[windhoek]

How do you keep you music collection in order? Do you alphabetise, chronologicalise or randomsurprise? How do you do it?

I have always went for alphabetical, but I've just bought a lot of Can Cds recently, and am tempted to sort them chronologically to help me understand their musical evolution from beginning to end. Is this heresy?

[cornish]

i usually sort them in order of my favourites.... left is best! up is best. depending on orientation! then nature of evolution decides over time.

[Curly99]

mine are alphabetical by artist and then numerical as I number them 01, 02 in order of release,

Can, good choice, yes I would number and listen in order...the earlier stuff is the best, Delay 1968, Tago Mogo, Ege Bamyasi and Futre Days...... there is a new Lost Tapes box set out 18th June.

Curly

[windhoek]

Right, I've decided to temporarily arrange my Can albums chronologically till I have an appreciation of their evolution then I'll change them back alphabetical in keeping with the established system; once I have that appreciation, I'll know when I listen to any given Can album, what it's chronological context is.

[unique]

i used to have mine sorted by genre and depending on how much i had and shelf space

so for example, i'd start with the beatles, i'd put the official stuff in chrono order, then the bootleg stuff, then the solo stuff, then other related artists. then maybe a band/artist in a similar vein, such as the beach boys. so weller and oasis were together. rock was grouped together, rnb together. then other stuff was together. i had too much stuff and not enough space and time to keep in alphabetical order, plus i never wanted to listen to music in alphabetical order. if i was in the mood to listen to one thing, 'd usually then want to listen to something similar afterwards

in my dj record boxes they were sorted by styles. so a house box, garage box, disco box etc

but after moving a couple of times and things getting out of order and having too much stuff, it's pretty random right now, but i play stuff from HDD rips more than discs as it's easy to find. again i have genre folders, then artist - album. and for artists with a large amount of stuff they have their own folders with sub folders inside for albums, but there may be a lot of single tracks too. it means if i want to listen to a load of stuff from that artist i just look in that folder

[windhoek]

Although my collection is alphabetised (except the now chronologically arranged Can albums), I forgot to say I keep SACD and DVD-A discs on the top shelf inside the unit, rock/ pop music etc from there on down and classical music occupies the bottom shelf. At the very top of my CD storage unit however, I keep over-sized music (Pink Floyd Discovery Boxset, WYWH SACD and Fela Kuti Boxset). Fwiw, my CD unit is this Harrogate DVD and CD Media Storage Unit (with DIY centre supports in the middle of each shelf). I've got about 400 CDs in it so far with plenty space for another 300+ CDs.

[unique]

i have 8 units the size of the shelves above and every slot filled, with discs in the spaces above the discs, and more on top of the shelves, and that's not even everything. i'd like to box it all up to get space back in the room but i don't have anywhere to store the boxes as even that would take considerable space

[windhoek]

Originally Posted by unique

i have 8 units the size of the shelves above and every slot filled, with discs in the spaces above the discs, and more on top of the shelves, and that's not even everything. i'd like to box it all up to get space back in the room but i don't have anywhere to store the boxes as even that would take considerable space

Wow - that's a LOT of music! You definitely need a CD filing system.

An ex-girlfriend of mine used to secretly move my CDs about so that a Bowie CD might be next to a Portishead CD etc. She was clever about it and only did it with a few CDs every now and then so as not to arouse suspicion. Until I she told me about this, I thought I was just getting sloppy when it came to putting CDs back in the correct place whenever I found an out of place CD. It's a little bit funny, but not a lot! Man she was mean

[eyeballKid]

Alphabetical by artist, chronological by album, studio albums then EPs/live/etc. - a pain but the only way to find things. But, since these days it all goes on the Sonos for streaming around the house, it's pretty much "alphabetical plus six months' worth of stuff to be filed"...

[LeeC]

I used to order alphabetised, but it was a real pain when you got a new 'B' album, and you had to shift everything by one. The racks I have, use individual slots per album... which is why it's such a pain. And after buying about 170 albums in the last year, I've totally given up with any kind of filing system.

All my music is also on my server, where I create chronological playlists for each artist with multiple albums. That way, I can listen to the evolution of the artist over the course of their career. I find it interesting to hear how they have adapted, through different periods of musical trends.

