Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
When displaying songs in my iTunes library by artists it seems to use the "album artist" attribute instead of "artist", why? Lots of my songs are listed under the artist "various artists" which is an value used for "album artist" when a album has multiple artists.
iPhone 7, iOS 11.1
The recommendation in your last post does not get me what I was hoping for.
I went into iTunes on my Windows laptop and edited the "album info" for my albums that had songs from multiple artists. I deleted the "various artist" value in the "Album Artist" label for these albums as you suggested. All the albums had the "Compilation" check box checked. I re-synced my iTunes library with my iPhone 7.
When I select the "songs" view in my iPhone 7 music library and sort it by "Artist" all the songs from albums that have no "album artist" value know appear at the end of my sorted list under the "?" heading. They used to appear under the "V" heading (Various Artist). The songs within the "?" heading aren't displayed in alphabetical order by artist either. They just appear grouped by the album they are in within my iTunes library. The only difference now is that they appear under the "?" heading rather than the "V" heading (for Various Artist).
So, it sure seems to me that the iPhone interface does not allow you to easily find all songs for an artist across all the albums in your library. It sure seems to me that the iTunes App and the iPhone Music App are using the value in the "Album Artist' label when they display songs by what they call "Artist".
In the iTunes Windows App you can get a list of all songs by an artist in your library (across all albums) by selecting the "Songs' view. You need to make sure you are displaying the "artist" label for each song (not the album artist label) and sorting the song list on the "artist" label. It's a little more cumbersome than just selecting the "Artist" view, but it works. On the iPhone you don't have this option as best as I can tell.
If what I'm finding is indeed correct it would be nice if Apple would change their labeling to "Album Artist" or correct their software to use the "Artist" label at the song level when displaying/sorting their songs by "Artist"
The recommendation in your last post does not get me what I was hoping for.
I went into iTunes on my Windows laptop and edited the "album info" for my albums that had songs from multiple artists. I deleted the "various artist" value in the "Album Artist" label for these albums as you suggested. All the albums had the "Compilation" check box checked. I re-synced my iTunes library with my iPhone 7.
When I select the "songs" view in my iPhone 7 music library and sort it by "Artist" all the songs from albums that have no "album artist" value know appear at the end of my sorted list under the "?" heading. They used to appear under the "V" heading (Various Artist). The songs within the "?" heading aren't displayed in alphabetical order by artist either. They just appear grouped by the album they are in within my iTunes library. The only difference now is that they appear under the "?" heading rather than the "V" heading (for Various Artist).
So, it sure seems to me that the iPhone interface does not allow you to easily find all songs for an artist across all the albums in your library. It sure seems to me that the iTunes App and the iPhone Music App are using the value in the "Album Artist' label when they display songs by what they call "Artist".
In the iTunes Windows App you can get a list of all songs by an artist in your library (across all albums) by selecting the "Songs' view. You need to make sure you are displaying the "artist" label for each song (not the album artist label) and sorting the song list on the "artist" label. It's a little more cumbersome than just selecting the "Artist" view, but it works. On the iPhone you don't have this option as best as I can tell.
If what I'm finding is indeed correct it would be nice if Apple would change their labeling to "Album Artist" or correct their software to use the "Artist" label at the song level when displaying/sorting their songs by "Artist"
When you use the Search field in iTunes, it searches ALL fields.
Change your view to Song list view, enable both columns Artist and Album Artist and sort the search results using those headers.
Personally, I use the Compilation checkmark rather than an Album Artist named “Various Artists”.
Not sure I follow...
Songs can be sorted by Title or Artist. So can Albums. Artists is using the Artist field, not the Album Artist field.
To avoid Album Artist confusion, don’t make up an artist named Various Artists, use the Compilation checkmark.
I'm OK with your solution when searching for songs in iTunes (i.e., use the songs view and enable display of artist and album artist columns). However you don't have this capability in the iPhone interface when you select your Music icon. When you select the songs view on the iPhone it displays a list of songs in alphabetical order by song title. It displays the artist under the song title. You don't have the ability to sort the songs by title or album tile as you do in the Windows version of iTunes. On my iPhone I have no way of displaying a list of songs in my library by the artist at the song level.
I'm puzzled as to why Apple doesn't use the artist attribute at the song level when displaying the artist view (both in the iTunes interface and on the iPhone interface. With this view I was hoping to get a listing of all artists in my library at the song level. Rather, it seems to be displaying only the list of artists at the album level. I have lots of albums in my library that have songs by various artists with the album artist set to "various artists".
At a minimum, Apple should label the selection as album artist rather than artist.
Am I missing something?
searching itunes library by artists seems to use the "album artist" attribute instead of "artist", why?
