# How should I format my music collection?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [June 24, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498 "2009-06-24T10:50:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mk1065](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/mk1065)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/1 "2009-06-24T10:50:17Z")
I have a large collection of music and as I am beginnig to organize all the songs I am stumped about what information I should leave in the "Filename" field!!! 😳
Which of the following do you think is best?
1. Artist - Song Title
2. Song Title
3. Track Number (Only on the songs that have them) - Song Title
If you can, please explain why you think one of the options above is better than the other.
---
### Author:  [@Andy\_D](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Andy_D)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/2 "2009-06-24T15:24:58Z")
Mine is:
Artist\Year - Album\Tracknumber - Artist - Title
Tracknumber because of the sorting in WinExplorer and Artist/Title are the most relevant informations for me.
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### Author:  [@JJ\_Johnson](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/JJ_Johnson)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/3 "2009-06-24T17:56:46Z")
I use (with tracknumber padded by zeroes to two places):
Artist\Album\Tracknumber Title
For compilation (Various Artists) albums, I use:
Various Artists\Album\Tracknumber Artist - Title
I generally try to keep as much redundant information _out_ of the filename as possible. If I'm looking at any of the files above, from the combination of directory path and filename I have all the info I need.
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### Author:  [@fuzi1968](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/fuzi1968)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/4 "2009-06-29T17:33:47Z")
In my directory "Tracks" and a sub folder for every year (1957-2009, Unknown). Also a sub folder "_CheckIn_" where I load all in, cut the correct start + end with Wavelab, rename the files, parse the file name into the fields, update misc. tags ...
Artist\_Title\_(Mix).wav
And in the URL frame I write the [discogs.com](http://discogs.com) release id. So I know from where I got it.
If I have a file multiple times: Artist\_Title\_(Mix)\_2.wav
If I have ripped one from vinyl: Artist\_Title\_(Mix)\_VINYL.wav
Big problem is always a system for a correct Mix name because on every release you have another one. Main logic is like "(Club Mix by Tom Moulton)" - the mixer will be moved behind the "by".
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### Author:  [@LyricsLover](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/LyricsLover)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/5 "2009-06-29T19:01:27Z")
You really save your songs in \*.wav-format? You must have terabytes of data. 😉
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### Author:  [@WarrenWolfe](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/WarrenWolfe)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 4:47am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/6 "2009-06-30T04:47:57Z")
> [@mk1065](#):
>
> I have a large collection of music and as I am beginnig to organize all the songs I am stumped about what information I should leave in the "Filename" field!!! 😳
>
> Which of the following do you think is best?
>
> 1. Artist - Song Title
> 2. Song Title
> 3. Track Number (Only on the songs that have them) - Song Title
>
> If you can, please explain why you think one of the options above is better than the other.
I like option 3 above. The way I store music, I start with a directory for each "Artist", a subdirectory for each "Album", and the "Track" and "Title" in the filename. Adding "Artist" is redundant, since I already have it in a directory, and I like to have the track number so if the Operating System sorts by filename, the songs are in album order.
Warren
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### Author:  [@fuzi1968](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/fuzi1968)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/7 "2009-06-30T15:17:06Z")
> [@LyricsLover](#):
>
> You really save your songs in \*.wav-format? You must have terabytes of data. 😉
No - currently 4000. mp3 quality is too bad for big sound systems. heared it again last saturday where I played with a friend with his mp3 collection for 1000 people. my wav's blowed him away 😉
---
### Author:  [@blackspawn](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/blackspawn)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/how-should-i-format-my-music-collection/8498/8 "2009-07-03T20:19:24Z")
Here's my "system":
%Artist%[%year%] %Album%\%track%. %title%
if multi cd:
%Artist%[%year%] %Album%\CD1\%track%. %title%
%Artist%[%year%] %Album%\CD2\%track%. %title%
...
I also ran several scripts for formatting purposes (Capitalization of roman numerals, title capitalization, extra spaces, contractions, etc.)