Your Music Directory Structure, What format is your music organized in? Options

[Nero]

Single artist albums (other than classical)...

I:\My Music\<artist>\<album>\<tracknumber> <title>.flac

Soundtracks...

I:\My Music\Soundtracks\<album>\<tracknumber> <title>.flac
(...and the artist tag contains the actual artist for each track.)

Various artist albums...

I:\My Music\Various Artists\<album>\<tracknumber> <title>.flac
(...and same as with soundtracks, the artist tag contains the actual artist for each track.)

Classical music...

I:\My Music\<composer>\<album> (<orchestra> - <conductor>)\<tracknumber> <title>.flac
(...the artist tag on all tracks contains the composer, and the title is usually appended with additional track info such as tempo, key, etc.)

[Canar]

You're missing the point. The idea is that the database program becomes the front end to your music. I didn't even know what the directory structure was until now.

You've clearly never worked with your files. It sounds like you have a single source (perhaps self-rips only) with reliable and consistent tagging and nothing but music in your folders. I personally have many sources and many of these sources have unreliable tagging and filenaming conventions. Many of these sources provide me with copies of cds that I own but are too damaged to rip.

Furthermore, I have multiple computers on which I use my music selection and I have an FTP front-end allowing me access to all my music from anywhere on the internet.

On top of that, I occasionally enjoy having extra files along with my music. Cover art, files from data tracks from my cds, cuesheets for accurate reconstruction of the original CD, and so on.

Don't assume that just because someone disagrees with you they're missing your point.

[negritot]

Don't assume that just because someone disagrees with you they're missing your point.

And the two aren't mutually exclusive, either; one can both disagree with me and miss my point.

[RocknRoland]

music/genre/artist/album/song

[blue57]

In my music folder (C:\Mp3\) I have:

\Artist\Year - Album (or Date, Location)\CD # (if applicable)\All that again - ## - Title.ext

eg.
C:\Mp3\Anathema\2001 - A Fine Day To Exit\Anathema - A Fine Day To Exit - 09 - Temporary Peace.mp3

C:\Mp3\Muse\2002 - Hullabaloo\CD 2\Muse - Hullabaloo - CD 2 - 01 - Dead Star.mp3

C:\Mp3\John Butler Trio\2003-08-17 - The Tivoli, Brisbane\John Butler Trio - 2003-08-17 - The Tivoli, Brisbane - 22 - Take.mp3


Any Songs I'm not sure of the cd or whatever just go in \Artist\
Songs I don't know the artist for go into \Unknown\

[thinkum dinkum]

ok, I wrote my structure couple of posts before and there is a lot of explanations about that, but how do you (if you have any) manage files nfo, sfv, jpeg, ini, etc
Do you have 00 before so files are at the top, or not numbering at all, or you save them in different folder?

[[storm-shadow]]

x:/music/artist/album/artist - nn - title.codec

I use that for my full album collections. (Korn, Deftones)

x:/music/decade/artist - title.codec

I use that for my "one hit wonder" types. (Various Artists Over The Years)

x:/music/collex/artist/album - title.codec

I use this for bands/entertainers who have more than just a few songs I dig, but not worthy of a full album. (Oasis, Greenday)

x:/music/FLAC/artist - album/nn - title.codec

I use this for ALL my albums, while I evaluate them. I give them a listen a few times, figure out what songs I like. When I decide something is worth keeping, I foobar/convert/Vorbis into the one of the categories above. After I have enough albums together (+ PAR Files) I burn them off to DVD-R.

Don't get much time to convince me you have good songs, though. Maybe a week.

[snookerdoodle]

Music/Artist/Album/Title.codec

I either convert them directly to my mp3 player or play them with a server (SlimServer). Either way, both options snarf up the track number (and a nicer title) from the ID3 and/or flac tags.

I say that to point out that I really depend on other software (that maintains a cache of all of the tag info) for organization. It maps songs to their actual directory location and that's sufficient for me. Moreover, some of the stuff is tricky - e.g.: a lot of orchestra music albums include music by more than one composer and sometimes more than one orchestra and conductor. Do you just throw all of these in "Various Artists"? I'm curious as to what others put in for the "Artist" on these (composer, conductor, or orchestra).

Mark

[tgoose]

Music/Artist/Album/Title.codec

I either convert them directly to my mp3 player or play them with a server (SlimServer). Either way, both options snarf up the track number (and a nicer title) from the ID3 and/or flac tags.

I say that to point out that I really depend on other software (that maintains a cache of all of the tag info) for organization. It maps songs to their actual directory location and that's sufficient for me. Moreover, some of the stuff is tricky - e.g.: a lot of orchestra music albums include music by more than one composer and sometimes more than one orchestra and conductor. Do you just throw all of these in "Various Artists"? I'm curious as to what others put in for the "Artist" on these (composer, conductor, or orchestra).

Mark

In terms of tagging I leave it off (or leave it how it is if it's downloaded) - Foobar is set up so it if there's a composer and performer it ignores the artist field (perhaps not very good in terms of global standardisation, but I'm a little obsessive compulsive about my tags now ), and just put in Composer and Performer, on individual tracks if needs be. If I had any large collection of orchestral stuff on computer I'd probably put it in directories by composer, but I only have one classical recording on my PC, I think, which I'll put on CD when I get round to it anyway, so it's not really an issue for me.

[Raptus]

x:\one of 6 main genres\artist\album\## - artist - title.mpc

[eyemthatguy]

Normal
d:\1of7Genres\artist - year - album [BITRATEorFLACorAPEorVBR]\## title.ext

after reading earlier posts, my VA's need to be restructured/taggged, but Im sticking with the NORMAL layout!

