# What is grouping and how to sort by artist
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** player
**Created:** [August 31, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000 "2023-08-31T14:02:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/1 "2023-08-31T14:02:46Z")
Hello. Im new to the mp3tag community however I had a question about the grouping tag. What does it do??
Also is there a way that I can edit my songs so that when it's on my phone it orders them by artist, not by name??
Thank You
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/2 "2023-08-31T14:07:34Z")
> [@mrrsmiless](#):
>
> grouping tag. What does it do??
see here:
> [@Grouping field not appearing in Itunes](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/grouping-field-not-appearing-in-itunes/49172):
>
> Hey there, I am using Crossover to run MP3tag on my Catalina Macbook. It works great, however the GROUPING field does work in Itunes (or apple music as they call it now). I don't think the comments field does either (i need to test this again). Any suggestions for this?
I don't know what what you mean by
> [@mrrsmiless](#):
>
> name
Is that the filename?
You would have to fill the tag fields to get the best sorting.
Usually, the fields ALBUMARTIST, ARTIST, ALBUM, TITLE, lead to good results. Some players also like GENRE as criterion.
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### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:10pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/3 "2023-08-31T14:10:06Z")
thank you.
for the name thing. whenever i move my albums from my computer to my phone, in my music app it orders the songs by song title (ex: airway, apple, brother, cheese).
However I want it to order the songs by the artists, not by the title. Is there a way to do that??
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:13pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/4 "2023-08-31T14:13:15Z")
Have you filled the tag fields for ALBUMARTIST, ARTIST, ALBUM, TITLE?
And then it is a question of the player's features which are beyond the control of MP3tag.
But in general: a player can only sort/group files according to existing metadata. The filename is usually not enough.
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### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:15pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/5 "2023-08-31T14:15:20Z")
Yes I have, im thinking now that maybe my music app can only sort songs in an album by title and not by artist
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:16pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/6 "2023-08-31T14:16:47Z")
If you are not satisfied with your player, then you could perhaps try foobar as player.
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### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:17pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/7 "2023-08-31T14:17:46Z")
what is foobar?? (this extra stuff is so my post is 20 characters long)
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/8 "2023-08-31T14:18:14Z")
foobar is a player app.
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### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/9 "2023-08-31T14:18:54Z")
Kk. Thank You. I appreciate your help with this.
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 5:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/10 "2023-08-31T17:02:57Z")
What kind of phone are you using? Typically the default music player apps the include are rather basic in nature. There are plenty of free and premium (paid-for) apps on both the Apple and Google patforms.
I have shared some of my personal experience details in the off-topic section. Feel free to browse and consider one of these alternatives that work better than most of the basic players.
Apple
> [@iOS Media Players](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/ios-media-players/58847):
>
> While the Music app that Apple has included on all of their iOS devices is functional, it isn't one that meets the expectations for many music fans with deep libraries with curated metadata. From a design perspective, of course it follows Apple's key structure. It is fully integrated into the previous iTunes (Windows) and current MacOS Music for handling the process of getting local media from your home computer to your device. But it is clear that their direction is to push to the subscription …
Android
> [@Android Media Players](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/android-media-players/57992):
>
> There are many players on the Android platform, but almost all use the base Android APIs and media library that limits their functionality and performance that don’t make them much different than the stock player other than cosmetically. One player app that breaks from this trend and I have been using for some time is GoneMAD. It builds its’ own database library, and key to me is that it supports the use of sort tags for Album, Artist, AlbumArtist, and Composer. It also supports multi artist an…
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### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/11 "2023-08-31T17:20:38Z")
Just saw this now. Thank You! (im using an iPhone)
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### Author:  [@MotleyG](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/MotleyG)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/12 "2023-08-31T17:33:58Z")
Foobar2000 is free (for now) and functional but limited. Neutron has a steep learning curve. BTR AMP is my daily use player on iPhone and is regularly updated and improved with new features.
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### Author:  [@mrrsmiless](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mrrsmiless)
#### Post date: [August 31, 2023, 5:49pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/13 "2023-08-31T17:49:42Z")
Kk, thx, I appreciate it 🙏🏾
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2023, 5:50pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/what-is-grouping-and-how-to-sort-by-artist/62000/14 "2023-09-30T17:50:18Z")
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