[jlemons]

OK, I just ordered a 20 Gig iPod. I am in the process of ripping all of my CDs in 128 AAC format. How should I organize the music. Should I do it by genre or by artist. Is there a way to make subfolders for example: Rock--Metallica--Metalica Songs. Please give some ideas. Also, is 128 AAC good enough. Thanks

[Mithras]

You add the appropriate ID3 tags, or rather let iTunes do it for you if you have an Internet connection.

You might check the "Connect to Internet when needed" box in the iTunes preferences.
If you can't use the Gracenote database of CD information, then after inserting a CD, select File:Get Info, and add the appropriate information. You can do the same with the AAC files you've already encoded.

That way you can sort by genre, artist, abum name, song title, etc..

Rather than worrying about the physical arrangement of the folders yourself, it's usually easier to check the 'Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized' option in the Advanced tab of preferences.

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by Mithras:
You add the appropriate ID3 tags, or rather let iTunes do it for you if you have an Internet connection.

You might check the "Connect to Internet when needed" box in the iTunes preferences.
If you can't use the Gracenote database of CD information, then after inserting a CD, select File:Get Info, and add the appropriate information. You can do the same with the AAC files you've already encoded.

That way you can sort by genre, artist, abum name, song title, etc..

Rather than worrying about the physical arrangement of the folders yourself, it's usually easier to check the 'Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized' option in the Advanced tab of preferences.

Ditto. Let iTunes do the job.
You can still drag and drop-copy from iTunes to the Finder! This is especially true, if you haven't had a ‘proper order' already.

Do not under any circumstances forget to enter the song details before or right after ripping! (I am speaking from own experience.)

[shrink]

Great suggestions above. The one thing I'd add is if you have enough hard drive space, increase your encoding rate up to 160 AAC or 192 AAC. It'll give you better sound quality.

[mishap]

i have a 40 gig iPod and i usually just let it play on random after selecting a Genre i want to hear.

[Luca Rescigno]

I have a number of different ways I can listen to my music. They're mostly dependent on ratings and genres. I have smart playlists that contain all the songs of a specific genre that are rated 4 or 5 stars. I also have a top rated playlist that has all songs (of any genre) rated 5 stars. If I want to listen to a specific song or set of songs by a particular artist, or something that isn't rated 4 or 5 stars, I just use the iPod's browse feature. The only downside to my method is that it requires a lot of time to rate and label all your songs - I have about 1500, and I still have 500 songs left to rate. And you have to be careful about genres. I limit how many I have, and I get rid of duplicates as soon as I can. So many people might have some songs labeled "Alternative," some labeled "Punk," and others labeled "Alternative/Punk," but not me.

My brother doesn't have an iPod, but when listening to iTunes, he has a bunch of smart playlists, covering albums, artists, or entire genres. Then he sorts in descending order of rating, so they start out good and when he hears a song he dislikes he can know that they won't get any better and he switches to a new playlist. This is a good idea but it seems as if the iPod reverses the order when I do this for some reason. My songs will be in descending order in iTunes, but they'll be in ascending order when I move them to the iPod. I'm not sure why that is... I guess it could be solved by reversing everything in iTunes.

[DigitalEl]

I always listen to playlists versus specific artists, albums or genres. I find the iTunes-created dynamic playlists particularly useful. My favorite playlist is one called "Rare." It's songs I've rated at least 3 stars, which I haven't heard in 6 months. If you have thousands of songs, that can be quite a fun way to sample your collection and rediscover old gems.

Other dynamic playlists I love are "Hot 25," which is the last 25 songs played rating 4 stars or above and "SuperMix," which is hundreds of songs rating at least 3 stars. The latter is like having your own favorite radio station; You like every song, but never know what's going to come up next.

iTunes kicks ass!

[scaught]

im an "album" guy. all my music is organized by albums. i dont really have any "single" songs sitting in there without the rest of the album.

i organize my playlists by artist, and the album(s) from that artist are in the playlist.