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[J-cob9000]

Do you organize your music? Are you somewhat obsessive about it?

If you do, what do you use to do it with? iTunes or some special automatic thing.

I'd really like to know. Specially if it's automatic.
I'm fixing to get my collection in order with album art and all and would like to not have to do it *all*.
>.>
Yeah.
Discuss.

[imapiratearg]

I am absolutely anal retentive about my music library.  I use Foobar 2000.

[jimbunny]

That is nice, because you can change the tags directly on the playlist. I think you can write in special computer-talk to automatically tag stuff, but I am not a computer super-genius. 

[imagist42]

I typically use iTunes, but it's a little annoying because the way it does album art does not actually transfer to my non-Apple portable device. I am generally not crazy enough to stare at album art on my Zen's screen for hours on end, though, so this is not an enormous problem.

[Thrillho]

In folders by artist, then sub-folders chronologically by album with miscellaneous gubbins alphabetically in the artist folder. No bullshit programs, I do it by hand.

[casull]

I have a similar question- I need to organize a massive collection of old vinyl for someone,  and I'm trying to figure out some way to do it. A lot of the albums are compilations of jazz artists, so I think the best thing would be to use a system that involves tagging. Like, if an album has 10 artists on it, I would tag that album under all ten of their names. Off the top of my head I don't know any software that would do that, but I feel like there has to be some. Ideas?

[Christophe]

I used to use Foobar until I got tired of it repeatedly crashing for no apparent reason. Does anyone have anything for that? Lovely player/music library, nonetheless. Switched back to Winamp.

I recently got a new computer (dating back from 2000, but nevertheless, I think I played Starcraft as a kid on this one) and I've been trying to get all the music that's on my external hard drive to my new one, and it keeps failing repeatedly. Now it won't even recognize the damn HD.

Ahhhh, c'mon fuck a completist.

[StaedlerMars]

I have a similar question- I need to organize a massive collection of old vinyl for someone,  and I'm trying to figure out some way to do it.

Autobiographical...

too obvious?

[Dimmukane]

In folders by artist, then sub-folders chronologically by album with miscellaneous gubbins alphabetically in the artist folder. No bullshit programs, I do it by hand.

I do this, except with dbPoweramp...it lets me edit a few options that are otherwise unreachable using the default Windows tagging system, things that I can't touch otherwise.  In fact, I had Mr. Bungle's California that for some reason had each track listed as at least 25 minutes in length, so I transcoded it.  Some times people add their own sections in tags, too, so I remove those with it.

[J-cob9000]

Any one know the best site to look up stuff?
If you don't know the correct album or whatever, where do you look it up? I've sort of used allMusic or Google Music.

I downloaded iTunes and I guess I'll tackle this project today.
I have the least amount of music I've ever had. So... Better to do it now.

[mattgcn]

Combination of Windows Media Player, iTunes and MusicBrainz Picard helps me tag my music. Somewhat bothersome since the version of ID3 they all use are sometimes incompatible. Completely obsessive about proper tagging. Mostly due to having a large volume of music (likely not compared to folks here) and a last.fm account.

[tomselleck69]

Used to be very picky about this (e.g. "must use brackets in place of parentheses, nothing in brackets can be capitalized"). Now, not so much.

Except for all my dumb fake genre names. They are still sacrosanct.

[pilsner]

So I'm not the only one who classified The Idiot in the genre "Fagina".  Excellent.

[look out! Ninjas!]

Itunes does it for me. Everything is ordered, and it automatically moves the files when I change the tags.
Only issue is that it's a bit hungry, but eh. Must be not good with 10,000+ songs (weak, I know, but I'm getting more)
That and moving your whole library from one HDD to another takes FUCKING AGES. But I've only had to do that twice.

[Mars]

My library is all sorted into directory/subdirectory by hand, then tagged using Musicbrainz Picard. Rhythmbox automatically sorts it all by artist/album/track number according to the tags and also automatically loads the album art. Rhythmbox is like itunes, only without all the suck.

Of course, Rhythmbox is only available to Linux nerds. The rest of you just have to deal with what you got.

