Thanks for giving us all of this advice, for free! My dad and I have a few thousand CD’s, which I’ve decided to start enjoying again. I appreciate it!

I file by genre. If im in the mood to listen to punk i don't want to have to think of names and have my punk albums scattered all over the place, i just go to the punk section. I find its just easier to find stuff that way. I don't want Marvin Gaye and The Germs in the same place. I know genres cross over but i just put them where it makes sense for me. (And im sure you said Martin Gaye in this video😂)

I organise them by the release year of the oldest album from that particular performer. Usually the first 6 albums are the best anyway, right? For example, I think of Black Sabbath as ”early 70s band” together with Heep, Purple, Genesis and so on. It makes most sense to have Sabbath next to those bands. Priest is accompanied by Rush, Kiss, Scorpions and Thin Lizzy. Maiden on the other hand belongs next to Saxon, Diamond Head, Loudness, Mercyful Fate. And Vektor next to Obscura, Gorod, The Faceless etc.

My collection is organized in the order that I buy them!! 😂

I follow your system with a similar genre division: basic collections are (mostly US and UK) rock from Abba* to Zappa, Jazz (mostly Blue note and Impulse, plus fusion like Weather report/Return to forever), classical (mostly Beethoven/1800 onwards) and a smallish soul/RnB collection (Etta James to Earth &Fire and Michael Jackson). But besides I have geographical collections: a large collection of French music (chansons and Ange/Magma type stuff), Italian 70s prog, Dutch (sung in Dutch and English, so this includes Golden Earring), German Krautrock (Agitation Free to Witthuser and Westrupp, a little Spanish collection a larger Latin collection (Mercedes Sosa to Os mutantes), Scandinavian (from *Abba to Bo Andersson and Kaipa). Conflicts remain: Triumvirat is more ELP than Krautrock, Riuichi Sakamoto and Eno published on Deutsche Grammophon, George Benson moved from jazz to rnb, but I know to find my music...

When it comes to CD's I do it alphabetically and by genre. If it's listed on the Trousser Press it goes on the alternative section, that is the biggest section, alternative music from the 90's and some from the 80's.. Other big categories are alt rock artists from the 2000's, R&B artists from the 90's and 2000's, then modern metal and 90's classic rock, then hip hop, then latin rock, then electronica and then pop and trap from the 2010's. Most older music I have it on vinyl, categorized too of course.

I've got J.Geils Band under J and Steve Miller Band under M...I guess my "defense" for this is J.Geils was "just" one of the members, while Steve Miller was/still is the leader of the band. I file all John Miles albums under M, even the one that was released as John Miles Band. It feels a bit odd to file John Cougar albums under C and both John Cougar Mellencamp and John Mellencamp albums under M, but that's the way I do it. For now anyway. :)

A few that have got me in my record collection were Crosby Stills Nash & Young , Captain Beefheart ,,, that Jarvis is The Jarvis Cocker Record

My cds start alphabetically and chronologically from their first release. A named artist like Phil Collins would go under P, as that's the first thing I read. I used to prioritise the surnames first but it got annoying. That's just my way of doing it! But, if bands start with "The" then I would ignore "The". So The Beatles would be "B" and The Rolling Stones would be "R" 😊

The only thing I do different with the names is if the name of the band is basically the name of the artist, I keep it all with the name of the artist. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Band of Gypsys and Hendrix solo all go under H for Hendrix. Steve Miller Band goes under M. Tom Petty and Tom Petty and the Heartbrekers are all sorted together under P. Also, artists that don't go by their real name get categized by their first letter (Kid Rock under K, Lady GaGa under L). Also, the only one that I can think of that does this is the Supremes that originally went by The Supremes and then by Diana Ross and the Supremes...all get sorted under Supremes. AC/DC goes under A, not Ac, so before ABBA. Similarly T. Rex goes under T, not Tr, so before Temple of the Dog. Annnnnd, for some reason, I put Ozzy under Oz vs Os for Osborne, so he goes after Outcast and not before. For band names that start with numbers, I just spell it out. Tupac went by 2Pac and Tupac. (Though the band’s name didn’t start with a number, Matchbox 20 went by the number 20 and the word twenty) Was 311 before 50 Cent because 3 comes before 5 or does fifty come before three hundred and eleven? I just simplified it by spelling out the numbers. Obviously, each artist’s work is arranged chronologically by release date but there comes into play remasters, remixes and reissues. For my collection, the most convoluted is the Beatles. The original 1987 CDs are sorted by their album release date. Everything after that is by when the re-issue was released. For example, my original copy of Let It Be would be 1970, but Let It Be…Naked would be 2003 and the 50th remix would be 2021. I keep all my box sets separately, so the 2009 stereo and 2009 mono versions of Let It Be, along with the super deluxe box stay in the box on a separate shelf. Now if I can just find something to listen to. Cheers!

