Keeping 'Various Artists' together while sorting ...

Ever get a CD with various artist, but want to keep them grouped together while sorting? Will there ever be a solution to this problem? I've noticed mostly with Rap CD's and Soundtracks but can't think of a way to keep these songs together ...
Solution?

There is a solution with iTunes 7 but using the Album Artist field.
Select all your album song and do a get info. check the box "part of a compilation" and write something in the Album Arist field.
This field have been added in order to let you write various artists in the artist field while that may perform, for exemple, a tribute to "Ray Charles" that can be written in the album artist field.

Similar Messages

Various Artists is not sorted alphabetically

Don't know why but since iTunes 11, the column browser is sorting 'Various Artists' somewhere in the K letter.
Is this a bug?
Thanks in advance!

I don't that's it Steve. The View Options doesn't apply to the column browser, only to the albums.
Thanks for your reply.

Keep album stacked together by album artist, in a library sorted by artist?

I have my iTunes library sorted after “Artist”. Which gives me nothing but trouble with collections or collaborations.
So what I would like to do is have iTunes to ignore the default or general sorting by “Artist”. And instead sort only this album by “Album Artist”.
I have 12 songs with the same album title, same genre, same album artist but with different song names and artist.
But regardless of how I try to tell iTunes that it has to sort this one by album artist and not the artist, it never does.
I have tried at select all the 12 songs, get info. Write the same Albums Artist, the same Album Title and leave the Artist blank. And I choose sort by Album Artist and under option I choose part of a collection.
But this isn’t working for me, As soon I go back to my library, which sorted by Artist. The albums is still spread all over the place.
HOW DO I KEEP THESE 12 SONGS STACKED TOGETHER, without having to chance the Artist to Various Artists and write each individual artist to the song title?
Which in my opinion is the wrong and oldschool approach.

Yes, I have just checked and rechecked it again. I have set an Album Artist value for each songs and the album in general. And even if i add the Album by Artist to my list view and sort after that. It still acts up. It can't for some reason keep the correct collections together, eventhough they are set as a collection in options.
But i don't really, keeping collections together didn't used to be a problem before. But i will keep trying some different things. But it's pretty annoying, that iTunes has such trouble with this.
I really have a pretty tighty library, everything is named and set up correctly (haha, or apparently not).
But thanks for the help.

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

How do make iTunes keep songs by various artists in their original albums?

How do I keep iTunes from splitting up albums like Santana's Supernatural or +70's Gold+ into numerous albums with each of the various artists listed separately? Also, I would like to be able to sync those albums with my iPod so that all of Eric Clapton's +Cream of Clapton+ is in one place and not split into collections with the various groups he recorded the songs with together.

Select a track you want to edit and use the right-click context menu or CTRL-I to *Get Info.* To edit common data for multiple tracks choose the first track, then use combinations of SHIFT-click to extend the selection and CTRL-click to add or remove individual items, then invoke the *Get Info.* dialog as above.
Here are my track titles for *The Cream Of Clapton*:
Layla \[As Derek & The Dominos\]
Badge \[As Cream\]
I Feel Free \[As Cream\]
Sunshine Of Your Love \[As Cream\]
Crossroads \[Live\] \[As Cream\]
Strange Brew \[As Cream\]
White Room \[As Cream\]
Bell Bottom Blues \[As Derek & The Dominos\]
Cocaine
I Shot The Sheriff
After Midnight
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Lay Down Sally
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Wonderful Tonight
Let It Grow
Promises
I Can't Stand It
Each track has the Artist & *Album Artist* set to *Eric Clapton* (Info tab). *Part of a Compilation* (Options tab) is set to No. The album is properly organised in iTunes, my son's iPod and my iPhone. Hopefully, taken together with my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, you'll now be able to see what needs to be done for your other problem albums, otherwise feel free to ask for more clarification.
tt2

Is it possible to sort a 2CD compilation album where each CD has a different "album artist" together as one album in iTunes?

