Looking for a standard filename format, was: "ID3 tag standard filename syntax" Options

[luminoso]

Hi!

I've searched on Google but it seams that is no standard about this.
Any ideias?

A) About the CD number
1) codec \ Artist \ Album (CD 1)\ track - title
2) codec \ Artist \ Album (CD1)\ track - title
3) codec \ Artist \ Album (Disc 1)\ track - title
4) codec \ Artist \ Album\ CD1 \ track - title

B) About the year:
1) codec \ Artist \ Year - Album\ track - title
2) codec \ Artist \ Album (Year)\ track - title

C) About the title:
1) codec \ Artist \ Year - Album\ track - title
2) codec \ Artist \ Year - Album\ track - album - artist - title

D) About the folder structure:
1) codec \ Artist \ Year - Album\ track - title
2) Artist - Album - track - title.codec
3) Artist Album \ track - title

E) About the track number:
1) 1, 2, 3, 4..
2) 1.1, 1.2, .... 2.1, 2.1... (multiple CDs)
3) 01, 02, 03, 04

F) About the cover file:
1) folder.jpg
2) artwork \ xxx
3) cover.jpg

What are the best options? I see a lot of combinations arround the web and I don't know what is the best one.

I've been doing:

A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1

This post has been edited by luminoso: Aug 6 2010, 09:40

[DVDdoug]

No matter what scheme you choose you'll find there are exceptions that don't fit.

The good news is that your player/library can find the information from the tags and it doesn't matter how your files/folders are organized! If you change your mind and re-organize your files, the player library doesn't care! I can easily find/select all of the songs by a particular artist even though some songs are buried in a soundtrack or various artist folder. Or, I can find a Christmas song that's on a greatest hits CD, not in the Christmas folder. Or, I can find all of the songs from 1969, etc., etc.

My basic structure is:
Genre/Artist/Album/Song Title
As a general rule, the file name is just the song title. No track number or artist... the track number is in the tag.

I currently have 13 different genre folders. Probably 80% of my music is in a folder I've labeled "Rock & Popular". The files in this folder are tagged with more-specific genres like "Hard Rock", "Country", etc. (I don't have a country folder, since I don't have that much country music.) I have another top-level genre folder called "Easy Listening, Big Band & Jazz". I'm trying to minimize the number of top-level folders, but I still ended-up with 13 since I have "Mexican", "Comedy", "Halloween", etc., that I just didn't want to mix-in with my regular-everyday music.

I also have music in the Soundtrack folder that's tagged "Rock", etc.
For soundtracks:
Soundtracks/Album/Track#. Song

For movie soundtracks with various artists:
Soundtracks/Album/Track#. Song Title - Artist

For my very limited classical collection:
Classical/Composer/Album (or "Work")/Title (or "Movement")

Some "exceptions" and unusual things I do...

I have almost 40 "Various Artist" CDs that could go in the Rock & Popular folder. Instead I made a separate top-level folder:
Various Artists/Album/Song Title - Artist

But, I have other Various Artist sub-folders like:
Christmas/Various Artists/Song Title - Artist

I have a small number downloaded "singles" (60-70). These don't fit well into my scheme, since I don't have the whole album and I didn't want to have a bunch of "artist" folders with just one song. These are all in one folder organized like this:
Various Artists/Dougs Downloads/Song Title - Artist (I'll do this even if I have an album by the same artist in a different folder. All of these downloads have embedded artwork (the original-release album artwork if I can find it). Everywhere else I use folder.jpg.

I may do something different as I acquire more downloads... It's almost to that point... Maybe I'll do something like: Genre/Artist/Single Downloads/Title???

For soundtracks, live albums, or wherever the sequence is especially important, I'll include the track number:
Soundtracks/Album/Track#. Song Title

For live albums I'll add the year and "live" in the Album-folder if it's not already part of the album title:
Artist/Album (Live Year)/Track#. Song Title

Otherwise I don't use the year as part of the folder/file, but I do update/correct all of the year-tags for "various artist" and "greatest hits" albums. (I use the original song release date rather than the album/CD release date, which is usually after the artist is dead! )

For multiple CD albums, I'll re-number the tracks. (i.e. The numbers on the 2nd disc might be numbered 13-20.) I consider it one album, even though it doesn't happen to fit on one CD. (However, I will tag the tracks with the correct/original disc number.)

I hope that gives you some ideas... Have fun! And, you can always re-organize if you change your mind.

This post has been edited by DVDdoug: Aug 6 2010, 22:49