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articles about how to manage one’s digital audio files
- Thread starter blanc
- Start date
no articles but this is what I do.
I am a retired Unix/Linux systems developer so I use Linux everywhere (desktops, servers, endpoints)
I organize my music rips by Genre/Alpha/Artist/Year Album/Track. Music videos are similar but obviously no tracks as the video is a single container.
Below is an example of this structure (On windows the "/" would be "\")
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/01 - If You Love Me Like You Say.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/02 - Blue Monday Hangover.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/03 - I Got A Problem.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/04 - The Highway Is Like A Woman.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/05 - Brick.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/06 - Don't Go Reaching Across My Plate.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/07 - Give Me My Blues.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/08 - Snowed In.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1980] Frostbite/cover.jpg
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/01 - Frosty.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/02 - Angel Of Mercy.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/03 - I Got That Feeling.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/04 - Caldonia.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/05 - Things I Used To Do.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/06 - Got A Mind To Travel.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/07 - Cold Cuts.flac
/music/Blues/[A]/Albert Collins/[1981] Frozen Alive!/cover.jpg
The flac files are also tagged with metadata and curated artist images are also captured.
This means no matter what player you use, one that uses tags or one that you browse via a directory structure, you can logically/physically find your way around.
For example, when do directory browsing, at each drill down level everything will be sorted correctly.
It also has benefits when managing cause its easy to do OS level searches to determine if you have say a specific album, for example.
Peter
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To be honest, I do think a criteria like this don't make sense.
In general media players, servers, etc. simply read all the tags from all the files and store this in a database including file location.
Today this database is often cached in memory to further improve response.
This allows for fast browsing, searching, etc.
Once a song is selected, the media player will start reading it.
Basically the file structure is for our convenience, there is no relation between what we see (a tree structure) and the actual storage on a disk.
If you want performance, you better have contiguous files. However, audio is most of all slow, CD quality is 635 Mb per hour so not taxing at all.
What works for me
A single root e.g.
C:\Noise
A folder per major genre
C:\Noise\Classical
C:\Noise\Pop
etc.
Most of the time one can have multiple libraries but then one has to switch between them. Using this simple folder structure I can easily filter on "\Classical\" , "\Pop\", etc.
Occasionally a track might be missing. Most of the time due to tagging errors. That is why I have a folder per album and inside all the tracks belonging to this album.
Tracks are prefixed with the track number in 2 digits to have them sorted correctly by the filesystem.
You could take a look at Dan Gravell's blog on blisshq.com. He also has a free ebook on 'music library management' etc.
audio_tony
Addicted to Fun and Learning
This makes little sense, as if the files are tagged correctly, the streamer will show the various genres etc. without need a directory structure such as this.
I just have a flat directory structure which looks like this: (also on Linux - no spaces in any names as I do a lot of management via SSH and it's easier than having to put quotes when renaming files etc.)
I use MPD and Logitech Media server as the back end.
I usually re-name, tag and organized my FLACs using MP3Tag and the following templates (slightly edited for clarity)...
Single Artist: $validate(D:\Music\%albumartist%\%album%\%albumartist% - %album% [- CD$num(%discnumber%,2) ]- $num(%track%,2) - %title%,-)
Compilation: $validate(D:\Music\%albumartist%\%album%\%album% [- CD$num(%discnumber%,2) ]- $num(%track%,2) - %artist% - %title%,-)
I don't have a lot of classical music, so the templates above cover 99% of my stuff.
The templates only insert a disc number in the file name if it exists in the tags and then forces the track (and disc) number to 2 digits, with a leading zero if required, for correct directory listing order.
Single Artist: $validate(D:\Music\%albumartist%\%album%\%albumartist% - %album% [- CD$num(%discnumber%,2) ]- $num(%track%,2) - %title%,-)
Compilation: $validate(D:\Music\%albumartist%\%album%\%album% [- CD$num(%discnumber%,2) ]- $num(%track%,2) - %artist% - %title%,-)
I don't have a lot of classical music, so the templates above cover 99% of my stuff.
The templates only insert a disc number in the file name if it exists in the tags and then forces the track (and disc) number to 2 digits, with a leading zero if required, for correct directory listing order.
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This, and I very much like that you've removed non alphanumeric characters such as the apostrophe from your file and directory names.
And for sanity's sake, I remove "A" or "The" preceding a band's name!
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If your streamer can read it, I don't see why not.
I do the same, except I don't use genre, as I find genre largely meaningless. However, I use 'filetype' instead which means I can filter or simply not serve certain filetypes to certain streamers if I so desire. E.g.: Music/flac/D/David Torn/1987 - Cloud About Mercury/2 The Mercury Grid.flac
For those who think it is unnecessary to organize your filesystem in this way because the streamer will find the right track anyway if the tags are correct, then yes that is true. However, if you use an automated tagging system like the excellent bliss then the file structure can be a direct reflection of the tagging. So it's easy to spot if something is tagged wrong as the file/track will be named wrong in the filesystem and will be relatively easy to spot.
Not all music players use tags... some use a file directory explorer type interface.
So this structure allows the music files to be used in both ways. And some peoples preferred player is of a file directory explorer type. Or maybe people use both explorer and meta data based browsing depending on playback device.
And maybe some of these people are me.
Also not all music players are streamers either ...some just play local files cause maybe not everyone streams.
There is NO penalty in having your files logically arranged unless your are just a lazy bugger.
Under your logic, I might as well just shove my 60,000 flac files under one directory and let the magic of metadata do its thing....assuming I dont use a file directory explorer type interface.
Roon, which according to some people is the best thing since adult diapers, recently introduced a file explorer drill down option (after it being on the needed features list for years)... which shows that there is some demand for this type of browsing (but their implementation is crappy compared to others).
Peter
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I have had this "argument" with others but logically, for me, I start at genre.
It makes no sense to me to have Abba, AC/DC and Anthrax (not that I have any of that music) listed side by side. Three totally different genres. Thats not how my brain works... if you get my drift.
Now my use case might be relatively unique.... 49.5% of my music is Blues and 49.5% is Jazz with the other 1% being Rock so its easy for me to think "Buddy Guy=Blues".
Sure if you had your collection tagged under 50 or 100 genres then some other hierarchy might make more sense for others.
But in that case I would start at broad genre descriptors at the top (Rock- Hard, Rock - Soft, Rock - Metal etc)... its still gotta be tagged at the highest level by genre... I cant escape the way my brain works.
Peter
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I do mine like this on linux. There is no need for categories with modern programs.
/multimedia
/music
/artist
/album name
/multimedia
/music
/artist
/album name
audio_tony
Addicted to Fun and Learning
When I'm on Windows and playing music locally, I frequently use the 1by1 player (https://mpesch3.de/1by1.html) which has an explorer type interface.
So what I see is all my music, artists from A-Z and the corresponding album name. What could be simpler than that?
I'm not on a Windows machine at the moment, however this is what is looks like in the Linux file manager.
Seems easy enough to find for me...
Opening the 38 special folder simply shows all the tracks. Seems easy enough?
And in my custom interface to MPD looks like this in a web browser.
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- Thread Starter
- #15
Is it possible to filter out all the albums of the year 2010, especially in mobile apps with your configuration?
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