The librarian in me wants to know. How do you organize your music? Stones music particularly, but in general is ok too.

I'm asking because midnrambler posted a question about a "Four Flicks Promo Sampler," and almost immediately urbansteel posted an image of the CD and its sleeve, which answered midnrambler's question.

How did urbansteel retrieve that CD so quickly? was the CD and sleeve already scanned? This is just one example -- people are always doing that on here.

So---do you catalog your music? do you have some kind of a database that lists everything you own? do you rely on what's posted on the web and looks stuff up that way? is it in your head what's on each CD? or is it all translated to MP3s?

And then --- so you search in some database om your computer or online...but how do you know where to find it on your shelves, drawers, whatever storage mechanisms? (obviously MP3s is easy)

Boots are so plentiful and sometimes random how stuff ends up on one boot -- so how do you find particular songs? must you locate the physical CDs and look at what listed on them? or can you search for a song and all your versions pop up, showing which physical CD they're on? (and where to find that CD)

It's relatively easy to organize studio stuff. My studio recordings are divided LP vs. CD (cassettes are in boxes I never access). Within LP/CD it's organized by several broad genres (pop/rock/rap, blues, jazz, folk/gospel, classical, soundtracks/musicals, comedy, novelty, and Christmas). Within genre it's alphabetical by artist, performer, band, or composer. Within artist it's chronological so starts with Out of Our Heads and ends with Undercover (there: I've admitted it - I own nothing before OOOH and nothing later than Undercover, and I didn't even like that one, but love everything in between).

Rock gets subjective because of sheer volume of vinyl. Much older stuff I don't want to get rid of, but don't want taking up room in my prime, easy-to-peruse bins. So primo bins get most rock LPs from the past 25 years (1985-present), as well as older bands I love and actively listen to -- like Bo Diddly, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Who, Led Zeppelin, etc.

I don't collect boots (etc) although I've kindly been given a dozen or so CDs of outtakes, alternates, boot. I don't know how I would find and re-find them because they're such a mish-mash.

How do you-all do it???



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-04 09:44 by swiss.

Hey!!! ....It' was a big weekend....





ROCKMAN

Apart from a collection of about 200 rare albums all of my music is now on my MacMini and organised through iTunes. I find that this is a perfect way to store a large collection of different musical genres (about 2,000 albums). I also listen to music more often this way either at home or on the move using an ipod. Plus it is really easy to find a particular track, artist, album or just set things to random play. My entire CD collection has been sold over the past 3 years or so.

Andy

Organize??

By height.




IORR............but I like it!

I organize my albums & bootlegs by year & within a year (like for 1969 (Hyde Park, the American Tour)), by date. It works well for me.

Greetings from the Jersey Shore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-04 16:36 by misterfrias.

Mine are a complete mess ......too many since the cdr / trade / download revolution !

sc uk

I have a shelving unit with five shelves. Beginning at the upper left and continuing to the middle shelf are all official ALBUMS in chronological order from "England's Newest'" to "ABB." Thereafter, likewise in chronological order are all boots interspersed with official CD singles, promos and oddities. The rows are broken up with a horizontal stack of official DVDs and some collectibles like the Keith In A Can and "Terrifying" 3" CD single. The bottom shelf is dedicated to the several coffee table books issued on the Stones in the last ten years. Adjacent to the CD shelf are large LP storage units wherein I again have every official LP from oldest to newest interspersed with a few 12" singles. My vinyl boots are in off-site storage, unmissed as they are mostly replicated on CD anyway.

alphabetical of course.

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nashville
Apart from a collection of about 200 rare albums all of my music is now on my MacMini and organised through iTunes. I find that this is a perfect way to store a large collection of different musical genres (about 2,000 albums). I also listen to music more often this way either at home or on the move using an ipod. Plus it is really easy to find a particular track, artist, album or just set things to random play. My entire CD collection has been sold over the past 3 years or so.

