When you guys organize your mp3, cds, or albums, do you put side projects near the band that they are most known for?

Example: Do you throw Paul McCartney next to the Beatles? Foo Fighters next to Nirvana? Rhett Miller next to Old 97s? An Ian Astbury solo disc next to The Cult? etc.

I sometimes forget about the little side albums (getting lost in my mp3 folder structures) unless I see them with the main band's catalog.

I file all my CDs by their drummers, i.e. the Beatles I'll put under S for Starr, Foo Fighters under H for Hawkins, but I have trouble when it comes to the earlier Allman Brothers.

Does that help?

Yes. A great deal. THX

No. Alphabetical all the way for me.

When I had the time to do my filing, it was alphabetical by artist and then, chronological by release.
So: The Beatles under "B" and George Harrison under "H".

This.

Same for me.

yeah for digital thats really a no brainer, if you use any kind of program like itunes or mediamonkey

for vinyl/cds i think its whatever helps you remember where things are

i can see where a question like this develops since a lot of record stores (oh wait, people don't go to those) file side projects with the main band. of course, then an issue emerges when the side project becomes really popular or it's a supergroup with members from multiple bands.

but to actually answer the question, no. i don't tend to forget about the side albums either.

This seems like a recipe for chaos. McCartney next to the Beatles means that Wings would be next to McCartney, which means Denny Laine would also be next to Wings, and Moody Blues next to Denny Laine, and in between Wings and Moody Blues you might have Thunderclap Newman to include Jimmy McCulloch, which would mean Pete Townshend could draw into it... and that's just for one member of the Beatles.

Ultimately, it'd just be easier and make more sense to throw your CDs in the air and file them randomly as you pick them up.

on a semi-related note, i just sent my macbook off to get a new logic board and forgot to back up my itunes files.

i may have just lost ~35 days worth of music...

:/


Alphabetical, but for solo artists by first name initial...just easier for me.

This except I separate by the following genres first: Rock, Country, Blues & Old Timey stuff, Soul & Funk, Rap/Hip Hop, Jazz, Reggae, Brazilian, Other World Music.

Only exceptions I can think of that is Single artist soundtracks (eg those Brion Soundtracks go under Brion not by the Movie name).

i'll never understand the rationale for this. i will always know that S comes after R. but i might not always remember where manu chao is.

Seriously? Where would Manu Chao belong other than "Other World Music.?" The only time I ever forget where I filed something is when I can't decide whether an artist is country rock and belongs under rock or is country and belongs under country. So worst case scenario, I end up looking in two sections before I find something which means it takes me an additional 10 seconds or so to find it.

Compare that to knowing you're in the mood to hear Reggae or Country and being able to thumb through everything you own in those genres instead of having to spend a lot of time thinking about the lesser played artists.

Physical collection my organization is something along the lines of "important shit in this box" and everything else jumbled.

iTunes-wise, it is just by artist--no fancy trickery. I used to try and organize it by artist last name (since when I think of Tom Waits I'd rather look under W than T), but not only did Waits, Tom look ugly on my iPod, but then it doesn't scrobble right to last.fm. So I've nixed that idea...

Real world: Pretty much straight up alphabetical by artist, with the few idiosyncratic cases, such as PJ Harvey (under P.) Soundtracks and Various Artists are in their own section.
Digital: raw files are sorted as above, but i usually have the winamp library sorted by release date.

I have a bunch of one offs and side projects from people from the Cult that I always seem to forget about unless they are with the Cult discs...

Coloursound - Billy Duffy and Mike Peters
Ian Astbury - Spirit Light Speed (Solo)
Circus Diablo - Billy Duffy and Billy Morrison
Holy Barbarians - Ian Astbury and a couple guys from the Cult s/t album

Forgetting about those might not be terrible