Compilations w/various artists

I used to have an IPod and when I labeled an album as a compilation, it wouldn't list the individual artists when reviewing 'artist'. You would need to go to the compilations to see them.
Now on the IPhone, it is showing each individual artist and of course their only song is the one on the compilation.
Does anyone know how to fix this?

There is no fix. The current iPhone and iPod touch do not support compilations in the way prior iPods did. The iPod classic models do, but not the new OS iPods.

Similar Messages

Compilations and various artists- Playing order on iPod

Hi everyone.
I have a two-fold problem with my iPod Classic 160 GB:
I have several compilations of various artists that I grouped by "Artist"- being the title of the album (so it will show up in Albums), and the "Album Artists" being the names of the respective various artists. It plays fine- i.e. in the correct order in my iTunes when my iPod is connected to my Mac, but when I play it on my iPod (not connected to my Mac), my iPod plays the songs in alphabetical order by artists.
The other problem I have is that I have several albums in which artists cover other artists. I entered the "Artist" as the artist covering the tunes (for instance Richard Cheese)- so that it shows up under Artist in my iPod setlist, and the "Album Artist" as the original artists of the songs. Again- no problem in iTunes when iPod is connected- correct order. On my iPod, it alphabetizes the songs based on artist.
Is there any way to fix that so that, under both circumstances, the songs play in the correct order, while still being able to search "Artist" as the artist covering other artists and "Album" by the name of the compilation?
Thanks in advance for any info, and hopefully the questions made sense

Artist should be the name of the recording artist of each track. *Album Artist* should have the same for a whole album, so a compilation album typically records the *Album Artist* as *Various Artists*. Most iPods group tracks on Artist instead of Album Artist which causes problems when you have guest or featured artists... All this and more explained fully at http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp
tt2

TS1468 If all tracks on an album are written by one artist, but have other supporting artists, can I group them all as one album under the original artist without having to group them as a compilation and being called "Various Artists"?

I'm pretty sure I've tried all the suggestions I've found, but I can't seem to find a satisfactory option.
I'll use a CD I just bought as an example. I just bought "The Best of Sergio Mendes", all songs are written by Sergio Mendes, but some include Brasil '66. iTunes thinks this album is a compilation, but I really just want to group it all as Sergio Mendes rather than Various Artists, but I still want to have the information about which songs include Brasil '66. For some reason the tab "Sorting" does absolutely nothing, but it seems like the idea behind it would be really useful if it actually worked... Is there a way of doing this or will I have to settle with a more confusing or less informative option? I feel like this must be possible, or else it's a pretty big flaw for me as I have a fair few albums this would apply to.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Indeed, generally all you need to do is fill in an appropriate Album Artist. For more details see my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.
Don't try to use sort fields to merge different things together as it quickly goes wrong. These should be used consistently to make all things with one value sort as if they had a different one, e.g. Bowie, David to make David Bowie sort under B.
tt2

Having downloaded update 10.5, the artists section of my iPod no longer recognises artists who feature on compilation albums. Instead it groups them under the album artist, ie various artists. Any suggestions?

Having downloaded iTunes update 10.5, my iPod no longer recognises in the artists section those artists who feature on various artists' compilation albums. Instead the iPod groups them under various artists, and, if you are looking for a particular artist,who only features on a compilation, you have to remember or search to see which various artist album they feature on - all very frustrating, especially as it worked OK before the update. So far I've not updated any more - so I've not taken 10.5.1 or 10.5.2 because 10.5 caused me so many problems, but I'm wondering if the solution could be in those updates
I've tried amending the iTunes library artist and album artist, and it is possible to get the iPod to recognise the artists, but the downside is that the library then removes the artist from the album, and you then have to play those tracks individually
Has anyone suffered the same problem and, if so, has a solution been found?

Having downloaded iTunes update 10.5, my iPod no longer recognises in the artists section those artists who feature on various artists' compilation albums. Instead the iPod groups them under various artists, and, if you are looking for a particular artist,who only features on a compilation, you have to remember or search to see which various artist album they feature on - all very frustrating, especially as it worked OK before the update. So far I've not updated any more - so I've not taken 10.5.1 or 10.5.2 because 10.5 caused me so many problems, but I'm wondering if the solution could be in those updates
I've tried amending the iTunes library artist and album artist, and it is possible to get the iPod to recognise the artists, but the downside is that the library then removes the artist from the album, and you then have to play those tracks individually
Has anyone suffered the same problem and, if so, has a solution been found?

