Setting Up Compilations

[Bret_D]

Ok, I'm about to upload an enormous compilation album, I'm talking around 400 tracks. Now In the past I have not been able to figure out how to set up a compilation album so all tracks show up together in my itunes. In the past I had to rename all of the files so they all showed up under the same name. Is there anyway at all to set it up so I can have the compolations tracks all stay in one place rather then scatter through itunes without having to label them under the same artist? I really do not want to go through the tremendous hassle of relabeling 400 tracks, if anyone knows a way to do this while still keeping all albums with their respective artist PLEASE LET ME KNOW! If its not possible I'll accept that an move on but I just want an answer if its possible. Thanks in advance.

[rockmyplimsoul]

What you need to do is:

- For each song that is part a compilation, set each tag to indicate "Part of a compilation"
- Turn Compilations ON on your iPod

What this does is it groups all the artists on a compilation album to a special part of the iPod menu: Music/Compilations. Things to note:

a- For artists on a compilation album who have no other albums in your library, they will not appear under your iPod's Artist menu. You can only access them via Music/Compilations. This cleans up your list of Artists. Turning your iPod's Compilations setting to OFF puts these artists back in the Artist menu.

b- If an artist appears on a compilation album and at least one regular album, then even with your iPod's Compilations setting ON they will appear in the Artist menu. That is because they have more than one album for you to choose from.

c- If you set your iTunes preferences (on the General tab) to "Group compilations when browsing", then the browser for your iTunes library will act like your iPod with Compilations ON. That is, if you are browsing your library, artists who only appear on a compilation album will not show up in the Artist browser filter.

d- No matter what setting in iTunes, a compilation will be separated by Artist if you have your iTunes library sorted by artist. If you want your iTunes library to group all the songs of a compilation together even when your library is sorted by Artist, you can try changing the "Sort Artist" tag for each song of the compilation to be one of the artists of the compilation (perhaps the first one listed).

Hope that helps!

[Bret_D]

Thanks for the help but I'm trying to set this up so it displays properly in itunes which is were I listen to music mostly. I appreciate the tips for setting it up for browsing my ipod though.

This is what I have done in the past to keep compilations together in itunes, while it works really well, it makes it difficult to find individual artists.


This is what I want to do, this compilation is in my library at the momment and that is why it is all together, when I tried moving it to my ipod the files scatter everywhere.

[rockmyplimsoul]

OK, you posted this in the iPod w/Video section so I wasn't sure it was your iPod or iTunes that was the issue. If it's just iTunes, then change your tags so that Artist is in the Artist field instead of embedding the Artist name in the Song field. The songs will then scatter in your iTunes library if you have it sorted by Artist, but if you sort by album then they'll be grouped together if that's what you want.

[bwh79]

Try putting the real artist name in the artist field, and "ZNS Compilation Tapes" in the album artist field. Then flag each track as "Part of a compilation" and you should be all set.

If "Compilations" is set to ON on the iPod or iTunes, then this and other albums flagged "Part of a compilation" will appear under the artist "Compilations". If you have no other tracks by these artists, then they will not show up under your list of artists at all, but if you do have other songs then these tracks will be displayed along with them when you view the artist. You can view the whole album by going to Artists->Compilations->Non-Nuclear War, or jump straight to Albums->Non-Nuclear War.

If you have "Compilations" set to OFF (it's called "Group compilations when browsing" in iTunes and it's a checkbox rather than ON/OFF setting) in iTunes or iPod, then you won't get the "Compilations" name in the artist list. These artists will show up in the list individually, even if there are no other tracks by that artist. Browsing to Artists->[artist name]->Non-Nuclear War will show you only tracks from the album by that artist and, since there is no "Compilations" artist, you can only view the whole album then by going to Album->Non-Nuclear War.

[Bret_D]

Originally Posted by bwh79

Try putting the real artist name in the artist field, and "ZNS Compilation Tapes" in the album artist field. Then flag each track as "Part of a compilation" and you should be all set.

If "Compilations" is set to ON on the iPod or iTunes, then this and other albums flagged "Part of a compilation" will appear under the artist "Compilations". If you have no other tracks by these artists, then they will not show up under your list of artists at all, but if you do have other songs then these tracks will be displayed along with them when you view the artist. You can view the whole album by going to Artists->Compilations->Non-Nuclear War, or jump straight to Albums->Non-Nuclear War.

