How do you organize your digital music?

[curlytoot 97]

WARNING: this post is going to be a bit OCD.

 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my digital music collection and how best to organize it, and got curious as to how other people go about doing it.

 

So, a few questions to spur discussion:

 

• What media player do you use?

 

• Do you get your music in FLAC/ALAC, MP3, or the iTunes M4A (AAC)? Can you tell an audible difference?

 

• If you tend to buy things from digital music stores such as iTunes or Amazon, do you leave the album/artist/track fields as is, or do you change them at all for organizational purposes? (e.g. changing an album's track titles to match that of a digital/physical booklet, if available)

 

Just wondering in general how other people prefer to manage their collections, and if there is any method to their madness.

 

 

[Jay 37,351]

11 minutes ago, curlytoot said:

• What media player do you use?

 

WinAmp when I'm sitting at my computer

 

PowerAmp on my smartphone

 

Combination of Plex / Amazon Fire TV box to play it through my living room setup

 

Quote

• Do you get your music in FLAC/ALAC, MP3, or the iTunes M4A (AAC)? Can you tell an audible difference?

 

I "get" music in however it's offered to me... when I rip my own CDs, I make two copies: FLAC and mp3.  mp3 goes on my phone, FLAC is for when I play it at my house.

 

 

Quote

• If you tend to buy things from digital music stores such as iTunes or Amazon, do you leave the album/artist/track fields as is, or do you change them at all for organizational purposes? (e.g. changing an album's track titles to match that of a digital/physical booklet, if available)

 

I've never bought a digital music file in my life, but I absolutely change the tags on music I get from wherever to suit my methodology, for sure

[Bespin 8,480]

I listen my music on my old Zen player... because I can use SD micro cards.

 

All my files are converted to mp3 VBR-high (it makes 256 kbps mp3 in average).

 

I still buy all on CD (Charles Aznavour, Roy Orbison, John Williams).

 

In the case of John Williams, I digitally buy all the albums of concert works (often only the tracks not the entire albums), or the albums where he plays the piano, I don't collect the CD for those... too expensive & complicated.

 

Well, that's it!

 

I have a 16 Go micro SD card entirely dedicated to John Williams (his disco as a composer is on a second card)

 

Here are the folders on it (but in french!) :

 

@Compilation

@Playlist

Arranger

Concerts (I keep only the recent ones, the others are on my computer)

Misc (for all the BPO albums by example)

Movies

 

Everything is also on my computer, The same mp3s,  I use Winamp. I very rarely play a CD.

 

I used to lost several time to tag my mp3s in the past... I don't do it anymore. All is organized by folders, I don't have time anymore to correctly tag the composers, the players, the orchestra, etc.

 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

iTunes

 

I import CDs as 320 AAC. If I buy digitally (which I'm starting to do much more), I use the iTunes Store or Bandcamp. I try to tag each file to my preference but honestly I get so much new music on a regular basis (review albums), most times I don't even bother anymore, as long as everything is where it should be in the digital library.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

25 minutes ago, curlytoot said:

• What media player do you use?

 

mpd on a dedicated Raspberry PI, with Cantata as the frontend on my computer (and MPDroid on my Android phone). The music is stored on my NAS.

 

25 minutes ago, curlytoot said:

• Do you get your music in FLAC/ALAC, MP3, or the iTunes M4A (AAC)? Can you tell an audible difference?

 

I still buy CDs when possible, and prefer FLAC when not. I rip all my CDs to FLAC. I can tell the difference between low quality MP3s and lossless compression, so I try to avoid lossy compression because I don't have to worry about whether the compression is good enough. It also means that the files can be reencoded without further loss when necessary.

 

25 minutes ago, curlytoot said:

• If you tend to buy things from digital music stores such as iTunes or Amazon, do you leave the album/artist/track fields as is, or do you change them at all for organizational purposes? (e.g. changing an album's track titles to match that of a digital/physical booklet, if available)

 

 

I try to leave them as is if they fit my collection, but I do fix e.g. the names of artists from "Last name, First Name" to "First Name Last Name", for consistency. I usually don't bother to fix the capitalisation of tracks, although I do with CDDB track lists when ripping a CD.

