[lavar78]

Well, after holding out for all these years, I'm finally going to organize my iTunes music like a normal person (i.e., alphabetical by last name). I've downloaded one of Doug's scripts to automate this change, but I have a question:

Changing Sort Artist to "Wonder, Stevie," "Gaye, Marvin," and "Bowie, David" is obvious, but what do you do with groups named after someone (e.g., Dave Matthews Band, Ben Folds Five, Ian Rich Orchestra)? I used to lean one way, but now I'm rethinking it. I'm interested to see what the NN brain trust thinks of this most important issue.

[Dakarʒ]

I usually use the last name for the sort.

I forget what I did with Dave Matthews, I might have been tempted to put in DMB

[analogika]

This precise dilemma is why I continue to sort my entire iTunes collection by the way the artist is listed - i.e. David Bowie under "D".

Why would the Jimi Hendrix Experience albums be sorted under "J", while his demos and things would be sorted under "H"?

Or "Nina Hagen Band" be under "N", with the rest of her stuff under "H"?

(The vinyl I continue to sort and group by last name, but that's by hand, anyway - how do you automated "Derek and the Dominoes" and "Blind Faith" to be *near* Clapton?)

[mdc]

I have mine sorting by artist by first name because I think I'd find it tedious to change artist names every time I add something new.

[Dakarʒ]

I'm stylishly inconsistent. For someone like David Bowie, I refer to him as "Bowie" in my head, so he is under 'B'.

But for someone like Barry White, I always think of his full name "Barry White" so he is also under 'B'.

Basically, I use whatever is convenient. A third party would probably get lost, but that's what the search feature is for.

[lavar78]

I've decided to go with last names consistently. The Jimi Hendrix Experience will sort by "Hendrix, Jimi." I have all the questionable ones in a playlist, so I can change it back easily if I don't like it.

[Dakarʒ]

No, you're not allowed to change back, ever.

[TheoCryst]

I don't bother with renaming anything. David Bowie = D, Barry White = B, Jimi Hendrix = Jimi Hendrix Experience = J. I'm just a stickler for consistency like that. Plus, search is my friend.