You’re hard-pressed to find someone these days without a digital music library of some sort. Most of you out there probably have more songs than you know what to do with.
It’s a good bet you feel overwhelmed by the size of your music library. You don’t know where to even start to get it in order. You’re confused and scattered. Well, that’s okay.
If you want to learn how to manage your digital music library whether big or small, read below.
Think About It
Before you do anything you have to come up with a plan. Map out how you want to set up your library. Write some suggestions down of what best suits you.
Think of your favorite bands or artists and put them in the fav’s category. Start from the top and work your way down. Or start with the current year and work your way back.
Whatever place you want to start is fine. As long as there’s some form of structure that makes sense to you.
Arrange the Folders
Now it’s time to dig into your library and start creating folders. I recommend starting with your favorite artists.
You should also add the release date. This will come in handy in the long run. Plus, you can win trivia contests with your friends too.
Make one folder for all of them. Then, make sub-folders. This is what you call digital music management at its finest. Here are some ways to do it.
Here’s how it will look when labeled:
Artist – Release – Tracks – Artwork
Lossless vs. MP3
It’s a good bet you have both lossless and MP3 or lossy tracks in your digital music collections. If you do have both you should separate them into different folders.
You may have to split up artists and albums. True music lovers tend to only want to listen to lossless files. So, if you separate them from MP3s you can instruct your media players to only play one or the other.
Here’s how this layout will look:
Music – Lossless – Artist – Release – Tracks – Artwork
Music – MP3 – Artist – Release – Tracks – Artwork
What Is De-Duplication of Digital Music?
You most likely have duplicates of songs in your digital music library. The best way to manage this is using a de-duplication app. There are several on the market. Apps such as Dupe Alert or Cloudingo will suffice.
Relabel and Update
You probably have music that is mislabeled or unnamed. You should go through, decipher those and properly name them. You should also update your metatags.
Check out MP3Tag or MusicaBrainze Picard. They’re both free and pretty simple to use.
You’re the Maestro
You are ready to finally put your digital music library anxiety behind you. No more confusion. No more scatterbrained scrolling through your music library.
You have a cheat sheet to help you with what seems like a large, tedious task. However, take the time to do it and you’ll be ecstatic that you did. Check out our Life Hacks blog for more amazing tips.