[Thor 7,495]

I use iTunes, which I've been perfectly content with. Alas, I updated to 12 recently, and it's EXTREMELY sluggish (changing 'views' takes about 20 seconds to load, and when I type in the search field, it takes about 5 seconds for each letter to load!). I wish there was a way to revert back to an earlier edition, without risking my library of some 1500 albums. But I think I'm stuck forever.

 

I don't really care about FLAC and such things. A decent mp3 format is fine. If I want a super-sonic experience, I'll put on any of my CDs (which is very rare these days; my tinnitus prevents me from hearing much of a difference anyway).

 

For whatever album I import, purchase or get (like promos), I ALWAYS change the 'info' to align with my organizational parameters.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

10 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

mpd on a dedicated Raspberry PI, with Cantata as the frontend on my computer (and MPDroid on my Android phone). The music is stored on my NAS.

 

Is Mpd suitable as a music streamer if you want to use it to stream over a network from a hard drive connected from a router? 

[Bilbo 3,709]

58 minutes ago, Thor said:

I use iTunes, which I've been perfectly content with. Alas, I updated to 12 recently, and it's EXTREMELY sluggish (changing 'views' takes about 20 seconds to load, and when I type in the search field, it takes about 5 seconds for each letter to load!). I wish there was a way to revert back to an earlier edition, without risking my library of some 1500 albums. But I think I'm stuck forever.

 

I don't really care about FLAC and such things. A decent mp3 format is fine. If I want a super-sonic experience, I'll put on any of my CDs (which is very rare these days; my tinnitus prevents me from hearing much of a difference anyway).

 

For whatever album I import, purchase or get (like promos), I ALWAYS change the 'info' to align with my organizational parameters.

 

Theres a website (haven't been on it in years) but they have old versions of software for download. You should be able to get an older iTunes from there. Have a Google and you should find it easy enough. 

 

 

Im getting a MacBook Pro in a few weeks with a new external HD. I'll be using iTunes as my media library. I'm going to sit down with all of my CDs and rip them all in apple's lossless format. I'll tag everything to my own convention. 

[Wojo 2,453]

1 hour ago, Bilbo Skywalker said:

 

Theres a website (haven't been on it in years) but they have old versions of software for download. You should be able to get an older iTunes from there. 

 

http://www.oldversion.com

 

The oldest iTunes there is 4.1 from October 2003.

[Bilbo 3,709]

7 minutes ago, I Need About Tree Fiddy said:

 

http://www.oldversion.com

 

The oldest iTunes there is 4.1 from October 2003.

That's the website! Couldn't think of the name. Thanks!

[Nick1Ø66 4,713]

I import everything into ALAC (Apple Lossless). Then in iTunes I make a 256kbps (VBR) file for my phone/iPod and streaming through my home theatre system.

 

The lossless file doesn't stay in iTunes but rather gets archived in an external HDD.  I don't listen to the lossless files, its just to future proof them, so I can later convert them from ALAC into any other format.

 

At one time I considered using the lossless files when listening on my home theatre system, but frankly I can't tell the difference between high bit rate AAC and lossless (nor can the vast majority of music listeners, despite some convincing themselves to the contrary).

[Thor 7,495]

2 hours ago, I Need About Tree Fiddy said:

 

http://www.oldversion.com

 

The oldest iTunes there is 4.1 from October 2003.

 

Thanks, but I think that would require uninstalling iTunes on my computer, then reinstalling an older version (from that site), and then -- scarily -- having to import all my albums again. Would take WEEKS! But yeah, that's probably what I have to do.

[Jay 37,351]

1 hour ago, Nick1066 said:

I import everything into ALAC (Apple Lossless). Then in iTunes I make a 256kbps (VBR) file for my phone/iPod and streaming through my home theatre system.

