Grouping Compilation albums together

I have a number of different albums that have different artists on them. I want to go in on my iPod and listen to the whole album all the way through, but when I go to it in "albums" it's listed severel different times and each is by a different artist from the album. Is there any way to group it all as one album even though it has more than one artist? I've tried checking the box "part of a compilation" and "sort by album" those don't seem to work. Thoughts and ideas?

Every song on the album needs to be marked as "Part of a compilation" and also, in the Album Artist box, type in "Various Artists". The screenshot below shows the box highlighted when looking at several songs at the same time:
If tyou use Sync to manage your iPod, the next Sync will add that change to it.
If you use Manually Manage, then you will need to remove the album from the iPod first, make the changes in your iTunes Library and then put back the changed version.

Similar Messages

Why won't iTunes group songs from a compilation album together

Most of my CDs are compilation trance CDs. iTunes ignores the facts that they all come from the same album and groups them by composer instead, forcing me to create playlists for songs that should be grouped together. This occurs even for albums purchased as albums from the iTunes store. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just poor programming?

Generally setting a common Album title and Album Artist will fix things.
For compilation albums set Album Artist to Various Artists and Part of a compilation to Yes.
For deeper problems see Grouping tracks into albums.
tt2

Keeping compilation albums together in my playlists

how do I keep combilation albums together? I list by artists rather than song and whenever I record a compilation album eg, Buena Vista it immediately breaks down into indidvidual artists and they're all over the place.

I list by artists..... .... immediately breaks down into indidvidual artists....
That's the way it works. Sorting on artists ...... sorts on artists.
The only way to keep the songs together is to sort on album.
Or, mark the album as a compilation (select all tracks, Get Info, and check 'Part of a compilation').
Activate the Browser (command-B) and you won't see the separate artists (unless you have other albums by that artist).
In the Browser, click on 'Compilations' in the 'Artist' pane and all compilation albums show up in the 'Albums' pane.
Hope this helps.
M

Compilation albums - coverflow

Hi,
Having a bit of a problem with grouping compilation albums together in the latest version of iTunes. I used CD import to import the albums into iTunes, but for some reason I can't get the albums tracks to group together (so that only one album cover is shown in coverflow for example) like you would expect them to. Strange thing is, I had no problem doing this on the last version of iTunes.
For each track on the album, I've made sure that the album artist is the same, part of a compilation is ticked, disc and track numbers are both filled in, and 'group compilations when broswing' is checked in the preferences. This worked for me before, but doesn't seem to be now. Funny thing is, there are some tracks that have automatically been grouped together, but most haven't.
Have I missed anything obvious? Apologies as I know this has been discussed before, I've looked at previous posts and other forums but all that is being suggested is what I've already done. Can anyone help me out?

I've got the same problem. Not very good that your query hasn't been answered since June. Whether the solution is simple or not, its a disgrace that you are forced to use software and given next to no support - I can't even find a proper user manual.
Perhaps someone from Apple could finally post the solution. They are happy to make the millions from the software. I'm sure if there was a problem purchasing there would be a response immediately.

Grouping Compilations

Just now iTunes Help says that grouping complilations can be found in the advanced preferences menu, but I don't see it there. Do you know where it is?
Compilation CD
For an album with songs by multiple artists, such as a movie soundtrack. To group such albums together (rather than list each song with its particular artist), choose iTunes > Preferences, click Advanced, and select “Group compilations when browsing.”

Yes Lorraine, You can Join tracks In itunes.
b Look at This Link:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/4.9/en/507win.html
b You can Also make a Playlist :
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93045
i I hope This helps.
M.

How do I group together songs on a compilation album 10.5

How do i group together songs that are off a single compilation album? I get a different album for every artist and i want them togther in the order they should be.

Click on the column header so it no longer says Album by Artist, but just Album.

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?

Group Multiple CDs of album together in 11.0.3

Does anyone know what the new iTunes feature of grouping multiple CDs of the same album together means? Is it fixing the problem where sometimes they don't? Does it allow CDs with the names [disc 1] and [disc 2] after them to be grouped together? I have been taking Albums of mutiple CDs and using the "disc" fields and that seems to work.
I really dislike Apple's SCANT help on new features. I had to go dig through the (VASTLY) revamped view options to figure out where the ability to show album art in list view was hidden, and the help files have not been updated with the new mini view. A little more help would be nice Apple...

