Messy MP3s
My wife has an iPod, I have a Sansa, and we want to listen to each other's music. Our solution has been to use iTunes as our primary music library application. It makes transfers to the iPod easy (i.e. possible) and includes good enough ripping capabilities for adding new CDs to our MP3 collection.
The vast majority of our collection is MP3s just for the simple reason that they can be played on anything. We have a small portion of iTunes Store music which I cannot play on my player, but if given any sort of choice, I pick MP3.
This strategy has worked out OK. Typically I have just used the file transfer mode on the Sansa to transfer music directly through as files through explorer windows. The problem has always been finding the music on my hard drive to transfer it. After years of gathering MP3s, they are all under one parent directory, but within that directory, the organization is pretty inconsistent.
In general the files are organized by artist, then album folder. The files themselves are named with the track number and name. Seems pretty easy. In fact this is the default setup if you allow iTunes to manage your library, as I grudgingly have done.
However, this scheme breaks down in 3 ways. First, the ID3 tags on the MP3s themselves are not right or are slightly inconsistent. So I have a 4 disc Jimi Hendrix set that ended up with different naming conventions for the CD tittles. Or, Ben Harper albums that were marked as either Ben Harper or Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. This example is worse for me when I'm transferring files as now some Ben Harper CDs are in one sub folder, some are in a different one.
The second problem is very iTunes specific and is the evil that is known as the "Compilations" folder. Apparently when some of my CDs are identified by CDDB they are marked as part of compilations so they get shoved in there. However, I have yet to see much logic on which albums are considered compilations and which aren't. I'd much rather just do away with that folder altogether.
Finally, the third problem is with classical music. Again, this is mostly an ID3 tag issue. When I'm trying to find pop music on my hard drive, it is pretty easy to look for a folder named U2 and go from there. If I want to find all my Bach, then I have to try to remember the performer or the name of the album, etc. Again, there is a lack of consistency on how the files are tagged, so iTunes gets messy trying to organize them into folders.
So in the pursuit of being constructive, I'm working a few scripts to reorganize my MP3 library and help me sort out all these messy tagging issues. I'll share that code as I make progress on it. In addition to inspiring me to write a few script, these issues have given me some food for thought on my previous post about tagging and metadata. Are messy tags better than a messy file system? I'm not sure, but a messy file system, plus messy tags are definitely not ideal.