14-12-2016, 12:38
Alphabetically.
Mostly it's by the name of the artist, and the secondary key is the name of the release. Progressive rock, meat-and-potatoes rock, folk, easy listening, electro-pop... they all get ordered this way. I find that easier than trying to decide exactly what genre something belongs to. The Clash are right next to Judy Collins. Opeth are next to Roy Orbison.
For classical works, it's name of composer. Sometimes there is more than one composer featured on the disc; for example it seems common practice to team up Debussy with Ravel or Faure, but there will normally be one composer whose work is the featured work on the disc, and that determines my ordering.
For soundtracks, it's the name of whatever the music is the soundtrack to. Some musicals or films have music by more than one composer, but I adopt the practice of ordering by name of the show even if the music is all by the one composer. For example, Neil Diamond's soundtrack to Jonathan Livingston Seagull is filed under 'J', but Neil Diamond's album "Tap Root Manuscript" is filed under 'D'.
My CDs are stored in several CD racks, the kind that have a stack of horizontal slot into which one CD fits in each slot, plus a bookcase that houses the rest. There are a number of CDs that come close to the start of the alphabet and hence should go in the racks but which for one reason or other won't fit in racks; they are too thick (especially double CDs) or too thin. Those CDs in just a slim cardboard case could be put in the rack, but they would look rather silly and would be taking up more space than necessary. Hence, items such as The Beach Boys' SMiLE Sessions and The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's package go in the bookcase.along with the stuff from about P to Z, as do the albums by Ned Collette, which are all in simple thin cardboard sleeves rather than cases.
This scheme works pretty well but it's always possible to find pathological cases. Jethro Tull is the name of the band, hence it gets filed under J and not T. That is only because I happen to know that it's the band name and not the name of the artist (Jethro Tull was a real person, but not a musician). Conversely, Elton John is filed under J for John; even though it's a concocted name formed from the first names of two different people, he now uses "John" as though it were his surname. Alice Cooper would present a problem, if i owned any. Originally it was just a band name, but later it became the name officially adopted by the leader. I have also thought that if I owned the album "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" I would have real trouble knowing where to place it. Is it a Gershwin album, or a Brian Wilson album?
None of this matters a great deal if you have your own system that works for you and lets you find what you want with a minimum of searching. It might be an issue, though, if you were running a music store.
Mostly it's by the name of the artist, and the secondary key is the name of the release. Progressive rock, meat-and-potatoes rock, folk, easy listening, electro-pop... they all get ordered this way. I find that easier than trying to decide exactly what genre something belongs to. The Clash are right next to Judy Collins. Opeth are next to Roy Orbison.
For classical works, it's name of composer. Sometimes there is more than one composer featured on the disc; for example it seems common practice to team up Debussy with Ravel or Faure, but there will normally be one composer whose work is the featured work on the disc, and that determines my ordering.
For soundtracks, it's the name of whatever the music is the soundtrack to. Some musicals or films have music by more than one composer, but I adopt the practice of ordering by name of the show even if the music is all by the one composer. For example, Neil Diamond's soundtrack to Jonathan Livingston Seagull is filed under 'J', but Neil Diamond's album "Tap Root Manuscript" is filed under 'D'.
My CDs are stored in several CD racks, the kind that have a stack of horizontal slot into which one CD fits in each slot, plus a bookcase that houses the rest. There are a number of CDs that come close to the start of the alphabet and hence should go in the racks but which for one reason or other won't fit in racks; they are too thick (especially double CDs) or too thin. Those CDs in just a slim cardboard case could be put in the rack, but they would look rather silly and would be taking up more space than necessary. Hence, items such as The Beach Boys' SMiLE Sessions and The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's package go in the bookcase.along with the stuff from about P to Z, as do the albums by Ned Collette, which are all in simple thin cardboard sleeves rather than cases.
This scheme works pretty well but it's always possible to find pathological cases. Jethro Tull is the name of the band, hence it gets filed under J and not T. That is only because I happen to know that it's the band name and not the name of the artist (Jethro Tull was a real person, but not a musician). Conversely, Elton John is filed under J for John; even though it's a concocted name formed from the first names of two different people, he now uses "John" as though it were his surname. Alice Cooper would present a problem, if i owned any. Originally it was just a band name, but later it became the name officially adopted by the leader. I have also thought that if I owned the album "Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin" I would have real trouble knowing where to place it. Is it a Gershwin album, or a Brian Wilson album?
None of this matters a great deal if you have your own system that works for you and lets you find what you want with a minimum of searching. It might be an issue, though, if you were running a music store.
