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.

Similar Messages

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

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

Linking songs to multiple albums

Is there anyway that you can link a song to multiple albums in your iTunes library? I find that I often have songs that appear on several different albums - for instance they may appear on the original studio album, but then also appear on Greatest Hits albums or compilation albums as well. I'd like to be able to link the song so it shows up in the track listings for every album it appears on - without having to have multiple copies of the song on my Ipod Touch.
Does anyone know of anyway to do this?

*Is there anyway that you can link a song to multiple albums in your iTunes library?*
No there's not. iTunes doesn't have an option to allow a single song to be linked to more than one album. As you've discovered, if a song appears on more than one album you need multiple copies of it. You can send feedback/feature requests directly to Apple at this link and provide them with your comments. Maybe a future version of iTunes will incorporate a multi-album option: Apple Product Feedback

Assign song to multiple albums?

Is there a way to assign a song to multiple albums? For instance, if I want a track to show in Greatest Hits and also the real album it's from, I need to have the song loaded twice; once for each album. Is there a way around this? I know some people use the comments for workarounds, but I don't want to have to use special searches just to find these oddballs.
Windows XP Pro

Is there a way to assign a song to multiple albums?
Unfortunately, there isn't, snowon.
There is a direct one to one relation between a song file and its listing in iTunes.
If you would like to join the list of people who would like to see this changed in the future, submit your feedback to Apple by filling out the form at the bottom of this page .

Assigning a song to multiple albums

I've been collecting a nice library by now and I really like iTunes, but there is one thing not present (or I can't find it).
The option to assign a song to multiple albums, I have a lot of physical CD's digitalized in iTunes and almost a quarter of these songs are present on multiple CD's, as a result, I've got a lot of double songs in iTunes.
Is there a way to do this in the present version if iTunes, and if not, consider this a suggestion for a point of improvement.

Good Morning, NBeat, and welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Presently iTunes can only make a one-to-one reference of a song file to a library entry.
Your suggestion would better be made by submitting by submitting the form on this Apple Support page .

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......

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.

Adding 1 Song to Multiple Albums

Is there any way to add a single song to multipule albums in iTunes without duplicating the file?
Example: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville was released on "Changes in Latitides, Changes in Attitudes" album. It was then re-released on "Songs You Know By Heart" as well as "Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads".
Is there a way to assign a single file so that it shows up on multiple albums with the corisponding artwork, track number, etc. without duplicating the file over and over? I have run into this situation several times with several different artists and it would be helpfull when you search for an album, to have all of the tracks on that album show up.
I am running OS X Lion 10.7 with iTunes 10.4.
Any advice would be appriciated. Thanks.

Send 'em feedback: <http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html>.

I have extra tracks of the same song,plus extra albums showing of the same album in their relevant lists how can i remove the extra ones safely?.

Please advise, i have somehow downloaded some extra tracks of the same songs, plus their relavant albums showing in songs/albums lists on my ipod nano 7th gen,how can i remove the unwanted extra songs/albums safely. Please note i am a newcomer to using a ipod nano/uploading,downloading music.

Hi Myketyke,
Welcome to the Support Communities!
Since you are syncing your iPod nano to your computer, the best option is to remove the duplicates from the iTunes library on your computer. Then resync your device. The article below will show you how:
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2905
Cheers,
- Judy

Assign Song To Multiple Albums (i.e. greatest hits)

Hi guys
I was wondering whether there was a organised way on itunes to assign a particular song to more than one album. Not as a duplicate, but rather so the same song appears within two albums (or more). An example with this, for instance, will be with having all the studio Led Zeppelin albums, but wanting the greatest hits compilation album to feature select songs from earlier albums without the need to duplicate the songs?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

To not cater to compilation albums, or situations where the same song appears on several different albums is, quitr frankly, rubbish.
That situation is catered to, and here's how: You buy or rip an album, you get a file of that track. You buy or rip another album with the same song, and you get another version/copy of that track. Each album has one.
I suppose what baffles me is the decision to omit something like that and force people to have big gaps in their greatest hits or compilation albums, or have duplicte songs to fill in the gaps.
"Force" is a bit dramatic, but if you'd like to express your opinion or suggestions to Apple, here is the link:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

New iPod Touch, duplicated albums with same songs in each album?

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some help. I got a new iPod touch today in replacement of my old 8G one, and i transferred all my music okay, but when i went onto my albums option on my ipod, it listed several of the same albums with same songs on them, eg. my Watchmen soundtrack appears at least 7 times, all with the same songs. why is this? and i was it only with some of my music? can anybody help me please?

an ID3 Tag is the data that is used to properly identify the music that is playing on the track. For instance, if you have a song playing on your iPod, it'll tell you the song name and artist, and what disc it's on. That's what the ID3 Tag is responsible for. Otherwise it'd just read the filename of the track and call it like that. No organization whatsoever.

Itunes song in multiple albums but only appearing once

Hi
I'm having an issue, I have purchased several albums, which have the same song on, such as the main album for that artist, then a compilation, however the song is only appearing once, ie if I go to the main album it will be there, then go to the compilation and it's missing, rather than been there as a duplicate, it's missing and I have to download it as 'show complete album' after I do this, it'll disappear from the main album and just appear on the compilation!
Someone tell me this isn't right?
Many regards

Polydorus is quite right. If you're keen to have your library organised neatly you may be interested in some of my thoughts at http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp
tt2

How to fix: Music corrupts when transferred to ipod. This happens with the same songs on multiple ipods and the song plays regularly in itunes...

Basically, I've already described the problem. Some songs play perfectly fine in itunes but the same songs corrupt when placed on different devices of varying age. Therefore, I don't think there's something wrong with the original file and I don't think there's something wrong with all of my devices. Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

Hello there klundie,
I was researching the issue you are experiencing, and have come to the conclusion that the songs in question may need to be converted and re imported. This article, iTunes: How to convert a song to a different file format outlines how to re import songs that are already in your itunes library, which I believe will resolve the issue.
You can find the article here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1550
To convert a song's file format:
Open iTunes Preferences.
Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences.
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click the General button, then click the Importing Settings button in the second section of the window.
From the Import Using pop-up menu, choose the encoding format that you want to convert the song to, then click OK to save the settings.
Select one or more songs in your library, then from the Advanced menu, choose one of the following (The menu item changes to show what's selected in your Importing preferences):
Create MP3 version
Create AAC version
Create AIFF version
Create WAV version
Create Apple Lossless version
If you haven't imported some songs into iTunes yet, you can import and convert them at the same time. This will create a converted copy of the file in your iTunes Library based on your iTunes preferences. To convert all the songs in a folder or on a disk, hold down the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows) and choose Advanced > ConvertImport preference setting. The Import preference setting will match what you chose in step 3. iTunes will prompt you for the location of the folder or disk you want to import and convert. All the songs in the folder or on the disk will be converted. Note: Some purchased songs are encoded using a protected AAC format that prevents them from being converted. iTunes Plus purchases are not protected and can be converted.
The song in its original format and the newly converted song appear in your library.
All the best,
Sterling

My 'songs' list in my library has all songs listed twice. How do I remove all duplicates without removing the same songs in my albums and playlists?

My 'songs' list in my library are all listed twice. How do I delete the duplicates without removing the songs from my playlists and albums?

Hello, juliego
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Here is a helpful guide on how to identify and delete duplicate media from your iTunes library.
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2905
Cheers,
Jason H.

Same song on multiple albums...

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