Worse than a stack of disorganized filing cabinets...l
August 4, 2011 4:10 AM Subscribe
I am looking for a way to organize my music in a way that Google Music (both the online player and on Android) will understand - I need to move files into different folders and fix all of my messed up mp3 tags. I need help determining my process. Do I do it manually with a good piece of software, and how? Or should I just post it to Mechanical Turk?
I have mp3s that have a variety of problems. Some are lumped into generic folders that need to be split out by artist and album (not for Google Music, just for my sanity). Some lack critical tags, and therefore get filed in the wrong place. Some have the wrong tags (500 of them have Album Name "Rolling Stone Top 500" so any time I want to listen to 1 of those songs, I get a list of all 500 - not a great way to find a song).
I found a relevant AskMe: http://ask.metafilter.com/107398/Help-me-clean-up-a-musical-mess. This turned up recommendations for Media Monkey, MusicBrainz, EasyTAG, Foobar, and MP5Tag. So I shouldn't have problems finding software to help with this.
But I’m still balking at the size of this project. This looks like a lot of work, even for my measly 6,000-song collection. I don't necessarily know which mp3s have issues, so it looks like I'm going to have to pull up every album and song in Google Music, look for issues, and then fix. That's a lot of work, and easy to forget where I left off.
What I need is a workflow. How should I approach this if I’m going to do it myself? What are my steps using any of these programs to find bad tags, fix those tags, and move files to the right folders?
I would also be willing to pay for this, maybe up to a max of $75-$100. Is Mechanical Turk a decent option? If so, what’s the workflow - how do I share my music (create a dropbox account?) and verify that the work was done to my liking? Since there are 6,000 songs and I don’t necessarily know which files have issues, QA is going to be tough.
Bonus question: what version of ID3 tags does Google Music use? I want to get everything on that version.
I have mp3s that have a variety of problems. Some are lumped into generic folders that need to be split out by artist and album (not for Google Music, just for my sanity). Some lack critical tags, and therefore get filed in the wrong place. Some have the wrong tags (500 of them have Album Name "Rolling Stone Top 500" so any time I want to listen to 1 of those songs, I get a list of all 500 - not a great way to find a song).
I found a relevant AskMe: http://ask.metafilter.com/107398/Help-me-clean-up-a-musical-mess. This turned up recommendations for Media Monkey, MusicBrainz, EasyTAG, Foobar, and MP5Tag. So I shouldn't have problems finding software to help with this.
But I’m still balking at the size of this project. This looks like a lot of work, even for my measly 6,000-song collection. I don't necessarily know which mp3s have issues, so it looks like I'm going to have to pull up every album and song in Google Music, look for issues, and then fix. That's a lot of work, and easy to forget where I left off.
What I need is a workflow. How should I approach this if I’m going to do it myself? What are my steps using any of these programs to find bad tags, fix those tags, and move files to the right folders?
I would also be willing to pay for this, maybe up to a max of $75-$100. Is Mechanical Turk a decent option? If so, what’s the workflow - how do I share my music (create a dropbox account?) and verify that the work was done to my liking? Since there are 6,000 songs and I don’t necessarily know which files have issues, QA is going to be tough.
Bonus question: what version of ID3 tags does Google Music use? I want to get everything on that version.
I have not attempted this kind of project, but I have used and liked Media Monkey. I think it would be a good last step after Picard/MusicBrainz. Media Monkey allows you to specify your folder hierarchy and naming conventions (based on tags). So after tags are in order, it will order your actual files and folders.
posted by p3t3 at 6:03 AM on August 4, 2011
posted by p3t3 at 6:03 AM on August 4, 2011
I wrote a Picard guide for a previous AskMe here.
The important thing is to have it move the files you've completed to new, correct directories. That way you don't have to note where you left off.
posted by griphus at 6:51 AM on August 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
The important thing is to have it move the files you've completed to new, correct directories. That way you don't have to note where you left off.
posted by griphus at 6:51 AM on August 4, 2011 [1 favorite]
I've been doing this with my 50,000 song collection for some time now. Someone turned on iTunes automatic organizing while I was on vacation and came back to a complete mess (I had many, MANY various artist albums, plus had it organized in folders by different criteria, like Soundtracks or Breakcore).
I created a new folder and started putting in a few folders/artists at a time, re-tagging, organizing and disposing. I'll spend an hour or so on it at a time and get 30 or 40 things organized. Out of 3500 folders created by iTunes, I have approximately 400-500 left to finish up. Really, a serious pain in the ass but whittling away at it has turned it into a manageable task.
posted by dozo at 2:44 PM on August 4, 2011
I created a new folder and started putting in a few folders/artists at a time, re-tagging, organizing and disposing. I'll spend an hour or so on it at a time and get 30 or 40 things organized. Out of 3500 folders created by iTunes, I have approximately 400-500 left to finish up. Really, a serious pain in the ass but whittling away at it has turned it into a manageable task.
posted by dozo at 2:44 PM on August 4, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
1) open up Picard and set all of the options. you can set a file naming pattern, and the folder you want to hold your fixed files among other things. you can also download some plugins that add functionality (like adding lyrics or cover art to the tags). Make sure that the "Automatically scan new files" option is NOT selected. close the options box.
2) click the 'add folder' button and add the folder that all of your music is under.
3) you can now select a group of folders in the left pane and 'scan' or 'cluster' them. 'cluster' works best if there is some information already available in the tags. 'scan' works ok though. When doing this I would pick all the groups that started with the same letter. If you don't do this the program will become unresponsive.
4) clean up all the 'unmatched' files using the 'lookup' button
this took 2 or 3 days working at it 2 or 3 hours a day for ~5500 files.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 5:36 AM on August 4, 2011