Andy

Now this is the way of the future !
Top idea...might rip mine to Hard disc and hook it up to my stereo/TV...alot easier than CDrs/DVD lying about in boxes or strewn all over the floor.
Be easier to simply delete superceded "releases" and upgrade the superior version!
Probably have to back-up your music regularly also...in case the HD fails.

Two shelfs-
Official albums by release
Live boots by tour and then other boots by date

By time of release. I.e. all 1972 shows next to Exile and so on. Compilations separate. But it's hard, I agree, and this did only work with my vinyl (got a lot). The CD's are quite messed up unfortunately.

Bjornulf

On my HD by label (VGP, C2C, TMOQ, etc..)

my actual copies by name

Official CDS (live&studio&comps) By release date
Same with Vinyls
Bootlegs: Recording date, except swedish gigs in one separate place, sorted after recording date. thats it..same with the dvds also

Quote
Eleanor Rigby

Quote
nashville
Apart from a collection of about 200 rare albums all of my music is now on my MacMini and organised through iTunes. I find that this is a perfect way to store a large collection of different musical genres (about 2,000 albums). I also listen to music more often this way either at home or on the move using an ipod. Plus it is really easy to find a particular track, artist, album or just set things to random play. My entire CD collection has been sold over the past 3 years or so.

Andy

Now this is the way of the future !
Top idea...might rip mine to Hard disc and hook it up to my stereo/TV...alot easier than CDrs/DVD lying about in boxes or strewn all over the floor.
Be easier to simply delete superceded "releases" and upgrade the superior version!
Probably have to back-up your music regularly also...in case the HD fails.

Yes it works really well through the TV and audio-out into my stereo amp. Good idea to make a backup once a month or so and keep that in another part of the house or even at work for safekeeping.

My boots are sorted by year on iTunes

Andy

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Rockman
Hey!!! ....It' was a big weekend....

Once read an article in NME or Melody Maker with Elton John and his friend. They had to tell what they disliked about their partner. The friend was complaining about Elton's habits (legal and illegal ones) and behaviour whereas Elton only had one thing to complain: "He has no order for his record collection."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-04 17:41 by JJHMick.

sorted first by color, then by odor

chronological. The problem comes with compilations, especially bootleg collections of different studio sessions. Even something like Place Pigalle has about a disc's worth of earlier material thrown in.

with CD ripping, the capability is there to organize everything by studio session, rather than finished album. But I've never gotten around to it.

MyCDs are seperated by solo artists and bands/groups. Then by category (Rock, blues, metal etc). The Stones & their solo albums are kept seperate from my other cds. All cds are then sorted by year released. Bootlegs are kept seperate from official cds, and again The Stones are kept seperate. Box sets are stored by size.

I also have all my cds recorded in a database. The database lists the band/artist, title, year issued, Label, whether official or bootleg, whether a single, album or box set, whether cd or CD-r, # discs in title and any applicaple notes.

It's so very lonely, you're 2,000 Light Years from home

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Rockman
Hey!!! ....It' was a big weekend....

So you got this fine compilation,left from the ya ya´s boxset...
( I guess it´s your basement,Rockman...driving the neighbours mad around midnight...)



I got some shelves with my favourites...extra one for the Stones stuff,
boxsets stored seperately...usually I find what I´m looking for.

I have everything stored on a harddrive (and backup), so nothing is physical. All official releases I simply save as the album title. As for bootlegs I always save like this:

1989.12.19 Convention Center, Atlantic City, NJ

the year, month, day, Venue, city and state, and country name if applicable. That way they go in chronologically. I have about 150 Stones; but my Pearl Jam collection is over 700 shows, so the way i do it renders it easy to look at not only by year but the month and day

Quote
Rockman
Hey!!! ....It' was a big weekend....

Rock around the clock !

HMN

No troubles with the vinyls, it's quite easy but one need space!

For the rest, I need three external HD !

