Stupid iTunes!

[evangelion-01]

ok, so i download alot of compilations right? they usually have the artist as the artist name and then the disc name, so since iTunes is stupid it puts the songs all over the place and not together under 1 disc so i see the cd cover 30 times on coverflow, to fix this i used to change the song name to "name/artist" and change the artist/disc to the disc name, that way i could arrange all together, but now the stupid thing renames all the new added songs to the original artist and cd name so the songs are all over the place again.... HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[hanschien]

Have you tried checking off the "Part of a compilation" check box?

 

[evangelion-01]

yes sir, no go.

 

[swiftaw]

ok, so i download alot of compilations right? they usually have the artist as the artist name and then the disc name, so since iTunes is stupid it puts the songs all over the place and not together under 1 disc so i see the cd cover 30 times on coverflow, to fix this i used to change the song name to "name/artist" and change the artist/disc to the disc name, that way i could arrange all together, but now the stupid thing renames all the new added songs to the original artist and cd name so the songs are all over the place again.... HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, here's the solution

Highlight all the songs from the same album, press Apple+I to bring up the info window, change Album Artist to "Various Artists", Click OK

Now you'll only see the album once in coverflow

 

[mcarnes]

"Stupid iTunes!" I've felt that way a couple times.

I had the same problem and after a few weeks of trying different things, I just gave up. Apple will (hopefully) make a fix in the future with a preferences checkbox for "group compilations under one album in coverflow".

Until then, just leave the frickin thing. It's just a headache when you start trying to organize and rename things just so they look right in coverflow. I tried and nothing was a complete fix. It just got more messy with a bunch of extra tags in album artist, grouping, etc. etc.

 

[swiftaw]

"Stupid iTunes!" I've felt that way a couple times.

I had the same problem and after a few weeks of trying different things, I just gave up. Apple will (hopefully) make a fix in the future with a preferences checkbox for "group compilations under one album in coverflow".

Until then, just leave the frickin thing. It's just a headache when you start trying to organize and rename things just so they look right in coverflow. I tried and nothing was a complete fix. It just got more messy with a bunch of extra tags in album artist, grouping, etc. etc.

Did you try my suggestion in the post above?

 

[mcarnes]

Ok, here's the solution

Highlight all the songs from the same album, press Apple+I to bring up the info window, change Album Artist to "Various Artists", Click OK

Now you'll only see the album once in coverflow

That doesn't work if you want to see the artist name in coverflow.

You permanently lose the artist name and they won't show up when you look for that artist on your iPod.

 

[swiftaw]

That doesn't work if you want to see the artist name in coverflow.

But if you are talking about a compilation album then it has multiple different artists.

Each track can have it's own artist in the artist field, but if you only want to have to album appear in coverflow once then all tracks on the album must have the same entry in the "Album Artist" field, it doesn't matter what you put there, it just has to be the same for every track on the album. Of course, each track still has it's own artist in the artist field

I think you are confusing the Artist field with the Album Artist field

 

[mcarnes]

But if you are talking about a compilation album then it has multiple different artists.

Each track can have it's own artist in the artist field, but if you only want to have to album appear in coverflow once then all tracks on the album must have the same entry in the "Album Artist" field, it doesn't matter what you put there, it just has to be the same for every track on the album. Of course, each track still has it's own artist in the artist field

I think you are confusing the Artist field with the Album Artist field

Hmmm, I guess that might work as long as you did a sort by Album Artist before switching to coverflow (by clicking on the Album Artist column). You'd also have to make sure all the tags in the Album Artist field are correct. These usually aren't filled in when importing CDs...

But I don't think this will transfer to the something like the iPhone's coverflow, since like the iPod it defaults to doing a sort by the artist field, not the album artist field. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[swiftaw]

No idea about the iPhone, but i know in iTunes if the album artist is the same for the whole album then the album appears exactly once in coverflow, no matter how you sort the listing

 

[mcarnes]

No idea about the iPhone, but i know in iTunes if the album artist is the same for the whole album then the album appears exactly once in coverflow, no matter how you sort the listing

No it doesn't.

Do this: find an album that is classified as a compilation and has different artists in the artist field. Change all tracks to "Various Artists" in the Album Artist field as you suggest. Do a sort by Artist by clicking on that column, then switch to coverflow.

See, it does not work.


Edit: You have to uncheck "Group compilations when browsing" in prefs. (assuming you want compilation artists to show up under Artists)

 

[swiftaw]

No it doesn't.

Do this: find an album that is classified as a compilation and has different artists in the artist field. Change all tracks to "Various Artists" in the Album Artist field as you suggest. Do a sort by Artist by clicking on that column, then switch to coverflow.

See, it does not work.

Works for me (see screenshot)

 

[kolax]

Looking at the screenshot - where does it get the "Various Artists" from?

It isn't in the Album Artist filed since that is "Shine Too" or does iTunes do this automatically and tell you it is various artists?

 

[mcarnes]

Works for me (see screenshot)

Yawn. You're sorting by Album Artist. Try it sorted by Artist.

 

[swiftaw]

Yawn. You're sorting by Album Artist. Try it sorted by Artist.

Ok, sorry, misunderstood you.

Well, of course, if you sort by Artist then the songs on the album are not going to be listed one after the other as they all have different artists, thus the appropriate album art is going to appear whenever you get to each song. However, if multiple songs from the same album are next to each other in the list then the art will only appear once.

What did you hope would happen, that if the artists are all different the album would still only appear once in coverflow, even when sorted by artist. Once all the songs in an album are not listed together in the list, the album art has to appear multiple times.

 

[mcarnes]

Hence, the need for the checkbox (post #5).

But I understand everything you said (post #9). I just think using the Album Artist field is not a complete solution since the iPod and iPhone won't even recognize that field. If you get an iPhone your coverflow will look awful, just like anyone else who has compilations.

But I'm sure Apple has a fix up their sleeves. Steve Jobs must know about it. If he uses an iPhone and has compilations, he knows about it.

 

[evangelion-01]

This is how i usually do it, but every time I play the newly added songs that i renamed in the manner that I usually do it changes the artis and song back to the original unmodified name.

 

[ingenious]

What about the "Group Compilations when Browsing" checkbox in iTunes preferences?