[Uncle Erik]

I don't have a server, but I've got about 1,000 CDs, SACDs, DVD-As, and LPs. Sometimes I'll grab what I'm in the mood for and sometimes I'll hunt until
I find something I haven't listened to for a long time.

I try to mix things up so I don't burn out on anything. Even favorites get put away for a bit so I don't get sick of them.

 

[limpidglitch]

I keep my music organized alphabetically after album (both iTunes and iPod), and that's how I listen to it. Just pick a random letter and listen to the album that best fits my current mood.
~15,000 songs at the moment.

 

[swoon]

I have ~2,500 CDs, ~500 records ~400 7inch and 500GB of mp3s (not duplicated). I can't figure out how to best merge the two together, because I really don't like digital music files at all, and find iTunes, foobar et al very hard to model my typical CD listening behavior with.

i also wish i could pay someone to convert all my music to mp3, i know i could keep it up after the bulk of it it's done, but i can't sit down and make myself do the act.

 

[Young Spade]

I'll convert your stuff for you; might take a little time but I could do it

 

[dan1son]

I have about 14k songs, all albums. I tend to pick an artist, pick an album, and listen (all listens are scrobbled to last.fm). If I can't find something I use last.fm to tell me what to listen to next.

I also use a feature in songbird that'll select "similar" music from what I was listening to if I enjoyed an artist and want something like it.

Otherwise I scan through the 600 or so artists until a name stick outs.

 

[joomongj]

about 13k songs atm...400gb mostly flac. Some 320kbps. Trying to convert 320's into lossless but some songs are harder to find over others.

 

[Sproles]

I currently have 12,400 songs in my iTunes (just over 100gig) and about 1000 of those are audio book tracks - so we'll say 11,000 song titles.

I have systematically gone through most all of my songs and RATED them. I think rating songs and placing them all in appropriate genres is the key to long term music library enjoyment.

Here are a few of the things that I do to process through the vast library challenge:

Create a playlist (assuming you have the ability in your library management system) that has a GENRE of your choice and has NO RATING. Then, on a roadtrip or long commute or wainting in an airport, etc - process through the unrated playlist. You don't have to listen to the whole song, you'll know fairly quickly if you like the song or not.

Here is my rating process: (remembering that this is done all within the genre. i.e. - my CLASSIC ROCK genre has it's favs and those are probably more desirable than my favs in the DANCE genre.)
1 STAR: there is something wrong with the song - bad rip, poor quality, etc
2 STAR: could care less if I hear this song again, I would not choose to find and listen to this sing on any given day
3 STAR: don't mind the song, pretty good and probably would not skip it if it popped into my playlist rotation
4 STAR: this is one of the tops, will often seek it out and play it and look forward to it popping into my playlist
5 STAR: all time favorite! Will (under normal circumstances) never balk at this song playing.

These steps are critical if you really want to hear more than the top 50-100 songs in your library. Then, you can use your simple logic statements (within iTunes) to create some great playlists.

Good luck!
Sproles

 

[Young Spade]

^That's what I used to do a long time ago when using iTunes. I would rate songs depending on how much liked them. The problem was (for me anyway), that I would only listen to the 5 star songs lol. Now it's an all-or-nothing approach here; if I don't love it, I delete it.

I guess that's why my library isn't that big yet; It's steady growing though; I hope the Final Fantasy XIII soundtrack is good (which I know it will be).

 

[gorb]

I listen to whatever. I try to listen to new things from time to time as well, but there's still plenty in my library I haven't gotten to yet.

 

[eucariote]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Young Spade /img/forum/go_quote.gif Now it's an all-or-nothing approach here; if I don't love it, I delete it.

Me too

I've ripped about 1,300 CD's organized in folders by artist and just listen to whatever album I'm in the mood for.

 

[Deedsy]

Personally, Ive got about 400 albums ripped to FLAC and another 200 in 320 CBR; usually i just seek out a specific album or artist im in the mood for and go from there. Ive made some playlists that are mood defining so those are good sometimes. I do admittedly, pick stuff at random from time to time just to see where the music is going to take me. So i guess i listen to it all in a lot of ways.

I think its less important to think sometimes and just listen.

 

[GreyArea]

I have a library of around 12000 tunes. I have bought all of my favourite albums on CD so they're getting slowly re-burned to FLAC. There are some albums I'll have to re-buy on CD because they were bought on iTunes and aren't good enough quality. There's a lot of Vinyl I can't be bothered to rip so I've bought the CD.

I tend to listen to whole albums start to finish. I prefer listening to albums through than listening to individual tracks in a playlist. I think you get a better feel for the music if you're listening to the same artist in blocks. I suppose my music collection and the albums I listen to regularly span a wide variety of genres so this affects my style of browsing.
Also, I suppose I've never changed my music browsing style to reflect the form of my music collection (mostly digital now). I listen to my digital collection like I used to listen to my CD and Vinyl collection. I'll keep picking out albums that I love but I enjoy the odd album shuffle to bring up the dregs.

 

[Waterfalls]

After being introduced to the idea of prog years back, I've grown a habit of listening from the start of an album to the end. Generally I listen to a bit of stuff I've grown fond of in combination with newly acquired albums and once a few of those new albums grow onto me, I shift to other things. I used to listen by playlists back in my early high school days, but now I really enjoy listening to works of one artist or hear the transitions within an album.

My library isn't huge, just peaking a bit over 10k, or should be around there, I haven't organized a bunch yet due to college work.

 

[fatcat28037]

According to Music Collector, my music DB software, I have 837 albums, 994 discs, 12,826 tracks for a total of 858 hours (35 days, 18 hrs) of music.

For those of you with a CD collection, Music Collector is a great DB package, and with the last release you're now able to link music files to the album description.
http://www.collectorz.com/music/

 

[Prog Rock Man]

I found with itunes I was more likely to listen to my whole collection and not concentrate on new buys and long term favourites. That gave me more reason to listen.

Now with Spotify I have access to a massive world of music. I constantly explore new bands. If I like them I will put one track into my various genre playlists so I can easily access them again. I now have even more reason to listen that with itunes.