unique said:

i can imagine that. that's how most people buy music these days. no alphabeticalness needed to buy a cd on itunes or amazon. you just type in what you want and press a couple of buttons

going back to the old daze when i worked in a record store, we did file alphabetically (and numbers were converted to words for consistency, so UTWO for example - as sometimes on the record it might be listed in numerics, othertimes in text, like tupac/2pac as a shite example). but whilst that worked for record shops it doesn't work for your home

can you imagine arranging anything else in your life in the same way as a store would arrange it?

so all your chairs grouped together. all the tables together, all the tvs together, instead of in a useful purpose. no bird would shag you if you had some fucked up house like that either

birds can tell when guys alphabeticalise shit, as when they look at the cds they can see the letters matching. but stick shit in a different order, even if it's a more geeky order, and they can't tell. it confuses them, and you are fine and you can get laid

fuck sake, these are just basic rules of normality

We get it unique - your sole purpose in life is to shag birds.

Birds though - is this not 2011 - surely bitches is the appropriate term.

Javi said:

I do it alphabetically and chronologically. But, as your record collection grows, it's increasingly difficult: you buy three records of The Beach Boys and two of The Beatles, for example, and you have to move all your other records from BE to Z to leave space on the shelves for the new ones. I haven't got the patience to spend hours and hours moving my CDs and vinyl records anymore, but I don't want to renounce to order. Therefore, at a certain point I start once again with the A-records. For example: 700 records alphabetically and chronologically and then start again. This works for me at the moment. If I hadn't do this change, maybe I would be buying only ZZ Top records.

[Edited 10/31/11 7:29am]

I accept this is a little annoying.

MrBartolozzi said:

unique said:

i can imagine that. that's how most people buy music these days. no alphabeticalness needed to buy a cd on itunes or amazon. you just type in what you want and press a couple of buttons

going back to the old daze when i worked in a record store, we did file alphabetically (and numbers were converted to words for consistency, so UTWO for example - as sometimes on the record it might be listed in numerics, othertimes in text, like tupac/2pac as a shite example). but whilst that worked for record shops it doesn't work for your home

can you imagine arranging anything else in your life in the same way as a store would arrange it?

so all your chairs grouped together. all the tables together, all the tvs together, instead of in a useful purpose. no bird would shag you if you had some fucked up house like that either

birds can tell when guys alphabeticalise shit, as when they look at the cds they can see the letters matching. but stick shit in a different order, even if it's a more geeky order, and they can't tell. it confuses them, and you are fine and you can get laid

fuck sake, these are just basic rules of normality

We get it unique - your sole purpose in life is to shag birds.

Birds though - is this not 2011 - surely bitches is the appropriate term.

bitches is only the appropriate term if you is a wrapper

i is not a wrapper, thus birds are the valid term, and wearing baseball caps the right way round is the way to avoid looking like a moron

HamsterHuey said:

unique said:

yes, but you prove my point as you don't shag birds. they won't shag you if you stick cds in alphabetical order

You're right. I shagged plenty of birds in the vinyl era. Then CD's were introduced and I was gay all of a sudden. I am sure that once I switch to MP3, I am straight again.

you haven't moved to mp3? it's like the 2000s just zipped you by

i started my digital library back in the 90s, and originally apart from keeping prince seperate, it was forced to be alphanumberically, but then as i got so much stuff i made folders for genres and categories, such as rnb, hip hop, dance, various artists compilations, rock, "various" (ie just normal pop/rock stuff whereas rock was for harder stuff), dance mixes, dance singles, various odd mp3s, comedy, weirdshit, and then a folder that has seperate folders for various artists whom i have shitloads of stuff, such as the whole back catalogue plus a load of single mp3s etc, and i usually keep the solo and related artists stuff there too

likewise with my records and cds they were kinda in genre, and following one artist would be a closely related artist. it also depended on how many discs i had of an artist and the space on the shelf, so i'd start a new shelf with an artist with loads of releases, and fill the ends of the shelf with odds and sods, so they could be removed when i needed the shelf space to add more to the artist in question

records were a bit simpler, just under genre really for most of them, as when you are djing they end up out of order easily

This has been a most entertaining thread to go along with my morning cuppa. Y'all are funny!

