12-30-2010, 03:12 PM

I have a compilation album that is currently showing cover art individually/separately for every artist within the compilation. I want to consolidate the album to show the album art just once in my library when viewing in 'cover flow' mode.

Under 'get info' for each track, I have ticked the 'part of a compilation' check box.

I have identified the individual artists in the 'artist' field' and typed 'various' in the 'album artist' field.

Apparently I then have to select 'group compilations when browsing' under 'advanced' in iTunes Preferences. My problem is I cannot find the 'group compilations when browsing' option anywhere in my iTunes Preferences, under Advanced or anywhere else.

Any ideas? I am using iTunes v9.2.1 on OS X Tiger.

Thanks.

12-30-2010, 08:01 PM

Highlight one song in the album and do a Get Info. Head for the Artwork tab, highlight the cover, copy it - 'command' + 'C', close it.

Now highlight all the other songs in the album.Head for the same place, highlight the cover and paste - 'command' + 'V'.

See if that works for ya.

12-31-2010, 07:51 AM

Thanks Bob but I think you misunderstood me, or more likely, my original question is unclear.

The problem is that iTunes displays each song as an individual 'album' (because of the individual artists within the compilation). I want all the songs to appear as just the one 'compilation' album when viewing in Cover Flow...

12-31-2010, 08:04 AM

You could use the album artist tag for force iTunes to reorgnise it as one album. I assume you have already clicked the compilation button.

Otherwise, I have found that if the album is called Greatest Hits, or The Greatest Hits this can happen on iPods. Try renaming the album Greatest Hits - Tom Jones - that's just an example - I dont know what artist your album actually is

12-31-2010, 08:13 AM

Originally Posted by pod

Thanks Bob but I think you misunderstood me, or more likely, my original question is unclear.

The problem is that iTunes displays each song as an individual 'album' (because of the individual artists within the compilation). I want all the songs to appear as just the one 'compilation' album when viewing in Cover Flow...

Nope, don't think so.
You have an album with x # of songs by various artists and coverflow is showing x # of covers instead of only one.

The suggestion I provided works in many cases - give it a try.

Louishen's suggestion works for others - highlight all of the songs and do a get info - rename the album
(you could change it from Greatest Hits to Greatest Hits2) - then do the same to rename it back to what you want.

12-31-2010, 12:20 PM

Thanks Bob and louishen.

Ok... as Bob originally suggested, I tried copying the same album art in to all the other tracks. Didn't work.

Naming the album 'various artists' in the 'artist' field does bring all the individual tracks together so all the tracks now show as just the one album in coverflow but this now means that the individual artist's names are not shown any more.

Renaming the 'album artist' field (rather than the 'artist' field) as 'various artists' brings back the individual names but then shows each track in coverflow as an individual album in coverflow again!

Incidentally, re my original query about the 'group compilations when browsing' check box: I still cannot find it anywhere in my iTunes Preferences...

12-31-2010, 11:07 PM

I am not aware of any such check box in iTunes 9 or 10.
Don't really remember 8 any longer.


May know what you're doing now. This all depends on your sorting selection while in CoverFlow view.

Look at the list - if you have the 'artist' field highlighted - you are going to have a cover per artist per album - in alphabetical order based on the artists' name - there is no way around this.

Highlight the 'Album' field and you'll only have one cover per album.

You are not going to get a single album cover for an album with multiple artists while you have it sorted by artist.

Most of the titles I have with various artists have nothing in the 'Album Artist' field.
About the only time I change that field is for an album I've imported by a single artist, but has guest artists on the album.

Ex. I imported a Jason Mraz album today from Napster. While in the Album sort, it had one song listed as a separate album. Napster had tagged one song with 'Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillet' in the Album Artist field and the 'Artist' field. I changed the 'Album Artist' to 'Jason Mraz' in order to show only the single cover in Album sort.

However, that same album, while in 'Artist' sort is still going to show two covers because there are two different artists.

(Try sorting by Name - You'll have a the same cover shown in CoverFlow view as many times as you have songs in an album. I use the Grid view to adjust the tags related to Album Name and Album Artist. Then CoverFlow view sort of takes care of itself.)

01-01-2011, 11:20 AM

''Look at the list - if you have the 'artist' field highlighted - you are going to have a cover per artist per album - in alphabetical order based on the artists' name - there is no way around this.

Highlight the 'Album' field and you'll only have one cover per album.''

^ That sorted it. I should have spotted that! Many thanks for your help.

01-01-2011, 11:26 AM

Highlight all the songs from the complilation, then get info (cmd+i), now check the box "Album Artist", in the box type an artist for the compilation or just type the compilation name in there, that should bring them all together.

- Simon

01-04-2012, 09:08 AM

Pod -

The compilations browsing setting you're looking for is now under
View>Column browser> group compilations

Best,
Jason