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[risingdamp]

MC doesn't currently support the use of Album Artist (auto) in the Artist field instead of Artist. So compilations, for example, are not shown with the artist name of (Multiple Artists).  The good news is that Steve says this will be reintroduced at some point but in the meantime there is an easy workaround using the composer field (assuming you, like me, don't already use it).

This workaround is so obvious I feel sure someone must have already mentioned it.  All you need to do is before you sync the iPod simply select all tracks in your library (or all tracks that will be going on your iPod via a smartlist / view scheme) and use Library Tools>Move/Copy fields and copy Album Artist (auto) to Composer.

Since I don't really use the composer field except for this purpose I can significantly speed up this process by not storing it in the tags.  Just go to Options>Library and edit the field removing the option to store in tags.

Now after syncing your iPod you can use the Composer view instead of Artist.

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I've taken this one stage further to reduce the number of artists appearing for which I don't have the full album on my iPod.  The above workaround in itself won't help here because I have some single tracks in compiled playlists on my iPod that are not part of a compilation album (so they'll still show the actual artist name and not Multiple Artists even though there's only one track from the album on the iPod). 

I use a custom iPod field with the value iPod = Include where the full album is on my iPod.  Any other tracks on the iPod are only there because they are part of some other playlist I am syncing.  So all I need to do is copy Album Artist (auto) to composer where iPod = include and ensure Composer is blank where iPod <> Include.

Now my Composer view on my iPod is perfect for showing only artists where there is a full album and I can still use my artist view to find any artist with tracks on my iPod.

[SteveG]

J,

Thanks for the post.

Steve

[risingdamp]

No problem Steve.  It's great that MC allows us the flexibility to do this stuff.