Organizing my music - step 1?

[TxGlenn]

Is my first step to get all my files with a consistent naming convention so that they can be easily tagged?  And then run them through the tagging process?

I have many different formats for the actual mp3 names.  For instance, for the song Dashboard by Modest Mouse might be named:

02 Dashboard
02-modest mouse-dashboard
modest mouse - 02 dashboard

And seemingly endless variations of these, some including the CD name.

I was wondering if software could help with this if my music isn't tagged.  I am guessing "no"  but I thought I would ask before I started doing them all manually.  I did find the rename function on Tag&Rename but setting up masks for all the different naming conventions looked equally time consuming.

[unclet]

I guess it depends which jukebox software you are going to use.  It is not worth tagging all of your songs if the software does not use the tags to get the song information. Some software obtain the artist, album and song name from the filename.  Some software obtain this information from the directory(folder) structure used to store the music on the hard disk.

[drventure]

Here's what I do.

First, I use J River Media center for managing everything. It's not free, but it's pretty cheap.

Next, I make SURE every single MP3 is properly tagged, including album art. I also make sure the art is embedded in the MP3. It chews up a little more space, but it means that I can use just about any decent library program to repull all the info direct from the MP3's in the event of a catastrophe.

next, I use FILLCD to gather up as many full albums as will fit on a single DVD. So what I end up with is a folder structure like this.

MP3
      DVD1
             Artist
                     Album
                            Actual tracks
      DVD2
             etc.

That way, it's trivial to backup portions of my collection to DVD's and restore them if there's a prob. I also back up to USB HD, but I like belt and suspenders for this particular data.

Then, all I have to do is point at the root MP3 folder and scan all subdirs. Media center can do that easily. But most any other decent Library manager should be able to do that. Even Windows Media Center can.

If everything's tagged, the tags are read in, and databased so that searches are instant once the initial scan is complete.

And if you get a virus or something corrupts a bunch of your files, you can just grab the DVD, copy it back over and rescan.

It's a little work, but not bad with the right tools.

Last note, Personally, I wouldn't bother with any app that makes you put your tracks in a specific folder structure or be named in a specific format. All that info should be in the tags. If things are tagged, all those tag values should be databased for instant retrieval. The folder structure shouldn't matter at all. But that's me. Some people really do care how the folders are laid out. In fact, a decent library app should be able to rename the files and also relocate your MP3s into a folder structure based on the tag values in the tracks themselves. MC can definitely do that, but I know others can too.

[dafelandry]

Manual "tagging" isnt really hard... especailly if the formatt is basically there..... for example if your files name are:

01 March into the Sea
02 Dashboard

and so on.. but the tags are "blank" then simply copy the artist..... paste it in each songs "artist" feild... then "album" then once done... copy the file name and paste that in title.... i did that in Tag&rename and literally right after i "manually" inserted the tags it automatically found album art and filled in the rest of the details it was pretty awesome....

i use Tag&rename for the tagging and then Media Monkey for the folder organization.... literally 10,000 songs orgainzed in 2 hours (originally all files were in one folder, now its in a music folder > artist folder > album folder > Artist - Title .... it blew my mind!!! just single out the "blank" tags first then it will be easy!!! it was the best thing iv done in a while!

[MPTech]

I use and LOVE MediaMonkey for tagging and renaming my music. It's free, but I bought a Gold version I liked it so much (I think $20). I highly recommend it.
I have 750gig of music on an internal SATA drive and back it up to a USB drive.

[Space Fractal]

first tag all your files using a tag application (like Tag&Rename, Tagscanner,Mp3TagIt or such software).

Then let the software auto rename all files, based on the tag information when first they all are corrected.

Most software typical use something like this:

Artist
 Album
  Track - Title.mp3

I propenty threat collection hits as singles, but some software can seperate these too (like mine), if you have both albums and singles.

[dafelandry]

Again Tag&Rename and Media Monkey combo has saved me countless hours.... Iv be organizing a "community music back up" and I am sitting at 69,000 songs (466 GBS, no doubles) and media monkey has organized it ALL.... each album has art and tagged properly.... my music folder is 100% organized and soon to be upped in etouch..... just waiting for my ELO to show up and all will be well!!

[Huskerfan]

I just got done cleaning up my mp3 collection (about 9,000 songs and 40gb)  Well, almost done.

I used a combination of Media Monkey and MP3Tag.
 
http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

MP3Tag was invaluable cause I had a lotta loose mp3's floating around with different album titles and/or album art.  This program allows you to lump a bunch of MP3's together and assign the same album and cover art to them.  Media Monkey probably does too but I just liked the simple format of MP3tag.