Separating out pop and classical albums

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Level 1

48 points

Separating out pop and classical albums

I have a big library of rock and pop and a much smaller number of classical albums. All the classical and most of the rock are ripped CDs held in the cloud using iTunes Match. Some of the rock and pop is purchased from iTunes Store.

I absolutely hate having the classical mixed in with the pop, and can never find anything in the classical collection due to the clunky way Apple Music handles classical tags. What I’d really like is to have all the classical separated off like the way AM handles compilations (if the compilations checkbox is ticked in the Info then the album turns up at the bottom of the library in its own sub-section) - but I don’t think that’s possible?

I thought having a new classical library might help, so I created a new library which for about 2 seconds was empty (as expected) but then became populated with all the same albums as are in the main library, so that’s no help at all.

What I thought would happen with a new library was that it would remain empty unless I added stuff to it, but that doesn’t seem to be how it works. If it did work that way then I could import all my classical into the classical library, then delete all the classical from the rock library and keep them separate simply by switching libraries. But I tried deleting something from the classical library, but it deleted it from the main library as well.

I don’t subscribe to Apple Music - so I can’t use the newish Apple Classical Music app (that seems only to work if you’re a subscriber).

Can anyone advise how to do this please?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 23, 2025 01:59 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Limnos

Level 10

423,917 points

Jul 24, 2025 07:53 AM in response to TimPollard

You say you don't subscribe to Apple Music but do subscribe to Match. Match is going to handle things the same way Apple Music does as far as wanting to make all libraries on all devices identical. I think that's where your problem lies.

In general Apple's things are designed to work well if you do things the Apple way, but once you start "thinking different" you start fighting the way things are designed to be done and it is not easy, if at all possible. In particular you are using iCloud level services which operate on an Apple Account level. My guess is if you want to to use Match and do all this then you might have to set up a separate user account on the computer that used a different Apple ID and different Match subscription. Either that or stop using Match entirely and then set up two different Music libraries.

I also hope you have kept those CDs. Match is convenient but there's nothing like having your own backups in case Apple or an artist suddenly change their terms.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Jul 24, 2025 07:59 AM in response to TimPollard

If you are signed into your Apple ID then a new "empty" library will quickly populate with your unhidden purchase history as cloud links that allow for streaming or downloading. If you have a subscription to iTunes Match or Apple Music and have Sync Library enabled then you will also see your complete cloud library. You can use View > Only Downloaded Music to show what is stored locally, turn off Sync Library to stop seeing the iTunes Match library, and/or hide purchases that you don't want to show up. You can only have one cloud library, so you want Sync Library turned off if you want to make a library with unique content, which also doesn't impact on your primary library.

tt2

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Answer 3

TimPollard Author

Level 1

48 points

Jul 24, 2025 09:06 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the helpful replies. I'm a bit baffled as to why Apple lets you create a separate library on a machine if it's then going to make it identical to the first one!

I need my classical library to be in the cloud as I want to use it from various devices with limited space. I thought that one way to do what I want is to tell AM that all my classical discs are compilations and uncheck compilation on all the actual compilations. You would think that would work, but no. They don't move into the compilation section, whatever you do.

Completely agree about backups - I keep a backup of my iTunes library downloaded on a local server and also keep the discs.

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Jul 24, 2025 11:34 AM in response to TimPollard

As noted, you only have one cloud music library.

There are a couple of additional controls that affect where compilation albums show up. In Music use the Songs view, then make sure that View > Column Browser > Group Compilations and View > Column Browser Use Album Artists are both ticked. For the non-classical compilation albums that you want to keep linked together properly after removing the compilation flag you should set Album Artist to Various Artists, or at least some other common value for all tracks on each distinct album.

tt2

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Answer 5

TimPollard Author

Level 1

48 points

Aug 8, 2025 09:43 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the helpful replies.

In the end I adopted a kludge fix for this - all the Album Artist fields I filled with text in the format 1000 Composer: Conductor/Orchestra. The 1000 groups all the classical together at the end of the pop/rock, the Composer keeps all one composer's works grouped and the Conductor/Orchestra differentiates between them. It's now relatively simple to find all the Beethoven's together. Not very elegant but it does the job.

It's a pity Apple makes this so difficult. I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants to keep their classical separate from their pop.

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Aug 13, 2025 02:28 AM in response to TimPollard

I recently settled on using Ξ (upper case Greek Xi) as character to force a value to the end of a list in the same way that ! usually sends to the top. Sadly it seems Music still puts numeric values after that or it might have been a more elegant solution.

tt2

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