iTunes - what's going on here?

[Encore]

I'm having a problem with metadata in iTunes. In short, the metadata displayed doesn't match the contents of the info-window:

 

 

As you can see, the artist field (kunstner) is empty, but the in the detail view, the artist is shown nevertheless.

 

Moreover, even though I fill out the album field, some recordings are still seen by iTunes as separate albums. This means that they are displayed several times in the album view, each with only some of the music files belonging to that album. This can be seen here:

 

 

What's going on here? There must be a mix-up of metadata somehow. The album in question - Music of the Spheres - is a downloaded album, so metadata *should* be OK from the record label.

 

I should add that I'm new to Macs, at least OSX. I am/was contemplating building a source system for my EmmLabs DAC consisting of a Hiface EVO or equivalent and a MacMini. I've found the iTunes metadata quite simple to edit on my wife's PC, especially the fact that one can select multiple tracks and assign i.e. the same composer to them.

 

[earther]

Looks to me like that album is part of a compilation. Also, you're looking at album info rather than song info (which is why you don't see the artist info)... go to list view, select a song from the album, get the info and then check or uncheck compilation to see if that helps.

 

[Encore]

Earther, thanks. Yes, the artist shows up when I choose Show info for only a single track. So that's explained. And checking the compilation setting of each file solved the problem with several listings of the album. It must because iTunes in the album view somehow uses the artist field as basis for showing albums. So that's also explained, I think. However, I had to open Show info for each individual file to check the compilation setting. Is there an easier way to do that for several tracks at the same time?

 

[Audio_ELF]

In the Options tab (Valg) you can change compilation tag for multiple tracks.

 

You may want, in the Info for the album, reenter the artist, that should reset everything to the same. Also check on the Sorting tab (Sortering) that the Sort Artist is the same - again re-enter the details to reset for all artists. Do the same for the Album Artist and Sort Album Artist.

 

That should get iTunes to see the whole album as a single artist.

 

Eloise

 

[Encore]

Thanks, Eloise. I overlooked that possibility in the Options tab. I'll also try to experiment with the various artist fields.

 

In fact, the limited selection of albums in my iTunes now is there to experiment with, so that I can get a grip of how to deal with tagging etc. if and when I convert and move my entire music collection to iTunes.

 

[Mister Wednesday]

Encore,

 

Here are links to some articles on the Web which I've found useful in helping to understand the underlying logic that the iTunes cataloguing software uses in sorting your albums:

 

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9910895#9910895

 

http://www.samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp

 

http://www.macworld.com/article/144726/2009/12/itunes_compilations.html

 

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10652572

 

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2391139&tstart=15

 

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-album-tagging-art-and-playlists-in-itunes/

 

And for a good general overview to using iTunes:

 

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-beginners-guide-to-itunes/

 

I have no affiliation with the authors of these articles or the websites where these articles reside.

 

Hope the articles are helpful to you.

 

Regards,

 

Mister Wednesday

 

[Encore]

Thanks, Wednesday. I'll give them a look in the weekend.