How to handle mp3 tags after ios 5

[andyd2k]

I have always used the Album Artist tag to dump all my music into one album tagged as "Radio". I have far more singles than I have anything else so I didn't want to see an album for each single listed. This seemed to work really well till ios 5.

I now have two "Radio" albums listed under Album. One has all the songs I have tagged as Radio and the other has a subset (63) songs. There is nothing I can find in the tags that would cause the creation of a second album. The only similarity between all the songs is that they were produced in 2008

I can live with the erroneous album but what I find ridiculous is that now I have only one artist showing up in Artist view listed as "Radio". It ignores all the "Artist" tags in these mp3s. I can solve this by using changing Album Artist to the applicable Artist but then I have way too many Albums listed in Album view

I'm not sure if this is intended or if it's a bug. I have submitted it to Apple in case it is. What I wanted to know from you guys is whether there is a better way of handling this.

[Rich]

Have you checked the box in the info for all tracks that says something along the lines of "Part of a compilation?"

I've had this issue with my "Singles" album in previous versions of iTunes and iOS (I haven't loaded my 4S with music yet, so I haven't checked iOS5), and I seem to remember enabling that option to correct the problem.

[GregMac1213]

iOS 5 added a [long overdue] option to group artists by album artist. It's on by default. To get back to the way it was handled in previous iOS versions (by Artist field instead of Album Artist), go to Settings > Music and turn off the option to Group by Album Artist.

[andyd2k]

Rich - I'm not sure where that option is? I would be curious to see if that fixes my double album issue

GregMac - that fixed my Artist view so thanks! Seems like it's an option that should be off by default not on.

[Code Monkey]

Originally Posted by andyd2k

GregMac - that fixed my Artist view so thanks! Seems like it's an option that should be off by default not on.

Nope, iTunes has organized by Album Artist by default since the very beginning (or just about), no reason at all an iPod should have chose to organize by artist by default (particularly since the whole point of the album artist is to override the artist field for organization).

[andyd2k]

Not sure what you mean. The reason I was seeing a difference in Artist view was because the option was on. Before ios 5, the tagging worked as expected. Well, that is I used Album Artist to group things up because I was forced to use that due to how Apple decided to use that instead of just "Album" and "Artist". If I turn off that option, I revert back to what I expected.

[Code Monkey]

Originally Posted by andyd2k

Not sure what you mean. The reason I was seeing a difference in Artist view was because the option was on.

Exactly, you are using the tag fields incorrectly and so the default gave you something you didn't expect or want.

It is not Apple's job to try and make psychic machines that can read the minds of customers and determine how they have mishandled tagging their music when the standards for tagging music predate the iPod.

In your case, if you expected the default to work, you would have filled in Album Artist with "Radio" and the Album field with something like "Misc. Singles" and, to clean up the main view in iTunes, should have added "Part of compilation" to the options for those files. At that point everything would have sorted without turning off the group by Album Artists which, if you had real albums tagged correctly would screw up all of their display every time there was a guest artist on a track.

[andyd2k]

My tags were the way they were because of ios handling and having to adjust to it. Not because I wanted it to be that way. And considering it's been the same way since the first ios, then yes I would have the option off by default. Or at the very least point out the option clearly in some way

And if I want everything in one album, that is correct by the mp3 tags regardless of whether it's "correct". I don't see the need to have 100s of albums because I have 100s of singles

I agree that an option for part of compilation would be more ideal

[rockmyplimsoul]

Originally Posted by GregMac1213

iOS 5 added a [long overdue] option to group artists by album artist.

Thanks Greg, finally we can hide Compilation artists from the Artist menu, didn't realize that until I saw this thread. What, it only took Apple 5 major releases of iOS to make that happen?!

[GregMac1213]

Originally Posted by rockmyplimsoul

Thanks Greg, finally we can hide Compilation artists from the Artist menu, didn't realize that until I saw this thread. What, it only took Apple 5 major releases of iOS to make that happen?!

Yep. I had seen a rumor earlier in the year that this had finally been fixed in iOS 5. But I refused to believe it or even get my hopes up until I saw it with my own eyes. I can finally stop sending Apple feedback about this issue with each iOS release.