How do you Organize Your Collection?
RAJ
tenacious local 7,782 Posts
2015 version.
For years it was genre / alphabetical.... but since I moved two years a go, shit's been haywire and I can't find certain things (that on top of the weed smoking and 20 years of records coming in and out of my life).
I'm thinking of just going straight alphabetical... but I don't want 12"s in the mix. Maybe LP > alphabetical .... 12" > alphabetical.
Let's get some record talk up in this bitch.
For years it was genre / alphabetical.... but since I moved two years a go, shit's been haywire and I can't find certain things (that on top of the weed smoking and 20 years of records coming in and out of my life).
I'm thinking of just going straight alphabetical... but I don't want 12"s in the mix. Maybe LP > alphabetical .... 12" > alphabetical.
Let's get some record talk up in this bitch.
Comments
2. genre
2. 45's
All random beyond that.
2- artist by qty of pieces
3 - label
dont know how i came up with that system though.
probably because i like to see those big runs of impulse and a&m and chess/cadet labels all together.
I organize by genre. I place associated artists together (e.g., Rotary Connection is placed behind the Minnie Riperton LPs, same with Junie Morrision and the Ohio Players). I have the following scheme to organizing my records:
1. Jazz is organized by instrument. The sections are broken down as follows: Sax/other woodwinds, trumpet/trombone, piano traditional, piano progressive, organ, guitar, bass/strings, vibes, drums/percussion, jazz groups, jazz vocalists.
2. Soul and R&B are broken down as well:
-Male vocalists ('My favorites' like Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, etc.).
-Male vocalists ('Traditional soul' such as David Porter, Wilson Pickett, etc.).
-Male vocalists ('R&B' like Leroy Hutson, DJ Rogers, Clifford Coulter, etc.).
-Female vocalists/groups ('Traditional soul' such as Aretha Franklin, Betty Everett, Fontella Bass, Honey Cone, The Patterson Singers).
-Female vocalists/groups ('R&B' such as Evelyn 'Champagne' King, Deniece Williams, The Emotions).
-Male groups ('My Favorites' such as Parliament/Funkadelic, The Ohio Players, War, etc.)
-Male groups ('Traditional soul' like The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Originals, etc.).
-Male groups ('R&B' such as Pleasure, One Way, Zapp, etc.).
3. Disco LPs/12"s.
4. Dance/boogie LPs/12"s (e.g., Twilight 22, Derrick, etc.).
5. Ethnic music (Latin, reggae, Italian, Celtic, etc.).
6. Folk.
7. 60's classic rock (e.g., Beatles, Rolling Stones etc.)
8. Heavy metal (e.g., Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Colosseum, etc.).
9. Pop rock (e.g., Hall & Oates, Genesis, etc.)
10. Punk rock/nu wave (e.g., The Clash, Devo, The B-52s, and some pop-ish groups with nu wave elements like Style Council).
11. Progressive rock (e.g., Archie Whitewater, Nektar).
12. Psychedelic Rock (e.g., Little Boy Blues, Colours).
13. Breaks (including OGs and compilation joints).
14. Hip-hop/electro rap.
15. Soundtracks:
-Blaxploitation
-Drama/Thrillers
-Science Fiction/Adventure
-Musicals
-Comedies
-Imports
16. Blues (thanks for the cue, PCMR, forgot this category).
17. Children's records.
18. Classical.
19. Gospel.
20. Compilations.
21. 45's.
I do not have the LPs alphabetized as I am too lazy to do so.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
by genre than by artist and associations differ from genre
Soul is separate from funk
it has male female and group separate then placed in order of overall musical importance
Donny,Al,Marvin,Curtis,Otis first then the others
Blues and gospel are separated by style and era
African, indian and reggae are mostly by artist
Latin is by artist but labels tend to gravitate from one another
Brazilian is like soul but i keep the more psych heavy stuff separate from the more bossa classic
Jazz breaks down as follows
Miles,Coltrane,Blakey, than other important acts by instrument (vibes,horns,piano,drum lead)
Latin Jazz
Jazz funk
Hip hop : 80/90s+ is separate, then by artist
My classical is by composer and instrument
Quebec
Rock is divided in psych, garage, classic crust, soft folk
Boogie,New wave/80s/Disco in the same vascinity
OST
ethnic
Spoken word
I have a separate sample library by genre
organisation relies on quantity of a certain kind per genre
so many coltrane releases he deserves his own section
if you dont have that many african records you wont divide by country if you are frank on the other hand
interested to see how it is for others
great thread
LPs/12"s/10"s/7"s
Then split into hip hop/non hip hop, then alphabetical by artist. Still serves me well enough.