When I import a compilation CD to my library, why does it sometimes show in my library under V for various artists and sometimes at the end with the other compilations? Can I amend this?

I know how to import CD's but I have some compilation CD's that show in my library as Various Artists but other compilations in the library are at the end. As far as I can see, they are all ticked as compilations but I can't get them all in the same place.
Anyone offer a solution?

Generally setting a common Album title and Album Artist will fix split albums. For compilations of tracks by different artists set the album artist to Various Artists and also set Part of a compilation to Yes on the Options tab if using the old dialog box (hold down shift when you Get Info) or tick Album is a compilation of songs by various artists if using the new one.
For deeper problems see Grouping tracks into albums.
tt2

ITunes Changing Tag Info (Compilations/Various Artists/"The")

This is driving me crazy.
Compilations
I change my tags to make sure songs do not have a check in the box marked "compilations", yet they are still moved there in their own section on my artist panel right beneath "All Artists" in it's own group called "Compilations". I cannot get them out of there despite the check box being empty.
Various Artists
Songs keep being moved back to this category over and over. I make sure that the field in the tag that says Various Artists is removed, both in the main song info section as well as in the Sorting tab of the tag. The song will go where it belongs and the next time I open iTunes, it is back in it's own section on artist panel called Various Artists. Compilation box is also unchecked.
"The"
I do not want my artist panel to ever show "The" before an artists name (The Police, The Beatles, etc.), so I change the tags both in the main and sorting tabs. I do this for songs I have imported from various MP3 collections, CD's and songs purchased straight from iTunes store. When I make the changes, they work fine...for a while, then, next thing I know I have 4 songs on my iPhone by The Police and 2 by Police in a different artist block
It really is making me nuts. Is there some setting in the menu I am missing that will make iTunes leave my tags alone? I have looked and come up empty. Any help would sure be appreciated. Thank you - Bob

Go to iTunes > Preferences > Store and turn off
Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases
Share details about your library with Apple
On any iOS device go to Settings > Music and turn off
Show All Music
Close and reopen iTunes and/or reset any device and you should see your version of the metadata for each track rather than the original store data, if not your changes should revert as you play through content.
tt2

1 CD, compilation CD, 16 artists, 16 album art displays (of same picture)

I have a CD of 16 songs, a "best of" CD, and when I import it to iTunes, everything is fine save for the album artwork. When I put iTunes in album art view, I see 16 entries. Now I have seen this before on other CDs where I would just make sure the title is consistent, the artist name is consistent (in this case, I am using "Various Artists" and then putting the individual name in Album Artist"). I also checked "Compliation" in the "info" banner. I re-imported the CD using iTunes thinking that would make a difference but it hasn't.
This is the only CD in my collection I have not been able to fix. Other fixes, as I have tried above, have worked for several similar problematic listings.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rob - When you selected "Compilation" - did you have all of the tracks selected? If so, when you checked the Compilation box, did you make sure it said "YES"?
The Multiple Item Information pane is a little tricksy - checking the box doesn't necessarily select anything - what it does is tell iTunes to change the information. For example, you want to delete all album art - you would do this by checking the tickbox next to the Artwork box and closing the Info pane. That will tell iTunes to update each of the Song Files and delete all applied artwork. Same thing with Compliation - just ticking the box without changing the selection may result in the opposite of what you intended.
Hope this helps,
Lita

How do I keep imported albums featuring various artists in one list?

I'm new to iTunes and have not figured out how to create a single library listing when importing CD's that feature various artists. iTunes always creates separate library listings for each artist, spreading them across the library in alphabetical order. I can make a single playlist from all of the library listings, but I'd rather that the album just lists as a single listing in the library. (the song order gets messed up)
Has anyone figured out how to accomplish this? Many thanks in advance.

