ADVICE on sorting and filing your music.

[Jon49]

hi, 1 have 2000 mp3/ogg files, and id like some advice/tips/discussion on the way YOU sort them. obviously, u dont just keep them all in in one folder. you keep them in several folders, according to genre/band/album, or whatever.

for me, files are put into one of 9 folders:

American/grunge
classical
comedy (bill hicks etc)
Dance/techno
latin
metal
rock current
rock older
spoken (eg audiobooks)


SECONDLY, i only 'recently' started ripping CDs into ogg...and all i can say is believe the hype. ogg RULES - i cant believe i was using mp3 for so long...anyway, id like fellow ogg users to say if they keep ogg and mp3 files seperate directories (like some people on slsk), because i can see the day when i will have to delete my mp3 collection...

THIRDLY, i only 'recently' started DLing full albums (and _then_ deleting the songs that were crap, rather than finding out which songs were good beforehand.) my question: do you KEEP these crap songs with the rest of the album, just in case a p2p user (or a real life friend) likes it and asks for it? I personally didnt bother, cos the CD-Rs i use are only 700mb and i would need far more than i have now (currently 20 CD-rs full of files - and thats only after i deleted hundreds of filler tracks.) BUT, now i may be getting a dvd writer...and 4gb discs have plenty space :D

thoughts?

[phalkon30]

I have 3000 or so, and the best way I've found to sort them, is by artist. It makes for a ton of folders, but its easier than trying to decide what genre it goes in.

I keep full albums, even if I don't like all the songs, its nice to have a massive playlist of nearly every genre and just have a good variety, that way I never get bored with my music.

[DeadMan]

ExpPrint, Notepad, Numbered CD's with relevant number against listing in text file and Notepad's find command.

Simple but effective. I know exactly which disc to get out for a certain song or artist . Each time I burn a new CD I make sure that the latest text file with all the info is burned onto the disc at the same time :)

[isus]

i only have 800-ish, but i keep them in one folder.

when i need a particular song, i use mp3weasel, and search for the song. works kinda like itunes' search function.

when i wanna hear a good song i just open that one folder... it's set to show by date modified, so obviously, the new songs are at the top, as they were just dl'ed.

when i dont care what i hear, i just let mp3weasel run, and it picks music randomly and sends it to winamp.

but i like itunes. it sorts music into different folders, and keeps track of all your music, tags, etc. and it does a lot more fun stuff.

[PowerMan57two]

I keep them in one folder, duhh that's the easiest way. Then just use like Windows Media Library and sort them by artist/genre/length/alphabetical order.

That way you don't have so many mp3's floating around on your computer. I just have windows media player settings to a "watch" so it watches my mp3 folder, and when new ones are added it will auto-tag them.


This is the easiest way I have ever found than having mp3's all around your computer in different folders.

[Serps]

My mp3s are in two folders one is the main folder, all files correctly named id tags etc. The other is downloaded files waiting to be correctly named.

Winamp automatically updates when I open it then either leave it on random play or use the search function to choose songs.

[wingnut2600]

I use the MusicBrainz Tagger (available at: http://musicbrainz.org/) to rename my mp3's in the correct manner. It uses freedb.com information to find the album, title, artist information and then changes the id3's to the correct information as well as the song's title. You can sort them in any manner that you wish... for example, I sort my music into forders in this order:

My Music
Genre (numerous types, depending on what you listen to)
Artist
Album

and then the files are named: Band - Album - song number - title

Ie: Wingnut2600 - Phatt Shit to Trip On - 05 - Dope Jam

The program allows you to specify where to put the files/name them (otherwise I would not have such a complicated file schema).

You can also use other programs such as MoodLogic, that will rename the songs and sorth them by genre automatically, but they are a pay for use or donation-ware and I find that their categorizations are lacking for the type of music that I listen to.

There is also a program called TagScanner that does batch tagging and you can specify the format of titling as well as the folders that it goes into.

