Album Artist and compilations

Question

Level 1

14 points

Album Artist and compilations

Hi, I have a collection of compilation albums in a series and in the Album Artist field I have put the name of the DJ that has mixed the album. Now when I look at the album view some of those appear in alphabetical order in the list of normal albums (albums that are not compilations), while others appear at the bottom of the list under Compilations. I checked what the difference was between the "normal" albums and the ones that are under compilations, and the only difference I could find was the artists: sort as option. So this album

appears in the Compilations list, while this album:

appears in under the artist name Deadly Avenger.

Clearly I have just tried to clear the sort as field in the albums that are listed under the album artist name, but every time I do that it just keeps changing back to Mixed. What can I do? I want all the albums to appear under Compilations. Deleting the album artist tag in the second case will put the album under compilations, but I'd like to keep the album artist tag.

Posted on Jun 1, 2016 4:03 AM

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Answer 1

narya

Level 4

3,221 points

Jun 3, 2016 2:27 AM in response to mikeynl

Hi, there is a checkbox on the Details page of the Get Info window named "Album is a compilation of songs by various artists". You need to check this for every song in the album to let iTunes know it's a compilation.

Hope this helps!

Alexander

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Answer 2

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Jun 3, 2016 4:07 AM in response to narya

Checking the "Album is a compilation ..." flag makes albums appear in the separate "Compilations" listing and - if you've configured iTunes to organize your library folders and files - changes where media is stored. Unless you are using an iPod Classic or other older model that doesn't support the Album Artist tag use of the "Album is a compilation ..." flag is unnecessary: setting a common value for Album Artist is functionally equivalent and results in albums being sorted by the Album Artist value.

Based on the symptoms described by mikeynl I suspect that the first album has the "Album is a compilation ..." flag checked and the second one does not. The "Mixed" entry under Sort Artist is simply the result of tracks having different values for this tag, and doesn't affect album sort order.

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Answer 3

mikeynl Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 3, 2016 7:18 AM in response to narya

They're all marked as "Album is a compilation ...", and they are all in the "Compilations" folder. Thing is that in the album view some appear under the artist name, and some in the list of compilations at the bottom. The only difference in the tagging is that the ones under the artist name have a "Mixed" field in the "Sort as" (Artist ... this is the artist for the song), while the ones in the "Compilations" folder have an empty field. I tried to simply clear the field in the first ones, but they filled up with "mixed" again. Even if I put "sort as: foobar" and then save, and then clear the field they stay within te artists albums in the album view.

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Answer 4

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Jun 3, 2016 8:01 AM in response to mikeynl

Are most of the tracks in the first album credited to the same artist? iTunes 12.4 seems to have introduced a new set of sorting rules that individual track's Artist values into account, so that even if the "Album is a compilation ...: flag is checked albums may not end up in the "Compilations" section of Albums view. Its definitely the case when all tracks of an album are by a single artist, the album will sorted based on that Artist value, even if the "Album is a compilation ...: flag is set. Some testing would be necessary to determine what these new rules regard as "most" tracks being associated with one artist in order to override an album being displayed as a Compilation.

Note that if you don't use the "Album is a compilation ...: flag, and group compilations based on a common Album Artist value alone, these issues become irrelevant and you gave full control over sorting order.

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Answer 5

mikeynl Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 3, 2016 8:09 AM in response to hhgttg27

No, they are all different artists. I already noted that a compilation where every "Artist" is the same goes under the artist name.

And again, they are all flagged as "Album is a compilation...".

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Answer 6

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,591 points

Jun 3, 2016 8:47 AM in response to mikeynl

Hmmm ... sounds like there's still a lurking bug somewhere in 12.4.1, though as I said in an earlier response this can be avoided completely by unsetting the "Album is a compilation ..." flag. Unless you have an iPod Classic or older "clickwheel" model the use of this flag is unnecessary.

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Answer 7

Jun 3, 2016 1:58 PM in response to hhgttg27

I've been having a similar problem since upgrading to 12.4 and again to 12.4.1. I sort many of my playlists by "album by artist/year" and the albums that are compilations I sort by typing "Various Artists" in the album artist field (all the songs are by different artists). For some reason, iTunes has thrown a bunch of these albums at the bottom of my playlist, out of order, even after I unchecked the "Album is a compilation" flag. I can't seem to find any difference between the albums that are in the correct order and the ones just thrown at the bottom.

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Answer 8

mikeynl Author

Level 1

14 points

Jun 5, 2016 8:41 AM in response to hhgttg27

I like to keep my albums organised, not just in iTunes but also in my folders. By clicking the "Album is a compilation" the albums will be stored in the compilation folder where I want them to be stored, I don't wants my list of artist folders full of folders of DJs who made a remix album.

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