Thank you for the picture Michael! I now know what is going on....
NOTHING changed in terms of what it takes to group them together, as in, you still need them to be the same album titile, and you need to use the disc # and total disc count fields — the change is that now, instead of showing tracks 1-10 and then starting over with tracks 1-12 (for example) for disk 2, and having them all be one after another, it breaks it into each disc with a disc # and does it horizontally rather than vertically. What I mean by that is the following:
Before, if you had 3 discs, that totaled 32 tracks. Disc one with 9, disc two with 11, and disc 3 with 12. What you'd have is two columns of 16 songs each, 1st column starting with 1-9, then 1-7. The right column would start with 8, go through 11, and then go 1-12. NOW what you get is 3 groupings, titled disc 1, 2 and 3, 1st one going 1-5 in column 1 and 6-9 in column 2. Second disc going 1-6 in column 1 and 7-11 in column 2, and the last one having two equal sized columns of 1-6 and 7-12.
Also, Not sure I agree on defaulting to on, but unlike all the other checboxe in view options, this one is not also available by right clicking the column headers.
Thanks for the help guys!
Message was edited by: Eytan Bernet1. All edits were spelling mistakes.

Group Different Albums by the Same Artist under one Album Cover

I've read many posts regarding grouping tracks by different artists into one album, but none dealing with grouping tracks by one artist together from different album titles. An example of this would be classical pieces that are divided into different acts, or more recently, the new Green Day album "21st Century Breakdown," which also divides the album into "acts." Another example of this situation could be a box set by a particular artist, for instance an Eagles box set that contains 3 discs of differing titles (disc one: Eagles, disc two: Desperado, disc three: Live) in which case the three CDs are all essentially part of the same album.
I know the grouping field can be utilized to tag all the CDs within the same set to keep them together; however, I have not been able to use this feature to group albums such as those mentioned above together under one album art in the grid or in the coverflow view. It looks rather silly when there are 3 or 4 of the same album cover in a row in the grid or the coverflow.
The best way I could think to differentiate the different acts on an album or CDs in a set was to group the songs in their own folder and change the title of the album tag to reflect which act (or CD) those particular tracks covered. While this works in the list view to keep the tracks in order, it does not allow me to view the album as a “whole” using the coverflow view. It seems the only way to merge differently tagged tracks is if the ALBUM title is the same even if there are multiple artists. I’ve tried using the grouping, sorting, and “part of a compilation” options with no success. Is there any way to merge these tracks under one album art while retaining the different album names?

Adding slightly to the previous post I would suggest that you give each disc of the set an appropriate disc no., e.g. Discs 1 of 3, 2 of 3 and 3 of 3 for Eagles, Desperado & Live respectively in your Eagles Box Set. Record the individual disc titles in the Comments or Grouping field, then change the Album title for all three discs to something appropriate like "Eagles Box Set". The three discs will collapse into one cover and play in sequence. If marking the transition from one disc to another matters you could, for example, simply add the album name in brackets to the first track of each album. You could use curly brackets to distinguish this from other types of track comment. For more organizational tips see my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One cover for multi-disc album.
The alternative approach for box sets which simply repackage a number of original albums together is to find the original artwork for each album.
tt2

Sorting Compilation Albums etc

I want to sort my music by artist, and view each album together.
Where I have a compilation CD, or a CD with a guest artist, if I sort by Artist, I can't see all tracks from the album in the same place.
So I painstakingly entered the "Album Artist" for each album and sorted by this field, as well as marking any such albums as "compilation", and selecting "group compilations when browsing".
No good, my PJ Harvey/Thom Yorke track is listed at the bottom of my PJ Harvey albums and my compilation albums are sorted not by track number, but by artist.
There HAS to be a way around this, surely?

Have you realised that you can select a group of tracks and then use Get Info to edit them all togther, so entering an album artist and setting the compilation flag for a whole CD is not really such a chore.
If you have "Group complilations when browsing checked", the compilation albums should come out right under "Compilations".