I organize by genre and only do CDs, no digital for me; don't own an i-pod.

The only problem with going by genre, is that when storage racks become maxed out for instance in the soul section and I don't want to buy a brand new rack, I have to move everything in all the other genres farther down to make space for my new discs.

I have a place where I put all new addtions no matter what their genre and then, every 4 months or so I do the big rearrange and integrate them all together.

It seems that no matter how much empty space per genre rack I leave in anticipation of buying new music some category always gets maxed out and it's time to do the big move again.

"Oh lawd...." it's a tough dirty job but someone's gotta do it.

unique said:

HamsterHuey said:

You're right. I shagged plenty of birds in the vinyl era. Then CD's were introduced and I was gay all of a sudden. I am sure that once I switch to MP3, I am straight again.

you haven't moved to mp3? it's like the 2000s just zipped you by

I could slap sarcasm in your face like a flacid dick and you wouldn't recognise it. (grin)

Just to show how anal I am (and loving it), here's how I sort my collection;
First all the general music styles. I should have renamed 'ROCK' into 'ROCK/ALTERNATIVE/INDIE' and 'SOUL' into 'SOUL/R&B/FUNK', but oh well.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/folder1.jpg[/img:$uid]

Then the über anal, but oh so practical alphabetical order.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/folder2.jpg[/img:$uid]

And last, but not least, the VERY important chronological order of the mostly official releases (I sometime deviate from that rule if the non-official album, like The Undertaker, is an important enough release to fit in between the official ones) and the sub-folders with non-album material and live recordings.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/folder3.jpg[/img:$uid]

This way of collecting makes sure I can find what I am looking for quickly. It makes collecting fun. And anal. But I'm okay with that. Who needs birds anyways.

And yes, I keep my Prince collection seperate.

(grin)

First different disciplines.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/prince1.jpg[/img:$uid]

Then, again, the chronology.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/prince2.jpg[/img:$uid]

Of course, all with scans of covers and labels. And all the different cuts of the track involved on all different media.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/prince3.jpg[/img:$uid]

HamsterHuey said:

I suppose I worship in the same church as MrBartolozzi; I don't shag birds, but I do alphabetise.

Not only that, I keep them in chronological order too. Own names are filed under (for instance) Bush, Kate, but band names are filed as such. Except if it starts with 'The'. Cuz then it will be Beatles, The, of course.

FYI, Unique, I shag a lot.

I alphabetize and keep it chronological too.

I like having physical CDs. I don't keep much on my computer or external harddrive. I burn it to CD-R, make covers for the CD-Rs and alphabetize and keep those chronological, too.

[Edited 10/31/11 10:36am]

scififilmnerd said:

I like having physical CDs. I don't keep much on my computer or external harddrive. I burn it to CD-R, make covers for the CD-Rs and alphabetize and keep those chronological, too.

I switched eons ago. Most my non-Prince material sold off in secondhand stores; except my vinyl, of course. But CD's I never cared about as much as I cared for my LP's.

Most my stuff, except my vinyl, is in storage, these days. (grin)

My digital music collection (and several back-ups) are my joy in life; one big jukebox. I love my playlists and my shuffle function...

unique said:

you should file in an order you can follow, but a bird wouldn't understand

I have a little over 1500 discs. Everything is filed by artist but the artists are not in alpha order. I don't know how but whenever I'm looking for any given disc, 95% of the time, I can go right to it. No one else has ever been able to figure out my filing system.

I just realised I need to scan the back of the If I Was Your Girlfriend 12''.

My modest cd collection starts with

1st shelf: classical music, followed by blues and jazz

2nd shelf: soul music, funk and rock music (mostly 60's and 70's)

3rd shelf: rock and pop music (mostly 70's and 80's)

4th shelf: Prince only

5th shelf: 90's music and some 00's

6th shelf: latin music, dutch music and rap music

7th shelf: bootlegs

it's shelf lol

[Edited 10/31/11 11:44am]

HamsterHuey said:

unique said:

you haven't moved to mp3? it's like the 2000s just zipped you by

I could slap sarcasm in your face like a flacid dick and you wouldn't recognise it. (grin)

Just to show how anal I am (and loving it), here's how I sort my collection;
First all the general music styles. I should have renamed 'ROCK' into 'ROCK/ALTERNATIVE/INDIE' and 'SOUL' into 'SOUL/R&B/FUNK', but oh well.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/folder1.jpg[/img:$uid]

Then the über anal, but oh so practical alphabetical order.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/folder2.jpg[/img:$uid]

And last, but not least, the VERY important chronological order of the mostly official releases (I sometime deviate from that rule if the non-official album, like The Undertaker, is an important enough release to fit in between the official ones) and the sub-folders with non-album material and live recordings.

