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I actually sort my CDs by genre, then by artist/composer. But my LP's are simply sorted by artist/composer, all genres mixed. Why that different classification between Cds and LPs ? I love to listen to virtually any LP at any time, so I just take a look to my library and play the music my inspiration dictates to myself. For CDs, I first generaly choose the genre, then which performer I want to listen to. I think it's simply because analog is so involving that it's far easier to dive in the "they're there" event. Only few CDs can do that by todays standards.

There is no god system! You wan't your music organized you put in the effort to do so wether by title or artist.

Although I adhere to the Lonnie Brownell Method of Unexpected Seques (ie, Buck Owens back-to-back with Shostakovich), I do have the discs in a semblance of order: by genre, then alphabetically by artist or composer. Compilations and "Various Artists" are in separate categories, but physically close to the most appropriate genre. Some discs defy categorization, or belong in more than one; then it's arbitrary. Does "Immortal Beloved" belong with Soundtracks or with Beethoven? "Two Rooms" with Various or with Elton John? The heavy rotation collection of about 200 discs is stacked at random near the player, and the "permanent" shelving is no longer adequate, so many homeless discs are stacked on the floor. There's just not enough time to be truely obsessive. I've tried, though. Now Hiring: Disc Wrangler.

Sure I alfabatize by artist once a year, by the next 2 months they are all out of order.

With over 2800 titles, obvioulsy one has to have a database set-up, my biggest problem has been deciding how many genre to subdivide my collection into--does anyone have a good list of genre. How do libraries do it?

I've tried some software but it takes forever to get the information, would it be nice if someone came up with a bar code reader to get the entire information or better, that each disk already had the song title, duration, recording date, etc. already written so that any player could be able to make its own database and display information. That would be cool.

by genre (jazz, r&b, blues, reggae, seasonal, gospel, spoken word, other) then alphabetically by artist

By genre first, then alphabetically - in two places. First, physically on revolving shelves. Secondly, digitally in my computer database (helps keep me from buying duplicates)!

I keep my collection (LPs & CDs) first by type (Classical, Pop/Rock, Shows & Movies, New Age/Jazz, Oldies, and Misc.) and then alphabetically by artist/composer. I also use "Keep It Compact" as a software tool to keep my inventory and do searches as needed.

Sampler albums are the most difficult to find using my "alphabetical by artist" method. Classical is also difficult with this method.