[english_bob]

No system, just random, and thats for about 600 CD's. Strangely enough you get to know where everything is. Its like a sixth sense!

[mjn]

Ripped to FLAC to server, chucked in loft in plastic tubs.

[overkill]

Originally Posted by mjn

Ripped to FLAC to server, chucked in loft in plastic tubs.

the vinyl collection was originally 'as I bought it', then added to each band/artist in that order. After about 300 Lps though I moved onto an 'alpha' based system. There's about 5 - 600 + Lp's in that order. The CD's I kept in the same order as the LP's, until again I had too many, and now they are in alpha order. My DVD-A's and SACD's, guess what? They are in order as I bought them.........

I use the rockbase system to keep (vague) tabs on what I've got.

[english_bob]

Originally Posted by overkill

I use the rockbase system to keep (vague) tabs on what I've got.

On a similar tip, is there anything on iOS devices that you can scan a barcode and build up an online database of your CD collection?

[Flashy]

Originally Posted by eyeballKid

Alphabetical by artist, chronological by album, studio albums then EPs/live/etc. - a pain but the only way to find things. But, since these days it all goes on the Sonos for streaming around the house, it's pretty much "alphabetical plus six months' worth of stuff to be filed"...

Swap "Sonos" for iTunes and AirPlay, and this is my arrangement exactly. Right down to the months' of organised chaos for more recent purchases.

[Trollslayer]

Shoved on shelves and ripped onto the server - lossless of course!

[Tetlee]

I keep my SACD/DVD-Audios on the top shelves just because they're what I play the most, the other CD's I just try to keep in clusters of same group/artist but aside from that they're random. Used to try and organise my music by genre(at least more or less) but gave up on that.

Need to order a couple more shelves for our oak unit though as it's overfilled just now and becoming a bit of a disaster.

My Vinyl collection has now outgrown my very very old record box(which was handed down to me as a child from my uncle) so in the process of emptying one of the tv unit cupboards which should be an ideal size for those

[windhoek]

Originally Posted by Tetlee

My Vinyl collection has now outgrown my very very old record box(which was handed down to me as a child from my uncle) so in the process of emptying one of the tv unit cupboards which should be an ideal size for those

Hey Tetlee, have you thought about using Ikea's Expedit storage units? They seem almost perfect for storing vinyl - it's what I use. A unit like the one pictured below can hold anything between 200-300 records (depending on the amount of gatefold covers and double albums).

Expedit

[Tetlee]

Looks like a good solution, sadly nothin in oak finish, and even if there was oak laminate mixed in with the rest of our proper oak furniture would proabably make a bad mix.

Cheers for the suggestion though.

[l Dowson l]

Originally Posted by Trollslayer

Shoved on shelves and ripped onto the server - lossless of course!

Pretty much the same. I'm underway ripping to my NAS at the minute. Need to convert to gain an MP3 copy as well!

CD's are newest on top.

[windhoek]

I was in HMV the other day and noticed that The Alan Parsons Project comes under 'A' but The Jimi Hendrix Experience comes under 'H'? What's going; should The Alan Parsons Project come under 'P'? Or, should The Jimi Hendrix Experience come under 'J'? Whichever it is, I'd like some consistency.

I also wonder whether 10cc should come at the start of 'T' or come under 'Te' or even, be right at the start because it's a number! What do you think?

[unique]

Originally Posted by windhoek

I was in HMV the other day and noticed that The Alan Parsons Project comes under 'A' but The Jimi Hendrix Experience comes under 'H'? What's going; should The Alan Parsons Project come under 'P'? Or, should The Jimi Hendrix Experience come under 'J'? Whichever it is, I'd like some consistency.

I also wonder whether 10cc should come at the start of 'T' or come under 'Te' or even, be right at the start because it's a number! What do you think?