[img:$uid]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v652/hhja/Music/folder3.jpg[/img:$uid]

This way of collecting makes sure I can find what I am looking for quickly. It makes collecting fun. And anal. But I'm okay with that. Who needs birds anyways.

you have a country section?

to quote bart...

WRONG!!!

unique said:

you have a country section?

to quote bart...

WRONG!!!

You don't have any Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris of Loretta Lynn?

Now who's the twat?

And yer missing out on Bobbie Gentry. Sad, so sad.

I must admit, there aren't many folders in the country folder, but I do love me some bluegrass.

Tremolina said:

My modest cd collection starts with

1st shelf: classical music, followed by blues and jazz

2nd shelf: soul music, funk and rock music (mostly 60's and 70's)

3rd shelf: rock and pop music (mostly 70's and 80's)

4th shelf: Prince only

5th shelf: 90's music and some 00's

6th shelf: latin music, dutch music and rap music

7th shelf: bootlegs

it's shelf lol

Just two Prince shelves? What kinda Prince fan are you?

HamsterHuey said:

Tremolina said:

My modest cd collection starts with

1st shelf: classical music, followed by blues and jazz

2nd shelf: soul music, funk and rock music (mostly 60's and 70's)

3rd shelf: rock and pop music (mostly 70's and 80's)

4th shelf: Prince only

5th shelf: 90's music and some 00's

6th shelf: latin music, dutch music and rap music

7th shelf: bootlegs

it's shelf lol

Just two Prince shelves? What kinda Prince fan are you?

lol like I said a modest one

Tremolina said:

lol like I said a modest one

Modest Prince fans? Never met them.

HamsterHuey said:

Tremolina said:

lol like I said a modest one

Modest Prince fans? Never met them.

I just know I have very little to brag about when it comes to prince music

or collecting whatever music

it's a bit innocently "anal", but so what. It doesn't affect anyone else.

But, as someone who has about 900 CDs in cases, simple alphabetizing isn't going to be that handy for selecting music, at least for me. So, I organize my CDs by self-defined genres and sub-genres and then go from there. There are always those CDs that defy easy categorization, or that could honestly be placed in two different places. The trick is not to quickly create a new genre/group for anything different, because you could break your collection down into a LOT of micro-groups if you so chose and get overly analytical. Keep the groupings broad (e.g., R&B/Soul), and if there is enough CDs that fall under a more specific sub-group (e.g., Funk, Classic Soul, 90s R&B), then those can be separated out.

BTW, Prince and related artists such as The Time, Sheila E., Wendy and Lisa, Vanity 6, are their own group in my classification system, though they sit near other R&B/Soul music, so I guess they're more of a subgroup.

HamsterHuey said:

unique said:

you have a country section?

to quote bart...

WRONG!!!

You don't have any Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris of Loretta Lynn?

Now who's the twat?

And yer missing out on Bobbie Gentry. Sad, so sad.

I must admit, there aren't many folders in the country folder, but I do love me some bluegrass.

i have a lot of johnny cash, and i love the classic 70s country like dolly and kenny and current alt.country like ryan adams, and taylor swift is a fuckbucket but i don't put them in a folder marked country, as that's just...

WRONG!!!

coltrane3 said:

it's a bit innocently "anal", but so what. It doesn't affect anyone else.

But, as someone who has about 900 CDs in cases, simple alphabetizing isn't going to be that handy for selecting music, at least for me. So, I organize my CDs by self-defined genres and sub-genres and then go from there. There are always those CDs that defy easy categorization, or that could honestly be placed in two different places. The trick is not to quickly create a new genre/group for anything different, because you could break your collection down into a LOT of micro-groups if you so chose and get overly analytical. Keep the groupings broad (e.g., R&B/Soul), and if there is enough CDs that fall under a more specific sub-group (e.g., Funk, Classic Soul, 90s R&B), then those can be separated out.