I have an album which I am trying to sort correctly in iTunes.
It has 2CDs of tracks by various artists, it is set up as a 'compilation' and I have 'album artist' set up.
As far as I can see all the settings are correct, however CD1 is a compilation of tracks remixed by "artist A" and CD2 is a compilation of tracks remixed by "artist B" therefore becasue each disc has a different album artist, the album is split into two seperate albums on album view.
Is there any way to get this to display as one album?
The album is released as "Artist A" so for now I have set that name as the 'album artist' for CD2 as well to get round it but would ideally like to have the second CD labelled correctly with the second artist's information.
I suppose I could also use "Arist A / Artist B" for both CDs but would prefer not to do this as well so that it would be grouped with other (solo) albums from these artists.
Cheers for any help!

Your options are to treat this as one collective album by the joint Album Artists, or as two separate albums by them as individuals, or I suppose you could duplicate the entire album and do both.
tt2

Artists on new I-pod Nano looks at Album Artists not Artists so a whole load of Artists from complilation albums sit e.g. in a Various Artists bucket - how do I sort this

Artists on new I-pod Nano looks at Album Artists not Artists so a whole load of Artists from complilation albums sit e.g. in a Various Artists bucket - how do I sort this

I think it looks at the Artist field, if Album Artist is blank. So, for the songs on affected albums, you can try removing the "Various Artists" entry for Album Artist field (in iTunes). Try this on one affected album, to see if it does what you want.
NOTE: In iTunes, you can select multiple songs at the same time (such as all songs on an album), do a Get Info (right-click selection - Get Info) on selection, and remove the entry for Album Artist for all selected songs at the same time, from the Info window.

When I download my i tunes music from computer it does not keep my greatest hits albums from certain artists together it scrambles them with other artists is this because of the way I have my music library on my computer set up.

When I download my i tunes music from computer it does not keep my greatest hits albums from certain artists together it scrambles them with other artists is this because of the way I have my music library on my computer set up.

See Grouping tracks into albums.
tt2

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

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

Use Album Artists causes repeat values of Various Artists

The obvious implication of the new *Use Album Artist* feature in the Colum Browser is that only Album Artist values will be listed and further that each will be listed only once, sorted by the value of Album Artist or Sort Album Artist. It may be that the previous build (where the feature was introduced) did just this but I have noticed that the current build with Group Compilations turned off will, for example, list the value Various Artists at multiple locations in the Artist column in the browser.
For example, say we have a playlist with albums by Alice, Charlie, Eric & Grace together with a compilation featuring artists Bob, Dave & Fiona with an album artist value of "Various Arists".
With *Use Album Artists* turned on and *Group Compilations* turned off I would expect I would expect the artist panel in the column browser to read:
Alice
Charlie
Eric
Grace
Various Artists
but what we actualy get is:
Alice
Various Artists
Charlie
Various Artists
Eric
Various Artists
Grace
In other words each different value used for Album Artist with compilations, Various Artist, Original Cast, etc. may be listed multiple times at multiple locations within the Artist column instead of just once as expected.
So, is it just me? Anybody still on 9.1.0.79 or a Mac build care to confirm if they see the same?
tt2

Compilations need a value for album artist to keep them connected on an iPhone as I've noted elsewhere. However exploring the problem further it isn't even about compilations & various artists, it was just working with them that brought it to my attention. A more accurate description of the problem is:
With the new *Use Album Artists* feature turned on the artist pane fails to re-sort when you change the value of Album Artist or Sort Album Artist and does not update until you close and re-open iTunes.
E.g. Change "Albert King" to "King, Albert" in either Album Artist, Sort Album Artist or both and the entry in the Artists pane will stay put under A. Close iTunes and re-open and it will have moved to K.
I have already sent feedback with a link to this thread. Again it would be useful if any Mac or Win 9.1.0.79 users could confirm if they see the same behaviour.
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

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.

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

Itunes renaming songs and tracks to the incorrect ones, e.g. renaming all Various Artists to be Gym Class Heroes when played on my ipod, and incorrectly renaming tracks at random.

Also some songs are imported twice and named different things? I dont know why itunes has done this, and its on purchased products mainly.
I have switched back all the various artists defaults once, and it has just switched it back when synced with my ipod. How can i solve this issue?

There may be some inconsistency in the capitalizations, or some of the tracks may be marked as Disc 1 of 1 while others are Disc <Blank> of <Blank> See Grouping tracks into albums for more details.
tt2

Keeping 'Various Artists' together while sorting ...

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