How Do You Organize Your Music??

Off-Topic
1

Hey all, I've been using MP3Tag for quite some time now. It has got to be, hands down, the best MP3 tagging/organization tool I have ever used!! Anyway, I recently started playing around with the export function and nothing really seems to come out right. I was wondering what the best way to organize your music is in order for the exported html files to look like the preview versions.

Right now my directories look like this...

D:\Music\genre\artist\album title\xxx.mp3

or if it has multiple CDs

D:\music\genre\artist\album title\cd1\xxx.mp3

for some reason, when i do exports, it doesnt look right at all... it just looks like a mess.

Also... all my mp3s are named by - -

Any help or suggestions would be great... thanks.

File Naming Conventions
2

My structure is almost the same as yours:

F:\Audio\Artist\Album##-title.ext

I've never organized by genre, and I'm not even sure why not, lest it be that about 70% of my files fall in two genres (Jazz and audiobooks), which would leave any other genre directories a bit empty.

Jim

3

It's too many sub-folders for my taste, since my MP3/WMA collection is on external portable USB HDD enclosure for listening on any computer that I go to (that might not have MP3Tag installed)...

I just use a flat directory structure, arranged by type/author/album_title

Jazz - Kenny G - Moment, The
Jazz - Laura Fygi - Jazz Greatest Hits
Opera- Phantom of the Opera - Andrew Lloyd Webber
Pop - Assorted - Lover's Memory - Vol 2 (Instrumental)
Pop - James Ingram - Power of Great Music, The

4

What export conf. do you use?

5

I really like the preview of the html_dano_albumlist_js_ex format, but when I export mine, it does it completely wrong. It almost looks like the export is giving each mp3 it's own section instead of separating by artist/album.

I've also tried html_dano_albumlist_js_f and html_nickless_javasort_lite. Any one I have tried it doesnt end up looking like the well organized preview version.

I basically set the directory to the main Music folder so that all my MP3s are listed, then I attempt to export. I've also tried each genre separately to no avail. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

I should also add that in my MP3s, the only ID3 tag fields I have filled in are... Song Title, Artist, and Track #. Could this be why things don't organize correctly?

6

I think that you must have album name in ID3 tag, becase mp3tag generate html based on ID3 tag fields. Thats why everything look like a mess.

7

Yes most configs need %album% it would be good if you fill that tag.

But it's also possible to use directories, I have modified my config. But it does not work with your multiple CD scheme yet.

dano_List_Album_d_js_ex.zip (1.74 KB)

8

Cool man, thanks! Thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciate the help. So, is there any config made as of yet that handles multi disc albums for properly tree'ing them as far as artist/album/cd1 artist/album/cd2? If not, I'll wait patiently while you work on that :wink: :slight_smile:

9

The best way is whatever works for you. I use four master folders:

X:\Artist<artist name><album name>\xxx.mp3
X:\Compilations<album name>\xxx.mp3
X:\Soundtracks<album name>\xxx.mp3
X:\Classical<composer><album name>\xxx.mp3

No genre, no year, no nothing. If it's a multiple CD album, I combine it into one folder. Much easier to handle.

My tags are title, artist, album, genre, year & comment if needed. Track numbers are always xx/XX.

MP3 filenames are:
xx - title.mp3
No artist, year or album in the title. Between my tags & my folder system, I don't need along title.

I use a custom export (thx to dano & milka for inspiration). My results look like this:

http://www.texasfeldmans.com/pages/stuart/music.htm

Hope this helps! :book:

10

wow astrohip, first of all, thanks for the tips, I'll see what I can play around with. Second, I really like your export format, you should think about releasing that for others to use. It's a very nice way of organizing everything.

11

Try out my exports (Simple Smart Dynamic List & Artist-Album Tracking).

12

hey milka the link that "downloads all exports" at once is broken... Is there any way you can fix those few links so I can grab all your formats at once and decide which I like best?

Thanks man!

OT discussion about milka's exports
13

OK... here's what I've done....

