# Artist sort in iTunes
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 16, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965 "2009-09-16T18:01:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gsa999](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/gsa999)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965/1 "2009-09-16T18:01:19Z")
Hello,
I have a lot of mp3 tracks which I use with iTunes/iPod. I don't like the way Itunes default sorting works for artists. It seems to sort by first name and then last name - ie just as the artist name appears, although it does seem to correctly ignore "The" - so The Beach Boys get correctly sorted under B and not T, but The Alan Parsons Project gets sorted under A, when it should be P, same with Alice Cooper (A instead of C).
I can see there is a Artist Sort field in Itunes, but I do not want to populate this tag manually. How can I use MP3Tag to read the artist name tag and enter it in this new sorting tag field?
So I need to read Alice Cooper and make it Cooper, Alice which I guess is fairly straightforward, but what about The Alan Parsons Project, which I need to make Parsons Project, Alan (dropping The) or Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band which needs to be Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Bob.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@drmusic](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/drmusic)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965/2 "2009-11-03T17:29:10Z")
I would also like to know the answer to this. I thought BANDSORTORDER was the field to use, but that doesn't work.
By the way, I like your band choices! I love Alice Cooper and Alan Parsons!
Scott
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### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965/3 "2009-11-06T15:23:57Z")
> [@Dr Music](#):
>
> I thought BANDSORTORDER was the field to use, but that doesn't work.
Have you tried ARTISTSORTORDER?
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### Author:  [@drmusic](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/drmusic)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965/4 "2009-11-10T16:10:55Z")
> [@Florian](#):
>
> Have you tried ARTISTSORTORDER?
That worked great! Thanks!!!
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/artist-sort-in-itunes/8965/5 "2026-02-09T12:21:47Z")