Organizing MP3s and Other File Collections?

Anonymous Coward asks: "After trying to merge several sets of media files that I've had laying around across several PC's (and looking at the short-comings of my own Perl script), I began looking at some commercial products and was overwhelmed. Does Slashdot have advice for organizing MP3 collections and what software works well for them?"

Comments

Re:My gripe

[node 3]

If you have a very large collection, iTunes management is a nightmare.

then (about not using iTunes):

So of course I have to manage my library by hand.

I can't imagine how using iTunes can be a nightmare, but doing it by hand isn't.

You can end up with a music folder with hundreds and hundreds of folder, to the point where it is a headache to deal with. If you never look at your music folder - then it's fine I guess.

That's the whole point. iTunes essentially *is* your filesystem. Your standard tree-based filesystem is really poor for managing songs (quick, find that one Beatles song, oh, which album is it on again?).

With iTunes, you can still access your songs directly via the Finder/Windows Explorer (but any changes should be done through iTunes itself). You can even drag a song from iTunes and drop it (this will copy the file) somewhere if you want to do use it outside of iTunes.

I prefer this structure:

1st Letter of Artist Name/Artist Name/Artist Name - Album Name/Track Number - Track Name

That's the trade-off, isn't it? Easier song library management vs. fine-control over the filesystem structure. When iTunes first came out, I wasn't too keen on the idea of not being in direct control of the mp3 files and their folder structure, but *quickly* came to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Now, the idea of managing, by hand, thousands of songs... <shudder!>.

Re:My gripe

[tommertron]

My other problem with iTunes is that it keeps the original file in its same location when you drag it into the libarary, so you've got to really keep track of what you've added when you're adding files from... ahem... legal, creative commons downloading services that you've downloaded. Otherwise you'll have duplicate files all over the place and clog up your hard drive.

Oh, and try dragging your library in a second time. That was a fun hour of manually selecting all the duplicate songs and deleting them.

Re:What I do...

[Anonymous Coward]

What possible reason is there to replace apostrophes and spaces with _? Are you in the habit of playing your oggs on an ENIAC or something?