As Zevoneer pointed out, first thing to do is select all the tracks in the compilation album, do a Get Info and make sure they are checked off as "Part of a Compilation".
Next all you have to do is click on the "Album" heading and it will change to Album By Artist, then clicking again Album By Year and one more time brings you back to Album.
As it turns out, both the Album by Artist and Album by Year sort by artist first in the list then either by album name (Album By Artist) or the Year (Album by Year).
Finally, go into Preference and in the main (General) tab there is a check box for "Group Compilation while browsing". Check this box.
Now if you sort by the other two "Album" sorts (by artist or by year), your main library will be listed by artist alphabetically. Then within each artist the albums but alphabetical or by year. And finally, if you scroll down to the bottom your list, you will find your compilation albums grouped nicely together by album rather than scattered all over the library.
Cheers,
Patrick

Albums with various artists down load as 13 separate items. How do I rejoin them as an album?

When I import some compilation albums into my Itunes it seperates them out into seperate "albums" how can I "re-join".

Make sure "artist" and "album artist" are the same.
You only need make sure they all have an identical "album artist" to get them to group together. This can be anything as long as it is the same -- even "various artists" for a true compilation. This is designed so you can keep different artists in the artist field but still have tracks group together. In fact if you do make the artist fields identical, the album would group together in the first place and you don't need to touch album artist. However, there may be cases where you do not want to put the identical artist in the artist field, then you need to either flag them as compilation (as indicated in another post) or give them all a single album artist.

Compilations and Album Artists...

I give up. Apple just can't seem to decide how the heck it wants to organize albums.
They ad an "Album Artist" that is useless. In iTunes it is great for DJ mixes. You can have each track and its artist labeled correctly and then group them all under the DJ's name as the album artist. Or be able to leave all those "featuring so-n-so" tags as is and assign one artist as the album artist. Great, love it. Works in iTunes.
But the iPod touch hasn't a clue. It displays all the artists names but then groups them with the album artist. Meaning you get artists out of alphabetical order mixed throughout the list. Really confusing the shortcut slider on the right side.
But if you switch to coverflow mode it groups everything just fine. But you can only browse so long before it crashes.
I'm just asking for some consistency. Don't get me started on the fact that my Apple TV has its own rules about how to sort compilations that are different from the touch and iTunes. Aren't the same people writing this software?

I don't see that problem with mine. Maybe it's just me, but I kinda like the sort of the whole thing.
I have a bunch of compilations (Soundtracks to movies and such). I just list the Album Artist as "Various Artists", then individually put the artist down. That way if I want all the songs by the individual artist, I can look for that, if I want multiple songs by the different artists, I can just search by Album.
How long does it take before your CoverFlow crashes?

How do I get itunes to comile various artists cds?

I am new to the posting, so please fogive me if this has already been answered. My kids and I put a lot of compilation albums on our itunes like the Now that's what I call music-where the album is the same name, but the artists are all different. On my older version of itunes, as long as I had clicked on the album info that it was part of a compilation, it would put all of the tracks together. Now on the updated version it will seperate the tracks by artists even though the album info lists it as a compilation. How do I change this?

Hi,
The post I referred you to earlier tries to deal with quite a large number of potential causes for "split" albums. I've tried to keep it brief while giving sufficient detail to explain each problem and the suggested workarounds.
*One album, too many covers*
For true compilations, where each track is by a different artist, the answer is to set the compilation flag to true and enable the iTunes preference to *Group compilations when browsing.*
Expanding this rather brief statement to address your specific problem first confirm that the "Group compilations when browsing" feature is turned on. Use the menu item *Edit > Preferences* to open the Preferences dialog, select the Advanced tab and ensure there is a tick against "Group compilations when browsing" (3rd option up from the bottom). If you've added the tick, click OK to confirm the change, otherwise you can cancel.
Next confirm that you are using an "Album-friendly" view to look at your tracks. Select *View > List* to switch to the list view. If you don't have a section showing Genres, Artists & Albums use *View > Show Browser* to turn this on. Right-click on the track column headings to reveal a list of attributes that can be displayed. Click on any of the following that are not already ticked to turn them on; *Album, Album Artist, Artist, Disk Number, Track Number*. Repeat until all of these fields are shown. Click on the heading of the Album column one or more times until it reads *Album by Artist*.
For each compilation album, select it's name in the top-right browser window, then click on one of the tracks to move the focus to the Tracks pane. You can now select all the tracks of the album with CTRL-A, then open the "Get Info" dialog with CTRL-I. On the Info tab change/set the *Album Artist* to *Various Artists*. On the Options tab, set the *Part of a compilation* value to Yes. Click OK.
For the *Now That's What I Call Music Series* or other albums containing multiple discs that are displaying as multiple covers (e.g. Now That's... 61, Disc 1, Now That's... 61 Disc 2), select the tracks of each disc in turn and make sure that the correct *Disc X of Y* values are set. Then select all the tracks of all of the discs of the album and type in the overall album title to merge the albums together. Incidentally, for this series I find it much easier to use the shortened "Now ##" title as with the full title you can't tell one from another in the album section of the browser.
You should find that albums are now properly kept together in other "Album-friendly" views whether list, grid or cover flow based. Just don't expect them to stay together if you sort on columns such as Track Name, Artist, Disc No. Date Added, etc.
tt2

