Multiple albums same song

I have several duplicate songs that are on different albums, is there a way to link the one song to the various almums?
This would let me reduce the overall size needed to store the music.
Thanks

As a programmer I can think of ways to do it. One way would be a custom file format that holds a tag and links to another file for the audio data. However I can't think of any way it would benefit Apple, Amazon, or anyone else who sells media. (Though for all I know they may employ something similar at their end of the supply chain). I'm also not aware of any other media player that has implemented anything like it. If space is becoming a problem it is time to think about migrating your library to a bigger drive, not worry about ways to shave a little bit out of it.
tt2

Similar Messages

Multiple Albums, one song?

Is there any way to tag one song as being on more than one album? And example is I have the Elvis song "In the Ghetto" in my library twice, once as part of he "Elvis in Memphis" album and again as part of "30", greatest hits collection.
It would be nice to open up the space on my hard drive and iPod if I only had one copy that connected to both albums.
Megan

I find I am more interested in the album it originally came from. So when I put CDs in my iTunes library, if I later put in a greatest hits album by the same artist, after verifying they are indeed the exact same versions as the original albums, I simply delete the greatest hits version from iTunes leaving only those that are not already on their from their original albums.
After all, isn't it more cool to be able to cite the original album it is on? Do you really care which greatest hits album it is also on?
Patrick

Bought an single then the album, same song wasn't downloaded

Hi I bought a single, love me again John Newman then decided to buy the album.
The album didn't download this song which I've paid for, annoying when you pick an album to play and it's missing a track. How can I fix this?
Thanks

Hello Grovetrotter
Check to see if Show iTunes in the Cloud is check to see if it is downloaded also you can check in your purchase history by going to the iTunes Store and click on Purchases. Then navigate to the album and see if it shows that it is downloaded or has a cloud symbol. If it has a cloud symbol, then click it to start downloading. If it is showing that it is downloaded, then you would need to search for it in your iTunes library and remove it to download it properly. If that has not resolved the issue, then report the issue to the iTunes Store.
Downloading past purchases from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
How to report an issue with your iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, or iBooks Store purchase
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1933
Regards,
-Norm G.

Same song on multiple albums...

this is kindof picky but it's bugging me:
a lot of times on "greatest hits" or "best of..." compilations i already have an album a song is taken from. i understand i can put the same song in multiple playlists but it's info categories only allow a song file to be associated with one album and position in that album.
what i want is not to have five copies of the exact same song just because it's been included in several compilations as well as an original album. does that make sense?

Yes, it makes sense.
No, you cannot do it.

Why does my music from one album show up as two separate albums: one with all the songs in it, and another with two or three. Why is it that when i delete the incomplete album it takes the same songs out of the complete album also?

When I first imported music from my CDs onto my iTunes library, all the songs appeared, but those with the album artist and guest/additional artists they appeared in their own album under the same album name. After searching through iTunes help and support, I learned how to put all the songs under the same album (part of a compalition) and add the additional songs information, artwork, lyrics, etc. After getting all the music (imported from my CDs) onto the iTunes library and in their album. I synced my music onto my iPhone. (My iPhone is a 3GS)
Once the music was on my iPhone i noticed that the albums appeared in 2s again. One was the complete album with all the songs, song info, etc. together (solo tracks and/or one with multiple artists) and another album of the same name, artwork, etc. with 2-4 of the songs from that album. Since all I saw need for was to have the completed album on my iPhone, I deleted the album with only 2-4 of the songs. When I went back and selected the completed album, all the songs I had deleted from the incomplete album were also deleted from the completed album too! I just couldn't figure out why it did that and my my friends with iPods and iPhones said they didn't know what caused it either. So now I'm here with the idea how to fix this problem.
If anyone has a solution to this problem, please reply. It will be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure why this happens, but I found a workaround. Below the album title it will list the artist(s). The issue seems to happen when there are multiple artists. For example, an Album titled "Over the Sea to Skye" has The Chieftains and James Galway as artists. Some tracks (for whatever reason) will list only one of these and result in the playlist showing what appears to be multiple albums. You can click on the artists and it will highlight. Paste in what is appearing on the other "albums" and it will then show as one:
Hope that is somewhat clear enough to help. Doesn't fix whatever the issue is but it is a workaround. For me this is only happening with CD's that I have imported.

HT2905 I have multiple album titles of the same name with different artists. How can I get them to go under one album title again?

I have multiple album titles of the same name with different artists. How can I get them to go under one album title again?

In iTunes(on a Mac or PC) just tap on 'Albums' rather than 'Artists' and you'll see them all together.
You may find that there are songs mislabelled. In which case right tap on the Album or Artist and tap 'Get Info', then change to the correct name and the songs will join the rest of the songs for that Artist or Album.
Then resync with your iPhone and all will be well.

Why is my mac syncing multiple version of the same song?

I wonder if anyone could help with this:
My sync takes so long sometimes and it often syncs 2 or 3 versions of the same song on loads of albums.
I have to go through manually one by one and delete them off my phone, and sometimes i only stumble across duplicates by accident.
Its very frustrating.
Im on OSX 10.9.2 with an iPhone 5s running the latest version of iOS.
Thanks.

eek that sounds unpleasant. Are the songs different in any way?
Are these albums using playlists to sync?
If so…check that the the playlists on the Mac don't have the duplicate copies - in this case the same file will be reused (not using extra space on the device).
Do they show as multiple files in iOS's Albums view? You may need to tap 'More…' and then 'Edit' to add the 'albums tab' to the bottom menu. Save and check for duplicates.
I'd reboot everything, backup the device to iTunes, disable music syncing to empty the device and resync to see if that helps, if it fails consider resetting the iPhone. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
Try another sync. If that is OK restore the backup & see if it comes back.