Here are just a few options! Good Luck and Godspeed my son/daughter.


:fire

[begoodbebad]

My Music is stored as complete CDs. Each CD is in an individual folder: My Music\Artist - CD Name.
Any I ripped myself contain a playlist and EAC log
Each folder contains image of CD cover where possible and this is the thumbnail I can see. Its not just a gimmick as seeing the CD cover is the quickest way sometimes to find the CD. Looks good too.
I load my media player with playlists and mostly I use this to choose what to listen to, though I can use it to choose by Artist name, album name or Genre also.
Works for me.
If you are happy with the sound quality of Windows Media Player (i.e tone deaf or only listen to machine made sounds lol) then this is a fantastic media manager, brilliant at automatically scanning your drives for media and is even a good playlist maker and tag editor. It also has some incredible 3rd party visualisations (goom is amazing). It is such a shame it compromises on sound quality.

[FileHoover]

I have some file management code that I want to add to **5 but wonder if anyone will use it.

Let's say you have a folder named "All". In there are ALL your audio files.

you can create subfolders beneath "All" called whatever you want: YOU create the folders, for example:

country
grunge
ozzy
rock
80s
semisonic
rock
electronic
british
dance
ogg
beatles
love
eagles
matchbox
70s
mp3
british
60s
oldies

Now, you can select (ctrl mouse click) multiple files in your "All" folder, press a button, and if ANY of the words of the subfolders are contained in the song title, file name, metadata or whatever, a LINK to that file is placed in the appropriate subfolder.

So if you had a song like "Beatles - All you Need Is Love 60s british rock"

A link to this song would be placed in EACH of the following folders: beatles, love, 60s, rock and british.

Now, if you wanted to play just love songs, you could open the love folder and all the love songs would be in there. If you wanted 60s, you just have to open the 60s folder.

This lets you file songs in multiple categories, but, since it is using links, it doesn't take up much more room on your hard disk.

[cheapprick]

Originally posted by FileHoover
I have some file management code that I want to add to **5 but wonder if anyone will use it.


Testing the water or attempting to have your account removed?

Last time: Do not bring ES5 up in unrelated threads. If this was important enough to you it could be brought up for people's opinions in your own forum.

[ATLien]

Originally posted by Jon49
hi, 1 have 2000 mp3/ogg files, and id like some advice/tips/discussion on the way YOU sort them. obviously, u dont just keep them all in in one folder. you keep them in several folders, according to genre/band/album, or whatever.

for me, files are put into one of 9 folders:

American/grunge
classical
comedy (bill hicks etc)
Dance/techno
latin
metal
rock current
rock older
spoken (eg audiobooks)


SECONDLY, i only 'recently' started ripping CDs into ogg...and all i can say is believe the hype. ogg RULES - i cant believe i was using mp3 for so long...anyway, id like fellow ogg users to say if they keep ogg and mp3 files seperate directories (like some people on slsk), because i can see the day when i will have to delete my mp3 collection...

THIRDLY, i only 'recently' started DLing full albums (and _then_ deleting the songs that were crap, rather than finding out which songs were good beforehand.) my question: do you KEEP these crap songs with the rest of the album, just in case a p2p user (or a real life friend) likes it and asks for it? I personally didnt bother, cos the CD-Rs i use are only 700mb and i would need far more than i have now (currently 20 CD-rs full of files - and thats only after i deleted hundreds of filler tracks.) BUT, now i may be getting a dvd writer...and 4gb discs have plenty space :

thoughts?
As far as organizing your music, you can try "Collectorz", but it doesn't work with "ogg" files, but it works for me, and i have over 400gigs of music. Got tired of so many different folders, and not know what i would have, and having duplicates, got irritating. You have to "Look", for the full version, if you know what i mean.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_software/mp3_tools/index2.cfm

[d-koolest]

I have iTunes now, but when I was on a PC I used MoodLogic. I don't really recommend it because you have to pay. I just used it because it worked so well with my Rio... anyway, get some program to group them into folders automatically. It's waaay easier if you've got a lot of songs.