BTW, Prince and related artists such as The Time, Sheila E., Wendy and Lisa, Vanity 6, are their own group in my classification system, though they sit near other R&B/Soul music, so I guess they're more of a subgroup.

small collections like yours are far easier to manage. i gave up on organising after a couple of moves. when someone helped me and stuck shit randomly on shelves there was no fucking way i was going to spend months trying to sort shit out when i had most of it on HDD's instead. so now the cds and shelves are just storage in a random order, and by looking at it i come across things randomly and rediscover things i haven't listened to in a while. if i want to play something specific i can find it much quicker on my pc's (as of course i have the lot backed up)

unique said:

HamsterHuey said:

You're right. I shagged plenty of birds in the vinyl era. Then CD's were introduced and I was gay all of a sudden. I am sure that once I switch to MP3, I am straight again.

you haven't moved to mp3? it's like the 2000s just zipped you by

i started my digital library back in the 90s, and originally apart from keeping prince seperate, it was forced to be alphanumberically, but then as i got so much stuff i made folders for genres and categories, such as rnb, hip hop, dance, various artists compilations, rock, "various" (ie just normal pop/rock stuff whereas rock was for harder stuff), dance mixes, dance singles, various odd mp3s, comedy, weirdshit, and then a folder that has seperate folders for various artists whom i have shitloads of stuff, such as the whole back catalogue plus a load of single mp3s etc, and i usually keep the solo and related artists stuff there too

likewise with my records and cds they were kinda in genre, and following one artist would be a closely related artist. it also depended on how many discs i had of an artist and the space on the shelf, so i'd start a new shelf with an artist with loads of releases, and fill the ends of the shelf with odds and sods, so they could be removed when i needed the shelf space to add more to the artist in question

records were a bit simpler, just under genre really for most of them, as when you are djing they end up out of order easily

I hate mp3 and the lousy qulity it produces through my system. It's either lossless or cd. And I no longer shag birds as I'm married. Do get to fuck a tasty bit of crumpet though

Play anything through iTunes and it's grouped and alphabetical. Even chronological if you want but the default is the former.

I keep my records in order by year. As for my CDs, that's a little harder because I have so many artists' greatest hits compilations. I try to keep them order by keeping artists from a particular era together such as Donna Summer, Foxy, GQ, Chic, etc., the similar groups like The Barkays, Cameo, Con Funk Shun, etc. are put together As the years get more current, then I have groups like The Deele, Midnight Star, etc. together. Various artist CDs are together by genre. Vinyl is so much easier to place by year because there are very few greatest hits albums.

I would never keep mine in alphabetical order because when I thumb through my records and CDs to play a particular, I want things that are similar around it that will inspire me what to play next. I don't just sit and listen to a whole album (very rarely). I'm contantly playing a different song by a different artist just as if it were the radio. If things were in alphabetical order, you would have to constantly think of what you're going to play next without any visual help for inspiration.

iloveannie said:

unique said:

you haven't moved to mp3? it's like the 2000s just zipped you by

i started my digital library back in the 90s, and originally apart from keeping prince seperate, it was forced to be alphanumberically, but then as i got so much stuff i made folders for genres and categories, such as rnb, hip hop, dance, various artists compilations, rock, "various" (ie just normal pop/rock stuff whereas rock was for harder stuff), dance mixes, dance singles, various odd mp3s, comedy, weirdshit, and then a folder that has seperate folders for various artists whom i have shitloads of stuff, such as the whole back catalogue plus a load of single mp3s etc, and i usually keep the solo and related artists stuff there too

likewise with my records and cds they were kinda in genre, and following one artist would be a closely related artist. it also depended on how many discs i had of an artist and the space on the shelf, so i'd start a new shelf with an artist with loads of releases, and fill the ends of the shelf with odds and sods, so they could be removed when i needed the shelf space to add more to the artist in question

records were a bit simpler, just under genre really for most of them, as when you are djing they end up out of order easily

I hate mp3 and the lousy qulity it produces through my system. It's either lossless or cd. And I no longer shag birds as I'm married. Do get to fuck a tasty bit of crumpet though

well you could get a decent sound system so your mp3s don't sound shite. you can't get everything on cd or lossless so have to settle for mp3 at times

the end of your sex life often coincides with marraige, and cake ends up your alternative. i wouldn't worry about it

coltrane3 said:

it's a bit innocently "anal", but so what. It doesn't affect anyone else.

