It's lucky that I have to buy all this stuff, 'cos it's not only bookshelves I've run out of - my CD shelves are all full, too. Hundreds of the bloody things I have. (It's a bloody good thing I won't be working at ThoughtWorks' Holborn office - it's just too close to Charing Cross Road for all the great bookshops, Oxford Street and Berwick Street for record shops, and Regent's Street for the Apple Store. I'd be bankrupt in six months.)
I did love Help! I need somebody to sort my CD collection. It's a real problem. I've gone for grouped by artist, generally random otherwise - though I do have shelves specifically for jazz and classical. Err, classical and baroque. But there's a bit more grouping than that - solo artists are sometimes kept with bands that they've been in - Paul Weller with The Jam, Sting with The Police, Roger Waters with Pink Floyd, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with Radiohead, The Raconteurs with The White Stripes. I think you get the idea. ;-)
Naturally, I can never find anything.
And sorting by Genre? That way lies madness. I spent ages fiddling with the genres in iTunes, then just gave up and put 90% of it under Rock/Pop.
Anyway, Recent new acquisitions that I'm enjoying include The Noisettes, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly., Jamie T and Jonny Greenwood's Bodysong. Recent disappointments include The Good, The Bad and The Queen and the new Bloc Party album.
Well, here's how I do it; all my CDs live in boxes in a cupboard, and all the music is stored in flac and mp3 (for the stupid iPod) format on my computer.
I then wrote a custom database with a Web front-end that can stream said music at home or to work (or anywhere in fact).
It also has a funky little AJAX-powered search box that works like the one in iTunes - you just type in a word and it restricts the results to any that match.
Makes finding music effortless.
Agreed on genres, mine are in a right mess and need fixing.
Thumbs up on Jamie T also.
Posted by: Darren on February 21, 2007 06:34 PMSimon your beyond help you really are.
You shouldn't organise a pile of CDs, LPs, 8-tracks it has a life of its own. The very fact you can't find what your looking for means that during the search you stumble upon forgotten gems. It's a crude type of shuffle but you're still in control of what you listen to.
Its not an area of life which requires efficiency. Your code on the other hand
Posted by: elp on February 21, 2007 11:57 PMSo when exactly did you discover that you were living in High Fidelity by Nick Hornby?
Posted by: Andy Todd on February 22, 2007 02:15 AMI still like putting CDs on, Darren. It's a tactile thing.
I realised that I was Rob ten years ago, Andy, when I read the book. ;-)
Posted by: Simon on February 22, 2007 10:21 AMLooking at the CD racks the other day, I decided that the best way to organise mine was just to remove them from the vicinity of Mark's. Less embarrassment that way.
Posted by: Katherine on February 27, 2007 10:14 AMGiven Mark's taste[1], that's probably wise, Katherine. ;-)
[1] http://www.brunningonline.net/simon/blog/archives/001494.html
Posted by: Simon on February 27, 2007 10:40 AMPfft - my taste still rocks... or is it that my taste is full of old socks? ;-)
Opinion is devided on the matter - between me and everyone else, no doubt ;-)