I have 3 main directories... rock, rap, techno

D:\music\rock
D:\music\rap
D:\music\techno\

the rock directory is... set up like

artist\album\xx.mp3 ... if it's multi-CD i have the files named CD# - xx.mp3

i have a few soundtracks... where there are multiple artists... the exports seem to have a problem outputting the albums with multiple artist tags. Or, with my techno, I have several mix albums so there's the same issue. If I have a folder without a sub-folder, it seems to export strangely.

for example... techno\megamix\xx.mp3

doesn't output as nice as techno\megamix\some-name\xx.mp3

the export of the first will look like techno>megamix>xx.mp3

where as the other will look like megamix>some-name>xx.mp3

I'm having a hard time explaining the problem... I'll upload the export that's coming out and maybe you'll see what I'm sayin...

I used dano_List_Album_d_js_ex.html format... you'll see that everything looks good. But then you click on "Techno" towards the bottom. These are all the files that are in techno\folder\ but not techno\folder\sub-folder

Techno.zip (93.6 KB)

Techno.zip (93.6 KB)

14

Well it needs all structures to be "folder\sub-folder"

You need to put your mix albums in a folder like "Various Artists" or "Compilations" so you have:
techno\Various Artists\megamix\xxx.mp3

15

I have one partition that is reserved for my audio files. In this partition, I have folders "a", "b", "c" and so on and three extra folders "soundtracks", "classical" and "vocal" (aka audio books). In these folders, I have subfolders with the artist's name and every artist subfolder contains another subfolder with the name of the album.

Example:

d:\A\A Perfect Cycle\Emotive{files]

As I use MediaMonkey to search my files, I don't see a reason for further differentiators such as "genre".

16

Mine is pretty long but useful:
F:\Eigene Dateien\Eigene Musik\First letter of artist\Artist name\Album (Disc Nr.) [Year]\Tracknr - Title - [Original artist Cover]

So some examples:
V\Various Artists\Scorpion King O.S.T., The [2002]\07 - Hoobastank - Losing My Grip.mp3
C\Children Of Bodom\Are You Dead Yet- [2005]\02 - Rebel Yell [Billy Idol Cover].mp3
D\Die Ärzte\Geräusch - (Disc 1) [2003]\01 - Als ich den Punk erfand.mp3
T\Doors, The\The Best Of The Doors (Disc 1) [1985]\01 - Break On Through.mp3
M\Metallica\Some Kind Of Monster (EP) [2004]\01 - Some Kind Of Monster.mp3

17

Agree. The reason I don't use any genre, year, etc in the folder system is due to potential conflict. Is it Rap or is it Rock? Is it Rock or Pop? yada yada

I notice several of you have an A/B/C folder breakdown. I've thought about doing that, as I have hundreds of artists in my main folder. But again I keep coming back to . . . the more you segregate & file, the more likely you will be to either misfile, or not know how to file a certain recording. So I keep it simple :music:

Artists
Compilations
Soundtracks
Classical\

Good thread! :w00t:

18

Off-Topic discussion regarding milka's exports was splitted to this topic.

19

Heres how my music is organized:

Z:\Music Library\Artists\Album Artist\(year) album\01 - title - artist.MP3

Z:\Music Library\Audiobooks\Author(year) Album\01 - title - artist.MP3

Z:\Music Library\Soundtracks(year) Album\01 - title - artist.MP3
Z:\Music Library\Compilations(year) Album\01 - title - artist.MP3

Notes:
I just use one tag-filename function to organize all of my music in this format.
I use the %contentgroup% field for the categories (Artists, Soundtracks, Comp....).
I use the %band% field for album artist. (Itunes 7 support this field now.)

If a field is missing i have a fail safe:
$if(%field%,%field%,Unknown Field)
So for example there is no %album% or %year% specified, it would fall under the folder "Unknown Album"
<!--coloro:#FF0000-->$if($and(%year%,%album%),(%year%) %album%,Unknown Album)\

The way i organize my music is similar to the way itunes organizes your music except that:
--- Music is divided into 4 folders (Categories) not just one single directory.
--- Year is added to the album folder.

Advantages:
--- Easily Locate Files. (like for example all soundtracks are just in one folder!)
--- Create Smart Playlist in itunes. One for each category (%contentgroup% or Grouping)
--- Somehow prevent file duplicates.

I find this format efficient and effective. I have no plans of changing it.

20

F:\Musik\Alben[first letter of artist]\Artist[year of release and name of album]\Artist - Song title.mp3

Example:
F:\Musik\Alben\J\Janus[2005] Auferstehung\Janus - Ich will seinen Kopf.mp3