How do YOU sort and label your MP3s?

vohwink1

Member
Nov 14, 2000
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I know there are a bunch of ways to organize MP3s and people label them in different ways, but I'm looking for a new option.

I'm in this fit to convert my 150+ CDs into HIGH quality (256kbps VBR) MP3s. Right now I'm sitting at about 10.9 gigs and 3000 songs. I have some songs from CDs I don't own.. but I have about 100 more CDs to rip. As of now I'm dumping them into a 20 gig partition on my main drive but it is obvious I will soon outgrow that and I'll have to reformat my 80 gig drive to store all this music.

I'm also labeling them like this:

Artist - Song.mp3

That seems fairly standard and I think I will stick with that, but what about different directories to keep the songs better seperated? Do you make different genre folders and just throw the files in there or subdivide it even more and make artist folders... or are you even so anal you put subfolders with each album name?

Just looking for some input to see how others are doing this and what my best option will be in the near future.
 

Pepsi90919

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,162
1
81
C:\Media\Verified Audio\

then, from there, if it's a full album,

Artist - Album\Artist - Song.mp3

if it's just a single song,

Artist - Song.mp3

I encode my MP3s with LAME 3.88 beta @ 256K, and rip with EAC.
 

vohwink1

Member
Nov 14, 2000
174
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Yeah, LAME is the only way to go...

Oh yeah, I was also wondering how many people actually have ID3 tags for ALL their songs. About half of mine have tags, some are incomplete. I think that would be a good rainy day (week or month) project to correctly fill out all of those...
 

doctorWHO

Junior Member
May 3, 2001
19
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i keep my mp3s in dirs for every album with song names being track#-songname.mp3.

ie: d:\mp3\radiohead-ok computer\01-airbag.mp3

i rip all my cds with eac, and encode them with lame endcoder.
 

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
8,361
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Artist - Album (Year)\Track# Title.mp3

I converted mine (and the g/f's) CDs to mp3s ...roughly 200 discs. Since I duped the CDs to add CD-Text, I didn't go straight from CD to MP3 with LAME. I actually did CD->single WAV (for burning back to CD)->multiple WAV->mp3.

Once in mp3 format, I use Tag & Rename (awesome proggie, just not free) to add ID3 V1 & V2 tags.

-SUO
 

kami

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
17,627
5
81
im too lazy to organize them... d:\mp3s - 4000+ songs...unorganized
 

Demosthenes

Senior member
Jul 23, 2000
591
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I have to have the track #'s in mine because on some cds I only know the songs by tracks... otherwise your method sounds perfect.
 

Aenygma

Platinum Member
Mar 21, 2001
2,427
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ALL my ID Tags are done, and correct.

As for labeling, I just do Artist..."Title"
 

randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
2
0
linh.wordpress.com
I have all mine that i ripped id3'd.

my format is:

c:\mp3s\artist\album\artist - (track#) title.mp3

The second artist is probably overly redundant tho :) I'll change that when i re-rip my cd's.
 

johneetrash

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2001
3,791
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0
if i have the whole album (or ripped it) it goes


D:\MP3s\Albums\Artist Name - ALbum Name\Number - Artist - Track Name.mp3


if i just have part of hte album/dont intend to get the whole album

D:\MP3s\Catagories\'catagory'\Artist - Track Name.mp3
 

HansXP

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2001
3,093
0
0
I organize mine like this:

Music\Artist\Song Title.mp3

If a song or artist name starts with "The" I remove the word so that everything gets sorted properly.

I then add ID3 information about the Artist, Song Title, Album, and Genre...I don't bother worrying about any other fields.
 

vohwink1

Member
Nov 14, 2000
174
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Glad to see I'm not the only one with just one directory and the basic labeling scheme... I just can't immagine myself renaming my 3000+ songs to include a track number... that alone would take forever let alone looking up all the CDs and figuring it out... :( I think I will have to rely on some sort of directory structure to figure that out.
 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
23,686
0
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<< d:\MP3\Artist\Album\Artist - Album - track # - title.mp3

With NO stupid ID3 tags.
>>



the id3 tags make it easy to index all the files they are not stupid just tedious
 

BowDown

Banned
Jun 2, 2000
2,197
0
0


<< Glad to see I'm not the only one with just one directory and the basic labeling scheme... I just can't immagine myself renaming my 3000+ songs to include a track number... that alone would take forever let alone looking up all the CDs and figuring it out... :( I think I will have to rely on some sort of directory structure to figure that out. >>



I only have about 500 songs. If bands start using the same names on their different albums I might switch to adding in the album name, but as of now it's just tedious.
 

Bignate603

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
13,897
1
0
i go by genre of music then into sub classes then into artist so it's kind of like this

C:/MP3/Rock/80's Rock/The Cure

 

vohwink1

Member
Nov 14, 2000
174
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The main problem I have about doing genre directories is with a lot of music now you can't really find a good category to put it in. Obviously if I'm creating the folders I'll know what I classified an artist as, but I don't know, just seems weird.
 

weezergirl

Diamond Member
May 24, 2000
3,366
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Here is how i separate mine. I have an album folder (for mp3s which constitute a whole album), indie music (stuff u can't get on the radio), music (stuff u can get on the radio), and a new music folder. the new music folder holds the newest songs i've downloaded (and usually the ones i am currently listening to). I label all of my songs [artist] - song title.mp3. this way when i download a new song it goes at the end of the list. the songs that i've downloaded and know i want to keep (and is not just a catchy song that i'll get sick of in a few weeks and delete) are changed into the correct format keeping it at the beginning of the list. those in the new music with the correct label will then be transferred to their respective folders. after a while the ones that i haven't changed into the the correct format and don't listen to anymore i can easily find and delete.

boy, that sounds complicated doesn't it? :)
 

Ryan

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
27,519
2
81
All my MP3's are in my d:/MP3s/ folder and they are named be this: &quot;Artist - Song Name&quot; That's it!
 

CuriousAndy

Banned
May 28, 2001
1,563
0
0
Artist - Song.mp3

Yea that always does the trick

I have 3 folders

1. All Mix: Everything.. from Rap to RnB to Rock to Slow Jam.. Everything but Techno/Trance
2. Trance Mix: Pure Trance.. Paul Oakenfold.. ATB stuff..
3. Praise Mix: Christian Music.. Vineyard.. So on..

And 3 Playlists:

1. All Mix: Folder 1 &amp; 2 mixed.. Good for general mood
2. Trance Mix: Folder 2 alone. Awesome when in mood for some heart-thumping beat!
3. Praise Music: Christian Music alone.. for great christian music :D

I also plan to make a playlist called Bedtime mix.. where I gather some relaxing slow songs and RnB and Enigma stuff..

~mOo
 

vohwink1

Member
Nov 14, 2000
174
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Hey weezergirl, a little confusing, but I can follow. :D BTW, weezer is one of the best bands ever IMO.

So yeah, I'm kinda leaning towards making 3 or 4 folders and not really seperate them by genre, but maybe different moods? Like a Dance folder for all the techno/rapish type stuff. Then maybe a Heavy folder for some of the metal and good aggressive music I have, and a Punk folder for that, and maybe some generic folder to hold the Misc. stuff that doesn't really fit anywhere. Then I can easily have a few playlists to fit the situation I'm in with my music... hrmm... nice.

PS - you know how long it takes to browse these boards on a 33.6 modem which you're sharing with your roomate?
 

HansXP

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2001
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<< PS - you know how long it takes to browse these boards on a 33.6 modem which you're sharing with your roomate? >>



Know how long it takes when your broadband ISP craps out and you're browsing at less than 1 K/sec?