On the first one

- All the Official stuff by decade
- All the Outtakes by decade

On the second one

- All the live shows by decade
- All the rehearsals
- All the radio shows

On the third one

- All the rest by category and by decade

- Pictures
- Movies
- Memorabilia



HMN

Photographic memory.

the cd's i'm listening to go in the car, the rest stay inside in the cd trough. after a cd skips for approx 18 months, i throw it out the window. no boots.

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Gazza
Photographic memory.

ha ha! (true?)

Digital seems to provide most flexibility for being able to slice and dice a collection in many different ways: by song, by venue/location, by year. I guess you could even apply different tags to songs, according to vibe or speed of song or producer -- and be able to retrieve songs that way.

As to physical (i.e., CD and vinyl) collections, some people seem to store the physical objects elsewhere and access only the digital remnants. Those who have the physical objects on hand, seems most order them chronologically. Some separate their collections by vinyl, CD, DVD, other collectible items. Some put them all together. Some put most-listened-to/favorites in one place.

But I'm still baffled about not just boots of shows, which are easily chonologized -- but remixes, alternate takes, outtakes that (sometimes) appear together but aren't always from the same recording session.

And do you remember all the set lists to all of the shows? So if you want different versions of a song do you just remember what's where? (like Gazza's photographic memory)

Or....is it less about individual songs and more the whole concert experience - so you might not get out a boot to hear just one song, but to hear the entire show? so maybe there's not a pressing need to find one particular song? (and its multiple versions)

iTunes definitely orients us more on standalone SONGS or tracks, rather than the context in which that song appeared. Meaning the other songs that were played or recorded at the same time -- and the sequencing. I care a lot about context -- and so I make playlists for myself and others with sequence in mind. And also respect set list order and sequencing on albums. I usually don't like RANDOM mode in iTunes because (to me) it removes one element of the artist's intent when creating or performing the song. It makes me feel more like a self-oriented consumer than an appreciator of someone else's work as they intended it - rather than what I want right now. (otoh, I will sometimes play RANDOM to be surprised and hear things in a new and unexpected stripped of context)

Anyway -- I appreciate hearing how other people do and think about this stuff!

Damn good eye shortfatfanny ....Yeah great soul comp .....
Worth every cent just ta hear the hard ta find Wish I Was Back - Thomas Bailey

Don't worry I'll clean The Bunker up this week.........



Elton only had one thing to complain: "He has no order for his record collection."


GOOD because he's not welcome.....



ROCKMAN



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-01-05 01:14 by Rockman.

On my HD. All four 1TB. By year, solo projects, radio shows-TV docs,
The last two tours. All backed up.

Quote
NorthShoreBlues2
I have everything stored on a harddrive (and backup), so nothing is physical. All official releases I simply save as the album title. As for bootlegs I always save like this:

1989.12.19 Convention Center, Atlantic City, NJ

the year, month, day, Venue, city and state, and country name if applicable. That way they go in chronologically. I have about 150 Stones; but my Pearl Jam collection is over 700 shows, so the way i do it renders it easy to look at not only by year but the month and day

I name all of my live recordings in a similar way. Easy to locate in Itunes or on your Ipod:

1969-12-06 - City Name - Venue - name of bootleg or source


Similar system for studio albums but I put a number in front so they are sorted in chronological order:

01 - Boy
02 - October
03 - War
04 - The Unforgettable Fire
05 - The Joshua Tree

Folder names may vary "U2 - Studio" "Rolling Stones - Live 1969-1976" depending on how many in the folder

Quote
swiss

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Gazza
Photographic memory.

ha ha! (true?)

A bit of an exaggeration and somewhat impractical now as everything since about 1999 has been on CD-R (or latterly DVD audio to save space) but in the era of tape collecting (and I amassed about 1,800 Stones tapes from 1983 to 1999), whilst I had them numbered, I could usually find what I was looking for - even if it was one song stuck on the end of a c90 that was there as a filler by remembering the colour of the index card on the spine of the tape (eg TDK-D, TDK-AD, Sony etc)

Like the venerable Rockman mine is organized in big neat pile...