Album sorting without artists names.

Question

Album sorting without artists names.

Ok, I've been using Itunes for years and have never been able to figure this out. I refuse to go to Apple Music or Spotify. I've already paid for all my music, I don't want to pay for them again or have a subscription.

Some days I want to play specific albums, or specific artists, instead of my numerous playlists. However whenever I try to do that, the albums are split between artists. Or the artists are split between albums and I can't play all of the songs I should be able to.

Is there a way to remove the grouping of Artists when searching for Album titles? Or is there a way to remove the grouping of Albums when searching for Artists?

For example... I'm a huge musical person

As you can see, I am searching in albums, and for the same album (Mamma Mia) It's come up with 15 different albums that are exactly the same! I don't want that, I just want to play the entire soundtrack at once!

And to this one searching the artists name, should allow me to just play all music by that artist, not having to search for all their albums first and have the list cut into 1 or 2 songs instead of playing possibly all 100+ if they have released as much.

Surely there has to be a way to remove these groupings, but I don't know how.

iPod, iOS 15

Posted on Nov 26, 2024 1:21 AM

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Answer 1

the fiend

Level 7

22,938 points

Nov 26, 2024 3:05 AM in response to Xtreme_enigma

The answer is to fill in the album artist field and to ensure that the compilation flag is turned on.

The two albums I can see in your screenshot are compilation albums, with each track by a different artist. In order to keep that type of album together, the album artist field needs to contain the text Various Artists.

Select all the songs on a specific album
- One method for achieving this is to use the Songs view and arrange that view in album title order
- Alternatively, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and select only the items that you wish to edit
once you have all the tracks on that album selected, right-click any one of the selected items and choose Get Info from the pop-up menu. You will see a panel similar to the one below:

in the album artist field, type in Various Artists. Make sure you type this into the correct field, do not type it into the artist field.
tap the compilation box to add the tick (check mark)
tap the OK button

Repeat this for each various artists compilation album.

A single artist album does not need to have the artist name in it. iTunes can handle this, although there are other music management tools that do require it, so it's up to you whether you complete this field.

An album with guest artists also needs text in the album artist box, but in this case, it will be the name of the main artist. For example, the album Loose by Nelly Furtado has four tracks featuring a guest artist:

In order to keep this album together, the album artist needs to be as shown below. This screenshot has all the songs on the album selected and then right-click/Get Info:

note that the artist field contains the greyed out text Mixed. This is correct because the selection has more than one artist in it (i.e the guest artists). Leave that as it is
in the album artist field, type in Nelly Furtado (that is, type in the relevant artist name)
tap the OK button
Repeat for any album with guest artists

Note that as far as iTunes is concerned, an album of an artist's greatest hits is not a compilation album. If it identified as one in iTunes, it will cause issues.

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Answer 2

Nov 26, 2024 4:28 AM in response to the fiend

You are amazing! Thank you so much

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