How do you organise your CD collection?

For classical, I think by composer has many advantages, if you're talking about 100+ discs.

For a larger collection, by period, and within period by composer.

They are easier to put back this way, after you've listened.

Thanks Mike, only up 65 classical CD's so far.

Cheers

Flettster

Same way as I order my LP, DVD, BluRay, Books etc.

For all except compilations : Alphabetically by artist surname**, then by title within that category.  Soundtracks get classified according to the title of the show/film.

Classical : Alphabetically by composer, then subdivide into type of piece : symphony, concerto (subdivided by instrument), etc etc.  If an album is a collection of various pieces by one composer, then I put those at the beginning of that composer's section.

The only problem is compilations.  I tend to organise the non-classical stuff according to the title of the album.  The classical ones I break down into type (tenor arias, piano pieces etc), and then sub-classify by artist.

My daughters all think this very "anal", but then I can usually lay my hands on something I want very quickly, whereas in their chaotic collections, it can take some time.  I don't let SWMBO put things back on the shelves, because she almost ALWAYS misfiles them.

**I hate record shops which file by artist christian name.

I file Classical (about 500) and "The Rest" (about 3,700)  separately, but both under composer. Occasioanlly this will cause a problem when I can visualise the CD I want to play but can't remember the name, at which ppoint I resort to scrolling through Music Collector in the hope I spot it.

This also gives me a problem with the likes of Philip Glass, whose Operas and Symphonies are in one section and the other stuff such as soundtracks, Thousand Airplanes, Orion etc. are in another.

A friend has just converted his huge collection into loads of small genre sections (60s Psych, 70s Prog, Electronica and so on) which, he reckons does to things for him - allows him to narrow a search down when he's forgotten an artist's name, and secondly when he feels like a bit of 60s Psych he wander over to that section and browses.

I can see its merits, but I'd spend forever trying to decide whether Porcupine Tree was 90s Rock, 70s Prog, or Noughties neo-metal  and spontaneously combust.

This is an offence against nature and should be illegal.

If I have a soundtrack by one person (e.g. Tangerine Dream, Philip Glass then it gets filed under T or G, if it's a mish-mash I have a Various Artists section under "V".

I too am the object of considerable derision and scorn, and will only allow trustees to re-file CDs. I am a Virgo though, so it's allowed.

I file my ECM's in their own section and split them between regular ECM's and ECM New Series.

Ripped them all on my UnitiServe.

Didn't know I like General Adult Alternative Rock! (Counting Crows)...

Interesting topic. I used to file mine alphabetically by artist but then changed it to genre. This I found better because I am usually in the mood for a type of music rather than a particular artist. However it didn’t really work as there is so much overlap. One really needs to arrange one’s collection in the form of a Venn diagram but I can’t think of a way of doing this apart from laying them all over the floor! Actually one of the things I like most about music these days is just how much it crosses the boundaries of genres. Current favourite CD, and most recent purchase, is a Triple Concerto for banjo, bass and tablas (Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain) with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Classical? World? Jazz? I just went to get it off the shelf and couldn’t find it! Just goes to show.

Ripping all my cds and going the streaming route would be one answer but I am not ready to do this yet. And I’m not sure it would make it easier. Maybe one day. In the meantime I am about to change my CDX2 for a CDS3.

Current arrangement has more sections but is a bit flexible – Reggae, Blues, Rock, General/Vocal - Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, Dylan, Regina Spektor, Joni, etc, Jazz - incl ECM, Guitar - Beck, Satriani, Vai, Adrian Legg, Antonio Forcioni, Bob Brozman etc, Greek, World, World Fusion - Trilok Gurtu, Shakti etc, World/Dance/Chill - Nitin Sawney, Gaudi, Talvin Singh etc, Dance/Chill - Orb, Dreadzone, Enigma etc, Uncatagorisable - Sigur Ros, Captain Beefheart, Eno, Penguin Café Orchestra, and Classical.

I guess it depends how you approach choosing what you want to listen to. For example I have individual sections for guitar music and for Greek music as these particularly interest me, even though they both contain elements of rock, jazz, folk and world.

Chris

Just been to get a CD off the shelves, and realised that sometimes I file CDs by individual artists in "order of release".  So, perhaps I'm not entirely consistent in what I do. 

You also can start with ordering your most favourate cd's.

When you have let's say a 1.000 cd's, you probably don't play them all.

Some will never be touched. Others will be played very often.

So you can make a sub-selection to start with. A top 50 or 100, whatever, which you play often and are easy to grab.

It also can depend in with mood you are, you can make a 'weekend' sub-selection.

With my records it was very easy. If got Pop/Rock music and Jazz.

So made a first selection with Pop/Rock, then male/female/bands alphabetical, arranged on lastname, or name of the band, like 'Beatles, The'.

Jazz is placed on a seperate shelf, alphabetical.

Albums/cd's not played, stuffed away somewhere in the house.

Always leave some space on a shelve, because if you buy a new album like the 'Chieftains, The' you have to arrange all the shelves, 'Zappa' is easier. I know, the day comes when you have to re-arrange, keep buying music...

have fun with it, you might re-discover 'forgotten' music.

This is an offence against nature and should be illegal.

Oh dear .... <duck for cover>

Then I and the population of Iceland are guilty as charged ...