But, as someone who has about 900 CDs in cases, simple alphabetizing isn't going to be that handy for selecting music, at least for me. So, I organize my CDs by self-defined genres and sub-genres and then go from there. There are always those CDs that defy easy categorization, or that could honestly be placed in two different places. The trick is not to quickly create a new genre/group for anything different, because you could break your collection down into a LOT of micro-groups if you so chose and get overly analytical. Keep the groupings broad (e.g., R&B/Soul), and if there is enough CDs that fall under a more specific sub-group (e.g., Funk, Classic Soul, 90s R&B), then those can be separated out.

BTW, Prince and related artists such as The Time, Sheila E., Wendy and Lisa, Vanity 6, are their own group in my classification system, though they sit near other R&B/Soul music, so I guess they're more of a subgroup.

This is what I do--very general genres: goth, R&B/soul/funk, hip-hop, jazz, Latin, French, country, classical, Christmas and pop/rock. Then alphabetical and then within each artist, chronological.

I do mine alphabetically by first name, e.g., Billy Idol and then Billy Joel. I can't do it by genre. Most of the music I listen to is blended, I'm not "straight up" anything which is why the sorting by genre doesn't work. So Mariah Carey and Marilyn Manson get to hang out together at my house.

It's still rock and roll to me

As for songs in my computer, that's an entirely different story altogether. I've put all my music into my desktop computer which is plugged into my stereo so the songs play through the speakers. That computer has never had internet and never will for fear of losing music due to viruses. I only have internet on a laptop computer. If I download a song, I download it from the laptop, burn the song onto a CD, then rip it into the desktop computer through the Windows Media Player. Afterwards, I throw the CD away because the songs aren't really on it in any particular theme, it was just a means of transferring a song from one computer to another without internet. I love the Windows Media Player though not only because I can simply type in a song rather than look through stacks of records, but also for the shuffle feature which I love. It's like having a radio station of your own with DJs who play what you like but you never know what song will be played next.

As for how I store them in the computer, the Windows Media Player stores them alphabetically by artist. However, when I rip a song into the computer, I also enter a genre on every single song and a year on most of them if I know it. My main goal when entering the information is keeping the shuffle feature in mind and entering things in order for me to completely recreate the feel of radio back in the day before it turned into bullshit. I can listen to nothing but funk on shuffle, or slow jams, or disco, or pop/rock, or house, etc. or I can listen to songs in shuffle by year and feel like I'm listening to the radio back in that actual year all over again.

I have my own system of labeling genres though keeping the shuffle feature in mind. For instance, even though Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" is pop/rock, I label it as funk because it's one of the songs I want to come on if I'm listening to funk or listening to music from 1984. I try to recreate old R&B radio with the shuffle feature as much as possible. I don't label any of the years from my pop/rock stuff though because I don't want a pop/rock song to come on if I'm listening to funk music from maybe 1981 or something. I wish there was a way to outsmart the computer and label years for my pop/rock stuff though like maybe entering 3081 for a pop/rock song from 1981 or maybe even label it 1881 or something. Anything to get the year for the pop/rock song without it playing during the funk songs from that year. I also have funk listed as two genres. "Funk" is for stuff pre-Shitney Houston which would be up through May of 1985 before I graduated high school. After high school, I have the genre listed as "Funk Late 80s". The same with "Slow Jam" and "Slow Jam Late 80s". I don't want anything after May 1985 coming on and spoiling my mood if I'm listening to funk or slow jams because it was just a different sound after Shitney came out and inspired folks to do different sounding stuff.

As you can see, I have a system that only Andy would understand which is done according to the moods he wants to create.

What I'd really like to tackle next, is enter beats per minute on all my funk, disco, and house music. I have a program called Magix that will calculate it but it would take forever to do every song because I have thousands of them.

That would be like an orgasm though to play songs on shuffle with similar BPMs because that's mainly the way I listen to music anyway when I play it myself. I always like to play one song after another that keeps the same feel and flow going for awhile until my mood changes.