Organizing Your Music - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

fredr123 · 07-10-2005, 11:11 AM

Like many of you out there I have a plethora of mp3 files (all legally obtained of course :P ) taking up space on my hard drive. Thanks to a lack of any kind of naming standard, the filenames are often incomprehinsible or just plain wrong. The ID3 tags are equally messy.

How would someone go about wrangling these files into order? The prospect of manually going through each file and correcting the filename and tags is daunting to say the least. Surely, someone has developed a reliable way to verify filenames, correct tags, etc. with minimal user effort, right? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, once the files are properly named, how would you recommend they be stored? One giant music folder full ot 10 000 songs? Folders for each genre? Artist?

Maritime Q-Scout · 07-10-2005, 11:18 AM

I have a folder in "My Documets" simply entitled "My Music" I think XP naturally sets this up anyway.

I have each MP3 filename the same formatt

song title - artists.mp3

then thanks the the wonderful program known as iTunes, the files are then organized into more subfolders of artist name, then subfolder album, then the file itself.

Since I generally just use iTunes I have no problem with this philosophy.

It makes finding MP3's fairly easy, and keeps them organized well.

HelloHockeyFans · 07-10-2005, 11:53 AM

After I've downloaded the complete song (just to hear it before I purchase the CD of course), I edit the file name as follows:

artist - title.mp3

Then I sort the file by genre and artist.

example:

Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane - Nutty.mp3 goes into Jazz/Instrumental/Thelonious Monk

fredr123 · 07-10-2005, 11:53 AM

I've heard from others that itunes does a decent job. Some have said it makes it a bit of a pain to find the actual files though since they're burried in six layers of directories. I'd like to be able to have the files organized in such a was as to make it easy to transfer files onto my new mp3 player (not an ipod, probably a creative micro dealy).

I'm also a fan of the Artist - Name.mp3 format. I would wager, however, that over half of my songs either don't follow that format or are misnamed (I hate artist_-_song_name_sometwitwhouploadedthesong.mp3 formats). Any suggestions for saving time and effort in correcting those problems?

HelloHockeyFans · 07-10-2005, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fredr123@Jul 10 2005, 06:09 PM
I've heard from others that itunes does a decent job. Some have said it makes it a bit of a pain to find the actual files though since they're burried in six layers of directories. I'd like to be able to have the files organized in such a was as to make it easy to transfer files onto my new mp3 player (not an ipod, probably a creative micro dealy).

I'm also a fan of the Artist - Name.mp3 format. I would wager, however, that over half of my songs either don't follow that format or are misnamed (I hate artist_-_song_name_sometwitwhouploadedthesong.mp3 formats). Any suggestions for saving time and effort in correcting those problems?

As I mentioned, the easiest way is to change the filenames immediately after you download them. Leaving them for later will leave you with re-naming 50+ files as opposed to 1.

fredr123 · 07-10-2005, 12:14 PM

Yes hindsight... Don't tell my wife, but most of the goofily-named songs are ones she obtained. The wonky names don't bother her. Bugs the shinguard out of me. I'll take your advice for the future (ie name it properly after you get it). But what about now?

HelloHockeyFans · 07-10-2005, 01:08 PM

http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?q...amer&tg=dl-2001

Haven't tried any myself, but these programs might do things quickly and allow you to set up rules for how you want your future files to be named.

Hakan · 07-10-2005, 02:28 PM

www.musicbrainz.org

That's the best way to retag and rename large volumes of mp3s for free.

Cowperson · 07-10-2005, 02:47 PM

Most of my CD's are scattered around my feet as I'm typing this. . . . . and the rest are stuck in various places in my truck.

Hillbilly organization.

Cowperson

RougeUnderoos · 07-10-2005, 02:47 PM

Okay I have a question that maybe belongs somewhere else but you are going to read it here.

One time, 5 months ago, I would put a cd in my computer and play it and the Windows media player would say what cd it was and the name of the song and other such pertinent information. Now it just says "Unknown Album" and then "Unknown Artist Track3".

I don't like it to do that and I wish it would do it the other way with the name of the singer and the name of the song and such.

Why does this happen to me?

MRCboicgy · 07-10-2005, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RougeUnderoos@Jul 10 2005, 02:03 PM
Okay I have a question that maybe belongs somewhere else but you are going to read it here.

One time, 5 months ago, I would put a cd in my computer and play it and the Windows media player would say what cd it was and the name of the song and other such pertinent information. Now it just says "Unknown Album" and then "Unknown Artist Track3".

I don't like it to do that and I wish it would do it the other way with the name of the singer and the name of the song and such.

Why does this happen to me?

Mine did the same and since then the feature on the new MSN messenger that shows what you are listening to doesn't work either...I've reinstalled lots of crap and nothing has fixed it...

anyone else know?

edit:bad spelling

bonnakins · 07-10-2005, 08:12 PM

Glad to hear I'm not the only dinosaur still listening to cds cowperson, but mine are in alphabetical order, otherwise I'd never find anything.

calculoso · 07-10-2005, 08:38 PM

I've been using the OrangeCD Catalog program to keep track of my CD collection. It allows you to just insert every CD into your drive and it automatically recognizes the CD and adds it to your catalog. You can then create a list, a webpage, or whatever you want.

It says you can add MP3s to it too, but I've never tried that.

http://www.firetongue.com/cd-database.html
30 day Shareware
(crack available)

flamingchina · 07-10-2005, 10:17 PM

personally my music usually goes into genre/artist/cd/song.mp3
usually have complete CD's though. Utimetly you'll porbably have to bite the bullet and edit the ID3 info. then it's easy to find a program that will edit the filename based on that.
besides, once you have good id3's it's easier to use itunes/winamp to look through your music.