Jun. 19, 2009 at 8:04am with 76 notes View comments
reblogged from nostrich
“
My advice regarding library organization is always unpopular and always ignored, but hear me out here: delete most of your music. … If you’re like me, you don’t listen to most of your music very regularly. In fact, you tend to have ~5-8 albums on constant rotation, switching one in and another out every week or so. Thus, if you’re like me, you don’t need that much music in your iTunes library. Anything that isn’t a regular listen? Delete it. Don’t back it up, don’t archive it somewhere, don’t give it any funny smart playlist-referenced tags, just fucking delete it.
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Quisby, in response to cleversimon’s post. Read the whole thing. 

This may be the best way to organize my music: my listening habit is to listen to several albums/songs nonstop for a few weeks, then get tired and change the rotation, only occasionally digging through the archives for specific songs I want to hear at a particular time. (Back when I had a Windows computer, I used Foobar a lot, and just built playlists from tracks pulled out of the hard drive whenever I felt like listening to music.) And since I have all my music backed up anyway, I’m going to go ahead and delete a lot of it from my computer (and maybe my 4-year-old PowerBook will stop wheezing and throwing fits).

  1. willotoons answered: I swear this man & you were separated at birth or something. Or maybe your new alter ego is named Dick? So appropriate.
  2. hagwaar reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    old Data. Time to start over…
  3. factchecker reblogged this from nostrich
  4. osakasteve reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    Richard Dunlop-Walters
  5. Charlene answered: I prefer listening to genres and radio, not just specific artists. I dig Last.fm, Sirius, and XM, bot iTunes nor illegal downloads.
  6. kbkarma answered: My organisation method is simple. Music folder, containing folders for artists, which contain folders for albums. On an external HD.
  7. kubi reblogged this from cleversimon and added:
    do: (in response to cleversimon) 1) Genres: I only use the broadest names for my genres. Jazz, Rock, Electronic,...
  8. flemieux reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    Very interesting post
  9. qualls answered: Agreed! If your tastes are fluid, you should be constantly trying new things anyway. Save favorites, and ditch the rest.
  10. alexpornota reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    I see your point, nostrich, and I guess that’s my reasoning behind not having a hard disc iPod, but instead relying on...
  11. alancfrancis reblogged this from nostrich
  12. jeffgiddens answered: i use my ipod as the organizer. I think of itunes as the main library, and what is on my ipod as what i have “checked out”.
  13. lilzet answered: Oh, good. This is what I do. Solidarity.
  14. pootytang reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    I love it. I would never delete anything (I’m a horder, I’ll admit) but removing it from itunes sounds like a great...
  15. eush reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    cleversimon’s post. Read...whole thing. This may...several...
  16. pierreism answered: Use Spotify and delete everything you have that’s on a major label. Don’t forget to subscribe if you use it alot.
  17. respondr reblogged this from jhnbrssndn and added:
    going from 200+GB down...20GB. A 20GB library...essentially...
  18. cheerschopper reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    agree with “just fucking...certain extent. And, actually,iTunes can be very helpful with...
  19. teejayhanton answered: I need to delete some, but really enjoy hitting “shuffle” and just listening. I keep a couple “fave” playlists, but am otherwise unorganized.
  20. inky answered: I shove all sorts of genres and tags into the genre field, and make lots of smart playlists with stuff like “genre contains ‘ambient’”.
  21. praavda answered: too much text, nostrich
  22. jhnbrssndn reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    Although RDW merely hints at the autism which is hard-wired into the male brain, and hence explains why a lot of men...
  23. thinkdrastic answered: I ignore Genre. I make sure the Artist, AIbum Artist and Compilation tags are correct. I sort with “Album by artist”. And playlists are fun.
  24. jakec reblogged this from nostrich and added:
    do this, keep my library under 4GB...regularly listened
  25. inthefade answered: I’m so hopelessly behind on organizing that I gave up and just shuffle my way through my music.
  26. nostrich reblogged this from cleversimon and added:
    My advice regarding library organization is always unpopular and always ignored, but hear me out here: delete most of...
  27. tbmimsthethird answered: Simple, easy album playlists. Scroll until you find something you love but forgot you had. Press play. (And screw shuffle.)
  28. chrisereneta reblogged this from cleversimon and added:
    Or rather, Genre is only useful if you LISTEN within genres. If, instead, you are the sort of person who is content to...
  29. jebro answered: Poorly.
  30. snarkysarah answered: I’ve found customizing genres first (e.g. a “rawr punk” and “old-school” punk instead of all-encompassing “punk”) is a great first step!
  31. theseinfeldchronicles answered: I like the genre tag. I organize by album. Definitely use the compilation tag. It will help with soundtracks, mixes, etc.
  32. delgrosso answered: My iTunes library is >400GB. Genres are your friend, trust me.
  33. kurafire reblogged this from cleversimon and added:
    Couldn’t fit this...a Tumblr-answer: I organize...as...
  34. Susan answered: Use Pandora, free the memory!
  35. christopherattle answered: Really broad genres and consistent Artist names. Clear out anything ‘feat.’ another artist — the primary artist gets the billing
  36. herooftheproletariat answered: if you have 45 gb of music I can help you by telling you to go outside more and stop spending so much time at your computer
  37. weselec answered: Genre tags are the clear first step but are useless alone. Smart playlists that reference other smart playlists will help you refine.
  38. ryannerocha answered: I’ve got a 48 GB library and I don’t find myself needing any more organization than browsing by artist.
  39. hellamike answered: I spent days organizing my 67 GB library and it’s finally where I want it. I use genre tags, and smart playlists.
  40. valhallaisland answered: 5 stars for songs I love, no stars for anything less. Two listening options: shuffle on highest rated smart playlist or shuffle on music.
  41. yhf answered: Ratings, and playlists based on the five different ratings. I use 2 through 5 - 5 is must-have on the ipod, and on down. YMMV.
  42. rachelarogers answered: I don’t. *sheepish grin*
  43. steelopus answered: First figure out what specific task you’re trying to accomplish, then tag your files to reach that goal. Don’t tag for the sake of tagging.
  44. cleversimon posted this
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