Hello,
I have a small collection that is currently a complete mess because I mostly use id3 tag to browse them instead of relying filesystem path. Right now I want to sort it into a more organized structure and I would like to ask how are you organizing your music collection, especially with compilation album with “Various Artists”.
Hope this is the right place to ask, thank you very much!
album artist/ album/ [disc#-]track# track name
A compilation album will either be under the album artist (think of Greatest Hits compilations or a tribute album of covers like the Encomium and Nativity in Black series) or under a ‘Various Artists’ directory (like movie soundtracks where there isn’t really a singular logical album artist).
I let tag-aware software do the actual directory and file naming for me.
I let iTunes (now Music in Mac) automatically sort folders years ago and this is pretty much how it organizes files. Except for “Various Artists” albums it has a separate Compilations folder. Most tag editors I’ve used besides iTunes/Music have the tag available to tag something a compilation.
For VA comps centered on a particular Album Artist I sometimes just uncheck the compilation tag and instead of Various Artists, I put the main artist the comp deals with in the Album Artist field.
Yeah there’s an ID3 tag for compilation. But I got irritated with tribute albums being put under Compilations instead of under the original artist they’re in tribute to.
Yeah me too, I started putting those type albums under the artist , but movie soundtracks and other comps still get filed as compilations.
And for some bands I’ll include solo albums by members as part of the band discography (by putting the band name as album artist), since I would put them on the shelf that way if they were discs. Unless they have a long established solo career, then I don’t bother.