Expedit:
Top Row = hip hop albums
Next row down: disco/balearic/House 12"s.
Middle row: hip hop albums albums
Next row down:compilation albums/disco, Balearic, House albums. Hip Hop 12"s.
Bottom: breaks, beats, funk, soul, jazz, rock albums.
Only the hip hop albums are sorted alphabetically.
Various records in unsorted boxes but all the stuff I need on a go to basis is in the Expedit.
Current spins (usually about 50 records) are kept next to the deck.
LPs are organized by genres.
Favourite artists, of which I own multiple LPs (e.g. Roy Ayers, Kraftwerk, Stevie), are grouped together and given a special shelf.
Then it goes:
• Soul/Funk/Disco
• Jazz/Latin
• New Wave/Synth Pop
• Yacht Rock/AOR
• General Rock
• Oddities/New Age/Library
• Compilations
• Modern Music (1995-Now)
• Hip Hop
12 inch singles live in crates and arranged in the following ways:
Disco/Boogie/New Wave/Italo/Electro/Synth Pop/Balearic/Pop there are thrown in together and organized by year.
• 1975-1979
• 1980-1981
• 1982
• 1983
• 1984
• 1985-1989
Then there are crates for
• Golden Era House
• Modern House
• Future Funk/NuDisco
• Broken Beats /NuJazz etc
• Hip Hop 1979-86
• Hip Hop 1987-Now
• Re-Edits
45s are split between
• Soul/Funk/Boogie/Disco
• Rock/Pop/New Wave
the bob thiele wing:
• Stuff I step over.
• Stuff I've been meaning to donate for the past few years.
• Stuff I played at that one all-vinyl gig I did 3 years ago.
etc...
first thing I really need to do is get rid of these fuckin milk crates and build a huge shelf to hold it ALL, then get busy in a mad organized fashion...
- Jazz
- Funk / Soul
- Brazil
- Latin
- Rock / Psych / Prog
- Records with breaks or samples I still haven't been able to purge
- Hip Hop by decade 80's (including disco-rap), 90's, post 2000
- R&B (mostly 90's: Mary J, SWV, Erykah, etc...)
- Disco / Disco-Funk / Modern Soul by year pre-1975, 1975, ..., 1979 then merges with the next section (below)
- Boogie / Electro-Funk / Electro / Freestyle / 80's R&B all together by year 1980, 1981, ..., 1986, 1987 and beyond (some modern boogie but also merges with 80's garage house below)
- House by decade 80's (garage, some acid, some detroit techno), 90's, post 2000
45's:
- Funk / Soul / R&B
- Boogie / Electro / Disco-Rap
- Disco / Modern Soul
- Miscellaneous (French & Quebec, Reggae/Dub, Brazil, Latin, Rock, Oddball)
All of my albums are arranged alphabetically in a few sections:
12" singles
rap LPs
Everything else..
I have a few small sections of things I like to keep together, but are small enough to group without alphabetizing. New Orleans bounce, gogo, soundtracks, and libraries
Word Stacks, that's me since the beginning of time too. It's the most intuitive way and I find and it makes the collection flow. With the Jazz though I def put the artist in chronological order too... you can't have Maiden Voyage rubbing shoulders with Mwandishi. I keep the peeps that had low output together at the end of each given instrument section. Definitely Jazz is an easy file. This system make you appreciate how many Sax frontmen there were... I break with this system sometimes and have a section for Eastblock Jazz, and some other euro stuff don't know why. Library is all together irrespective of genre. Funk/ Soul is definitely more fluid, but it works alot like your set up as well. Though there' a geographical South North East West thing going on there, and more of a timeline approach because there's alot of low output artists. Brazillian is like PCMR. If it's Brazillian Jazz it's in the Brazil jazz section. Same with there soul/funk. Artists that share an affinity are grouped together. Brazil vocalists are separated m/f, don't really know why... maybe because fem Brazil vocalists are out of this world. Latin is geographical and morphs out of my jazz percussion section. Prog is a tricky ... it's geographical and by artist I guess. I think the only records I really sort by label are all the breakbeats from bitd. All the other genres sort themselves out by artist I think.
