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marcel-v

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
239
0
Hey guys, I'm sure this is a problem for many, but is there an automator or application that scans your iTunes library and renames track titles so that the featured artist is in the song title field rather than the artist field?

This would make listening to one specific album a lot easier to listen on the iPod so that the album plays in it's entirety rather than being mish-mashed.

Is there a solution to this rather than labelling an album such as this as a compilation?

If my query is unclear please ask me to clarify.

Cheers, Marcel.
 

marcel-v

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2006
239
0
Yeah this problem is annoying, see if sorting by "Album Artist" solves your problem.

But that's the thing, it's fine when it comes to playing an album like this in iTunes because you can sort the album artist, however the iPod will always show up '[blank]' 'featuring [blank]'. I cannot believe Apple haven't made an iPod update to solve this.

Anyone have a solution?
 

senfeskotes

macrumors newbie
Dec 15, 2008
3
1
Boston
Album Artist/Compilation

For me, the easiest way is to have the "feat. other artist" after the song title. I usually put it in parentheses like "Work It Out (feat. Dave Matthews Band)" [Jurassic 5, Feedback]

The reason I do this is because I don't like to deal with the "Album Artist" field. A really good example of this is the album "Blakroc" by The Black Keys. Every single song on the album is performed by The Black Keys and features another artist. So, I set the artist as "The Black Keys", the Album Artist field as blank, and the song title with (feat. other artist). This makes finding the album and the artist easy and when selecting the song, I know who else is in it.

Other options would be to set the artist as "The Black Keys (feat. other artist)", and to a) set the Album Artist as "The Black Keys" and then the tracks would stay in order and iTunes and the iPod would sort the artist as just "The Black Keys" or b) make the album a compilation album [Highlight all songs in album -> secondary click -> Get Info -> Options -> Part of a Compilation: YES].

Weaknesses of option A are that you don't get to see who else is performing on the track, and option B is that it sorts the album under "compilations" and it's not a compilation album. That option really only works for albums that feature different songs from different artists AND albums (i.e. Now, Buzz Ballads, etc.). In my opinion, just label the featuring artist after the song title.

In my iTunes, I make sure anytime there is a featuring artist, it's just "feat.", then I can put that in the search field under "song" and find any songs that are featuring someone. It'll take a while, but it's worth it if you want your iPod/iTunes organized correctly. A screen shot is attached of what I do.

Hope that helps! :)
 

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booksacool1

macrumors 6502
Oct 17, 2004
292
1
Australia
For me, the easiest way is to have the "feat. other artist" after the song title. I usually put it in parentheses like "Work It Out (feat. Dave Matthews Band)" [Jurassic 5, Feedback]

I just thought I'd revive this topic to say - I do the same thing. Otherwise some artist (e.g. LMFAO) comes up three times on my iphone with various 'feat. other artist', making it difficult to play the whole catalogue.
 
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