[himynameisjulien]

I use iTunes. The smart playlists are really useful, IMO, and it (iTunes) does everything I want it to do. Plus, I have an iPod, so even if I WANTED to use anything else, I'd have to use it alongside iTunes, something I'm too lazy to do.

[mattgcn]

10,000+ songs (weak, I know, but I'm getting more)

If that's weak then my music peen was just chopped off. Though I'm getting a 120 gig external that should last me through 25000 at least. (Still not over 9000)

Also, fake genres sound like the best thing ever.

[Pyrofyr]

I use a variety of programs myself. I found Foobar to be crap, and iTunes is just absolute shit that I refuse to even touch.

I actually find it surprising that so many 'indie' fans use iTunes to file their music. My brain cannot handle oxymoron's of that magnitude!

In any case, I have mine neatly placed by first letter of artist, then by artist, album, and songs. I've yet to figure out how I plan on organizing the albums, and to be honest not sure if I'll bother.

A typical file would be something similar to:
/A/AnathemA/Alternative 4/Fragile Dreams.mp3

My ID3 tags are normally filled out by some programs in EasyTag/blah blah blah programs.
However, it's not all that great honestly, and I've been trying to find something a bit better at throwing stuff together. I'd like to be able to just download a song and have a program put them in the folders, and fix the IDv3 tags with the rest of the information.

As far as genres and fake genres go, my stance is pretty much similar to John Zorn's in that genres are tools used to "commodify and commercialise an artist's complex personal vision".

[bicostp]

I hate organizing videos and music with library tools, because they add an unnecessary level of separation between the user and the files. So I have a hierarchy of folders organizing my music. I just use Media Player for playback (because it's convenient), and iTunes for buying one-off tracks through their service and to throw music on my 2 gig Nano.

For most music:
[Root music directory]\[Artist name]\[Album title]\[disc xx*]\[xx] - [song title].mp3
* If necessary

E:\Music\Dire Straits\Money for Nothing\02 - Down to the Waterline.mp3
E:\Music\Paul McCartney\Back in the US\Disc 2\03 - Band on the Run.mp3


Compilation discs with multiple artists:
[Root music directory]\Compilations\[Album title]\[xx] [Artist name] - [song title].mp3

E:\Music\Compilations\Time Life Heavy Favorites\07 Foghat - Slow Ride.mp3
E:\Music\Compilations\#1 Hits of the 70s\11 Walter Murphy Band - A Fifth of Beethoven.mp3

Everything gets ripped to 198k or 256k/sec, or comparable VBR compression.
The ID3 tags are usually whatever Media Player fills in, because it's right almost every time and I'm too lazy to go in and change them manually.

[look out! Ninjas!]

'Indie fans' use itunes because of the music store, which is actually quite good if you don't mind the fact that DRM sucks a massive cock in all shapes and forms (the DRM and the cock). Range is good though, and they actually sell the Owls S/T.

I have a similar question- I need to organize a massive collection of old vinyl for someone,  and I'm trying to figure out some way to do it. A lot of the albums are compilations of jazz artists, so I think the best thing would be to use a system that involves tagging. Like, if an album has 10 artists on it, I would tag that album under all ten of their names. Off the top of my head I don't know any software that would do that, but I feel like there has to be some. Ideas?

Itunes has the "compilation" checkbox, which forces it to order by album, not artist. You also need to sort by "album by artist". Works well though.

[Hat]

Can somebody that has ripped into Itunes for being Rubbish (apart from the post above me which seems to think its mostly worth using for the Itunes store, which I have never even been into in my life) clarify their opinion? It is by far the easiest interface to edit track information I've ever encountered.

What about it is so utterly frustrating for you? What is your preferred method? I just cannot understand the sheer hate for it, apart from the fact that if you are running a slow computer under Windows, it might slow some memory intensive programs if you are trying to multitask.

[jimbunny]

My biggest problem with iTunes has always been that it chooses not to keep track of music that I put into my music folder (I use Windows). I say it chooses not to do so, because it really should be easy enough. Winamp lets you designate watch folders and rescans them every so often (you can even tell it how often) to check for new files and clear out old ones. I hated having to add files to the Library every time I got new music; seems so unnecessary. There might be a way around this, but I sure as hell was too stupid to figure it out - thus all too willing to give up and stick to Winamp, which has treated me very well so far.

