iTunes: Another interesting little wrinkle

[mjzee]

I've discovered something that's interesting in terms of how the iTunes program/database works.  As I've mentioned in the Savory thread, I've been having issues with having the album downloaded.  Today, when doing an album search for "Savory" within iTunes, a puzzling thing happened.  Two different results came up: one with the full album (all 18 songs), and another with only the first 5 songs.  Both listed Various Artists as the artist, but they were not next to each other - each search result only showed one album.  Each instance had different albums to the right and left of it; in other words, they were in different parts of the database.  I didn't understand, because databases are not supposed to act like this.  

So I used Grab to compare the info on a song (Body And Soul) that was present in both versions.  Here's what I found: The full version had a blank "album artist" field.  The 5 song version had Various Artists entered in the "album artist" field.   Both had the "compilation" field checked.

*** If an album has a blank "album artist" field but the "compilation" field is checked, that album is displayed under a separate section for Compilations, which is displayed after Z in the A-Z alphabetical listing.

*** If an album has Various Artists entered in the "album artist" field, that album is included under V in the A-Z alphabetical listing.

This means compilation albums are displayed in two different sections of the program, and I haven't been seeing all my compilation albums together.  

The solution is to be consistent: either keep the "album artist" field blank for all compilations (but make sure to have the "compilation" field checked), or enter Various Artists in the "album artist" field for all compilations.  Then they will all display together.

 

[Scott Dolan]

As much of an Apple guy that I am, I will say this: while their hardware is impeccable, their software usually ranges from partially acceptable, to downright infuriating. 

I'm in an abusive relationship with iTunes, but we stay together for the kids. 

Well that, and I couldn't play my library through my main system in the living room without it...