 

The lossless file doesn't stay in iTunes but rather gets archived in an external HDD.  I don't listen to the lossless files, its just to future proof them, I convert them from ALAC into any other format.

 

At one time I considered using the lossless files when listening on my home theatre system, but frankly I can't tell the difference between high bit rate AAC and lossless (nor can the vast majority of music listeners, despite some convincing themselves to the contrary).

 

Wait a minute, why wouldn't you listen to the lossless files through your home theater system???

[Wojo 2,453]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

Thanks, but I think that would require uninstalling iTunes on my computer, then reinstalling an older version (from that site), and then -- scarily -- having to import all my albums again. Would take WEEKS! But yeah, that's probably what I have to do.

Yeah, I don't recommend downgrading unless you have a really good reason to do so. Like maybe a dedicated Windows 98 computer you still use off the web. 

[Thor 7,495]

3 hours ago, I Need About Tree Fiddy said:

Yeah, I don't recommend downgrading unless you have a really good reason to do so. Like maybe a dedicated Windows 98 computer you still use off the web. 

 

Unless future versions make the interface quicker again, I have reason enough -- it's extremely difficult to navigate smoothly with 12. I wonder if it's just my old computer or if everyone with 12 suffers from this.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

10 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

Is Mpd suitable as a music streamer if you want to use it to stream over a network from a hard drive connected from a router? 

 

Well. I've used it for streaming to the office. You can define multiple outputs. In my case, one is an external USB digital audio thingy with a coax output, which I've hooked to my amp at home. The other is an HTTP port for streaming. Once you start the music, you can use any streaming client, or simply the browser, to play the stream. The annoying bit is that Cantata can also do that (i.e. you first use it to search your collection, build your playlist, and when you click Play it streams the music from the server and plays it through your soundcard), but only on Linux, where I don't need it (since I've hooked it up to my amp at home). The Windows version lacks this feature, so at work I have to use Cantata to arrange the playlist and VLC to play the stream. It becomes more annoying when you pause, because after unpausing, I also have to re-start playing the stream in VLC. Not sure why that is. Plus the fact that you have to buffer a bit to prevent dropouts means that whenever you play or pause, the actual stream is a couple of seconds behind. Probably normal and necessary with streaming (I've never bothered to learn the details of various streaming techs), but it means I usually don't bother with music at work anymore, where I have to pause and talk every couple of minutes.

 

The Android app can also stream, which is nice, because it means that I have access to my entire music library on the go and can play it all through the phone. Except that it seems to take a lot of bandwidth, even though it's set up to do transcoding. I once played an hour of music on holiday in Italy and next time I checked I'd reached my monthly data limit. Might have to do with my transcoding setup.

 

Generally, I'm very happy with mpd for home use, because it's the only system I found that 1) plays the music from a server (meaning I can turn off or crash my PC without interrupting the music) 2) has good search capabilities and 3) has a traditional, WinAmp-style playlist where you just add stuff and play it (there's advanced features like priority queuing and smart playlists which can be useful for parties).

 

The server bit is clearly aimed at techies though - you configure it with a bunch of config files, and some settings (like streaming) require quite a bit of trial and error. Also took me a bit to get it to play the music as unmodified binary streams (hence the external USB thingy), which means that it also outputs stuff like 192/48 FLACs correctly. But I imagine that can be a hassle with all playback software, depending on the hardware and drivers.

[Nick1Ø66 4,713]

6 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Wait a minute, why wouldn't you listen to the lossless files through your home theater system???

 

Well, because I have all the 256kbps AAC files organised in iTunes, which I use to stream to my HT via my home network. Putting a lot of lossless files alongside them would be too much bother organisationally.

 

Yeah, there are workarounds I could do (many in fact), but given that I can't tell the diff on 99% of the tracks, I don't see the point really. It's not like I'm listening on £10,000 speakers in a room with no ambient noise and perfect acoustics. 

