I have a very small bedroom here at school and I filled my 200 cd spinning tower...I have no idea what to put my cds in next. I thought about shelving unit, but I don't have any free walls...any ideas?

BobaMike

I guess titles that start with numbers would be first...I think that's the standard filing process.

I know, I know, different opinions and tastes...

I sort albums by composer and then by year of the film. That way if I want to listen to a late 60's Goldsmith disc I can pick up the In Like Flint album, which is someplace near The Blue Max and The Sand Pebbles.

If a disc has two scores (such as Capricorn One/Outland), I sort it by the score that I like the most (in this case, Capricorn One).

I put numerical cds above alphabetical ones, and my "sorting" doesn't include compilation albums, song-based soundtracks, or misc. CDs that I have.

Of course, I have over 1400 CDs, so it was tough enough to get it organized by composer - let alone any other way!

But I can't wait to replace it with AI.

Organizational example as follows:
Williams, John
1979 1941
1971 Jane Eyre
1972 Paper Chase/The Poseidon Adventure
1974 Cowboys, The
1975 Eiger Sanction, The
1975 Jaws (25th Anniversary Ed.)
1976 Midway
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind

and so forth...you get the idea.
organization By Year works kind of nicely for prolific composers (or just for composers who have been around for a long time...), and it can allow for purchasing out-of-sequence releases, and re-released editions (e.g., "Jaws: 25th Anniversary Edition"), since the year doesn't really change.

Glitches/Solutions:
1. The Joel McNeely factor - Recent Scottish re-recordings of scores (and the like.) Just go back to original composition date.

2. The Alex North/2001 factor - Jerry Goldsmith's re-recording of an unused score several years after the fact. Go back to film release date.

3. The Legend factor - Unused scores in general. Yeah, it' rare, but sometimes music slips through the cracks, and we get those diamonds in the rough like Bernstein's "Last Man Standing" and Zimmer's "K2"....again, go back to film release date.

Now for organizing and inventoring.. i use a program called "Music Collector" (used to be called Keep It Compact, but they changed their name). They are located at www.collectorz.com
The system holds any number of cd's, and you can list them by:
Composer
Title
or
Genre
then you can SUBlist them by:
(If under composer) Title
and (most importantly to me) year

So if I wanted to check my inventory and wanted to go through cd by cd, I can choose "no folders" and it'll list ALL my cd's (in whichever category I set it up in..soundtracks, rock/pop, classical..etc..) in alph. order.

Or, if I wanted to look at all the composers of music that I own cd's to, I click on "By Artist" and it'll list all the composers. I can then click on any comp. name and it'll list what cd's I have by that composer, in alph. order, I can THEN click on year and it'll list them in the year they were made.

It's a really GREAT program! I fully reccomend it!!

Phheeww.....

Okay, so you all know my list starts with:

"The 13th Warrior" - Goldsmith (Boot)
and ends with
"Younger and Younger" - Zimmer
with 1024 cd's in between!!

Take care, and keep listening..

np FSOL - Dead Cities

Film and TV
Alphabetical by title.
In the case of more than one score on a disc, whichever score comes first.
Film and TV Composers
Alphabetical by name.
Film and TV Collections
Alphabetical by title.
Classical Composers
Alphabetical by name.
Classical Collections
Alphabetical by title.
Pop, Rock and Soul
Alphabetical by name/band.
Jazz
Alphabetical by artist.
Miscellaneous
Here's where pretty much everything else ends up. It's not all that organized, actually. It took me two weeks to alphabetize my film music collection alone (I have a lot of albums).

There's also another small section where I keep old versions of albums that are made obsolete by newer releases only (i.e. both versions of E.T. appear in the main section, but only one version of Planet of the Apes.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kevin:
Mine is sorted by composer and then sub-sorted by title. So if I wanted Williams' score to Always, I would go down the line to Williams, and then find Always (probably) first.

Kevin

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That's how I do mine as well. I do have extra sections for the misc. and various titles, that don't have a particular composer and whatnot. Such as the compilations, song compilations and titles I don't know who composed it. Hey it happens!

I also use several different collection lists as well, for keeping track of my collection. Though, Microsoft Access is the main one I am currently updating. As always, "with me at least" I get tired of keeping the collection one way, for long. So, I will usually change it every few years. I am in the middle of doing so again, actually!

And lastly, my collection starts with, Masamichi Amano's "Giant Robo Volume VII". It also ends with, Richie Zito's "Project A-ko". Both are anime CD'. This is not counting the other compilations and misc. discs. Otherwise the collection ends with an bunch of Yanni discs!