Friday, May 12, 2006

Organizing Music

Roger asks about how folks' organize their CD collections. My system:

I have one large wood (particle board) shelf unit and, to its right, two wire tower units. CDs are sorted into the following categories:

Large Unit
1st: Rock/Pop - By artist, alphabetically; multiple discs by single artists arranged in order of release. The first slot, however, goes to U2--as my favorite artist I want their discs up front in a place of honor.

2nd: Musical Theater: By composer, for shows, or, if a singer's disc, singer, alphabetically; multiple discs by single composers or artists arranged in order of the show's first production or release. The first slot, however, goes to Stephen Sondheim--as my favorite artist I want his musicals up front in a place of honor.

3rd: Film Scores: By composer, alphabetically; multiple discs by single composers arranged in order of the original film's release. (So even though the Star Wars score CDs I have are the ones released with the special editions in the late 90s, they are shelved in the order of the original films' release).

First Wire Tower
Jazz: By artist, alphabetically; multiple discs by single artists arranged in order of the original album's release.

Second Wire Tower
Classical: By composer, alphabetically; multiple discs by single composers arranged in order of the original work's release.

Until Whenever

2 comments:

Lefty said...

I have about 800 CD, and then 3000 live/bootleg discs. I keep them seperate, with official CD stored in two wooden units, alphabetical by artist, and by release date. In case Variuos Artists then it's by title of the CD. The 3000 live shows I have in an old library card catalog in order by artist and then date of the show. (It's a pretty impressive sight, I must say).

Anonymous said...

All my CDs are stored in a massive wooden unit I ordered on-line about five years ago. Alphabetized by artist, multiple discs by same artist stored in chronological order. It's fairly simple and straightforward.

I believe the unit has a capacity of 600 discs. I have a couple of hundred discs overflowing the unit stored in various areas of the house.