"alan parson project" is a band so should go under the first letter of the band, thus A

"jimi hendrix experience" is also a band so strictly speaking should also be under J, and they only released 3 studio albums whilst formed

both have material released under their names as "solo". the majority of hendrix releases are "solo" so should be under H for hendrix, so presumably that forms the reason for the hendrix stuff under H. it's also where most people would look

alan parsons on the other hand, most albums are by the band not solo, so the reverse. many stores also stash solo and related stuff under the main catergory as the bass players solo album will usually sell under the band banner but no-one would look for it or know it existed if filed on it's own. i mean who wants an album by the bass played from pink floyd or the beatles?

thus pj harvey is under P as that's the name of the band, polly jean harvey is the name of the singer

for numerics, the store i worked in filed as you describe, use letters for numbers so Utwo or tenCC or tupac not 2pac. you ignore punctuation marks like they don't exist

but then add in computers that work differently and you have a whole different system

[Maxson]

The whole business of storing, arranging and finding 100s of CDs is part of why I 'file' my music on a hard drive now! As for vinyl, nuts to storing all those heavy, fragile and downright bulky bastiges!

[windhoek]

Originally Posted by unique

"alan parson project" is a band so should go under the first letter of the band, thus A

"jimi hendrix experience" is also a band so strictly speaking should also be under J, and they only released 3 studio albums whilst formed

both have material released under their names as "solo". the majority of hendrix releases are "solo" so should be under H for hendrix, so presumably that forms the reason for the hendrix stuff under H. it's also where most people would look

alan parsons on the other hand, most albums are by the band not solo, so the reverse. many stores also stash solo and related stuff under the main catergory as the bass players solo album will usually sell under the band banner but no-one would look for it or know it existed if filed on it's own. i mean who wants an album by the bass played from pink floyd or the beatles?

thus pj harvey is under P as that's the name of the band, polly jean harvey is the name of the singer

for numerics, the store i worked in filed as you describe, use letters for numbers so Utwo or tenCC or tupac not 2pac. you ignore punctuation marks like they don't exist

but then add in computers that work differently and you have a whole different system

Cheers, that (the majority release rule) explains the apparent anomalie. I even wondered where The Ben Folds Five should be! That also makes sense about numbers because if I'm going to put 10cc under 'T', it would be inconsistent to then decide it's a number and therefore should be at the very start of the Ts.

My crisis is over and I can now get back on with my life

[unique]

Originally Posted by windhoek

Cheers, that (the majority release rule) explains the apparent anomalie. I even wondered where The Ben Folds Five should be! That also makes sense about numbers because if I'm going to put 10cc under 'T', it would be inconsistent to then decide it's a number and therefore should be at the very start of the Ts.

My crisis is over and I can now get back on with my life

the ben folds five is under B as that's the name of the band. solo stuff could be under F but then as that came after the band stuff it would be filed alongside the band stuff

you ignore "The" when filing, otherwise you end up with a huge T section. the only problem is when you come to "the The". i got fired from HMV by throwing all their stuff out as i didn't know where to file it

most of this harks back to the days of records/cds where stores kept the discs filed behind the counter and the cases/covers put on display, so when the customer came to the counter with their choices, you then had to find the discs to sell to them, so you needed hard set rules so you could find stuff quickly and easily, as on saturdays it would be very very busy, likewise xmas. if you couldn't find something, you not only lost a sale but dissapointed a customer

[HMHB]

I have all mine in alphabetical order (by artist) and still have all the CDs on display even though I've got them all ripped to FLAC and never play CDs any more, I just play everything through the Sonos system.

It's nice to look through the CDs on the shelves now and then as it reminds me of stuff I've not listened to for a while

[quarry2006]

My filing system is no filing system. Makes life more interesting when I go looking for a certain album, can't find it because I don't know where it is, and end up listening to something that I wasn't looking for and invariably haven't heard in a long time and end up enjoying it more as a result.

[penguinpaul]

Alphabetical artist, then album by release date. It's nice to be able to go straight to what you want, I think I'd go mad if mine were random!!

And in iTunes, "Album by Artist"

[huwg]

Rock & pop - alphabetically by artist, and chronological within artist.
Compilations, soundtracks and classical go at the end in their own groups.

[penguinpaul]

Originally Posted by huwg

Rock & pop - alphabetically by artist, and chronological within artist.
Compilations, soundtracks and classical go at the end in their own groups.

But what about when one artist has albums which fall into different genres?