My mp3's are a MESS

A

aburgard

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 28, 2005
Messages
357
So what's the best way to organize/sort/rename an mp3 collection? What software are you guys using and what do you recommend?

Is there a most used naming system?
Is there a most used filing system?

Spaces, underscores, etc?

What do you guys thing?
 
Well, I have 4034 songs, and named each one by hand. Its a pain, but it can be done. The trick is just keeping up on it.

I use iTunes to organize my music, it will sort into folders based on artist and then album, but the files need to be allready named.
 
I name them by hand like this:

Band - Album - Track - song.mp3

If doing whole albums and the album has more than one disc, the track number for the next disc continues from the first disc instead of starting at 01 again.

Problem with that is, if I store them on a CD as mp3s, I usually have to store them in a zip file to retain the filenames as some get cut off because they are too long. However, then, you have to count on the player being able to look inside zip files.

Also, some characters are not allowed in filenames.

Also, if the filename has spaces in it and you have links to the files, you'll probably get sick of doing %20 for each space.

I still do it by filename anyway and strip all tags from the file. Although, BandName-NameOfSong.mp3 would probably be best as far as filenames go. The rest can be handled with tags.

I guess it also depends on whether you separate artists into different folders or put everything in one pile.
 
I have individual folders set up for each band and album.

Example:
D:\music\Aerosmith\PUMP\song.mp3

I don't really have software that I use to listen to the music other than media player, or media player classic. I don't listen to a whole lot of music... but I do have an extensive collection of it.
 
Tag&Rename
Artist\Year - Album\## - Song title.mp3
Worked quite well for the 35000 song collection I had before my storage drive died.
 
Mine are in all folders by band and then either album, or a general if only a few songs from each CD. Then I have a decently large unorganized folder that I am constantly making smaller :-p

I use winamp, it lists everything in the music library good.
 
HighwayAssassins said:
Well, I have 4034 songs, and named each one by hand. Its a pain, but it can be done. The trick is just keeping up on it.
Click to expand...
Likewise, except my regular music folder has over 5000 and I have various other collections, like Irish, Soundtracks, etc.

Manually editing ID3 info. is the only way to go. It takes forever but it's worth knowing everything is 99.9% consistent and the way you want it.

I name my songs as such:

The Panic Division - (Versus) 02. Goodbyes


My music is in folders by artist and album. If I have orphan songs, I label them:

Everlast - (z) Ends

I use Winamp3 with the MMD3 horizontal skin. I've found nothing more to my liking for years. I edit ID3 info. within Winamp.
 
i use this rename program one of my old friends made

takes an mp3 like this

01-songname_band_name_-_album_name

and turns it into

01 Songname Band Name Album Name
 
The correct file name format is one directory per CD:

Artist - Album title\
01 - Track name.ext
02 - Track name.ext
nn - Track name.ext
[...]

Where everything is PROPERLY capitalized (Not Like This You Idiots)

Optionally "Artist - Album title (disc n)" for multidisc and "nn - Track name (featuring/remix comment).ext", where everything in the comment is lower-case.

Of course, since you have all your files properly tagged, it's then a simple matter of transforming filenames if needed.

Some people like to put the year of release on the directories too, so "Artist - Album title (yyyy)"

Code: 
$ ls -d1 In*
In Flames - Clayman
In Flames - Colony
In Flames - In live we trust (disc 1)
In Flames - In live we trust (disc 2)
In Flames - In live we trust (DVD)
In Flames - Lunar strain
In Flames - Reroute to remain
In Flames - Soundtrack to your escape (digi)
In Flames - The quiet place (cds)
In Flames - The Tokyo showdown (live)
In Flames - Whoracle
$ ls -1 "In Flames - The quiet place (cds)"/
01 - The quiet place.ogg
02 - My sweet shadow (remix).ogg
03 - Värmlandsvisan (live).ogg
Nice'n'clean.
 
HighwayAssassins said:
Well, I have 4034 songs, and named each one by hand. Its a pain, but it can be done. The trick is just keeping up on it.

I use iTunes to organize my music, it will sort into folders based on artist and then album, but the files need to be allready named.
Click to expand...
I have over 10k songs, and i do it the hard way as well.. this way it's done right!
 
I name most of mine by hand too.

BandName_SongTitle.ext
BandName_SongTitle(AlternateVersion).ext
BandName_SongTitle[RemixInfo].ext

I almost never get full albums, because there are almost no albums where I like every track enough to keep them around. But if I do encounter such a thing, the album gets its own folder in the format: Band Name - Album Title.

Most of my files are grouped in folders alphabetically by the beginning letter of the band name, except for bands that begin with "The," which get filed under the first letter of the second word.

Tracks that are best known as coming from movie/tv soundtracks are in a special folder, with subfolders for complete albums by movie/tv title.
 
I use this: Artist/Band (folder) Then inside that Album name (folder) then: Artist - Album - Track # - Title
 
I have 60GB worth of MP3s. I leave the real file name alone, but I use music cube to edit the ID3 tag to the real name.
 
eloj said:
The correct file name format is one directory per CD:
Click to expand...
What makes it the correct way? Your pompous ass?

eloj said:
Where everything is PROPERLY capitalized (Not Like This You Idiots)
Click to expand...
A quick internet search for capitalization rules comes up with the following that suggests you should have learned this in grade 3.

"The first word and all the words in titles of books, articles, works of art, etc. excluding short prepositions, conjunctions, and articles."

I believe the last time I checked music is considered a work of art. There are many acceptable variations that different countries and different organizations define.

