h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Organising Your Music Collection - A22670093
Author: Elentari - U202814

Hi all!

I had this thumping around in my head demanding to get out, so I wrote it. I'm not sure if it's really EG material though because it's all really quite obvious, so I'd appreciate opinions!

I used to pride myself that my alphabetically-arranged CD collection had Nine Inch Nails on the shelf next to Pachelbel.

I don't know if you want to mention soundtracks, which I keep on a different shelf by title of the film, and maybe seasonal - my entire Christmas collection is completely removed from the rest of my CDs.

Another thing I do when I sort out my disks (about twice a year) is that I check inside the cases as I re-order them on the shelf to check for missing disks, and to see if any cases hold disks they shouldn't - which happens frequently when I rotate the collection in my car.

Oh, and I should say it never occurred to me to organise my disks any way other than the way I have them, so I did learn something useful from your entry. Not that it will convince me to change my methods, but it might come in handy next time I'm looking for something I can't find in my sister's collection

Thanks for reading, Milos! I'll add something about seasonal and sountrack albums.

You seem to have captured most of the problems here.

You mention always putting a CD back in the right case, but this isn't as easy as it sounds:

- You take a CD out of its case to put it in the player, open the player's drawer and find one in there already.

- You remove the offending CD and try and find its case, still with the other one in your hand. There's no sign of it.

- Now what do you do? Put down the caseless CD on any available flat surface (not recommended) or stick it into the open case in front of you? Most people opt for the latter.

The solution is to have three or four blank CD cases at the end of your collection. You can always grab one of these and use it temporarily. But you must now look for the missing case, otherwise your system is starting to go haywire.

You might like to give Elvis as an example of a performer who most people would file under 'E'.

In customised CD racks, you skip over the problem that some racks have individual spaces for CD, and you can't add an extra CD in the middle except by moving all the CDs one at a time into the next slot. If you've got a rack like this, it is worth leaving a space after every 10th CD or so.

Brilliant Gnomon, thank you!

Hey, I'll be happy to check it out (in fact, I did).

Here are some hopefully helpful comments:
First off, your title, Organising Your Music Collection, would be fine; except that you then focus entirely CDs. Most people still have some cassette tapes or vinyl, perhaps even other media like 8-tracks or reel-to-reel.

You could just change the title to make the CD focus clear, or give a nod to other types of media. Some may be Organising their music entirely on their computer using mp3 versions.

Next, you might also mention the problem with categorising crossover artists, or artists that record specialty albums in another style (not to mention hit collection albums, with multiple groups across a genre).

Third, in your 'early part of your...', you missed comedy. Where am I going to put my Hitchhikers cd now?

Lastly, there is a far more efficient way to store and retrieve the music. A rack composed of horizontal shelves, instead of horizontal slots. with movable segmenting within a shelf. You can then label each segment with a two letter code, and each cd spine with the same two digit code followed by a two digit number. Then, all you need is a notebook that describes the location of each one.

Better than the notebook, though, would be a small database or spreadsheet on your PC that holds the information and can print it out in several booklets. One booklet would sort all the cds and locations by artist, another by genre, etc.

Well, I hope that helps some.

I should have mentioned that I use that last technique to handle my family's karaoke collection. One book I print out is by song, one by artist, one by genre. Heck, I could even do one based on length of track.

Some of the CDs hold many artists, but the individual songs all get sorted within the artist or group.

It works.

Thanks, Fords! I'll get onto that, but I want to clear this up:

"First off, your title, Organising Your Music Collection, would be fine; except that you then focus entirely CDs. Most people still have some cassette tapes or vinyl, perhaps even other media like 8-tracks or reel-to-reel.

You could just change the title to make the CD focus clear, or give a nod to other types of media. Some may be Organising their music entirely on their computer using mp3 versions."

Maybe you missed it but I mentioned in the first couple of paragraphs how I use the term cds but for the most part it could also apply to tapes or records, and that I won't cover digital music. Is that ok or do you think it should be clearer?