Sorting compilation albums

I've downloaded several compilation CDs into the music library on my computer (I have not loaded the library to my ipod yet). They sort fine when I sort them by album, but when I sort them by genre, the compilation albums "break apart." The single artist albums all stay together no matter how I sort the library. I've made sure that all the compilation albums are designated as compilations, and I've even gone in and changed the album artist so that they're not all "various." The weird thing is that not all the compilation albums break apart, only some, and I can't see any difference between the ones that stick together and the ones that don't. Any ideas?

Hey S. Steele,
In the iTunes preferences, on the General tab, is the setting for "Group Compilations when browsing" checked?
If not, does checking this work as you would like?
Hope this helps,
Generik
PowerMac G4/Dell Precision WS 370, XP Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Compilation Albums are not ordered by track order - by alphabet/artist

This is something I just noticed with iTunes that I would like to have fixed if possible. I've ripped a good handful of compilation albums onto my computer, and when I put them into iTunes, and order the songs by album, all of the differing artists on a certain album are in alphabetical order. Meaning, the track order is set not as track 1, track 2, track 3, etc. Instead, it's set up by artist, by alphabet. For example, Animosity will be first, and Zebrahead will be last...and these aren't in the correct order of the album! I don't know if there is a fix for this, but if there is, I would greatly appreciate the help. Thanks.

*HowTo: Grouping Tracks Into Albums*
Excuse the long post, but hopefully covering all the bases (that I can think of) will help you fix the other issues you are likely to run into as you try to organise your iTunes library.
*Use an album friendly view*
iTunes will let you sort music on many columns, some of which are unlikely to group albums together. The most useful order for editing the library is probably *Album by Artist*. If you're not already there, select the list view and click on the column heading for Artist until it reads Album by Artist.
*One cover, too many tracks*
The iPod (and iTunes to a lesser extent) conflates two or more albums with the same title, most obviously with *Greatest Hits*. On the iPod this can result in one album acting as a combination of two or more. Selecting any cover gives all the tracks of all albums with the same title. The workaround for this "Greatest Hits" bug is to give each album a unique title - I tend to go for *Album - Album Artist* as this reads clearly in the iTunes browser. Alternatively you could use the wording as it appears on the cover or append different numbers of spaces for each different album. Somewhat oddly, setting different values for Sort Album doesn't work.
*Album not with others by same artist*
iTunes relies on the Gracenote CDDB database when identifying CD's. This often marks collections or anthologies of an artist's work as a compilation. In iTunes, however, the compilation flag has the logical function of grouping together tracks with the same album name, but different artists on each track, e.g. "Now That's What I Call Metal 666!". These compilations are then all grouped together at the end of cover flow. Most of us however, would expect "Greatest Hits" albums to be listed with the other albums by the same album artist. For albums which are essentially by a single album artist or group it is best to set the appropriate value for the album artist and clear the compilation flag.
*One album, too many covers*
Sadly the iPod ignores the Album Artist field when grouping albums which causes problems when some tracks list guest artists. You can simply mark the entire album as a compilation which seems to be the way iTMS handles it, however that's not an ideal fix. Short of waiting for Apple to address this issue (and as far as I can tell it goes back to the 1st gen. of iPods) we need a workaround. What I do is to put any additional artist info. in square brackets after the song name. E.g. *Track \[Feat. Guest\]* and then set *Artist=Album Artist* for each track. For anthologies where the Album Artist is credited as part of another group, e.g. for Cream tracks on an Eric Clapton anthology, I use *Track \[As Group\]*. For a track where the main Album Artist doesn't receive a credit, e.g. the first track of the Slim Shady LP credited to Jeff Bass, I just set the track name to *Track \[Guest\]* while still setting the artist to the album artist. N.b. I use square brackets to indicate this is not part of the actual song title and also use this style for Mix/Live/Bonus info.
*One album, still too many covers*
iTunes may split albums into two or more sections if some tracks from the album have different values for Artist, Album Artist, Album, No. of Discs or Part of a Compilation. Tiny differences such as trailing spaces, accented characters or variants of symbols can sometimes be quite hard to spot. The iPod is also more sensitive to case variations and may split or reorder an album that looks okay in iTunes. Normally overtyping the desired value for each shared field will complete the grouping of the album into one entity. Occasionally, however, this method seems to fail. When this happens I've found that you can force every field to update properly by adding some extra text - e.g. a trailing X, which once applied seems to complete the joining of the tracks into one album. Once this has happened the extra data can be removed and the album should remain properly grouped.
*Tried that, there are STILL too many covers!*
The Sort Artist, Sort Album & Sort Album Artist fields can be used to override the normal sort order. For example iTunes automatically drops leading articles (a/an/the) so "The Beatles" are arranged under "B" instead of "T". Occasionally different tracks from the same album can have different values in these sort fields which can also break up the grouping. Making the sort columns visible in iTunes can help with spotting & correcting such problems.
*One cover for multi-disc album*
Multi-disc albums are often listed as *Album (CD1)* for CD 1, *Album (CD2)* for CD 2 etc. To display these properly using just one cover, each disc should have the correct *Disc X of Y* values set, and then the entire album should be given the single title Album. Being somewhat obsessive I also renumber the tracks sequentially, working backwards from the last track (so that no two tracks ever have the same number) until I reach disc 1. BTW You can still give the individual discs different artwork should it be relevant so that the correct artwork will be displayed as the album progresses.
*One artist, many names*
With some artists, particularly classical composers, you should be aware of alternative representations of their names. E.g. 2Pac vs. Tupac. The menus will work best if for each artist you standardise on just one form of their name. E.g. make a choice between Mozart, W.A. Mozart or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and then apply it consistently. For classical music I tend also to use the Composer as the Artist & Album Artist and either discard the performer details or place these into the Comments field.
tt2

