Is your music in a jumble? Need help sorting it out? Look no further. I am going to give you a few ways to sort out that jumble of files and CDs. You have to make a mental note though, that each step will vary if you have a different amount of songs. An example of that would be for every hundred songs or so, there will be just a bit more work involved. With more work, more satisfaction emerges, you will always be able to find all of your MP3/MIDI files whenever you want, and you will be able to do so quicker and more efficiently than before. Its really that easy, no joke!
Using CD Roms
This is one of the most simple ways, but the most time consuming and money burning ways. You are going to need plenty of CDs and PLENTY of free time if your collection is big. Each CD takes a while to burn, depending on what program you are using. Take all your music and burn it to CDs with iTunes or Nero CD Burning, I prefer iTunes, but anything works. Once all of your music is on many CDs, you need to get out several pieces of paper or a notebook. Label each CD as 1,2,3, etc. Then, start making a list of what songs are on each CD. The list should look a little bit like this...
CD 1 - Title of CD (If you want one)
- Song 1
- Song 2
- Song 3
- Song 4
- etc...
Make sure to put the songs in the order that they appear on the CD. If you want even more ability to find exactly what song you want, put each song on your CDs in alphabetical order so you can find what song you want, faster. Now you have to find a place to put all these. Get a bin or a box, and start putting them in by order 1,2,3 etc. Now, with the list and the numbers, when you want to listen to a certain song, you just have to find the CD. As a side-note, you can buy CDs to burn for pretty cheap at most electronic stores such as CompUSA or Frys Electronics (My personal favorite, and will always be so).
Folders in your computer
This is by far the easiest and quickest way. The only downside, is that it may be hard to find each song later. First, upload all your music to your computer. Make a folder where you are going to put them all. In that folder, make Subfolders called Rock, Blues, Classical, etc. In the Subfolders, make subSUBfolders where you will hold your songs. Name these for what songs you will be putting in them (AC/DC, Beethoven, Dance Mix, etc.). Take all the songs you uploaded to your computer and put them in the corresponding folders. There you have it! You can now open them with a music playing program and listen away. It should look a bit like this....
- My Music
- Rock
- AC/DC
- Back in Black (Album name is optional, only if you have multiple albums)
- Song 1
- Song 2
Storing on an iPod
You are able to store songs on an iPod, and then whenever you want to use those songs, just plug it into your computer and you can refresh it and reupload more songs. You can go over to a friends house, jack it into their computer, and you have all of their songs.
Storing on a website
I know its a bit odd, but you are able to upload your music to certain websites for storage. It is a great tool for when you need to free up room on your computer, or you are moving from house to house and you are afraid of losing your precious CDs. There are many sites that will take your files. One of the best ones that offers 25 gigabytes of free space (Enough to hold at least 5000 songs), is Mediamax. Here, you can store as much as you want, for however long you want.
There are many ways to store and catalog a collection of your favorite songs, and these are the best there are!