Once that's done I think I'll put it in PR.

Eeh some people have far too much time on their hands, don't they FT?

I just have a spreadsheet (or two) that I record every single recording, CD or DVD (and when *very* pushed, video) that I own. I have no actual system, which can make for very interesting viewing, or listening.

Partner: "Mags, shall we watch (something) tonight?"
Me: Ooh yeah, where is it?
P: Somewhere, vaugely over there.
Me: Cool! (FindS something else...Ooh perrrrty!)

And so it goes...

Why isn't this already in PR Elentari???

I hope to see it there forthwith . (I'll pick holes in it then...)

Thanks Magwitch! I just wanted to get some opinions on whether it was suitable really, I wrote it because it was thumping around my head but I wasn't sure if it was all a bit obvious, when you actually think properly about it, to be worthwhile.

These days I just tend to have stuff stored on the computer using the default Windows Media Player settings but most of my old vinyl collection tends to be 12" (with some 7") singles from my DJ days back in the 70's and 80's. Although my Albums are stored Alphabetically by Artist, the singles boxes are all stored by beats per minute.

I found this made it easy for me to find tracks that were easy to mix (the BPM is written on a sticker in the top right corner of the sleeves). They are subdivided by alphabetical order (again stickered on the sleeve in the top left corner) within the BPM sections, so all the 120BPM singles would be stored A-Z,then all the 121BPM, then 122BPM etc.
Singles that changed tempo during the track are filed in a seperate 'fluctuating BPM' box. Well, two boxes actually.
It sounds complicated but it worked well and I used to know exactly where to find each of the 3000+ singles I used to cart around each week.

Other DJ's I knew back then all used similar systems for storing their singles. I saw a DJ recently using a computerised system where the tracks were all stored in folders filed by BPM. He would open the folder, then cut and paste the tracks onto the screen and the computer would automatically adjust the beats to match the track already playing. Makes the days when I used to slow a track down by placing a finger against the side of the turntable seem even more archaic than ever.

Oh, I firmly believe that your entry is yours, and your title is your choice. Whatever you ultimately decide is fair dinkum with me; I just like to have a clear idea of what I'm going to find when I go to an entry.

Hiya magwitch! Yes, it does seem pretty mechanical and stodgy to use the database concept; but, in my defense, the only thing worse than watching my relatives sing karaoke is watching them joke uncomfortably while waiting for the next song to be found (and, it's less frustrating for me).

Off to PR it goes, then...

Now wait a minute!

Just because I agreed that the piece is yours, to do with what you please, doesn't mean that a database storage concept has no value.

You should consider this very efficient organising method as an addition to How To, since it is used by many and eliminates the problems of cross-genre, cross artist, cross lead singer vs. group, cross name changers, etc.

I'll add something.

As a newcomer to h2g2, I've got to assume that the previous correspondants are all single (although the earlier reference to separating Christmas music rings a bell).

Having sorted my CD collection by artist within genre, I could usually find what I wanted. Along comes wife and teenage children who suddenly discover that some of Dad's CDs are actually quite good and any concept of finding where my copy of the Travelling Wilburys travelled to is lost for ever. I have rescued some of my favourite CDs to the study, others can now be found in the conservatory, the lounge, the kitchen (and when all other searches fail) my son's car !

As for my vinyl collection, I'm the only one who knows how to use the Garrard (secret power isolation switch at the back of the plinth) so my collection remains untouched - i.e. by artist (alphabetical) (Complilations = Various artists = end of alphabet after Zappa and ZZ Top)

Elentari has a great concept but putting it into practice is almost the same as asking my son to square the result of 2 x 3 and asking him to add another 2 x 3 to the result.

Excellent point. My brother and I have our own separate collections and my parents cds all go together. There are actually overlaps though, since we're both at uni we like our own copies.