Importing Compilation Albums

I am having trouble getting compilation albums to be imported and tracks listed together as one album. I have ticked the group compilations when browsing box in the preferences section but it still lists all tracks separately. Please help.

I've got the same problem. Its because the albums are listed by artist first. If you change the artist to various (use File_Get Info) it will group them together. Not a great solution though. My version of itunes also has a field called "Album Artist" which should help but I can't get it to make any difference.

How to show one album art image for a compilation album in cover flow view?

I just finished getting album art for my entire music collection. Now I go to the Cover Flow view or the Album view and individual songs in compilation albums each have their own album art instead of being grouped together under the same album art. For instance I have a "Buddha Bar" Album with various artists. Instead of having one image for the album, each artist has his or her own image (all the same Buddha Bar album art). So a compilation CD with various artists ends up having 15 images instead of one image in the Album art or Cover Flow view which makes it harder to look through my albums. Does anybody know if it is possible to change this?
Imac PowerPC G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

iTunes doesn't have the ability to do what you want, i.e. to define multiple separated values in a field and then have the item show up when looking at a selection based on each of those values. "Bob Dylan", "The Band" and "Bob Dylan & The Band" are three distinct values that can't be linked together. Sort values can change where in a list things are displayed but shouldn't be used to attempt to merge different values as results are undefined and unpredictable.
tt2

Compilation Album sorting trick

As you now know, you can group tracks in a compilation and assign an 'album artist' to display the main artist with the album cover. But the compilations sort to the bottom of the library by date. If you want to sort the album by main artist alphabetically amongst your other artists do this: Use 'album artist' to keep the tracks together as before, but change the individual artist of the
First track to begin with your main artist: For example 'Angelo Baldalementi/David Bowie', then select all the tracks and change compilation to 'No'. The album now sorts all the tracks together under the first track by the first track artist when you sort column 'Album'.
If you are as fussy as me, this may help.
One wish for iTunes sorting: A check box for the Artist field that would allow you to sort by artist last name, and not just by total artist name.

Starmac74 wrote:
I recently bought a compilation album from itunes store. My problem is that each song shows up as a seperate album, both in cover flow and when I list by Album. This is very annoying and all the songs has the same Album name.
What do I need to do to make iTunes understand that all songs belong to the same compilation album?
hi marcus,
see this great post by TT2

Grouping Compilation albums together

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