[Jay 37,351]

3 minutes ago, Nick1066 said:

 

Well, because I have all the 256kbps AAC files organised in iTunes, which I use to stream to my HT via my home network. Putting a lot of lossless files alongside them would be too much bother organisationally.

 

Well, that's not quite how iTunes works;  Ideally you want to have iTunes ONLY have your lossless (ALAC) files in its library; Then there's a checkbox in the settings somewhere that tells it when placing that file onto one of your portable devices, it only puts a 256kbps AAC copy, instead of the entire lossless file onto the device.  Essentially, you get the best of both worlds: You don't have to manage two copies of every track, but your portable devices still get the smaller file size.  It's win win.

[Loert 2,511]

Windows Explorer w/ VLC Media Player till a few months ago when I migrated to MusicBee. Took two days to get my music library sorted but will never look back.  

[Koray Savas 2,251]

7 hours ago, Thor said:

 

Unless future versions make the interface quicker again, I have reason enough -- it's extremely difficult to navigate smoothly with 12. I wonder if it's just my old computer or if everyone with 12 suffers from this.

I've never had huge slowdowns with any version of iTunes like you described earlier. Must be a computer/memory issue on your end. 

[publicist 4,643]

More importantly, is there a program that allows me override the iTunes picture folder and set titles and album covers separately on MacOS systems? Whatever iT does, there are always pictures missing after  while or worse, multiple pictures for an album that i have to delete one by one.

[Thor 7,495]

5 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

I've never had huge slowdowns with any version of iTunes like you described earlier. Must be a computer/memory issue on your end. 

 

Do you have 12? I've never had this issue before either.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

- I never bought anything from digital music stores, it is all in my CD collection

- I never convert the WAV (lossless) files into mp3 files, it's all without any compression on my computer, on my mp3-player - everywhere! 

- I use Windows Media Player

- I just edit some album programs of expanded presentations (connecting a 2-disc program, putting the cues into the right order)

 

I'm shocked how many of you use compressed files to listen to, because I hear the difference and it rings awful. Why would you save storage space in a world, where more and more data is needed every day, if that means that your music doesn't ring lush enough any more?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Why buy a $1,000 bottle of wine if the $20 one tastes just as good?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I rip CDs to 320 MP3.  If I download FLAC files, I immediately convert them to 320 MP3 and trash the FLACs.  I don't hear a difference so why waste space?

[Manakin Skywalker 4,891]

I usually buy the music on physical CDs for superior quality, then rip them to my computer in either lossless WAV or FLAC. I either just use WMP or Audacity to listen to them. I prefer Audacity because I rarely listen to full tracks, mostly just specific segments, so it's nice to see the waveforms. I prefer WAV files (despite the larger size) because I edit music more than I just simply listen to it, and WAV files retain lossless quality while FLAC does not. MP3 files are for noobs.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Noobs at what?  Listening to music?  Appreciating it?  Using lossless formats for every day listening has nothing to do with appreciating music fully.  It's audiophilia at it's most circular.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Yes!

[Wojo 2,453]

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

Why buy a $1,000 bottle of wine if the $20 one tastes just as good?

 

You're comparing the investment of time and file storage that is digital music to what will just become piss? 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Koko is just taking the piss.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

15 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I rip CDs to 320 MP3.  If I download FLAC files, I immediately convert them to 320 MP3 and trash the FLACs.  I don't hear a difference so why waste space?

There is a clear difference.

 

16 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Why buy a $1,000 bottle of wine if the $20 one tastes just as good?

Why listen to crappily sounding music every day just in order to save little space?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 minute ago, Brundlefly said:

There is a clear difference.

 

This is all subjective.  I've done many blind listening tests and have never been able to tell the difference between lossless and 320kbps MP3.

 

It's a digital impasse.  Both sides convinced the other is engaged in self-deception.

[publicist 4,643]

Brundle just has his ears up his ass. But for some people it's as true as chemtrails.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

6 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

There is a clear difference.

 

Why listen to crappily sounding music every day just in order to save little space?