I file my CDs by the name I know the artist by - so Joni Mitchell is under J for Joni, Melanie (Safka) is under M for Melanie .... glad I don't have any Madonna albums as I don't know her surname. However, I file Harry Nilsson under N for Nilsson. Chas Hodges under C for Chas to keep his solo work adjacent to Chas & Dave, and Rainbow under B for Blackmore. Nice under E for Emerson to keep them with my ELP CDs and the 20 or so Sir Keith Emerson solo outings. I file the Young Tradition under S for Shirley.  What I no longer do is file The Beatles under T next to The Rolling Stones. This gets too confusing as The Pink Floyd suddenly dropped their inspirational leader Mr Barrett and the "The".

Jefferson Airplane/Starship is very confusing .... where should I file Baron von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun to Paul Kantner, Grace Slick & David Freiberg as compared with Sunfighter which was credited to Grace Slick & Paul Kantner?

And do you file Tom Rapp, under P for Pearls Before Swine?

Do you file The Alice Cooper Group under A for Alice (i.e when Alice was still Vince) and his subsequent solo albums under C for Cooper?

I have the same problem with iTunes - when doesn't it realise Marc Bolan, T Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex should be adjacent and as for Tractor, well is that The Way We Live

I insist on filing White Noise under D for Delia or is it D for Derbyshire.

Classical is less of problem as I file those under composer, but Gilbert & Sullivan are next to Gilbert O'Sullivan in my rack - sometimes nothing rhymes.

I guess I'll never learn - still what can they do, burn me on a bonfire ..... 

All the best, Guy

In general, classical music is arranged by composers, jazz and world by performers. The following labels are kept separately: ECM, MA Recordings, CamJazz, ACT, EGEA, AliaVox,  Alpha and JVC XRCD.

Classical - alphabetically by composer; Folk - alpha by artist surname or band name; Other - alpha by surname or band name (The Who is under W except when it is Live at the Isle of Wight where it is The Ooo under O)

Yes, though Alice was Alice then too 

I file in iTunes. Simples! I can find by artist, album, genre etc. No problems.

• Ordinary CDs by genre, with pop/rock sub-divided into groups, male & female.
• Classic largely by label.
• Jazz largely by label and an extra section for Miles.
• First / second pressings by country or type, e.g. JPN, W Germany, Target, Atomic, Green Arrow etc. Large collections like my JPN first pressings are sub-divided by catalogue #, e.g 35DP, 32DP, 32XD, Black Triangles etc.
• Audiophile Gold CDs by label, e.g. DCC, MoFi, AF etc. SACDs and XRCDs have their own section.
• Autographed CDs have their own section.

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All very geeky, but that's how I like it. 

Everything together alphabetically regardless of genre.

Thanks people for your replies & suggestions.

A lot to mull over, but unfortunately not enough time before I go to work. Interesting to see there are a few different methods. I'll have a proper look at all of the responses when I get home.

Thanks once again.

Flettster

....but can you actually find a specific CD in there?     

Me? I file alphabetically surname individual artists, straight on group names. vinyl is in alphabetical order on the storage racks.

Cds are stored in Ikea Benno CD towers.

All info on Music collectorz data base.

I don't like too may genres they confuse me, so generally minimal headers,Rock,Folk, Jazz, Classical etc.

Alphabetically by surname for me too - lots of my albums are difficult to put into categories.

SWMBO is not allowed to put any CDs back in the collection. Not only does she not put them in their proper place, she sometimes puts CDs in the wrong covers! 

My girlfriend, thankfully is as anally retentive as I am, so much so that she was the one who suggested alphabetisising our 1000+ cds. Sometimes though I hark back to when it was random as occasionally I would find something that was quite forgotten within our collection and when played, was a breath of fresh air.

Some friends of ours, when staying for the weekend would,(when we had left the room) mix up as many cds as possible, there would inevitably be chaos and confusion and cold sweats until we had sorted it out,peace again, needless to say they don't come around no more....

Start here, non-classical A-C

And then C with a few CD Singles up the top and Classical, which occupies the top row (because I'm the only one who can reach and is interested in reaching):

And so on, Vinyl down there, latest arrivals on top, Pringles in handy reach of computer:

Over the window we go - top level, still only Classical:

Over to M though V:

And finally V to Z

And yes, I am running out of places to shelve. In the spare room there are cupboards and cupboards of !2" and 7" singles (A-Z by artist, natch).

iTunes.

No nead to worry what order they are in as with over 7000 tracks I'd never manage the cursor well enough to find what I was hunting!

I can search by, composer, composition, composition opus or catalogue number, leading performer, or to narrow it down, a combination - usually composer and performer, but sometimes composition and performer.

I have never had better access to my recorded music. Fantastic.

ATB from George

All CDs are filed according to date last played

EJ

3000 and odd rock CDs - by year of production and then alphabetically within year. This avoids having to shift 3000 CDs one to the right to accommodate, say, Aaron & The Aardvarks' latest release. The method works well for me as my 'back catalogue' is now pretty complete, such that most new acquisitions are of newly-produced material. I do sometimes cheat by allowing new acquisitions to accumulate at the end of the storage facility, just assimilating them into the body of the collection every 4-6 months or so. Having storage by date also throws up surprises - I can be looking for something specific and find my eye caught by something not played in a long time.

Smaller sets - Classical 400; Compilations 400 - alphabetically, in another room. This is because I am generally looking for something specific when I search these categories.

My Sonos system has largely obviated the need for any form of categorization but my OCD overrides this convenience!

Fraser