How do you organize your library?

[lofi]

geez u guys..
i must be the most unorganized guy here...
my only form of organization is by when i bought it/encoded it/made it etc. sometimes if i'm working on a track, theres a different version in every week's folder for a month....hahaha. thats at home, on the laptop tho its by the season... i really gotta get a maid to clean the thing up. maybe if i played a set list like some dj's i know life wouldn't be as complicated, but then again it wouldn't be as interesting either.

[Krilikz]

For the most part i Classify my music into genres then by sub genres then artists or albums

However i make custom playlist folders for djing.
example
Dj Krilikz Playlist
- Electronica
-- Club pop (More club oriented)
--Vocal Pop (Sweet 16/ Casada type stuff)
--Harddance (Step up from club pop, Rave/techno like)
-- House
- Hiphop
-- Classic
--Pop
--Electronic (mostly mash ups/good cross overs from my electronica collection)

and then i got an oldies, pop and a few other collections. Each genres has about 300 songs that i update with time.

[Kaon]

rather than organising my music to suit my brain, i organise my brain to suit the chaos that is my music folder. mostly just involves, remembering when i got a track ( i find that when i get a track i like i will listen to it a lot, and thus remember events around that time and have kind of a representative timeline of tunes) and using the 'date added' selection thingy in itunes. But then im pretty wierd.
i guess wat im trying to say is that everyone is going to need a different way of doing it that suits them

[JesC]

I have about 10k worth of songs loaded into traktor, what works best for me is breaking them into genre, then sub folders for sub genres. then when i open the folder i sort them by bpm, slow bpm to fast bpm

[Language]

I'm mostly stuck to one genre.. I like my Dnb.. but then I have 13 years worth of vinyl to pick through.. I have been using keywords or just making random playlists with my Mp3's
I have a really bad knack for organization as well.. I need to get a better system.
It's so different than just diggin' through the crates.

[Waxer]

I have had this dilemma for years and now use the following method as it basically represents the same way my vinyl has been organised for nearly 30 years. I pretty much only play Hip Hop & Funk, so I have 4 500GB network drives in the studio (which I'm gonna chop in for 2 x 1TB network drives soon). The folder structure is MP3 at the top, then about 6 genre folders, then below that it's split int UK/US/Oz/Europe/Rest Of World each with it's own folder named 12s & EPs & LPs, then below that the same named folders but with years from 1978 to 2008.

After I made the mistake about 8 years ago of attaching the biggest drive I had to a machine and forgetting to stop iTunes sort thr library for me, that drive got reorganised by iTunes (Jesus I hate iTunes) so about half the tracks were messed up (my brain works a certain way and that's that!!!)

So, I still have that 300GB drive which is still sorted as iTunes sees fit, only I am going to start pulling everything out the iTunes window into folders that I understand and slowly transfer the lot onto my proper drives over the winter months.

[Wuz]

when i hear crap like that i don't think i'll ever install itunes.

[tekki]

Carefully installing will work wonders. Always take your time to install, make sure the only options executed are the onces you selected.

[VoOFA]

Great question, after 5 years I have tried so many different systems and I think I have one now that works fairly well. Everyone will need to come up with their own work flow but I have a specific system that works well and is simple to use. I can work on an explanation of that next week.

please do

[steveboyett]

I try to be careful to enter thorough ID3 tag info (genre, comments, key lyrics, energy level [early, mid, peak, near peak, etc.]) so that I don't have to bother with separate directories. I prefer to search by any number of criteria to basically create playlists & directories on the fly (gimme EARLY | FUNKY TECH HOUSE with GUITAR sounds). It also allows me to have multiple categories assigned to a single track for searchability, instead of having to decide on the one folder I want to move the track into. I don't mind typing a search query during a gig.

Part of the reason is that I have a lousy memory for track titles & artists, and anything I can do to help search out a track is a godsend to me.