Grouping by artist/album (vs. album name only)?

[Hotfart]

When in the album cover view, I've looked all over and can't seem to find an option to sort albums grouped by artist name (then album name), rather than the default which sorts by album name only. It makes my mild OCD hurt!

I don't want to have to scroll all over the place to find different albums by the same artist! Seems to be common sense, but maybe I'm crazy or overlooking something.

As you can see, I tricked it by setting all artist tags as "MP3", and set all album tags as "Artist - Album name". It works well enough I suppose, but if there's a proper option to display grouped by artist (then album), I'd love to hear it!

 

[Skyliner33]

I was just about to start the exact same thread. Seems pretty stupid not to be able to sort by artist. But I cant find an option either.

 

[Hotfart]

I think we may be out of luck, unless a hidden option miraculously appears. There's a great little program I've used for years called "Mp3tag" which makes batch jobs super easy. I re-tagged 125 or so albums for the VW in about 30 minutes. Obviously, you can disregard this if you already have your music sorted out, or if you already have your own favorite tagging program

 

[FPP]

If you are using an SD card or such, the file arrangement determines the grouping. I have all albums by the same artist in one folder, one folder for each artist. It plays them in sequence. If you use a playlist, you should be able to control the sequence also.

 

[Hotfart]

Yep, I'm using an SD card, and I just dumped all the albums into the root. I don't use any playlists, but I'll definitely try out your tip of creating separate folders for the artists and placing the albums there. I shall report back with the results!

 

[Hotfart]

No bueno!!! I created folders in the root of the SD card with just the artist name, then dropped the albums in the folders. Still sorting everything by album name instead of grouping by the artist. Guess I'll be going back to the tag trick. Oh well, OCD immersion therapy, right?

 

[Skyliner33]

This is really starting to bug me now. I don't have any playlists. I generally just decide I want to listen to a certain band. On my last car (Audi) the MMI was just like using an iPod, really easy. This is poor and very frustrating in comparison.
Seems a backward step.

 

[Skyliner33]

As you can see, I tricked it by setting all artist tags as "MP3", and set all album tags as "Artist - Album name". It works well enough I suppose, but if there's a proper option to display grouped by artist (then album), I'd love to hear it!

Can you do a Dummies Guide to how you achieved this please?

 

[Hotfart]

Can you do a Dummies Guide to how you achieved this please?

Before you get started, I would suggest making a copy of all your MP3s placed into a separate folder and working on those copies. That way, your original files are untouched.

The goal is simply to change the tags to have the artist listed as "MP3" for all tracks, and the album as <artist - album> (rather than just the album name).

Note on the cover art: I've found 500x500 images to be generally compatible with most players. I just google image search the album and grab the art that way.

Note on the file names: I always set them to the format of "<artist> - <album name> - <track number> - <song name>.mp3".

An example would be "Alice in Chains - Dirt - 01 - Them Bones.mp3".

Normally the tags would be set as follows:
Artist: Alice in Chains
Album: Dirt
Track: 01
Song name: Them Bones

For the album view to group by artist then album in our VWs, we want to change the artist and album tags of the file to the following:
Artist: MP3
Album: Alice in Chains - Dirt
Track: 01
Song name: Them Bones

You will need to do this for each and every MP3 file, which can be time consuming if your file names are not in a set format. So, before getting to actually editing the tags, your first task may be to rename all of your file names to "<artist> - <album name> - <track number> - <song name>.mp3".

The only tagging program I have experience with is called "Mp3tag" which is pretty powerful, but can have a steep learning curve. Other tagging software should work as well, but I know Mp3tag can do batches at a time, and can also update files from either filename to tag, or tag to filename.

Mp3tag can be downloaded from http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

I won't write up a tutorial for the Mp3tag program itself, because several already exist out there, and are better than I could write up myself. Just google search for "Mp3tag tutorial".

Good luck, and depending on your collection size and whether your file names are already standardized or not, this may take you quite some time. Other people may know of a more efficient method of doing this, so if anyone has a better suggestion, feel free to chime in.

If you have specific questions after going through some tutorials, maybe I can help.

 

[Skyliner33]

Thank you for the in depth reply, I will have to wait until I have a bit of time spare for that.

 

[Hotfart]

Thank you for the in depth reply, I will have to wait until I have a bit of time spare for that.

No problem. I spent probably an hour and a half re-tagging around 125 albums. If your MP3 file names are not yet standardized, and/or you are not familiar with the Mp3tag program, then I would set aside a good afternoon & evening for the project. Maybe at first just do like 10 albums from different artists to test it out, that way you can get a system going and make sure it works.

 

[The Fed]

If you are using an SD card or such, the file arrangement determines the grouping. I have all albums by the same artist in one folder, one folder for each artist. It plays them in sequence. If you use a playlist, you should be able to control the sequence also.

I did this by default since that's the way Windows Media Player groups albums.

 

[The Fed]

And OP, thank for pointing out the album view. The only thing is only a few album covers load.

 

[Skwangtang]

So that's how you get album covers? I've always used bluetooth but the covers never come up.

 

[Skyliner33]

If you are using an SD card or such, the file arrangement determines the grouping. I have all albums by the same artist in one folder, one folder for each artist. It plays them in sequence. If you use a playlist, you should be able to control the sequence also.

I also have all the albums by the same artist in one folder. It still plays all the albums in alphabetical order of the album name.

Do I create the playlist in iTunes or do I have to do it another way?