How do YOU organize your music collection? *POLL*

[Mojoed]

First off, I searched for this subject. There were a couple of threads on this, but none of them really went anywhere. *Paging DaveSimmons :music:*

Anyway here are the different options I've come up with so far:

1)
+---Nine Inch Nails
+---Pretty Hate Machine
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine - 01 - Head Like a Hole.flac
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine - 02 - Terrible Lie.flac


2)
+---Nine Inch Nails
+---Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine - 01 - Head Like a Hole.flac
Pretty Hate Machine - 02 - Terrible Lie.flac


3)
+---Nine Inch Nails
+---Pretty Hate Machine
01 - Head Like a Hole.flac
02 - Terrible Lie.flac


4)
Or any of the above with the release year in the folder name. i.e:
+---..\..\Pretty Hate Machine (1989)\<filename>


5)
Or, omit the album folder entirely and include it in the filename. Example:
+---Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine - 01 - Head Like a Hole.flac
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine - 02 - Terrible Lie.flac
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth - 01 - All the Love in the World.flac
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth - 02 - You Know What You Are.flac


6)
Or, any of the above with a Genre folder preceding the artist folder?
Music\Genre\Nine Inch Nails

If none of the above, please leave an example of how your system works.

Thanks!

:beer:

Edit 3/19/08

For those of you that use dBpoweramp Reference, (as a former EAC user, I gotta say dBpoweramp Reference is definitely worth the price) and like option #3, I came up with the following code:

[IFCOMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],Various Artists[]\[album] [[year]][IFMULTI] [Disc [disc]][]\[track] - [artist] - [title][][IF!COMP][IFVALUE]album artist,[album artist],[artist][]\[album] [[year]][IFMULTI] [Disc [disc]][]\[track] - [title][]

Simply paste that code into the naming box and most CD's should come out perfect. I tested singles, regular CD's, compilations and multi-disc sets.


For a CD with a single artist, the output would be:
Madonna\Immaculate [1990]\05 - Holiday.flac

For a compilation CD (soundtracks, etc) with various artists, the output would be:
..\Movie Soundtrack\Trainspotting [1996]\01 - Iggy Pop - Lust for Life.flac
I diverted from option #3 a bit for this scenario because for a compilation CD, you would want the artists name in the file name. Also, if the "Album Artist" ID3 field happens to be blank, a "Various Artists" folder will be substituted.

For a compilation CD that's a part of a multi-CD set, output would be:
..\Madonna\Immaculate [2003] [Disc 1]\05 - Madonna - Holiday.flac
I haven't run into this scenario much at all. Again the file name has the artist name in this scenario, because there would be various artists

For a non-compilation, Multi-CD set, output would be:
..\Pink Floyd\The Wall [2000] [Disc 1]\02 - The Thin Ice.flac

 

[effowe]

I prefer option one, but all my my files aren't tagged properly. I have way too many to go through all the folders and name them properly, but when ripping a disc #1 is used.

 

[clamum]

Personally, I go option 3. I also have the ID3v2 tag filled in with artist, album, song title, and track number. I use Winamp and the Winamp Media Library to play my music, works great.

 

[Nitemare]

Musica\Genre\Artist\Album

if it doesn't have an album just stick it in the artist folder

 

[nakedfrog]

#3 is best. That way when you have the file name displayed somewhere, it's not unmanageably long. I don't much see the relevance of including year in the structure.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Mine are organized by length, longest to shortest. You've got Ina Gadda da Vida at one end, Lunch with Blockhead at the other. People think I'm nuts, but when random is on, it doesn't matter, and if I know I have about 5 minutes to kill, I can easily pick what I want to listen to.

 

[Brainonska511]

For artists with more than one song:

My Music\Artist Name\Artist Name - Song Name

For when there is more than one song per album within an artist:

My Music\Artist Name\Album Name\Artist Name - Song Name

For artists that I only have one song for:

My Music\Artist Name - Song Name

If I was ever going to redo my organization, I'd probably go with something like #3.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Option 3 with no dash...because this is the default for Windows Media Player. I believe it's also the default for iTunes.

Artist\Album\## trackname.xxx

 

[Mojoed]

Hey I appreciate the quick replies guys. Looks like #3 is the winner so far.

Thanks again!

 

[pyonir]

Uh...

In my music folder every album gets its own folder. Like i have 12 Atmosphere albums. They are listed as:
Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly
Atmosphere - Headshots
etc.

I don't have an Atmosphere folder with all 12 albums in the folder. As for file name it's artist/track#/song name or just track#/song name

Then again, i only have about 450 albums on my comp. so.

 

[davestar]

Originally posted by: pyonir
Uh...

In my music folder every album gets its own folder. Like i have 12 Atmosphere albums. They are listed as:
Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly
Atmosphere - Headshots
etc.