If you have "Compilations" set to OFF (it's called "Group compilations when browsing" in iTunes and it's a checkbox rather than ON/OFF setting) in iTunes or iPod, then you won't get the "Compilations" name in the artist list. These artists will show up in the list individually, even if there are no other tracks by that artist. Browsing to Artists->[artist name]->Non-Nuclear War will show you only tracks from the album by that artist and, since there is no "Compilations" artist, you can only view the whole album then by going to Album->Non-Nuclear War.

Doing that allows me to view them on my ipod but they still scatter when I send the files from the library to my ipod, so I can't wasily view them in itunes without messing up the organization.

Sorry if this is in the wrong area, I thought that maybe the problem could be model specific. If a mod could move it to were a question like this belongs I'd appreciate it.

[bwh79]

What do you mean they "scatter"? Do you mean when you group your library by "Artist" then they no longer appear together? If that's it, then just sort your library by "Album" instead. You can even click it again to sort by "Album by Artist", which groups albums together, sorted alphabetically by artist, and keeps compilations together at the end. "Otherwise, I'm really not sure what you mean.

[Bret_D]

Originally Posted by bwh79

What do you mean they "scatter"? Do you mean when you group your library by "Artist" then they no longer appear together? If that's it, then just sort your library by "Album" instead. You can even click it again to sort by "Album by Artist", which groups albums together, sorted alphabetically by artist, and keeps compilations together at the end. "Otherwise, I'm really not sure what you mean.

Yah thats what I meant, I was hoping there was a way to have them grouped that way at the same time. I take it from your reply that there isn't?

[bwh79]

Not when you sort by "Artist", no. Did you even look at how it looks when you click the "Album" field twice to sort "Album by Artist"?

When you sort by "Artist" it will sort all artists individually. That means your compilation albums will get broken up, and even your regular albums probably will not display in the correct order because it's not looking at albums, it's looking at artists. You're not gonna get compilation albums to display together when you sort by "Artist". That's the whole idea behind a compilation album, is that the songs are by different artists. They're not gonna sort together when you sort by artist. If you want the album shown together, then sort by album.

When you sort by "Album" (or one of it's variants "Album by Artist" or "Album by Year"), then albums are kept intact, with the tracks grouped together and in the proper play sequence (assuming all your album/artist/track#/compilation[yes|no] tags are correct).

[Bret_D]

I wasn't even aware of the album by artist function, it doesn't seem to work for me though, that scatters the songs everywere they aren't grouped at all, none of the albums are, I don't see how it could be my labeling that would cause this as whenever I upload an album I check every label for every song, and correct info if needed.

[rockmyplimsoul]

Yes, this is possible but it's not very "clean". If you put something like "ZNS Compilation Tapes" in the Sort Artist part of the tag for each song, then even if you have your iTunes library sorted by Artist these songs will all appear together (under "Z" in this case). The downside is that (a) you have to enter the Sort Artist data song-by-song, (b) the Sort Artist option doesn't work on your iPod, which could be good, and (c) if you have other songs by some of the artists on the compilation, then you'll have songs by the same artist separated in your library, not next to each other. So, you can't have it both ways ...

[bwh79]

Originally Posted by Bret_D

the album by artist function, it doesn't seem to work for me though, that scatters the songs everywere they aren't grouped at all

Got a screen shot?

[rockmyplimsoul]

Album by Artist won't group a Compilation since it is made up of multiple artists. The only way to group all artists of a compilation together is to either sort by album, or update the Sort Artist field to a common phrase and then sort by Artist.

[Bret_D]

I do now, http://img235.imageshack.us/my.php?i...sscreenbd1.jpg

[rockmyplimsoul]

Strange, the picture shows that you're sorting by "Album by Artist" yet there is no apparent order by album or artist. Are your tags clean, including the Sort Option area that was added to iTunes recently?

The other thing to note is that the picture shows iTunes but you're viewing your iPod's contents (you've got it in manual mode). That means that any changes you make to your tags in your library will not automatically show up on your iPod -- you have to either make the changes directly on your iPod or delete the iPod's conents and replace the songs with updated copies from your library.