Songs linked to multiple albums

I am one of those people who look after their itunes library, making sure each song has the correct name and artist, as well as the correct album artwork. I have about 200-300 duplicated songs, but some of the songs belong to multiple abums.
For example the song "Don't Cry" by Guns and Roses, is duplicated and can be found in the album "Live Era '87-'93" and "Use Your Illusion II"
I could delete one of them but then I would not have complete album. But I wonder if it is possible to make one song belong to multiple albums without having multiple songs?
Also, it is possible would it also work on an iPod?
Sorry about my explation, I am no very good when it comes to explaining things.
iMac G5 2Ghz 17" 512 RAM Mac OS X (10.4.3)

You explained it very well, but unfortunately there's no way to link one song to multiple albums. Each song only has one album field so there's no way to make iTunes list it under two album names.

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Songs appearing on multiple albums

iTunes v7.6.1.9
I think I probably know the answer to this but if someone can confirm it I can sleep easy.
I have over 5500 tracks loaded into iTunes and there are a number of duplicate songs that appear on more than album. Is there a way of telling iTunes this so that I can save space on the pod?

At present if a song is on multiple albums iTunes requires that you have a separate file for each one, it can't at present allocate multiple albums to a single song file. If this is something you'd like to see in a future version you can send feedback/feature requests directly to Apple at this link: Apple Product Feedback

Songs in different, multiple albums without duplicate files

I am looking for a way to have a song in the original album list and in other albums such as greatest hits or compilations without having multiples of the exact same file in iTunes and on my computer.
For example...the song "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, appears on the original album release "Moving Pictures" and subsequent album releases of "Chronicles", "Gold" and "The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987".
How can I have the song in all the albums without having 4 files of the same mp3 import into iTunes?

This scheme won't work if the files in question have tags. While it is possible to get two or more entires in the iTunes database to point to the same physical file, when the association is made iTunes will read the tag from the file, then update its copy of that data so you just end up with say two copies of track 1 from album A instead of track 1 from album A and track 5 from album B as intended. There are also likely to be issues if iTunes is set to "Keep the iTunes Media folder organised".
It might work if you disable iTunes options to keep tracks organised and used media files without tags, e.g. wav format. I know you can strip the tag from an mp3 in iTunes (convert id3 > None) but it may still get reinstated next time you try to amend any data.
Finally, when you put data onto an Apple device each track needs a unique source file. I'm not certain of the details, but I have found in the past that if you have two entries connected to the same physical file then, when you sync, only one entry makes it into the device's library. This can create the situation where a number of files are always copied over during each sync even though no updates have been made to the library.
Yes, it would be feasible for Apple to re-engineer iTunes so that it could hold some kind of virtual entry consisting of the tag information and a link to the data from another file. This could all be done within the library alone, or "someone" could develop an open standard that iTunes could later adopt. However I see no incentive for anyone to do so, and it certainly isn't coming real soon. So yes, if space is an becoming an issue, start saving for a bigger drive.
tt2
Weird, I started composing my reply before Polydorus had posted his response above and independently picked the same example track descriptions. Perhaps one of us is a redundant copy of the other?
Message was edited by: turingtest2

"manually manage music..." missing songs when moving multiple albums at once

Since updating to iTunes 10.6.1.7, when adding songs to my iPhone (iPhone 4, iOS 5.1) it does not fully copy every track/song.
I have it set to "manually manage music and videos" ...when I am moving multiple albums to the thing at once, the earlier albums only copy the songs started before I select the next album. Consequently, I find that I only have partial albums for almost everything. I suppose I could be patient and wait for each album to download before selecting another album, but this used to work before and took a lot less time. (I would drag multiple albums into my iPhone and it would queue up all of the tracks(songs) and correctly download asynchronously.)
Is this a known bug or is there something I am doing wrong? (As always, I did some searching for answers but came up empty on this one...)
Thanks in advance for your help!
MikeY

The order iTunes is showing the tracks can be changed. Select the album column heading to get tracks list in album order. Normally within an album the tracks will list in track order when viewing this way.

Why is iTunes splitting my albums songs up into multiple albums

i have ticked the box for varies artists and in the sorting tab i have even done cd1 and cd2 but they are still showing up as albums.

Hi, trucker2006.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
I understand that music you are importing is not grouped together in iTunes. Here are some steps that will help you with this.
Why aren't songs with the same album art grouped together?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1468
Cheers,
Jason H.

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

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

How do I sort so that all the songs for a particular album show up under only one album? Example: Eminem 'Encore' has multiple artists on the entire track list.

Example: Eminem 'Encore' has multiple artists on the entire track list. Several songs will just list Eminem as the artist, but a lot will have Eminem, FEATURING...so and so. Each song that has "FEATURING" shows up as a different album, so if you are not paying attention, and pull all the songs from a particular album over to your ipod, for example, and you don't see that not all the songs are there, you won't get them all to transfer.
Is there anyway to correct this?

Each tune gets a file name - that is how iTunes works. iTunes is a data base manager.
In a PlayList a reference is created that will link to a specific tune.
You can take the tunes that you do not want listed under a particular album name and change the album name using 'Get Info' for that tune(s) from the iTunes window.
MJ

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......

How do I stop iTunes from breaking out all the songs in one album into multiple albums?

How do I stop iTunes from breaking out all the songs in one album into multiple albums when the artist has many collaborators on the different songs, for example Timbaland? I want to just listen to the full album with all the songs, instead of having to play every song separately.

For your solution, see Steve MacGuire's helpful article: http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp

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>.

Show or view multiple album art for one song on iPhone 4?

Is it possible to show or view multiple album artwork for one song on an iPhone 4, especially on the now playing screen? I figured since iTunes has this feature then the iPhone should too. Can I download an app that does this? I've searched but couldn't find any, maybe I'm using other keywords. Could anyone point me in the right direction with this?

Darn. I hope an app is designed to be able to do this soon. From what I've seen this feature isn't really in demand so it could take a while. Thanks for replying.

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

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

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

Songs linked to multiple albums

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