[Anas]

Regular:
Music/Artist/Year - Album/Artist - Year - Album - Disc # (even if theres just one cd) - Track # - Title.mp3
eg. Music/Lake Of Tears/2004 - Black Brick Road/Lake Of Tears - 2004 - Black Brick Road - 01 - 01 - The Greymen.mp3

Various:
Music/[VARIOUS] Year - Album/Album - Disc # (even if theres just one cd) - Track # - Artist - Song.mp3
eg. Music/[SOUNDTRACK] 2003 - Freddy Vs Jason/Freddy Vs Jason - 01 - 01 - Ill Nino - How Can I Live.mp3

[crazyman]

For my purposes, just


../My music/Artist/Year Album (ev. CD1, CD2, ...)/NN Title.codec

is enough, and in case the artist released more albums in the same year, I make the appendix to the YEAR like XXXXA, XXXXB, ....

Crzmn

[kl33per]

Just changed mine.

Album Artist / [Date] Album / nn. [Artist] Title

[ectotropic]

Heh - some of these schemes make me shudder No idea how you guys cope with them like that!

For various reasons I reguarly need to locate files via windows explorer, so I spent a while comming up with a naming scheme that was fast to explore and easy to use (for me at least) - plus it's fast and easy(ish) to parse with scripts when I need to.

E:\Music\<source>\<type>\<album artist>\<album>\[<disc>\]<tracknumber>. [<artist> -] <title>[ <mix>].codec

items in '[' & ']' are optional based on the release

<source> = DVD, CD, LP, Downloaded, etc.
<type> = Album, Single, Compilation, etc.
<album artist> = main artist for this release, or if a compliation label or series (but never ever Various Artist - which is something I really can't stand )
<disc> = contains disc type (often same as source), disc number and name of disc
<artist> = artist of this track if different from <album artist>

It's a bit confusing written like that, so a some examples:

E:\Music\CDs\Albums\Hardfloor\Best Of Hardfloor\CD 1 - The Tracks\01. Once Again Back.flac
E:\Music\CDs\Albums\Hardfloor\Best Of Hardfloor\CD 2 - The Mixes\01. Rising High Collective - Fever Called Love [Hardfloor Remix].flac
E:\Music\CDs\Compilations\Twisted Records\Unusual Suspects\01. Younger Brother - The Finger.flac

Which works well for me, only thing I might change is adding in the album year for sorting purposes.

[bubka]

My Music\Atrist\[year] Album\Atrist - track# - Title.*

[Shade[ST]]

Genre\Subgenre\Artist\Album\T#. TrackName.mp3

I was thinking of incorporating the Album release years or Recording years in this, but I can't think of a way to do it.

[Shade[ST]]

E:\Music\CDs\Albums\Hardfloor\Best Of Hardfloor\CD 1 - The Tracks\01. Once Again Back.flac
E:\Music\CDs\Albums\Hardfloor\Best Of Hardfloor\CD 2 - The Mixes\01. Rising High Collective - Fever Called Love [Hardfloor Remix].flac
E:\Music\CDs\Compilations\Twisted Records\Unusual Suspects\01. Younger Brother - The Finger.flac

Which works well for me, only thing I might change is adding in the album year for sorting purposes.

I like this one very much. inspirational. Maybe I'll try it myself.

[ectotropic]

I like this one very much. inspirational.  Maybe I'll try it myself.

Cheers! Glad someone else likes it

Goodluck wi that and let me know if you come up with any improvements (or have any questions)

[Shade[ST]]

Goodluck with that and let me know if you come up with any improvements (or have any questions)

Did you think of adding genre to it?

[ectotropic]

Did you think of adding genre to it?

Not really - partially because

I want every song to have it's own specific genre, not an entire album labelled as 'rock'. That way, if I want to listen to ballads, I could listen to ballads that come off otherwise 'rock' albums. For example, let's say, I dunno, Springsteen, for instance. Let's take 'Born in the USA'. A track like 'I'm on fire' or 'My hometown' would definitely be labelled a ballad, while 'No surrender' would most definitely be 'rock'.

and partially because I have trouble putting much of my music in a single genre - where does one genre start and another end? One day I'll feel like a band should be one thing the next day another, not to mention bands who change styles as they go.

IMO adding genre to it just adds confusion - so any genre grouping I do is generally done in playlists (which has the benefit of easily being able to add those problem tracks to as many genre as needed).

[Erich w/ an h]

AUDIO\$if2(Album Artist,Artist)\(Date) Album\Artist - Date - Album (Disc#) - Track# - Title.flac

Organizes well, tree structure wise, and I can still sort by filename if i wanted to for the same results.

[J-pak]

Music\Artist\YEAR - Album\T# - Title.codec

What I use. Still have some albums that I need to fix with the years.

[Shadikka]

Genre \ (Year) Artist - Album \ T# - Title . mpc/mp3/ogg
or
Genre \ Artist - Title . ext

[biggerluke]

codec/artist/album/[cd1/cd2]/trnumber - trname - artist.ext

eg

flac/coldplay/xy/01 - square one - coldplay.flac
or
mp3/coldplay/xy/01 - square one - coldplay.mp3

also have in folder
flac/coldplay/xy/00 - xy.png
flac/coldplay/xy/00 - xy.sfv
flac/coldplay/xy/00 - xy.m3u

This post has been edited by biggerluke: Jul 4 2005, 17:05