You obviously missed the logic of my analogy. If it doesn't sound like crap, why waste the space?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Because lawn mowners!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

What's "digital music"?

[Wojo 2,453]

Normal music is based on the scale ABCDEFG. Digital music has only two notes, 1 and 0.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

On 6/4/2017 at 5:40 PM, curlytoot said:

Just wondering in general how other people prefer to manage their collections, and if there is any method to their madness.

 

I never actually answered the questions of the OP.

 

Quote

• What media player do you use?

 

iTunes.  For 16 years.  I'm too far ingrained to change now.

 

Quote

• Do you get your music in FLAC/ALAC, MP3, or the iTunes M4A (AAC)? Can you tell an audible difference?

 

I'm generally not picky about what formats my files are in.  It's a mix of MP3 and M4A I think.

 

Quote

• If you tend to buy things from digital music stores such as iTunes or Amazon, do you leave the album/artist/track fields as is, or do you change them at all for organizational purposes? (e.g. changing an album's track titles to match that of a digital/physical booklet, if available)

 

I'd say most of my music buying is digital files.  I'm generally buying from one of three places: Amazon, Bandcamp, or directly from a record label in some cases.  I always change the file metadata to fit my specific organization method.  I stopped buying from iTunes because I find the iCloud crap that's automatically there for iTunes purchases very annoying.

 

I don't know if there's much of a method, but it's habits that have built up on top of each other since 2001.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

1 hour ago, I Need About Tree Fiddy said:

Normal music is based on the scale ABCDEFG. Digital music has only two notes, 1 and 0.

 

I thought it went: CDEFGABC?

There are only 10 types of people: those who get binary, and those who don't! 

[Wojo 2,453]

That's C major. I recited A minor without resolving on the top note. 

[Bayesian 1,363]

I'm super OCD about how I manage my music in iTunes, and I wonder who else in the world might be as bad as me (or worse!):

• I ALWAYS replace the metadata from any track downloaded from the iTunes Store or imported from Gracenote or whatever service is used when ripping a CD. Artist, album artist, name of album, composer (with years of birth/death appended if it's a classical composer), disc and track numbers, and year of album recording (if classical) or release (any other genre)
• For track names, I have naming formulas I apply based on genre. Too complex (boring) to go into here, unless folks really are interested. 
• All music in my library is organized at the album level. Each album is given its own self-named playlist and all playlists are sorted into nested playlist folders. For example, all JW scores are in separate playlists within a "John Williams" folder that sits alongside a "James Horner" folder and an "Alexandre Desplat" folder, etc. inside my "Soundtracks" folder). Similar approach is done for my classical, jazz, vocal jazz, and "non-classical" genres
• Because I use albums as my basic org unit, I refuse to have singles or random tracks from incomplete albums in my library. At this point, I just can't!
• All iTunes/Gracenote album artwork is replaced with artwork I scan or source from various places on the web. All artwork is brought into photoshop to crop out white space, rotate to perfect levelness, color-correct, sharpen (if necessary), and save as 1,500px/300ppi images. I then embed all artwork so iTunes won't attempt to replace my stuff with their own.

This is not showing off. This is obsessive behavior on my part, the work of hundreds of hours over the last six years. I have no idea why I do it, since I can't get even my wife to be all that impressed with the result. But the result IS amazing, to me, if no one else. Maybe that's why I'm writing this now, after discovering this thread -- perhaps one of you out there will relate to this.

 

A couple things for those who feel they want to get in on making their iTunes libraries as perfect as possible: One, Doug Adams makes great iTunes scripts that will come in super handy and are easy to find online. Two, SuperSync is invaluable in evaluating your iTunes library for tracks that are missing, orphaned, corrupted, unnamed, etc. Great place to start your analysis. You can use it in trial mode and still get great mileage from it.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I stopped being so weirdly OCD and have a functional collection in iTunes. Playlists are essential for me. It's where I list every version of something I listen to, be it albums or complete scores. I don't use cover art because my collection is in WAV, which doesn't support cover art because it's useless anyway. What I like about where I'm at now is that my OCD doesn't kick in anymore. I just play the music and enjoy it. It doesn't matter how things are capitalized, if the composer field is empty, what year it was recorded vs. released, whether the titles should read 2CD or (2CD) or just be the film title, even though the album has the same title and I keep that version as well and now how do we distinguish between the two without assigning it to labeled playlists but I guess that's what those are for (*hangs self*), etc. I suggest you do the same.