I don't have an Atmosphere folder with all 12 albums in the folder. As for file name it's artist/track#/song name or just track#/song name

Then again, i only have about 450 albums on my comp. so.

this

it's a bother to have to dig 2-3 folders deep to play a song/album.

 

[Anubis]

mine go like this

Music\Artist\Album\Artist - Track num ## - Title

so im my cause useing that NIN song it would be

Music\Nine Inch Nails\Pretty Hate Machine\Nine Inch Nails - 01 - Head Like a Hole.flac

i voted "other"

i never lable the track with the album, i just keep it in the IDE3 info

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: davestar

Originally posted by: pyonir
Uh...

In my music folder every album gets its own folder. Like i have 12 Atmosphere albums. They are listed as:
Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly
Atmosphere - Headshots
etc.

I don't have an Atmosphere folder with all 12 albums in the folder. As for file name it's artist/track#/song name or just track#/song name

Then again, i only have about 450 albums on my comp. so.

this

it's a bother to have to dig 2-3 folders deep to play a song/album.

see thats a personal prefrence, i have a "Iron Maiden" folder and inside it are folders for every single album of theirs and the lableing is like my post above this one

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: davestar
it's a bother to have to dig 2-3 folders deep to play a song/album.

Yep...i guess that's my reason for the way i do it. I hate folders in folders in folders. That applies to anything and everything on my computer. I might do it different if i had 2000+ albums...but with what i have, this works great.

 

[randomlinh]

Artist/Album/Track - Song.ext, so Option 3. I assume all metadata is correct, because that's where the player kicks in and where it's really important.

I don't even dig through folders to find a song, just search for it and have itunes kick it up (and I'm sure the other players do this as well)

 

[13Gigatons]

#3

 

[evident]

okay... im going to sort of hijack the thread, when it comes to VA albums... what do you guys do?

most trance CD's are compilations with multiple artists. It's a clusterfck trying to get things to show up neatly with media center or any type of index that doesn't do directory structure

what is the best solution here?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I have folders set up like this: genre > artist > album > song.fla

D: > MPOP > Baerwald David > Triage > 01 - The Got No Shotgun Hydrahead Octopus Blues.fla

(I add M before the genres so they stick together in the root of the D: drive: MPOP, MCLASS, MBLUES, MJAZZ, MCELTIC.)

For B-sides, singles, misc I add a folder like "Baerwald CD-Singles" as another "CD", which also lets me us dbPowerAmp to re-tag those songs using the file & folder names.

That's just the way my mind works, and it works well for adding full CDs or songs from one CD to a Foobar2000 playlist.

It's probably overkill for 100 CDs, but I'm up to over 1,000 and still buying

okay... im going to sort of hijack the thread, when it comes to VA albums... what do you guys do?

I have a "1 Collections" folder, but only about 20 CDs in it. I usually only buy soundtracks if they're mostly by one artist, like Magnolia = Aimee Mann.

 

[Canai]

My music is in a couple different dirs, and it's all a jumbled mess, so I just let winamp sort it all out.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: randomlinh
Artist/Album/Track - Song.ext, so Option 3. I assume all metadata is correct, because that's where the player kicks in and where it's really important.

I don't even dig through folders to find a song, just search for it and have itunes kick it up (and I'm sure the other players do this as well)

Yup...there was a time where I was all concerned about manual organization of all my music files and directories...slowly I learned to let go and allow the program to take care of everything. So long as files are being ripped and stored in the proper top directory (E:\Music) and are being inserted correctly into my music library, I couldn't care less as to how the files are being stored or named.

 

[ShadowOfMyself]

Im an organization freak when it comes to my music, so 4) but you did it wrong, the way I have it is:

.../.../[1989] Pretty Hate Machine

Date comes first, this way the albums will always be in chronological order, which is just very useful

 

[jjones]

#3 is the way I do it.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: evident
okay... im going to sort of hijack the thread, when it comes to VA albums... what do you guys do?

most trance CD's are compilations with multiple artists. It's a clusterfck trying to get things to show up neatly with media center or any type of index that doesn't do directory structure

what is the best solution here?

i do them no differently then i do normal albums

Music\Artist(Of the trance Comp)\Albums\ Artist (Track) - ## - Title.mp3

so for example it would be

Music\Tiesto\In Search of Sunrise 6\Track Artist - 01 - Title.mp3

i dont remember who did track 1 off the top of my head buy you get the idea


i however dont use a media player for any sort of organizing at all so i dont really have the issue you do

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: evident
okay... im going to sort of hijack the thread, when it comes to VA albums... what do you guys do?

most trance CD's are compilations with multiple artists. It's a clusterfck trying to get things to show up neatly with media center or any type of index that doesn't do directory structure

what is the best solution here?

Best of Trance 3/DJ Liquid vs Venom-Trance Song 3.mp3

no artist sub folder for compilations

 

[Chryso]

I line up the cds on the shelf.