Like most of you here, I listen to a lot of music, a lot of the time. Usually played through my computer (almost especially in the past year, since my record player and record collection are boxed up somewhere in Australia) while I'm at home, or my ipod while I'm out and about.
I like a wide range of music, it just depends on the mood I'm in: So in an effort to stop abrasive noise being queued up after twee pop, I've embarked on the long and arduous task of organising my music a bit better. I've found so far that creating a bunch of playlists organised by record label isn't such a bad idea (Ninja Tune, Rephlex, Blue Note, etc...) but this is probably going to fall apart with groups signed to majors.
I think mood-based playlists might be a good idea, but I'm yet to really try them. Smart playlists with star ratings and sub-playlists and blah blah blah seem a bit too much work for something that really shouldn't be too complicated. But then if you forget to add new music, they can do it for you, so they might not be such a bad idea.
So, in short: How do you organise your music, for listening to? I'm interested in other peoples' organising strategies, especially if you listen to a wide range of stuff that, while all good, doesn't necessarily work together...
Meticulously organised by genre, sub-genre, label, year, mood, BPM? Happy-go-lucky whole library on shuffle?
