Better Artist Classification - iTunes Feature/Hack?

ishawnishawn
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I would like to know if there is a way to take an artist name and put him or her on a "faculty" of an album so that whenever I search for an artist all the albums they are on will pop up. I understand that this feature isn't needed, and wouldn't be used for common "rock" music but for classical and jazz stuff, it would be very helpful. Is there some sort of hack to get this? Is there a way I can suggest to Apple to make such a feature? I went into iTunes and to the link that says provide suggestions but it was for music, not a feature of the actual app.



Thanks!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Er. Huh?



    Artist/Composer/Comments don't provide the desired flexibility?
  • Reply 2 of 20
    banchobancho Posts: 1,517member
    I use the comments section to add any keywords I determine relevant to a track. I include words, names, etc... that don't fit neatly anywhere else. This scheme serves me well in conjunction with smart playlists.



    There are also the composer and grouping fields you could use as well.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Okay, I'll stick with comments for the time being... but I think a sleeker integration would be with that. I notice this most in the browse mode in my library... would be helpful.
  • Reply 4 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Hmm... for classical, are you not using the Composer field for the original, well, composer, and the Artist field for the performing artist? That's pretty much what they're there for... :|



    Call me wacky, but it seemed obvious to me?



    Let me put this another way... what info *other* than composer/artist are you looking to add?
  • Reply 5 of 20
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Okay, I'll do this. Joe Pass is a jazz guitarist. He has recorded many albums of solo jazz guitar (just him) that obviously reflect he's the only person on the album. Now, he has also recorded in other groups two other CDs that reflect this are "Count Basie & The Kansas City Seven" and "The Trio" with Oscar Peterson and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. What I would like to do, is under the Browse window (which is mainly what I use) have Joe Pass, and then have three albums next to it, his solo album, the Count Basie & The Kansas City Seven, and the Trio album. I also want to be able to go to Count Basie and see his name with the Kansas City Seven album, go to Oscar's tab and see the Trio, and I want to go to Neils' tab and see "The Trio". I think what Apple could do is use a comma as a separator that tells iTunes to classify this album under these names. Simple as that. Then, I can go to say, Joe Pass on my iPod and see all the albums Joe Pass has done. This is why I want more than a comment or composer feature. And in Jazz, a long of songs are standards, and were composed by someone completely different which doesn't relate to the group at all. Sometimes.



    Most jazz albums do not use a specific name, they simply list the faculty on the CD. I would be fine with that, but sometimes I want to search by musician correlating to the album.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    banchobancho Posts: 1,517member
    Ok, I had the same problem with artists that showed up in different bands. I used my comments to track their whereabouts . After all is said and done, I have a rather richly populated comment field.



    I love smart playlists.
  • Reply 7 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Ah, got it. I was thinking you wanted to search in iTunes, and that works fine, but you're right, on the iPod it is harder. Gotcha.



    Hmm. While this might be doable, I don't see it happening for one reason - Apple considers the UI on the iPod to be, pretty much, just for playback. This is one reason the UI is so simple... it can get away with it, because the *real* UI is back in iTunes. They're a matched set. iTunes is the modifying, searching, manipulator interface, and the iPod is the on-the-go minimalist playback interface. In theory.
  • Reply 8 of 20
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Ah, got it. I was thinking you wanted to search in iTunes, and that works fine, but you're right, on the iPod it is harder. Gotcha.



    Hmm. While this might be doable, I don't see it happening for one reason - Apple considers the UI on the iPod to be, pretty much, just for playback. This is one reason the UI is so simple... it can get away with it, because the *real* UI is back in iTunes. They're a matched set. iTunes is the modifying, searching, manipulator interface, and the iPod is the on-the-go minimalist playback interface. In theory.



    True, but if John Coltrane is selected on the iPod, his albums show up that are listed as John Coltrane, not Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane Live At Carnegie Hall. That's what I'd really like to have, especially with a car-mounted iPod/headunit to use on 600-miles trips home from college. After so many, it's hard to remember who was on who with what.
  • Reply 9 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Right, I got what you meant. Interesting idea, but it has some underlying gotchas that are legacy issues (such as the file layout mimicing the artist organization...). One to ponder.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Right, I got what you meant. Interesting idea, but it has some underlying gotchas that are legacy issues (such as the file layout mimicing the artist organization...). One to ponder.



