Join Tracks on iTunes

One thing that has perplexed me over time is how to join songs in iTunes so that they always play together when I’m listening in “Shuffle Mode.”   For example, most of the second half of the Beatles’ Abbey Road is a medley, but when shuffled, each song stops abruptly before the next random song is played.  This is often abrupt, as the songs include transitions that are part of each song.  It's just not good listening.

• Queen's "We are the Champions" without "We Will Rock You?"  
• Beatles' "Sgt Pepper" without "With a Little Help from my Friends?"
• Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" without "Threshold?"  
• "Space Intro" without "Fly Like an Eagle?"  
• Van Halen's "You Really Got Me" without "Eruption?" 
• Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" without "Eclipse?"  Possible, but so much better together.   

You get the point.

A reasonable user expectation is that you should be able to join the songs within iTunes.  Not finding a solution, one might, as I did, search Google terms that might include "segue," "merge" or eventually "(expletive) iTunes!!!"  The answer is out there, but search options give varied results, and some solutions are for earlier versions of the software.

Here's the key.  Currently, you can't do this after your songs are imported.  The only way to join songs is BEFORE the songs are ripped from a CD or otherwise imported. The instructions below are current as of this date and version 12.9.5.7 of iTunes.  Apple has announced that iTunes will be broken up into a separate musical player, so perhaps other options will be included.

But for now, here's an example.  Alan Parson's "Eye in the Sky" is a good song.  It becomes a great song with the opening instrumental intro"Sirius," is merged with "Eye."

From the import screen, you can see that I've selected certain songs.


Next, highlight the songs that you want to join then click the gear at the upper right.  The drop down box shows "Join CD Tracks."



 After importing, you'll see the link below showing that the two have been merged. 

Just from an awareness point, the two songs have literally been joined into one music file, and iTunes will rename the song(s) accordingly.