Another...
"All key words in titles of literary, dramatic, artistic, and musical works: the novel The Old Man and the Sea, the short story “Notes from Underground,” an article entitled “On Passive Verbs,” James Dickey's poem “In the Tree House at Night,” the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Van Gogh's Wheat Field and Cypress Trees, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto."

eloj said:
(Not Like This You Idiots)
Click to expand...
LOL
 
Might as well contribute to the thread. When I rip my mp3's to my harddrive with PlexTools or when I buy them from AllTunes I have them setup to automatically archive like so:

D:\Music\%Artist\%Album (%Year)\%Artist - %Album - %TrackNumber - %TrackTitle.mp3

Slightly redundant, I know. If the album has multiple discs, each disc goes into a separate folder usually labeled CD1, CD2, etc.

I do have issues when streaming music to the TiVo where all I can see in it's music browser is the artist name and a small bit of the album name, which doesn't tell me very easily which song it is when I'm looking for something. So it does have it's flaws. You might also run into a simlar problem if you want to use them on a portal device, like an iPOD. I don't have one, nor want one at this time, so not an issue for me, but be warned ;)
 
aburgard said:
So what's the best way to organize/sort/rename an mp3 collection? What software are you guys using and what do you recommend?

Is there a most used naming system?
Is there a most used filing system?

Spaces, underscores, etc?

What do you guys thing?
Click to expand...

What program do you use to listen to them? If you are not attached to that program, import them into itunes. It's search is FAST. You can name them there.
 
> What makes it the correct way

Since that's the way I do it, it's axiomatic. It's not likely I'd do it if it considered it the wrong way, now is it? You are free to have your different correct way, but Writing Like This Looks Like Ass, And I Don't Care What Some Pompous American Style Guide Says On The Subject.

Many of the formatting options presented here are redundant in various ways (artist both in directory and filename and the like), I don't get that at all. I especially don't get why you wouldn't want the files natural sorting order on disk to be their album order. Using underscores is ugly as hell also, and I see what problem it's supposed to solve. Given this, the "nn - artist" format writes itself.

(Things are a little different if you don't care about albums of course)
 
eloj said:
> What makes it the correct way

Since that's the way I do it, it's axiomatic. It's not likely I'd do it if it considered it the wrong way, now is it? You are free to have your different correct way, but Writing Like This Looks Like Ass, And I Don't Care What Some Pompous American Style Guide Says On The Subject.

Many of the formatting options presented here are redundant in various ways (artist both in directory and filename and the like), I don't get that at all. I especially don't get why you wouldn't want the files natural sorting order on disk to be their album order. Using underscores is ugly as hell also, and I see what problem it's supposed to solve. Given this, the "nn - artist" format writes itself.

(Things are a little different if you don't care about albums of course)
Click to expand...

Next time use the quote function, you lost me as to who you were speaking to.....
 
i've got 15k tunes organised as :
#First letter of Artist\Artist\Album\Track#_TrackName,mp3.
ie
#A\The Automatic\Not Accepted Anywhere\01-That's what she said.mp3

The first # is to assist in finding stuff that can only read directorys to find music - having over 500 folders in one directory gets a little mind boggling. Plus makes it slightly easier on the down button!

And i've spend the last 4+ years organising it all using Tag and Rename. Looked at a few others, but the amazon information link swung it for me a long time ago!

To play it? Winamp, but i don't use the music library function at all.
 
I have about 60gb of music.. I use a program called "MP3 Collector" to rename all my music. It will put it into any format you want.

For my single songs, I use the "Artist - Trackname.mp3" format.
For CDs I rip, I use the "01 - Artist - Trackname.mp3" format. The folders I use to put those CD's in is like "Artist - Album (year)".

Also, of course I have my ID3 tags all setup properly as well. As I download new songs over the years, I take the time to do each one properly.

Keeps everything nice and organized. =)
 
eloj said:
Where everything is PROPERLY capitalized (Not Like This You Idiots)

In Flames - Clayman
In Flames - Colony
In Flames - In live we trust (disc 1)
In Flames - In live we trust (disc 2)
In Flames - In live we trust (DVD)
In Flames - Lunar strain
In Flames - Reroute to remain
In Flames - Soundtrack to your escape (digi)
Click to expand...

Amazingly enough, if you go to http://www.inflames.com/main.html, you'll note that they seem to use the highly improper capitalization scheme:

01. Take This Life
02. Leeches
03. Reflect The Storm
04. Dead End
05. Scream
06. Come Clarity
07. Vacuum
08. Pacing Death´s Trail
09. Crawl Through Knives

Even more amazing, if you examine any CD, movie title, or book title, they all use the same scheme of capitalizing each word!!!

Maybe you should write some urgent emails to all those idiots in the recording and publishing industries and let them know they've been doing it wrong all these years
 
w1retap said:
I have about 60gb of music.. I use a program called "MP3 Collector" to rename all my music. It will put it into any format you want.

For my single songs, I use the "Artist - Trackname.mp3" format.
For CDs I rip, I use the "01 - Artist - Trackname.mp3" format. The folders I use to put those CD's in is like "Artist - Album (year)".

Also, of course I have my ID3 tags all setup properly as well. As I download new songs over the years, I take the time to do each one properly.

Keeps everything nice and organized. =)
Click to expand...
Agreed, MP3 Collector is great.
 
One folder per Genre. Each track is renames from the Tag in this order. %Artist% - %Album% - %Track #% - %Track Title%.

All track numbers are in double digit format. 01, 02.
 
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