[Bayesian 1,363]

I've been tempted to let it go at various times over the years, but never could bring myself to do it. One day...

[Wojo 2,453]

Scintillating, most of what you said is interchangeable with the way I manage my collection. Though I don't add life years to their names, and I've gradually dropped cover size to 400x400 because of space. 

 

I might like to learn of your naming conventions. Mine keep changing as I go. 

[Richard Penna 3,685]

Ripped CDs go into an 'archive' folder in flac, as do digital purchases (I buy downloads if there's no other choice). I don't care one iota about proper tagging for those - they're merely there as a safety copy.

 

I make 320k mp3s for computer/phone listening, and those are tagged, numbered and covered.

 

I once tried using flacs for computer listening, but one of my Winamp plugins doesn't work with them, and my album art display software doesn't read the tags properly. No way I'm going to tell the difference with my equipment anyway.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

10 hours ago, Scintillating_CA said:

I'm super OCD about how I manage my music in iTunes, and I wonder who else in the world might be as bad as me (or worse!):

• I ALWAYS replace the metadata from any track downloaded from the iTunes Store or imported from Gracenote or whatever service is used when ripping a CD. Artist, album artist, name of album, composer (with years of birth/death appended if it's a classical composer), disc and track numbers, and year of album recording (if classical) or release (any other genre)
• For track names, I have naming formulas I apply based on genre. Too complex (boring) to go into here, unless folks really are interested. 
• All music in my library is organized at the album level. Each album is given its own self-named playlist and all playlists are sorted into nested playlist folders. For example, all JW scores are in separate playlists within a "John Williams" folder that sits alongside a "James Horner" folder and an "Alexandre Desplat" folder, etc. inside my "Soundtracks" folder). Similar approach is done for my classical, jazz, vocal jazz, and "non-classical" genres
• Because I use albums as my basic org unit, I refuse to have singles or random tracks from incomplete albums in my library. At this point, I just can't!
• All iTunes/Gracenote album artwork is replaced with artwork I scan or source from various places on the web. All artwork is brought into photoshop to crop out white space, rotate to perfect levelness, color-correct, sharpen (if necessary), and save as 1,500px/300ppi images. I then embed all artwork so iTunes won't attempt to replace my stuff with their own.

This is not showing off. This is obsessive behavior on my part, the work of hundreds of hours over the last six years. I have no idea why I do it, since I can't get even my wife to be all that impressed with the result. But the result IS amazing, to me, if no one else. Maybe that's why I'm writing this now, after discovering this thread -- perhaps one of you out there will relate to this.

 

A couple things for those who feel they want to get in on making their iTunes libraries as perfect as possible: One, Doug Adams makes great iTunes scripts that will come in super handy and are easy to find online. Two, SuperSync is invaluable in evaluating your iTunes library for tracks that are missing, orphaned, corrupted, unnamed, etc. Great place to start your analysis. You can use it in trial mode and still get great mileage from it.

 

This is all quite similar to how I operate/organize my iTunes library.  If you take every point and dial back the insanity just a tad.  I'm not so anal about the cover art.  As long as I find a decent quality image (either through Google Image or a record label's site), I'm not picky about the size.

[Bilbo 3,709]

As long as it's square and at least 500x500 that does me

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Yeah, same here.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

JWFan could easily be brought down if a cyber terrorist hacked into everyone's iTunes and messed with the tags.

[Wojo 2,453]

I used to use 600^2. Then I reduced it to 500. Now I'm okay with 400. It's when I get cover arts over a few years hundred Kb and multiple images per song that I get antsy.