Very informative. Thanks

Hi Matt, where do you get your cd sleeves? Think i am going to go down this route. Thanks

I start numerically. 00100 (Japanese punk band - literally a binary middle finger! - known for their use of world instruments especially the Gamelan), 9 Below Zero, 808 State... Then alphabetically but with several exceptions for label collections; Digital Hardcore/Atari Teenage Riot, Warp/Reflex (I collect a lot of electronica exotica) - Do I keep Aphex Twin in his own rubber padded section..? Decisions decisions...

What about the Dave Clark Five? D or C? I’ve seen both done in shops. Would you put Joy Division and New Order together or separate? Echo and the Bunneymen under E?

A video response to my question, I'm honoured. I just went first letter of band and artist. It was too complicated deciding if Meat Loaf was an artist or a band. I like the idea of separate sections for rock, jazz, blues etc but don't have the room. BTW categories is spelt with 2 e's.

I organize my CDs by the album's name. It avoids the issue with the act's name.

I'm enjoying your videos. Great content. For this one though, I can't agree with your system. It's a little too complicated for me. I just go by first letter of the artist, but excluding "the", "a" etc. For me, an artist is a thing, not a person with a first and last name. I would never picture in my mind Elton John being "Mr John", or Taylor Swift as "Ms Swift" or Meat Loaf as "Mr Loaf". So whether it's a band or a person, I just put them in order of the first significant word. I only have a very small classical collection, so classical just get bunched together as "classical". If I had a large classical collection, I don't know what I would do.

new subscriber enjoying your vids also im interested in how do you find time in your day to listen to all your cds? maybe a video idea thanks

Where do you get your plastic wallets from and how much do they cost? Thanks

That's about it. But where do you put, say, Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin? Peace on earth.

I always go by Christian name. When I think of Marvin Gaye I don't think Gaye, Marvin. When I think of Gordon Lightfoot I don't think Lightfoot, Gordon. Treating a performers name as a stage name the same way I'd treat a band name such as Jethro Tull. Does it really say Jarvis Cocker Band on the JC solo album? I can see it says The Jarvis Cocker Record on the spine of the CD (album title) you're holding up to camera. Can't see it says The Jarvis Cocker Band anywhere. It's 'The Jarvis Cocker Record' by Jarvis.

The only alteration I would make to your system is that while Jethro Tull would certainly go under T despite having been a real person yet not a member of the band, in cases where the band is named for someone in the band, I’d still use their surname. Therefore, to crib from another comment, I’d have The J. Geils band under G and Steve Miller Band (sometimes called The Steve Miller Band) under M. Bands like Danny Wilson, named for a fictional character, I’d have under D, but lately I’ve taken to filing my Monty Python material under P, so we often break our own rules sometimes. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Nope, first name first. For me it cuts the nonsense out of figuring where the artists should be. ARETHA Franklin, BOB Dylan, CANNED Heat. Soundtracks and Compilations get the same treatment. Unless you know where all the artists are in your collection which I don't, I'm keeping it simple. I might be brave one day and break them down to genres... but not yet. Thanks Matt.

Hey Matt Have you tried or ever looked into Roon? I have a huge collection of cds albums and some cassettes Roon imho gives me the closest experience to physical media as it’s using my digital collection so it’s always mine to keep and it’s album art and artist bio is onscreen Just a thought as a companion to physical media 🤘

After years of owning albums and cds I have pretty much settled on your system but I still find some in the wrong place. I could really use cd towers like you have. Can you tell me who makes them?

Hey, Matt! I am such a lazy b*stard that instead of filing under artiste's surname which I would have done under any other circumstances, instead I file under their first name because that is the way Discogs list on their database. No idea why they do it that way, but it made it easier for me to file my records the same way as they do when I started cataloguing my collection. I now have over 2000 records so I am not going back now. But it still does annoy me a bit.

What about The 1975? At the start because its a number? Or under N for nineteen? And how do you organise within artists eg does Blonde On Blonde come before Highway 61, (B before H) or the other way round, because Highway 61 was released previous to BoB? Just being pedantic, lol. Good video, i have a large CD collection, about half is in alphabetical order, the other half is in a strange order that only makes sense in my head, lol. Stuart

Do you file Paul McCartney separately from Wings albums ? And what do you do with for example the best of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music ? Does it get filed with BF or RM ? Also I keep Police and Sting albums together and similar with George Michael and Wham.

Yep since records and tapes came back in my cds 💿 started getting more neglected 😂

That was awful - far more interesting than it ought to have been! I ignore genres - too many artists/albums cross genres. Classical is a pain, as I regard the composer to be the artist. If an album is a mix of composers I revert to the principal performer. (Perhaps I should switch to the first mentioned composer?) Software packages are useful allowing the collection to be ordered and searched by differing criteria. Storing CDs then becomes a means of finding the one you want, rather than a browsing tool.

Categorizing “classical music” is like lumping all “rock music” together.

I also alphabetize my 💿 in the same way. But I'm still breaking down in different gateries ... classic, rock, pop jazz ... Also whether it is a band or an artist🎧