Multiple albums of same name

im having a problem with my ipod making Multiple albums of same name in itunes it shows all the songs under the same album name but on the ipod in album view the same album comes up multiple times..how can i fix that?

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
See my previous post on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One album, too many covers
tt2

Cover flow albums show songs from multiple albums

I love my iPod classic. the only issue I'm having is that when reviewing some albums via the coverflow feature, about 5 albums shows songs from multiple albums. they play correctly. It appears just the listing is messed up. I've tried deleting, adding the albums back to the library and resyncing, but it's still happening. Anybody seen this?

Try *One cover, too many tracks* below:
*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 or put the tracks in their normal order. 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.
*Missing Artist or 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*
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*. If the album is not a compilation however, any tracks which list guest artists may be treated as separate items. Filling in the Album Artist field is enough to link things in iTunes. Sadly, however, the iPod ignores the Album Artist field when grouping albums so this is only a partial solution. 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 that this is information about the track as distinct from the 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

Multiple albums for one song?

Is there any way have a song show up in multiple albums without duplicating the song? I have a lot of these, mostly songs that show up on soundtracks. I want 'Whiter Shade of Pale' to show up on 'Procol Harum' and 'The Big Chill Soundtrack.'

You can always add the other album names to the comments section of the file if it means that much to me.
Personally, I only list the name of the collection (soundtrack, best of, etc.) if it is the only version I have of it. But if I later import the original album, any of those songs that are also on a best of collection (after verifying they are truly the same versions) I delete the Best of or soundtrack version and retain the one with the original information (album name, date, etc.).
Patrick

One song in multiple albums?

I know this has not been possible in earlier versions of iTunes, but I hope Apple has addressed it by now. It makes a great deal of sense. If, for example, one has a song in the album in which it was originally released and also has a copy as part of a Greatest Hits album, we should not have to retain two copies of the song to be able to hear it no matter which album we choose to play. Aperture and iPhoto seem to manage this with images—why not in iTunes? Is it possible to do this yet?
If not yet possible, could someone remind me of the feedback URL?
Thanks,
Ben

i personally would love this.....
I have all of an artists albums.... PLUS i have all of the singles from that album...
I would love the same track that is on the album, and on the single to show in multiple album titles....
Eg the song;
Step Back In Time is Track 02 on the Album "Rythm of love"
however it is Track 01 on the single "Step Back In Time - CD 1"
and also
Track 01 on the Single "Step Back In Time - CD 2"
So i have to choose which album i want this to show on... as i am unable to have the one track show up on multiple albums..... even tho it is all the same track....... yet, if i listen to "Step Back In Time - CD 1" it means i cannot listen to the title track as it is linked to a different album......

Consolidating one song on multiple albums.

hello there, i have garth brooks whole discography, but there are a lot of the same songs on multiple albums. is there an easy way to consolidate the tracks but keep them on all the albums so i don't have repeats?

No.
tt2

MULTIPLE ALBUMS ON IPOD, SAME MUSIC.

I have been having this problem for a long time now and have finally decided to ask for some help.. The problem is that when i put an album on my iPod touch from itunes sometimes it may show 2 or even 3 albums of the same album. Though all of the albums have the exact same songs. here's an example -
this is quite annoying. also when creating a "smart playlist" for "recently added" on my iPod touch it works in itunes but completely messes up on my ipod.
just thought i would ask everything i need help with, hopefully someone can help!

iTunes and iPod have slightly different rules for ordering and grouping content. In particular the iPod does not observe Album Artist, each may have different settings for how to treat compilations, and inconsistencies in certain fields can have unexpected results, such as generating multiple covers for the same album.
See Grouping tracks into albums for more information.
tt2

Same songs from different albums won't download at the same time

Hi Guys I need your help. So i purchased some albums, Some of them have the same songs, and I want those songs to appear on both albums they're in, but it wont. When the song is downloaded on Album 1, it would disappear from album 2. For example, i purchased an EP and then the deluxe version of it later on., the songs i already have from EP, would no longer download to appear in the deluxe version.. Can I do something about it so I can have the complete copy of each album I purchased?

Historically, I've always kept prior versions installed because sometimes, albeit infrequently, I need to access extensions that aren't compatible with the newer versions of CS. Since I can run DW & Fireworks CS4 together, I'm inclined to leave them installed.
I've thought about uninstalling CS 5, but I don't think that would resolved my issue. I've already tried most of what's in the Adobe troubleshooting suggestions save for creating a new administrator account.
I think I'll hobble along with my current workarounds since I'll be migrating to a new computer very soon, which should acomplish what creating a new administrator account would. I'll probably limit the reinstall to CS 6 to eliminate any issues that might be related to having multiple versions installed, which in reality shouldn't be an issue because again, I've always done that successfully in the past.
Thanks for the suggestion just the same.

ITunes Match and multiple copies of the same song

I have multiple copies of the same song in my iTunes collection. For example, the song is on the original album, the "Best Of" album and on the "25th Anniversary" album.
Do we know how iTunes Match handle such situations?
MotionMan

Oh, and I forgot the live album, too!
MotionMan

Multiple albums same song

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