[Wings_of_Azrael]

I divide my audio files into six major sections; Electronic, Metal, Miscellaneous, Rock, Traditional, and Urban. Under each I have a few sub-genres. Such as with Electronic I have Ambient, Techno, Noise, Industrial, and Neo-Folk.

[Caitlyn Marble]

I keep mine in one folder, which is then divided by artist. if I have a lot by that artist, I'll separate the remixes, different versions from the album version and keep those in a subdirectory.

yes it makes for a hell of a lot of folders, but it makes for easier navigation. especially when you have an mp3 player that doesn't sync and download your new tunes automatically, where you have to drag & drop your new ones in.

and I don't delete the annoying songs from an album, chances are, If I give it time, I'll learn to like, or atleast tolerate the song. Unless it really really annoys me, then it gets chucked out. obviously I'm not refereing to pop albums, I never download pop songs, but If I did, I'd only download the singles, because the non single songs are generally slow song fluff crap that you just can't like, no matter how hard you try.

[sharedawealth]

I keep all 2800 of my mp3's in one folder. Let winamp sort them out for you. The great thing about winamp is that you can search for songs!

half my collection is in a mess though with so many random electronic songs with bad tags. I cant rename them cause I dont know what the hell they are!

[crackerjacker]

I divide my audio files into six major sections; Electronic, Metal, Miscellaneous, Rock, Traditional, and Urban. Under each I have a few sub-genres. Such as with Electronic I have Ambient, Techno, Noise, Industrial, and Neo-Folk.

good choice of music :O)
btw I choose to not catagorize my music.
I have been looking for a program to do this for me. I still use mp3 list maker to tag my information.
I am sure there are many programs that do it, and i would probably try mood logic.
but as of now i would like to put then in sub catagories.
like for instance say if i am listening to heavy metal, but i would like to add to it in a sub folder mood music. so mix part metal with house music.
i think i would be looking for a program that can do this for me that is explorer based. I wonder if anyone knows of a program that is free like that.
hmm well time to google it or look at webattack.
but if anyone knows of a great program that is bug free i would appreciate the help.

:)

[isus]

kinda bored this morning, crackerjacker?

[crackerjacker]

As far as organizing your music, you can try "Collectorz", but it doesn't work with "ogg" files, but it works for me, and i have over 400gigs of music. Got tired of so many different folders, and not know what i would have, and having duplicates, got irritating. You have to "Look", for the full version, if you know what i mean.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_software/mp3_tools/index2.cfm

400 gigs thats a lot of music. hehe
i will be checking out this program now, seems like the best one.

[crackerjacker]

kinda bored this morning, crackerjacker?
lol not really i am on irc, but more then that i wanna sort my music out. then i am reading this blog on this site, check it out if you want to.

http://www.warwolf.com/archives/2002_03_01_archive.html

and i dunno if u come across a good orgainzing program for mp3s let me know. i am going to check some of these out. but i really wanna sort my stuff out lol.

[beardedwonder]

I've got 7,000+ and i put them into folders according to artist and then album. Then i just use Winamp 5's media library to search through. HTH

[shawners]

HERES what i do, If i have an artist that has more then five songs, i make an artist folder. But for one hit wonders, or for artist with 2-4 songs i put them in folder called.
Mp3z A-d and another folder Mp3z D-f and such and i make each directory no more then 700 megs so i can burn them and back them up. BUT if you have four albums from the guy, you Put the Artist folder, and in the artist folder are four more folders of the albums. and you click on the album and their are the songs.

[Potato]

One folder, then separate folders for various albums. So that means I keep the whole albums. There is also a Backed Up folder, which is everything that is backed up somewhere.

Mine are labeled like wingnut's... Artist - Album - Song - Track No. Or without the Album part.

[Rickio]

Was looking at webattack and they have a long list of music management freeware.

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/gmm/fwmusicman.html