How do you order your discotheque?
 

This also could be applied to computer files fanatics!

So I read that other thread and marleypumpkin said that "he jumped to the S section" which makes me think he orders his CD collection alphabetically. What about you? Are your discs (or MP3/FLAC/M4A/whatever) just thrown loose in no particular order on your shelves, are you really meticulous, etc?

As for me:

My discotheque is on three shelves: on the shelf on the down, there's all the CDs by the bands that I enjoy the most and from whom I have at least 2 CDs, ordered by bands and chronologically (Sonic Youth, MBV, Mogwai, Godspeed, Liars, Slowdive, Animal Collective, Tortoise, The Fall, Battles, etc, go there). On the middle shelf there's CDs by other bands from whom I have at least 2 CDs (and chronologically as well): there goes TV on the Radio, Radiohead, Boards Of Canada, The Cure, etc. Then finally, the highest shelf contains CDs by bands from whom I only own one disc.
I'm a bit of a maniac, I guess.

On my computers things are simpler, though it used not to be (previously I had at least 6 different mp3 folders): I only have a folder where all the stuff I download (slsk, rapidshare, etc) goes, a folder for Sonic Youth boots and stuff, and a folder for tracks I import from CD on iTunes, which generally is empty as I delete the tracks as soon as I put them on my iPod, which is why I make MP3 of it.

there's hardly any music on my computer, it's all just scattered in few folders.

the cds and vinyls I have are not organized in any particular way. They're on a few shelf and the vinyls are in a closet.
There's not much point in being pedantic about the order of the albums if you only have few hundred of them, which is the case for me.

LPs/12s are alphabetical, then chronological for each artist. CDs are in scattered piles.

i have 2 giant cd/book shelves and all my music is in alphabetical and chronological order. i just did it manually. it was fun too, i made a whole evening of it.

I have absolutely no organizational system for my albums, regardless of media, so they are thrown about helter-skelter on shelves, in my car, etc. I end up forgetting what I own and coming across long-lost items by surprise, which is quite fun sometimes (while also being a massive pain in the ass). I do not recommend this, as things get scratched. I am a lazy fucker.

Alphabetical, separate little slot at the front for new stuff, and some genre separations (but not a ridiculous amount of subgenres).

i have 2000 CDs in different piles dotted around my house

alphabetical and chronological by artist, and the split into broad genres like classical, jazz, rock, spoken

everything i collect is listed in alphabetical order. i used to have all my mp3s in the same order, but i got lazy and now they are just everywhere but in the same folder.

All my LP's/12 inch are alphabetized by artist, then chronoilogical by artist. I used to be more creative, I would organize them by color of the sleeve...blues,orange,dirty white, brilliant white, green, black all them. It was nice when you got to orange because all the impulse records had a great look lined next to each other.

Before I had to pack them away, Artist by random choice or number of discs, chrono within artist. It went: SY, SY Boots, Thurston, MBV, Pixies, VU, JaMC, etc

i have three cd sections
1. avant/jazz/bluss/weird stuff that doesnt fit into any other category-thats alphabetical
2.punk-alphabetical (although all sst cds are together)
3. all the rest-rock blues, post punk, whatever.
section three is organized in a creative way, its organized-geographicly\
in one room is america-california on top shelf, and bottom shelf on the right is bossanova (ie east cost) inside each geographical area its arranged chronologically.
in the other room it starts with the jesus and mary chain (scotland) and ends with the birthday party.

oh there also a classic section wchich is not at all arranged, likewise my lp collection

chronologically by band, but the bands order can change when I re-assest the shelves. Usually SY are first, then there are some "genre zones", luckily I've a great eiedetic memory.

No order, my CDs are a mess. The only thing I have separated are my "precious" ones, rare ones or others that I have specific relationship to.

Chronological order.
Mozart comes first, then Elvis Presley, the Creation, Sonic Youth and so on to Bat For Lashes.
I have too many CDs to see them all.
So the ones I don't listen to often I put at the back, in the same kind of order.
With the discovery of Dimeadozen, I've been thinking about putting every single non official CD apart, in the same order.

Messy and ordered at the same time :D

I mean half of them are in alphabetical order, and the other half is a bit scattered everywhere, as I lack room to store everything properly.

Downloaded MP3s or FLACs are a bit everywhere on my different hard drives / computers, I try to burn everything for saving but I'm lagging behind, the only files that are really ordered are 200 albums I ripped in MP3 from my audio CDs.

Obviously seperation by media is pretty important, but apart from that I have little order to my music collection, CDs are stored horizontally in shallow cardboard boxes, sort of like a not very big or good record shop, tapes I only have about 30 of so they get shoved on a shelf and keep falling down, and records, at 300, form the biggest part of my collection, but still, little order. I've separated 12" singles and E.Ps from LPs, and seeing as few have anything on the spine they're stored with covers facing out in a littrle pull out draw. The rest are stored with spine facing out, I have a little section for classic rock, Dylan, VU, Reed, etc etc but the rest is a wonderful mess where hip hop co exists next to prog.

All my official releases (Vinyl, CD, Cassettes, VHS, other stuff) are sorted in chronological order by band and release year and put on shelves. I also make a lossless copy for every CD to take them anywhere i want without destroying the original (yes, i'm a maniac:D).
For lossless bootlegs, i rename every folder (YYYY MM DD - City, State, Country, Venue - Venue (Source#)) and then i burn em to DVD-R's. I also make CD-R copies of good sounding bootlegs to play them in my car.
After that, i note every bootleg in a PDF document and attach them a Catalog # for an easy search and find, like this:

 

andrei you should definitely help out aaron.