Alphabetical sorting of music

[The_Reverend_M]

Alphabetic isn't really practical if you tend to buy a lot of music, because it means you're always having to shift stuff around to make room for new purchases. Pain in the arse.

Apart from some things which I put in genres - jazz, mainly - I store my collection by the year of release, which I think is more interesting, but mainly I do it that way because it makes it easier to maintain - since most music I buy is new releases, I just have to add it on at the end, rather than finding space for it elsewhere.

When I was younger I used to keep every album (and single) in the order I bought them in! After a fair few years this just became unworkable though ...

 

[boozybirdie]

Organise alphabetically I have a hard enough time just putting them back in the cases

 

[Treacle Toes]

Obviously it's much better to organise them by genre, and then alphabetically...

 

[Treacle Toes]

Obviously it's much better to organise them by genre, and then alphabetically...

 

[geminisnake]

I have my single artists/groups organised alphabetically and my compilations organised by genre/time eg. the compilation pile starts at Glenn Miller, then 50s, 60s etc and ends at a Celtic cd(which I don't think I've ever actually listened too).

 

[Dj TAB]

I Dj and have a considerable collection of tunes and albums. For the most part its alphabetised however there are exceptions to the rules. I keep all compilations, breaks records and obscure valuable stuff seperate. I keep Hip-hop out of House and techno and have started reasonable breaks and drum'n bass sections.

maybe when the smaller sections become unmanageable I'll alphabetise those too.

It certainly makes finding stuff easier when your twatted although sometimes it can be hard remembering if you filed it under the artist name or the remixer's name etc.....

 

[sojourner]

Obviously it's much better to organise them by genre, and then alphabetically...

I'd never get it finished if I had to do it by genre - I'd spend all night trying to decide what went where.

 

[Kameron]

For years I had my CD's sorted by spine colour, it was great, no one but me could find anything and it looked really pretty.

Vinyl, dance music vinyl at any rate, must be sorted but genre, then label, then release number.

I did once try to put my CD's in chronological order of purchase and later tried to recreate High Fidelities autobiographical order (it is really a freshly broken up think to do) and when I was younger and only had one or two hundred CD's I had them in a constantly evolving 'how much I liked them' order.

I might be a bit anal.

 

[Kameron]

I'd never get it finished if I had to do it by genre - I'd spend all night trying to decide what went where.

Let me see is this Acid Pop or Sureal Ballard: I know your pain May be go to far though. I think that musical genres should be cut down to the point where there are only 50 to 500 tracks in the genre, otherwise how the fuck would you know what you are listening to? Bring on the Hardcore Acid Schranz.

 

[sojourner]

For years I had my CD's sorted by spine colour, it was great, no one but me could find anything and it looked really pretty.

Vinyl, dance music vinyl at any rate, must be sorted but genre, then label, then release number.

I did once try to put my CD's in chronological order of purchase and later tried to recreate High Fidelities autobiographical order (it is really a freshly broken up think to do) and when I was younger and only had one or two hundred CD's I had them in a constantly evolving 'how much I liked them' order.

I might be a bit anal.

I've done the spine colour thing

 

[sojourner]

Let me see is this Acid Pop or Sureal Ballard: I know your pain May be go to far though.

I think my main problem with it is that I detest any sort of categorising and labelling anyway. So to do it to myself and my music is just anathema. I'm that bad with this that I used to get really riled in libraries as a kid, and music shops do my head in


Not anal, honest

 

[Buds and Spawn]

Alphabetic isn't really practical if you tend to buy a lot of music, because it means you're always having to shift stuff around to make room for new purchases. Pain in the arse.

Not if you leave space at regular intervals to allow for expansion.

Obviously it's much better to organise them by genre, and then alphabetically...

You'd hope so.

For years I had my CD's sorted by spine colour, it was great, no one but me could find anything and it looked really pretty.

My missus did this to my books. I was not pleased

My advice:

Genre > A-Z by Artist > Year

 

[Kameron]

My advice:

Genre > A-Z by Artist > Year

I'm really against this genre thing. I once made a list of only the major genres covered by my CD collection. There were something exceeding 80 needed to describe ~700 CD's and what do you do with bands that produce a Technical Grime album one moment and synth-folk the next? Even main stream stuff like radio head which can be fitted into two (at a pinch) genres is all over the place.

Or may be you are using genre just for the really big splits? The break down between Electronic, Funk / Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop (ugh), Reggae, Rock is mostly not too hard but we all must have tons of CD's which have tracks that are slap bang in the middle of three of those genres?


Spine colour is the only way! Or maybe release date?

 

[The_Reverend_M]

I'm really against this genre thing. I once made a list of only the major genres covered by my CD collection. There were something exceeding 80 needed to describe ~700 CD's and what do you do with bands that produce a Technical Grime album one moment and synth-folk the next? Even main stream stuff like radio head which can be fitted into two (at a pinch) genres is all over the place.

Or may be you are using genre just for the really big splits? The break down between Electronic, Funk / Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop (ugh), Reggae, Rock is mostly not too hard but we all must have tons of CD's which have tracks that are slap bang in the middle of three of those genres?


Spine colour is the only way! Or maybe release date?

Exactley. If they could fit into a few of these then decide at your own personal discretion.

 

[jæd]

I've been putting this off, ever since MsShirlfuckingLaverne knocked me music tits up...but have embraced it, thanks to red wine and raspberry vodka

Put it all in in iTunes and then connect your amp to an Airtunes device thingy.

It makes sorting your music very, very simple...

 

[Dubversion]

Mine run in genres, then loosely by era / style / chronology..

So my reggae shelves run

Ska > Rocksteady > early reggae > 70s vocal groups > DJs > early dancehall > dancehall on one shelf

UK roots > microdub > dub-influenced stuff on another.

things like that.

it makes sense to me, and kinda tells a story. of course some artists are going to straddle styles, even genres, but what can you do?

 

[sojourner]

of course some artists are going to straddle styles, even genres, but what can you do?

Alphabloodybetisise them

 

[stavros]

I'm a big advocate of alphabeticising. There's a certain joy when you look up at the rack and see Ghostface Killah followed by Girls Aloud, the MC5 then McFly, and Spice Girls - Spiritualized - Squarepusher.

Some areas it can fall down is where bands change their names but are still the same. Case in point is Iggy & The Stooges who's early work was just as the Stooges. Are they under I or S? (I put them under S) Also DJ albums are difficult. Are they under the DJ's name or at the end under "various" (the former for me)?