Kazeboy96
Level 1 (5 points)

Q: Artist Duplication?

Has anyone else found a solution for this problem? Where you add new music that is from an existing artist and it splits them up despite all measures to find the minuscule error that's causing the problem? I noticed it's been a known problem for some time, but I've seen no real solution or acknowledgement from Apple, which is very unlike them. It's getting ridiculous, I can't even get this album to combine into one or two "artist" groups let alone one for each song on the friggin' album!

 

Screen Shot 2016-03-14 at 8.08.59 PM.png

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), Upgraded to 480GB Sandisk SSD

Posted on Mar 14, 2016 6:18 PM

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Kazeboy96

Q: Artist Duplication?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by norm123,

    norm123 norm123 Mar 16, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Kazeboy96
    Community Specialists
    Mar 16, 2016 6:51 AM in response to Kazeboy96

    Hello Kazeboy96, 

    I understand that you are seeing multiple artist within iTunes for the same album. Let's see if we can get that sorted out. 

    What I would start with selecting the songs and change the information about the artist to make them same. Take a look at the information below to walk you through these steps. I know they make references different album artist, but should take care of this for you.

    Why aren‘t songs with the same album art grouped together?
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204538
     

    If songs have different album artists

    If albums include songs by multiple album artists, iTunes might display the songs as being from separate albums. To assign a primary artist name for an album that includes songs by several artists, follow the steps below: 

    1. Select all of the songs that should have the same album artist.
    2. Mac: From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen, choose File > Get Info.
      Windows: Press the Control and B keys on your keyboard to turn on the iTunes menu bar. Choose File > Get Info.
      Learn more about menus in iTunes for Windows.
    3. In the "Are you sure you want to edit information for multiple items? " message that appears, click Edit Items.
    4. In the box next to "album artist," type the album artist that you want all of the songs to have (for example, James Newton Howard).
    5. Click OK.


    Take care 

  • by Kazeboy96,

    Kazeboy96 Kazeboy96 Mar 16, 2016 10:22 PM in response to norm123
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 16, 2016 10:22 PM in response to norm123

    Well gosh, I would've never thought to make the artist the same! Thanks so much for your very useful information!

     

     

     

     

     

    /s

  • by norm123,

    norm123 norm123 Mar 17, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Kazeboy96
    Community Specialists
    Mar 17, 2016 6:19 AM in response to Kazeboy96

    Hey Kazeboy96,

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It was no problem with the assist. If you have any other issues, don't hesitate to post a new question and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

    Take care

  • by Kazeboy96,

    Kazeboy96 Kazeboy96 May 16, 2016 12:34 PM in response to norm123
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 16, 2016 12:34 PM in response to norm123

    Hey, I know it's been a while, but I just wanted to respond and tell you that you didn't assist anyone.

     

    Notice the little "/s" thing in my response to you? That means sarcasm. This goes beyond making the artist the same. I go in and make sure everything is correct and it STILL splits them up. Every time I add a new song from an artist already in my library, it won't group it into that artists tab. I have to physically go in to the song list, find every single song by that particular artist, change the artist's name to "artist x" or something, let it update, then go back in and change it back to the artist's name and it puts them into the correct place. They're never wrong to begin with, it just won't group them.

     

    iTunes was just updated today with a new UI, and the error still exists.

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz May 16, 2016 4:02 PM in response to Kazeboy96
    Level 7 (20,279 points)
    iTunes
    May 16, 2016 4:02 PM in response to Kazeboy96

    Take a look at my User Tip about this and similar issues.

    Fix split Album or Artist listings in iTunes

  • by Kazeboy96,

    Kazeboy96 Kazeboy96 May 17, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 17, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Rysz

    That's merely a "fix" to an ongoing error. It works right now, but I'm kind of getting sick of having to edit every single artist every single time I add a new song by them. It's getting ridiculous, I can't add ONE SONG that just goes into the correct metatag and I don't have to edit everything.

  • by Rindsever,

    Rindsever Rindsever May 18, 2016 4:03 AM in response to Kazeboy96
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iTunes
    May 18, 2016 4:03 AM in response to Kazeboy96

    Hey !

     

    I've encountered this problem too. In the tags that Itunes proposes to fill, everything is similar and right. Nonetheless, I have two Count Basie in my Artists grid.

     

    Why solutions exposed above does not work ? Because the problem is deeper, it is a problem of tags disharmony. The tags Itunes allows to see are the first necessities needed. However, a music file can contain much more metadata in it, kind of invisible part of an iceberg.

     

    In order to fix this problem, you need a program (I use Kid3, it works perfectly and allows to manage a lot of files simultaneously) that can show you all the metadata. Then open all the music files affected (if you have two Count Basie in your Itunes, open all the Count Basie directory in Kid3), select all the files, just erase the tags you think you don't need (not only the information but the all fields of tag). Doing that, you will remove the potential conflicts that put Itunes in mess. For instance, I think I understood that if a music file has two fields called Album artist or has one field called Album artist and another one called "Order of album artist", it creates a conflict with which Itunes can't manage.

     

    Thanks to Kid3, I have edited all my tracks of Count Basie in such a way that only the basic tags Itunes asks remained. Then I've just imported again all the tracks in Itunes and guess what, I got the very unique Count Basie as artist of many tracks !

     

    Hope I've been clear.

    Good luck !