Ignore "the" when sorting


At the moment, iTunes is the only app I’ve seen that ignores the first “The” in names of bands and albums. Can’t Sonos do the same?

B

  • The Beatles

F

  • The Future Sound of London

U

  • The Undertones

Correct.

 

T

  • The Beatles
  • The Future Sound of London
  • The Undertones

Incorrect.

 

I shouldn’t have to rename everything to something like “Beatles, The” to get it to show correctly. Also, I don’t know if Sonos can be made to read Apple’s sorting tag, or adopt similar, so artists are sorted by the correct letter - Lionel Richie should come under “R”, not “L”.


11 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @TriumphantO 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Thank you - I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration. Keep the ideas coming!

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

I see “the” being ignored on my music library. You are you are not looking at a different music service? The “the” is not shown, but its in the metadata for the file.

I see “the” being ignored on my music library. You are you are not looking at a different music service? The “the” is not shown, but its in the metadata for the file.

 

Ditto for me.  ‘The’ is ignored for the local library.

Ah! You’re right! Band names no longer include the first “the”. When did that happen? I presume The The just show as “The”.

Although album titles are still sorted by “the”, so not quite there. And I still like the iTunes sorting as it does mean I can organise the library pretty much how I want - e.g. soundtracks are listed at the end by film title and position within a series as opposed to the composer.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @TriumphantO 

Before replying, I did check on my own system, but I thought I had simply found out that I didn’t have any artists in my collection with “The” at the start of their name. I looked, therefore, at Albums, and saw this:

I then assumed that Artists was indeed the same. Just so I’m clear, the leading articles (“The”, “A”, “Le”, “La” etc.) are not displayed or affecting the sort of Artists in any way, but you would like them to not affect the sort of Albums, yes?

Hi,

Yes, artists are no longer being sorted by a leading “The”, although “La” is still being counted.

As for albums in my library, “The” isn’t being ignored. This is on the Android app and the PC version. Both claim to be up to date. Is your screenshot from the iPhone version?:

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi @TriumphantO 

Ok, thanks.

I’m on Android, but I see the same behaviour as you do.

It sounds like a good suggestion to me - thanks again for the feedback! It would also make sense for “the” in any language to be treated in the same way as “the” is in English, with the Artists section, so it’s good that that has been mentioned too.

Is the sort order music service dependent? I primarily use Apple Music and all artists with “The ...” (e.g. The Beatles) are sorted under “T”. Would be immensely better if “The” was ignored when sorting.

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

Is the sort order music service dependent? I primarily use Apple Music and all artists with “The ...” (e.g. The Beatles) are sorted under “T”. Would be immensely better if “The” was ignored when sorting.

Yes, all sorting is done my each music service as it deems fit.

@controlav thx. I figured as much. what’s the best way to give feedback? Giving to Sonos here and hopefully they pass along to Apple. Is there a way to send Sonos integration feedback directly to Apple? They do have ways to submit product feedback but seems like a black hole. From searching, many others seem to want this.

Userlevel 7
Badge +17

I’d personally hate having to look for a “The Beatles” under B. Just is not the place I’d look for it. But I have contacts on my phone sorted by first name too……

Reply