I've never been the type to pull one specific record at a time. More often, I'm in the mood for a particular genre or mood, and will pull a bunch of records at one time. So it's more important for me to be able to grab a bunch of the same type of stuff to "dig" through. But the ultimate frustration is not being able to find a record that you know you own, so in theory I agree with you. In practice though, I'm more sloppy and lazy.
My roommate and I have 25 expedit cubes, one cabinet that holds about 200 records, and three milk crates that are storing our records. It's roughly split 60/40 - he has a bit more rock and a lot more punk than I do.
I have mine in the following sections:
Hip Hop Albums
Hip Hop 12"s
Funk/Soul
Rock
Jazz
Soundtrack/Spoken/Sample-Source
Children's
Battle/Scratch records
The Good Shit ---- one cube that is basically my all time favourite records.
My roommate and I also have a crate each near the turntable for "Now Listening" - stuff that's in heavy rotation or new. None of my sections are alphabetized, but I've been meaning to do it.
LPs alphabetically by artist within a few broad genres:
Funk/Soul/Jazz
Rock/Pop
Hip-hop/Breaks/scratch-battle
Blues/Country/Folk
Soundtracks
Children's records
Christmas
Misc.
Second filter is genre.
Third filter is alpha by artist's first name.
I purge often enough to keep my collection manageable. I try to only buy records I truly love and will listen to. Much harder to do than it sounds, as you know.
LPs A-Z
There's always the dread of having to shuffle a whole heap of stuff around to accommodate something in a physically packed-solid section. I guess this is where the random piles start out.
You only need three sections:
Records That DB Cooper Can Dance To
This contains a full run of Depeche Mode releases, a couple of Tears For Fears 12s and a beaten promo copy of 'I Ran' 45 by Flock of Seagulls.
Records That White People Think They Can Dance To
File all jazz, funk and soul here.
Norwegian Death Metal
Ideally this would be empty, but is a good place to stash all those thrift scores that you will never be bothered to spin, ever.
B/w sold all mine, barring a batch of libs and blaxplos
you still on just that one book case collection?
it's so easy when you have it whittled down to 500-800lp's
once you got 5k + it really s a challenge
my biggest issue is the incoming collections,space for them and actually selling the shit/keeping what i want.
i don't keep as much anymore and have been acquiring more and more as time goes on,
easier bought than sold
i guess i am almost approaching hoarder at this point
Records that I like to put on when other people come over - these live under the living room stereo for quick grabbing.
Jazz
Latin
French
Reggae
Hard rock / Punk / Metal
Hip-Hop
Folk
Soul/Funk
Indie
60's rock
70's rock
Psych
Misc - Classical, Opera, un-genre-able
10"
stacks and boxes of edited but unsorted 45s
Bins of records that are cleaned, priced, and ready for sale.
Bin of records that are currently on discogs.
Hey Asstro,
Genre-based organizing helps me because I tend to select records to listen to based upon my mood. So, it's quick and easy to go to a particular section that has the type of music that suits my mood. I'm well over the 10K mark, so wading through a non-category based system would take forever. Now, the problem has become re-filing stacks of stuff once I listen to them (or compile them to make mixes). Hell, I have a collection of records unfiled on the floor as we speak! Oh well, one day...
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Yeah, the hard-to-define stuff is what resulted in my hip hop/non-hip hop split. It was the only genre split that didn't raise problems, but I need some sort of genre split to make the whole mess more manageable.
RAIN DOWN IN AFRICA BRO. I WILL SERVE YOU ON TEH DANCEFLOOR.
Originally, I separated them for DJ purposes. Now I just remember what format I have a track on and I can grab it easily.