[Hat]

Fair cop, that wasn't so much of a problem for me because the vast majority of music that I have to add manually is downloaded from bittorrent, and when Itunes tags stuff, bittorrent won't recognize the new file names and so I basically can't seed ANYTHING, so it is just way easier for me to just add albums from my bittorent folder as I download them and tell Itunes to create new files in my music folder,  rather than stop Itunes from renaming files.

[Dimmukane]

That is my big beef with it, too.  So many other media players have simple library features that I am now spoiled by them.

[look out! Ninjas!]

And itunes is an uphill struggle if you want to move your music to anywhere else on your PC, like another hard drive.

[bbqrocks]

I sort my music files manually, so itunes is fine with that. All you gotta do is delete it before you move and then re-add it after. Not too much of a difficulty, and certainly not an uphill stuggle.

[look out! Ninjas!]

Yeah, but if you want to move the directory itunes uses for its tunes, and all 55 gigs of 'choons to another folder be prepared for a day of fucking around and hoping.

[gardenhead_]

My biggest problem with iTunes has always been that it chooses not to keep track of music that I put into my music folder (I use Windows). I say it chooses not to do so, because it really should be easy enough. Winamp lets you designate watch folders and rescans them every so often (you can even tell it how often) to check for new files and clear out old ones. I hated having to add files to the Library every time I got new music; seems so unnecessary. There might be a way around this, but I sure as hell was too stupid to figure it out - thus all too willing to give up and stick to Winamp, which has treated me very well so far.

You can just drag the folder straight into iTunes, and it does everything else for you. I've always found iTunes to be the best music player, personally.

[Tom]

My only problem with iTunes is that I can only add files no more that 5 at a time.

[DarkAvenger]

Alphabetized by artist. All songs with an alternate title in another language in brackets behind the song. Alternate album covers and the such... I do it by hand

I also have countless playlists that are organized weirdly ("Songs that take up the exact amount of time it takes to get to school by bus on a snowy Monday morning", "Songs for when you're lying around on a Saturday with nothing to do", blahblahblah)

But with a massive amount of files on my hard drive it's hard to keep track of the ones I barely listen to, or have accidentally deleted and need to re-upload.

[Melodic]

I used to be completely gung-ho about every single tag I could find info for, but it got so bad with OCD that I scaled back. Now everything in my collection is under the genre "ffffuckingawesomecore".

[Hat]

My only problem with iTunes is that I can only add files no more that 5 at a time.

How is it stopping you from adding more files? I added about 20 gigs at once when transporting music between computers and it handled it fine.

[bbqrocks]

My only problem with iTunes is that I can only add files no more that 5 at a time.

I added about 50 gigs, no problem.

Yeah, but if you want to move the directory itunes uses for its tunes, and all 55 gigs of 'choons to another folder be prepared for a day of fucking around and hoping.

You just change the setting, and move all the music. Not too hard.

I really don't get all the itunes complaints. I've never found it that hard to use, or be anal about moving files.

[Dimmukane]

Quick question...how do you folks deal with split albums?  Pick your favorite of the two and put it in that artist?  Make copies?  Or do you have a seperate folder specifically for Split Albums?

[bbqrocks]

You split it in two. I think.

[Harun]

enter 'Various Artists' in the album artist field of your id3 tags


also, I can't live without foobar2000's masstagger and fileops <3

[Albatron]

In folders by artist, then sub-folders chronologically by album with miscellaneous gubbins alphabetically in the artist folder. No bullshit programs, I do it by hand.

Hell yeah, though I had it further divided into genre, theres just too much to go by artist. Though I can still usually find what I want quicker than itunes can, and with less headaches, I can't stand itunes on windows, its a bloated piece of crap, it's tolerable on a mac though, I'd probably use it if I had one.

On windows i use winamp unless im sycing my ipod, on linux i use xmms. both simple, light, straight forward programs.

I just got a 640gb internal that I can't wait to start filling up once I get my bios updated.