Coverflow on iPod says Various Artists, not the album artist name

It looks fine on iTunes, with the proper artist name under the cover, but it changes to various artists when synced to the iPod. I set it on compilation, like I did when it worked about a month ago. I took off the compilation on Get Info and then I get the multiple covers again. Anybody else have this problem?

If they are all the SAME artist, you shouldn't need the Compilation checkmark. If they aren't the SAME artist, you would need it checked, and in Cover Flow, they will show up as "Various Artists" followed by the Album's Name.
If that doesn't help you, go to the Music section of iTunes, sort by Album Name, and select all the songs in an Album. Choose Get Info, and select pretty much EVERYTHING. If they are all the same Artist, fill it in and make sure it's checked, fill in the Album Name and check it, Genre's can be different, Volume adjustment can be different, the Year CAN be different, I believe.
Then, if the Artist is different for the songs, Compilation should be selected.
Then if you want, you can add the album artwork as well so they are all getting it from the same source at once. Then click ok, sync and try.
Then they should show up correctly.

Imported CD artists not listed individually, I found them under "various artists". How can I change the way rs? thanksthey import and edit the current erro

Imported CDs are being labeled as "various artists" not by the actual artists name. Why is this happening and how do I fix it? Thank you, J

Highlight a track and press command ( or ⌘ key) and the letter "i" at the same time to enter the editor window.
Use shift+click to select a range of trakcs, or command+click to select multiple individual tracks.
Various artists is often used where an album has several artist on it (read links below). If you don't group them some way then you will find multiple albums listed in iTunes with each one being an artist on the main album. The individual artists should still appear in the artist window but it is possible the database used to label your CD was incorrect. CDs do not have the information on them, they get it from an Internet database. Anybody can submit track names so you don't always get good ones.
Why aren't songs with the same album art grouped together? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1468
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4559720 - discussion of using compilation vs. album artist to group tracks

Various Artist Don't Display

In iOS4 and previous if you set the album artist for a whole album that had various artists to one thing (such as Various Artists) then when you sort you would only see one album. Now, that doesn't seem to be the case. No matter what I try to change, sort artist, album artist, sort album artist, ad nauseum it still displays an album for each artist. the only thing I could get to work is if I selected compilation then at least when I selected one it had the whole album. Anyone else run into this?

I may have a fix, but you probably won't like it. if you purchased the music from itunes, or if itunes has the artwork, you can simply go to Advanced tab and Get Album Artwork. If not you can do one of two things. If it is from a cd that you still have, you can try reimporting it into itunes. Or, go online, like to Amazon, find your album, copy the artwork.
In itunes, go to the album that has no album art on your iphone. Select all the songs, right click, select Get Info. In the box where artwork should be, you will see an empty box. Select the check box next to it and click ok. It will delete the artwork that is there, but it really isn't there. Either the file is corrupt or it is gone. I think itunes is just displaying what was there. What is strange is, in the cases where I have a two volume album, and only one didn't show artwork on my phone, I couldn't copy the artwork from the volume that had the artwork and paste it into the one that didn't. I had do get new artwork externally.
After you have done that, you should still have all the songs selected, so just right click again and select Get Info. Right click in the artwork box, and paste the artwork you previously copied, and say ok. Your artwork should be displayed, and you can resync your phone to download it to your phone. Repeat as necessary.

TS1468 How do I break up a Various Artist into individual artist on my Itunes Lib?

I have a Various Artist as an Artist on my Itunes library....The Artist has 67 different Artist with 79 different songs all under Various Artist? How do I seperate them and make each artist Individual??

See my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums. Changing the column browser settings may do what you want, otherwise remove the Album Artist and/or Compilation flag if that is what you really prefer.
tt2

Compilations w/various artists

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