    Ouch.
  • Reply 11 of 20
    project2501project2501 Posts: 433member
    I think windows media player does just that, it uses semicolon to separate different artists in artist tag. This is definitely something iTunes lacks, It's hard to understand why apple refuses to implement it. Other thing that WMP excels in is acquiring artist/record info from internet database, people say that it promotes piracy, but at least people know whose property they are stealing, and maybe if they like it, they know who to promote. WMP is horrible player, but in someways it is still better than iTunes
  • Reply 12 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Project2501

    Other thing that WMP excels in is acquiring artist/record info from internet database, people say that it promotes piracy, but at least people know whose property they are stealing, and maybe if they like it, they know who to promote. WMP is horrible player, but in someways it is still better than iTunes



    Select track. Advanced -> Get CD Track Names.



    Or is this not what you were talking about?
  • Reply 13 of 20
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Project2501

    I think windows media player does just that, it uses semicolon to separate different artists in artist tag.



    That angers me.
  • Reply 14 of 20
    project2501project2501 Posts: 433member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Select track. Advanced -> Get CD Track Names.



    Or is this not what you were talking about?



    I know that iTunes can fetch names for cd tracks from net, but I was talkin of all music on your machine, those random mp3's as well



    Quote:

    Originally posted by iShawn

    That angers me.



    Why does it anger you? That MS actually made something really useful or that your beloved iTunes doesn't know what to do with tracks named like that?
  • Reply 15 of 20
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Project2501

    Why does it anger you? That MS actually made something really useful or that your beloved iTunes doesn't know what to do with tracks named like that?



    Office has been useful for a long time, until I found everything I need done can be done natively with what comes with my mac out of the box (TextEdit - Word). In my own fantasy; I envisioned iTunes to be able to understand comma separators.
  • Reply 16 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Project2501

    I know that iTunes can fetch names for cd tracks from net, but I was talkin of all music on your machine, those random mp3's as well



    Right.



    I selected a random song in my library, that I'm 99.99999% sure I did not rip from a CD, nor buy at iTMS, and lo and behold, the menu item was available.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    kishankishan Posts: 732member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Right.



    I selected a random song in my library, that I'm 99.99999% sure I did not rip from a CD, nor buy at iTMS, and lo and behold, the menu item was available.



    The menu item is available, but when you try to get the info for a track that was not ripped using iTunes, an error message displays:



    "iTunes cannot get CD track names for songs that were not imported using iTunes.



    To allow iTunes to look for CD track names for this song, import the song again using iTunes."



    iTunes 6.0.4
  • Reply 18 of 20
    project2501project2501 Posts: 433member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by iShawn

    In my own fantasy; I envisioned iTunes to be able to understand comma separators.



    Ok, I would like to see this feature in iTunes as well, but I think that semicolon is better separator. Comma is actually used in some names so that it wouldn't work correctly all the time. Earth, Wind and Fire for example comes to my mind.





    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kishan

    The menu item is available, but when you try to get the info for a track that was not ripped using iTunes, an error message displays:

    "iTunes cannot get CD track names for songs that were not imported using iTunes.

    To allow iTunes to look for CD track names for this song, import the song again using iTunes."

    iTunes 6.0.4



    Thank you, for moment I started to question my memory, not that this proves anything, but still... ...besides find cd track names would be pretty stupid label for function that fetches info for all kinds of media.
  • Reply 19 of 20
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Alrighty, I stand corrected, chastened, and chastised.



    St00pid iTunes.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    areseearesee Posts: 776member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Project2501

    Ok, I would like to see this feature in iTunes as well, but I think that semicolon is better separator. Comma is actually used in some names so that it wouldn't work correctly all the time. Earth, Wind and Fire for example comes to my mind.



    I think this is a limitation in the Mac OS. Look around, it is the rare Mac database that has multiple, on-the-fly keywords and categories. (That is one thing I like about Outlook at work. The ability to have multiple categories and not to have to pre-load them into a special permanent list.) If it was easy to have multiple, short lived keywords I think your requested feature would be in placed and used elsewhere.



    Of course, I could be wrong.
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