To be safe, I keep my entire library (which is a somewhat modest 290GBs worth of music...I know people with much, much more) not only on my desktop computer, but also on my laptop computer, my work computer, and on at least 3 different external hard drives. About once every three months I do a complete backup of everything just to be safe...I would be devastated if I ever lost all that music, so I don't take chances.
Now...as you can imagine, that is a lot of music at my fingertips. In order to keep everything sorted in its proper place, and in order to placate my meticulous (some would say anal) nature, I've broken everything in my library into Genres, which are then further broken down by use of smart comment tags (more on that later).
I'm going to talk a little about how I sort my library, and I hope some of you will chime in with your ideas, how you run your library, tips and tricks, that sort of thing...
First off, here are the categories I use:
Your mileage on these categories may differ. I've had people complain to me that I have too few categories, that "Classical" is too limiting as a term, as is "Rock and Pop" ("what about alternative or heavy metal?" some ask me). I understand the concerns. I simply don't want to litter my iTunes screen with endless amounts of genres...these 19 work just fine for me (for now).
By the way, if you're wondering where this screen comes from, it's achieved by enabling the Browse function under VIEW >>> Column Browser >>> On Top. You can choose to keep your browser on the left, but if you do so, make sure you right+click on it and choose genres, otherwise you'll only get a long list of Artists on the side. What I like about the Browser up top is that I immediately get the three things I most want to see, the Genre (so I can switch easily as needed), the Artist (or in the case of art music, the composer), and the Album (or in the case of art music, the performing ensemble):
Most genres are self-explanatory. Miscellaneous is a term I use for anything I simply can't categorize (like recordings of white noise, spoken word stuff, or lullaby versions of Radiohead music). Pageantry Arts encapsulates both marching band and drum and bugle corps. Booklets and Interviews are where I put e-booklets that sometimes come with digital purchases, as well as interviews of composers/performers that are sometimes included on disks.
Regarding my naming conventions...I first ran into problems with the iTunes naming conventions back when I purchased my first iPod. The format used by iPods is great for your standard rock or pop group/star, but not very friendly to art music. How I originally got around it was to put the composer in the Artist category, and put the performing ensemble in the Album category, along with the conductor. The end result looks like this:
As you can see, the conductor's name is in parenthesis next to the ensemble.
In the case of multi-movement works, I use the following conventions:
Airborne Symphony, Mvmt I: Theory of Flight
Airborne Symphony, Mvmt II: Ballad Of History And Mythology
Airborne Symphony, Mvmt III: Kittyhawk
In the case of works that have more than 8 movements (where I would have to use "IX," which is sorted between IV and V in Roman Numeral convention), I use VIIII.
Whenever possible, I try to include the key and opus number of the symphony, any individual movement names or tempo indications, and the symphony's name or nickname, if it has one. Example:
I understand that recent iPods are much friendlier to non-Rock and Pop music, but this system has been with me for 6 years now, and I like it enough to keep it for now.
With me so far? Good. Now, let's talk about advanced sorting. At this point you may be saying "19 genres doesn't really cut it, does it? I mean, the broad 'classical' genre has waaaaay more sub-genres to worry about!"
Yes, yes it does. Which is why whenever I import a new tune, I always add keywords to the "Comments" section of each file. Some of the keywords I use include: Cantata, Overture, Symphony, Tone Poem, March, Requiem, Concerto. I also include keywords (separated by comma) such as Romantic, Classical, Baroque, 20th Century, Minimalism, Renaissance, etc. In addition, I also add the composer's nationality.
If the work is for a solo instrument, I also include the artist's name under the Album Artist tag as in the following picture:
This allows me to search for the artist if I should, for example, want to hear something played by Yo Yo Ma or Jacqueline du Pre. I use the + symbol to denote that it is a solo work for the instrument that follows it (could be a concerto, a sonata, or some other form).
I then create "Smart Playlists" that constantly search for those keywords, as in the picture below:
I then create "Smart Playlists" that constantly search for those keywords, as in the picture below:
You can create folders to keep your playlists in broad categories, as you can see above.
Finally, there is the issue of which columns you get your browser to show. I only use the following columns:
- Name (as in the title of the song or work)
- Artist (or in the case of art music, the composer)
- Album (or in the case of art music, performing ensemble and conductor)
- Time
You can decide which columns you want either by right-clicking on any column header, or by going to the View drop down menu and selecting "View Options." There are a lot of options to choose from.
Since I am currently re-doing my library, there aren't as many playlists as I usually have, but you get an idea. You can make ANYTHING a playlist. You like Renaissance era violin solo works? Make a playlist for it. Find yourself often listening to large-scale orchestral works that utilise a chorus? Make a playlist for it. It's wonderfully flexible.
By the way, when it comes to Rock and Pop and Jazz and Blues, I do use the Artist and Album categories as they were originally intended, since that is easy to do. When it comes to Soundtracks, I use the Composer for Artist, and under Album I just put the title of the movie....easy enough.
Under Pageantry Arts, I usually use the name of the band or corps under Artist. Under album I will sometimes use stuff like "1993 DCI Finals." However, I will admit that the Pageantry Arts genre is the one that is the messiest on my database right now...and I don't really want to deal with it.
So, if you've read this far...what do you do? Got any questions? Any tips or tricks?
I have created a smart playlist based system to vary play frequency by rating and also to learn ratings over time (if they're not already set manually). It would be compatible with your sorting tags if you'd like to check it out. It's free, of course.
ReplyDeleteWSP Music System
I also have a frequency for songs based on rating, I call THE CLOCK. When I hear a 5 star song it will fall off the Clock for 2 weeks, 4* is a month, etc... 1 star is a year. I then have my mood play list reference The Clock, So everything I hear is fresh.
ReplyDeleteI also have just recently learned to use the check boxes to remove all items (music,videos,etc) that I don't want to hear.
I try to use a 2 word genre system that identifies genre and TONE (I have 7 different tones from Heavy to Soft). examples Pop Light, Pop Easy, Modern Hard, Alternative Loud. By the way I am a rocker, so these are all variations of Rock.
Maxim and Jeff...great tips! Thanks for your contributions. Everyone else...keep 'em coming...
ReplyDeleteI manage my music in three separate libraries: popular music, jazz, and classical. The upside is that I can use the 'Genre' field to subdivide (e.g., swing, fusion, hard bop, etc.), while I use the grouping field for various things. In Jazz, I use it for recording labels, so I can create a smart playlist that finds, say, Duke Ellington's RCA recordings in the 1930s. I don't use it as much in the popular music library. In classical, I use it for conductor/ensemble (e.g., Karajan/VPO, Bernstein/NYP, etc.). The down side is that I can't sync multiple libraries to an iPod (my collections are too large anyway), or even randomize across libraries. I also use the interface differently in different libraries depending on how I want to sort, and iTunes remembers the layout when I return to that library. In all cases, I use the 'album artist' field to do further sorting (like 'Grateful Dead [Studio Albums]' vs. 'Grateful Dead [Dick's Picks], etc.)
ReplyDeleteTwo things continue to bother me. One, the iPod doesn't sort by Album Artist, and I don't like the compilation feature either. Two, there is no way to group multi-movement works under a single heading without treating them as an 'Album'. Interestingly, when you look at classical in the iTunes store, they group classical works under a single heading and the movements have individual names too.