How To Organize Music

Learning how to organize music has to do with what the music means to you. If you're just a recreational listener, your methods of organizing music will probably differ from those of who use music for money making purposes. Take, for instance, a DJ. A DJ's organization of certain music will be different compared to someone who just wants to organize a musical playlist on an MP3 player. Whatever the case, organizing your music makes it easier to get to the songs you listen to and bypass the crap.

1. CDs. Regardless if music is tied into your recreation or your profession, it needs to be categorized so you can get to the music you want quickly. It's easy enough to rotate CDs in their cases and organize your music from the new, hot stuff (in the front of the case) to the older jams (in the back). All music should be backed up. CDs will wear down over time. You should save the music in the form of MP3 files somewhere. An external hard drive is probably the best choice.
2. MP3s. Because you can store many MP3s, its imperative to put them in some sort of order. Lucky for you, working with a laptop or desktop computer to organize music is a lot easier than fumbling through hundreds of CDs. The easiest thing to do is to create folders. People usually categorize their songs under the respective artists. You can also split the songs up based on album names within the folders named for the artists. Don't worry about forgetting the names or the locations of your newly organized jams. Computers have search tools that can pull up the songs by name or elements of the name.
3. The recreational user. Most MP3 players have automatic organizational tools. The problem is these tools have the tendency to categorize some songs the wrong way. You're better off doing it yourself. Creating playlists and transferring these playlists to your MP3 player is the best way to do it.
4. The professional user. Ah yes, the DJs. Musical organization is key to making your shows run smoothly. Go ahead and follow the aforementioned advice, but there's much more you need to do as a professional. Along with the general categories, you need to have folders of the new, hot songs. They should be categorized by genre. These folder are constantly updating, so check them often. These folders should be in alphabetical order in a column format. By clicking the column, you'll organize the music respective to that column. You also need another folder dedicated to the bridge mixes you've created prior to a show. It should also be in alphabetical order. It's a good idea to have a fast search tool in case you need to search for a song by name. If you're dealing with CDs, organize them by artist so you can flip through your choices quickly. It's also a good idea to have back up MP3 players just in case.