So, how do you organise your CDs?

OCD? Who, me?

No two CDs by the same artist are next to each other.
No two CDs of the same genre are next to each other.

I consider my music collection "organized" when they're all stacked next to each other in one place, rather than a variety of piles in the backseat of the car, on my desk at work, etc. I gave up trying to keep them alphabetized once my son could reach the "U-Z" section.

With the utmost respect, this method raises questions about why you buy CD's in the first place....for simpy listening enjoyment or to enhance some sort've reputation/impression/credibility, as if you organize them this way, it is clearly for OTHERS to see and remark: "Ooooh...how eclectic you are! You've got discs by Mercyful Fate *AND* the Dixie Chicks *AND* MC Solaar! Oooooh!!!"

Oh, and if it matters, mix-tapes (and mix-discs) deserve their own category -- unless of course you compile a mix of, say, a musical trip around the Pacific Rim, in which case you'd obviously place it in the appropriate Asian or Polynesian subgroup. ¥

...wish i could afford to buy additional space to organise some stuff in (--alphabetically, yes -- someday, maybe)

then again, it's always kinda GREATLY comfortin' to think of John Peel -- wadda amount he must have spent on BUILDING new space to fit his records in!

Actually, Alex, mine are organized exactly the same way. It has nothing to do with "enhancement". If your discs are rigidly organized by year of release/artist/title/etc., and you have a substantial amount of discs, it is very easy to get caught in listening ruts--particularly since you can go directly to the disc you have in mind whenever you want. If your collection is organized solely by chaos, you are forced to scan through your collection constantly, evaluate what you have and whether it belongs there, and find great discs you haven't listened to in a while and maybe even forgot you had.

Random is actually the best method of organization for the serious appreciator of music. In fact, it seems more like reputation enhancement to set up your collection so people look at it and say "OMG! You have every obscure b-side/ep by *insert obscure band or Killing Joke*, you are Soooo cool!" ;]

-- Classical: Chronologically by birth year of composer (main composer, according to me, if several).

-- Pop: Singles/EPs separate from albums.
-- Within each of these: Alphabetically by artist, chronologically (approx. when necessary) by release date.

-- Stuff That Doesn't Fit In: In a corner by itself.

The above applies for CDs and vinyl separately.

Exceptions do occur, though -- the three Neubauten CDs "Tabula Rasa" (album), "Interim" (EP) and "Malediction" (EP), for instance, need to be next to each other.

I've got about 200 arranged in a colour spectrum, then another 150 on the white shelf, about 100 in black (what this white/black ratio tells you about my music taste I don't know) and another 150 or so in greys and textures of no overall discernable colour.

And it all looks grand. I very rarely have truble finding the CD I want, with only the occasional CD that foxes me.

My vinyl however, is anally alphabetical, I find it impossible to glance through the tiny spines, even when they're not creased and ripped to be almost white.

I suppose what you imagined might make sense in the context of people-who-occasionally-have-visitors-over-who-can-look-at-their-CDs. As it is in my household, the only people who ever see my CD collection are myself and my son (I'm not very popular and don't have very many friends).

"Random is actually the best method of organization for the serious appreciator of music."

Wrong, Wrong and thrice verily wrong. I have over 2,000 cds, and while they often end up piled around randomly (when I fail to put discs back where I found them after playing them), it become virtually impossible to find anything if they're not organized.

"In fact, it seems more like reputation enhancement to set up your collection so people look at it and say 'OMG! You have every obscure b-side/ep by *insert obscure band or Killing Joke*, you are Soooo cool!'"

To go out of your way to set them up in a seemingly random placement strives to achieve that agenda more than simply organizing them alphabetically or by genre.

What if you just put them on the rack wherever there is an empty hole? I submit that the volume of discs is a factor to be considered. I generally have around 300-400 at a time not counting mixes (which I do keep together); I thin my collection periodically. It takes a little longer to find things, true, but I feel the spontaneity is worth it, although my friends generally think I'm just lazy.

LPs are alphabetically, with splits at the end again. Same with seven inches and ten inches.

Mix tapes are strewn about haphazardly.

That's not what Nick originally said. He said:

"Specifically Intentionally Random - No two CDs by the same artist are next to each other. - No two CDs of the same genre are next to each other."

I suggest that merely putting cd's onto a rack wherever there's an empty space is simply NO system of organization whatsoever.

i use straight alphabetical though. i wish record shops did too instead of this genre by genre nonsense - after all as ice-t so memorably said, "music is music"...

THEN

I tried alphabetical, but poor Tom Waits got stuck all the way down by the floor, and I got sick of crouching to get him every day.

