How to catalogue one's CD Collection?

Brabo

New member
Dear all,

Can someone please advise me concerning a reliable, user-friendly software program(me) that would enable me to catalogue my 3000+ CD's?

As far as complete (composers) collections are concerned, I can usually find the track I want to play pretty quickly. To go through all my compilations (mainly renaissance Franco-Flemish choral stuff) to look for just one item is frustrating to say the least.

In addition, I keep buying the same (!) CD's, especially when abroad (continental Europe) where the labels may be different from the ones I already have at home. I can conclude, therefore, that my taste is fairly consistent, but my memory is not... Travelling with my "own" catalogue of the works that I already possess would be very useful!

Any suggestions, advice and experiences shared are welcome. Many thanks!

Brabo
 
Last edited:
Krummhorn

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Hi Brabo,

I use Excel extensively at home for many things as well as categorizing my personal music score files.

For CD's, LP's and other pre-recorded media, I use an older version of FileMaker Pro - one can customize their own fields for the database, and once that is done, entry is quite simple. Easy to create reports and printer master lists, too.
 
greatcyber

greatcyber

New member
Geez, there are so many options for this, mostly depending upon your taste. I prefer databases over spreadsheets, so my collection is in an MS Access format. For a printed version, I exported it to MS Word and fed it to the printer.

If you happen to have a Creative sound card, then their Media Source Organizer/Player is a wonderful tool to add tags, titles, mood, etc. You can add your own categories or use default settings. You can import your library folders into Creative's library and you are good to go. I think that several players have this type of ability, such as WinAmp (free).

However, if you do not have a Creative product, you might wish to explore this link:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/information/free/

I believe this might be what you are looking for.

Hope this is helpful.
 

Artemis

New member
Without being more explicit about the purpose of the exercise it is not clear how to answer this request.

If the purpose is merely to produce a handy list of one's music files for occasional consultation, then I would have guessed that a database would be more suitable than a spreadsheet, as with a database it is possible to interrogate it under different headings.

Far more interesting is how to arrange a music collection on a computer system for access by a media player. As noted previously in this thread, there are many possibilities and I should think that most people who have attempted this kind of thing will have their own favourite way of doing it.

In my case I first rip all my CDs and store them as MP3 320 kbit files in my "music" folder in Windows Vista. The main classification is by composer, then a sub-classification by Opus number or Kv number or BWV number etc, depending on the composer. Secondly, by going back into Windows Media Player it picks up all the files by using "add to library" command. I then check and adjust all the tags, and for tagging purposes I find that WMP is better than all the others I have tried. Lastly, I actually play the files using Creative Labs Media Player as I prefer its facilities for sound volume management and noise clean up facilities.
 
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