How do you organize your music files?

Guybrush · 06-30-2011, 03:46 AM

Although it's not exactly file organization, the biggest tagging headache for me has definetly been genres. I now use discogs genres & styles and any album in that database follows that system, but sometimes I get an album which is not entered into discogs and then I have to try and figure it out myself of course.

To organize one's music files by genre seems like a particularly bad idea to me, at least if you want consistency.

Skelleus · 06-30-2011, 04:56 AM

Organize it by Folders of genres, and subgenres inside of them

GuitarBizarre · 06-30-2011, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Wow, a proper on-topic post on file organization .. Thanks GB

One thing I don't like is putting information in places where it's not supposed to be. For example, you put disc number in album title. In my collection, the total amount of discs and the number of any particular discs is stored in it's own tag. My sorting script makes sure they appear in order.

My collection is bigger than yours and I'm happy that I have album art for just about everything in there that I could find it for. Often, I have grabbed it manually, but I've also had scripts that downloaded it for me. With foobar, that's easy - and so is sorting your music by any tag you like - but what media player is it you use?

I use foobar, but I'm not into script writing so I use it basically with plugins and only basic customisation.

Also, I only put Disc Number in the Album title so that the folders are organised correctly both in and out of Foobar. Its not, strictly speaking, the wrong info in my eyes, just because I can't count the number of multiple disc albums I have where the gracenote or FreeDB tags have put that exact same piece of info in the same place!

Stephen · 06-30-2011, 09:36 PM

I just use iTunes and leave organisation to the software. The only time I find it sucks is in relation to compilations but I tend not to go for them anyway.

Guybrush · 06-30-2011, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

Its not, strictly speaking, the wrong info in my eyes, just because I can't count the number of multiple disc albums I have where the gracenote or FreeDB tags have put that exact same piece of info in the same place!

I disagree as I just feel the name of Pink Floyd's The Wall f.ex is "The Wall" and not "The Wall Disc 1". That's not what it says on the cover. In my opinion, regardless of which disc you are listening to, you are still listening to the album titled "The Wall". In foobar, Disc number and Total Discs have dedicated metainfo tags where that info is supposed to go. If a database stores that sort of info in the album title, that's pretty awful I think and very unprofessional as it's clearly information that could (should) have its own place. It could also be that it is your tagger which appends that info to the album title.

On discogs (which I often use), Album Title and Disc Number are separate bits of info and my tagger puts the info in separate tags.

Luckily, as a foobar user, you can easily remap those parts of your albums titles to the disc number tags should you want to in the future. Oh, and you should get into the scripting part. It's really quite easy!

edit :

Some time ago, I started using two separate date tags. I consider date to be the original release date for the album, when it was first released. Then I also use a custom tag called Release Year which is intended for later releases of that album, f.ex remasters. So, a 40th anniversary edition of an album may have 1971 as it's date and 2011 as it's release year.

For folders, I currently keep the info like this :

1971 - In the Land of Grey and Pink [Studio Album, 2011 Rerelease]

Paedantic Basterd · 06-30-2011, 11:07 PM

I cannot stand it when my itunes separates discs.

Carded · 07-04-2011, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

I disagree as I just feel the name of Pink Floyd's The Wall f.ex is "The Wall" and not "The Wall Disc 1". That's not what it says on the cover. In my opinion, regardless of which disc you are listening to, you are still listening to the album titled "The Wall". In foobar, Disc number and Total Discs have dedicated metainfo tags where that info is supposed to go. If a database stores that sort of info in the album title, that's pretty awful I think and very unprofessional as it's clearly information that could (should) have its own place. It could also be that it is your tagger which appends that info to the album title.

In Musicnizer I found the solution of this problem in the special tab that allows you to create additional "Disc" entry for an album and add tracks from the second CD there.

06-30-2011, 03:46 AM	#101 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Although it's not exactly file organization, the biggest tagging headache for me has definetly been genres. I now use discogs genres & styles and any album in that database follows that system, but sometimes I get an album which is not entered into discogs and then I have to try and figure it out myself of course. To organize one's music files by genre seems like a particularly bad idea to me, at least if you want consistency. __________________ Something Completely Different

06-30-2011, 04:56 AM	#102 (permalink)
Skelleus Groupie Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 15	Organize it by Folders of genres, and subgenres inside of them

06-30-2011, 09:36 PM	#104 (permalink)
Stephen I sleep in your hat Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Melbourne, Vic. Aus. Posts: 1,849	I just use iTunes and leave organisation to the software. The only time I find it sucks is in relation to compilations but I tend not to go for them anyway.

06-30-2011, 11:07 PM	#106 (permalink)
Paedantic Basterd Music Addict Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 5,184	I cannot stand it when my itunes separates discs.