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How do YOU organize your iTunes library?

My buddy just outgrew his iMac's hard drive so he bought a really nice Lacie external drive and asked me to come over and migrate iTunes, etc.

I literally laughed when I started poking around his music. He wasn't using a single playlist for about 100GB of music. I just always taken it as a given that people with large libraries(and especially "album listeners" like I'm sure most of us are) create a playlist that is the name of the artist and album i.e. Television-Marquee Moon.

He says he just uses cover-flow to navigate through everything. Watching him take like 45 seconds to find a specific album using that method I just had to show him the light.

After a little tutorial he told me that this was like a revelation and he never even thought about doing this where as I never thought about doing it any other way. He freaked out at first because we started making a few hundred playlists but I think I have him on the right track. I mean...pick an album from the playlists listed and listen...right?

Does this make sense? Do ya'll not do this? What do YOU do?
128x128synthfreek
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
4,163 posts
 
Primarily by artist, genre or rating. If I want a specific album I'll do it on the fly. Approximately 350 playlists.
thomasedison
34 posts
 
At first glance I thought you wee kidding, Synthfreek. But maybe YOU need to see the light.

I have 500gb of music in my iTunes library and I would never waste my time making a playlist of an album. If I want to listen to a particular album I simply type its name in the iTunes search box. I can do the same to bring up a particular song or artist. I can also call up all albums in a particular genre this way, which I can also then shuffle for an on-the-spot random mix when I'm in the mood for "Jazz" or "Rock" but don't have a particular album in mind.

This method calls up what I ask for in 2 seconds.

I would only need to make a playlist of an album if I was going to burn it to cd. My playlists are usually mixes I have created of songs from various artists to play at parties or when I'm in a particular mood. To create a theme-based playlist I select 'smart playlist', choose 'name', and add a key word like 'love' or 'rain' or 'drive' to create theme-based playlist of songs on that theme.

I hope that helps you and your friend with iTunes.

Cheers.
herman
1,974 posts
 
I agree that cover flow only makes sense for very small collections, but playlists for each album?

If you have the browser turned on (main menu bar - View - Show browser) it is already done for you. Also choose "as list" from the View menu. It is now arranged by artist and album.

Right click in the header bar above the song list and select what you want to see. I suggest name of song, track number, artist, album, and any others you want. You can drag the headers left or right to put them in the order you want. Then left click the album header. As you do it will cycle through album, album by year, and album by artist. I find album by artist to be the most useful.

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vegasears
922 posts
 
I have 687 gb of music. I use a Mac Mini and access the files remotely with the Front Row interface. I sort the library by “Genres” in 24 categories such as: Classical, Bluegrass, Rock, Electronic. I use the "Play List" much like Thomasedison above.

I am sure there are easier ways to sort the files but that's what works for me.
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