Finally a solution to label tracks for "Compilations" in Apple Music app

[jimw]

I have l spent years of frustration in setting tags to place tracks in the "Compilations" category in Apple Music as I have been unable to locate this anywhere in my Internet searches. Recently I finally found the solution and actually it is quite simple.

Placing tracks in the compilations category primarily depends on the content of the Album Artist and a checkmark in the "Compilations" field under Details in the track "Get Info" listing.

The key to getting this to work for various tracks from different albums, artists, and composers is to set the Album Artist field to "Various Artists" in the GetInfo/Details window for the track. Then Set the Album Name to the same for all the tracks in the compilation. This becomes the name of the compilation. While this sets up the tracks for "Compilations", it might not get invoked immediately. To get that to happen, try the following:

• Quit the Music app and restart it
• Remove track info in GetInfo/Details
• Set the genre to be consistent for all tracks you which to be in the compilation in GetInfo/Details
• Check the sort list in GetInfo to ensure the the track is sorted by "Various Artists".

If all this fails, delete the track from the library, but DO NOT DELETE THE FILE. Usually both settings are shown when choosing Delete, except if the track is downloading from Apple Music. Then you might need to delete the download and then download it again. Apple Music are trickier to deal with which is why I try to avoid them and use other sources and download them as mp3 or mp4, or get them from CD's and import them.

How unfortunate that this info seems to be missing in Apple Music "Help" or in Apple discussions as it has been problematic for me and likely others for years.

In this process I also discovered the App "Tag Editor" which is a great tool for quickly editing multiple Apple Music tags at the same time. The light version is available for free on the App Store and the full version can be downloaded directly from their website. The paid version also includes tools for file conversions to different types of files but the tag editing is still free.

Hope this helps.

 

[Teletypewriter]

In this YouTube video "Correcting Artist, Album and Song Info In the Mac Music App", you should un-check the setting that the Album is a compilation, and instead fill-in the field "Album Artist" with the name of the band instead. This will create a single album with multiple bands on it, like a soundtrack.