingopuppy

iTunes will group songs into albums based on these rules:

tracks have identical values for Album and Artist, or
tracks have identical values for Album and Album Artist, or
tracks have identical values for Album and the "Part of a Compilation" flag is set for all of them

So, if you select all the "Buddha Bar" albums and set the Compilation flag, the tracks will be grouped into multiple albums, based on the third of these rules. You could achieve the same result by selecting the same set of albums and setting the Album Artist field for all tracks to "Various Artists", leaving "Part of a Compilation" unset. As long as the values in the Album field are distinct then neither of these operations will result in one mega-compilation "album".

For cases where an album has a primary artist with a few tracks featuring other performers, its usually better to follow the second rule above, setting Album Artist to the name of the main performer - this means that the album will both sort and be stored in your media folders alongside other albums by the same artist.

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Answer 2

dingopuppy Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 11, 2015 8:42 AM in response to hhgttg27

This worked beautifully

thankyou!

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,397 points

Aug 14, 2015 9:28 AM in response to dingopuppy

Steve MacGuire a.k.a. 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/thread/2099465?answerId=9910895022#9910895022)

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 (as in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3756735?answerId=17670085022#17670085022).

If these are from multiple-CD sets you may also need to enter the appropriate information in the disc number fields. If they are not a multiple CD set you still need to make sure the disc number fields are set correctly or all empty.

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