NOW

Random (and sexxxy) eclectic chaos, but with two special piles-new stuff I have yet to listen to, and quite new stuff that may still have THEBESTSONGINTHEWORLDEVER on it, and I must pay yet more attention to.

This. Does. Not. Work.

However, I did leave out the most important aspect of my "organization technique". I put the CDs I like the least closer to the bottom, so that when my son goes on a rampage and takes them out of the case one at a time and shoves them through the grates into the ventilation system (again) it doesn't ruin anything I am really intent on listening to...aka The "eh" Shelf.

Mine are stored on the shelf (generally) alphabetically - but I catalog them in a database - which used to be stored sequentially by acq. order - but when I switched to a newer database, it alphabetized them & now I don't have that order anymore (except on the first 1000) ... It's pretty interesting to look back & see what you bought/ when ...

Alphabetically by artist, then chronologically by recording date, except for single-artist comps (release date). Various artist comps follow just after the "Z"'s, using the same logic, substituting label name for artist name.

My non-rock albums are grouped according to my own semi-arbitrary genre or category labels (Stereo Demonstration Records, The "Now" Sound, Music For...).

also have a seperate 'various' sections for all formats

My CDs are alphabetical (chronological within artist). I have seperate sections for reggae, misc. (a subset of that is soundtracks), things I need to get around to listening to, and for some reason Bill Laswell stuff, though some of that is in the regular sections and some isn't--depends on how strongly I assosciate it with him.

My records aren't organized at all and it drives me batty. I can't find a damn thing. I want to break 'em down by genre, but I never get around to it. I once had it broken down to rock, folk, jazz, classical, world, 60s music, modern psych & drone, but I moved them about 4 years ago and havne't gotten around to it since. At that time, though it was pretty easy to find stuff.

As for random, I've got my piles everywhere, which I sift periodically. But, since my daughter was old enough to hold, I'd let her pick a CD (or more recently, record) and that's what we listen to. She pulls out some stuff I haven't listened to in ages (I'm not one who culls) and that works quite well. There was a period of time she picked REM - Out of Time and Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties over and over again. (opposite walls, round the same height).

strict alphabetical makes interesting neighbors anyhow.

Anybody get mad at a friend or significant other for sloppy organization? I'm always fixing my girlfriend's CD racks. She doesn't mind. She's lazy about it and can't ever find stuff because she won't put them back right where they belong.

Also, I spazz when I see CDs out of their cases. You could sit on 'em or something! Dangerous!

Of course now organization is basically pointless. I have at a bare minimum nine hundred of the fuckers staring me in the face, color coded, alphabetical, or otherwise, the best bet is to just grab about five or six at a time and listen away.

So for instance: one set of CD shelves begins with Arabic music, and that begins with Oum Kalthoum, and her CDs begin with a collection of early things (but I have some other Arabic CDs on another CD shelf as well); then we get to my token Persian classical CD; then some North African stuff; then some Greek stuff; then some Afro-Cuban religious music, which I put before Latin music per se, since it's the roots, man; then some of my favorite salsa comps, etc. It's a very Melvil Dewey (sp?) kind of classified approach, but without the nasty political overtones, hopefully.

I guess alphabetical would work, but it seems so cold. It wouldn't reflect my mental model of my CD collection.

Now I've got one huge binder of select cd's that I am not storing at my folk's place (which I said I would never do, I like my inserts/cases but these are so space efficient), a big pile of new and newish stuff, and everything else that I bought with in the last two years sitting on shelves in my closet. Vinyl is sitting mostly randomly in crates w/my new records towards the front and the classic rock and jazz lp's I got from my dad in the back.

I've found that I listen almost entirely to the new pile and the binder, since you know, the closet is on the other side of the room and it's dark in there. I feel bad about it really, maybe I'll get organized when I have some money for storage devices.

I love the color spectrum idea btw, I would do it if my collection was at all display oriented.

2/3 or more of my albums are on the computer, though, the physical media having never been owned or having been sold at some point.

Heh, heh. Same here. In fact the majority of my CDs are blocked off away from little grabbing hands (shelving units hidden behind doors, and big bits of plywood in front of ground level shelves) which makes it hard to rotate stuff and means I have to make a conscious effort to go through the harder-to-reach-stuff pretty regularly.

It also means I end up leaving piles of CDs on any available surface around the flat that's over 5 feet up.

And because there's nowhere I can put a record deck that's unreachable it means I rarely get to listen to my vinyl any more.

I guess i'll have to earmark Boxing day for some CD and vinyl cataloguing and filing.

I'm fascinated by this approach Dave.... does this person ever order music through the internet or by mail order? If so, does he order things in the sequence he *ordered* them in or in the sequence he *received* them in? What if he re-buys something, does this go in order of the date he bought the original item or the date he bought the replacement?

I never lose anything.