Despite my best efforts I’ve never been able to understand how people can allow their music libraries get to out of control (could it be because searching is so convenient now? – I dunno sounds like that could be another post).

It just boggles my mind. Take this for example:

An unorganized iTunes library

Don’t let this happen to you!

Oh the Humanity! Why? Why I ask, must you have duplicate genres? “Hip Hop”, “Hip-Hop”, “Hip Hop/Rap” then further down there’s “Gansta”, “Gansta Rap”, “Rap”, “Rap & Hip Hop”, “Rap/Hip-Hop”, and “Rap/R&B” (mean:26 median:18 songs). MADNESS.

Sigh… but what are you going to do, eh? If people don’t want to keep their libraries clean they’re free to do so..

Of course there’s never anything to keep you from having a *nice, clean, organized, beauty of a library* if you want. It’s a fight against nature – but if I want a clean library by golly I’m gonna get one! – damn the pesky forces of entropy.

To keep my library from falling to shambles I’ve adopted these rules for imports to my library:

+ All song titles should match the following format. (in [Title Text](http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/cmosfaq.CapitalizationTitles.html))
$songName ($alternateName)_*_(Feat. $janeDoe)_*_[$version]_*_
+ Compilations should be marked as compilations. (ie. The Matrix)_*_
+ Composers should filled only if it _really_ has a composer. (ie. Classical)
+ If album is a set of CDs then CD number is set and album name is the same for each CD (ie. Beatles Anthology 1)
+ Unless all you can find is really terrible coverart – set the Album art.
+ Only one name for an artist. Use either “DJ Armin van Buuren” or “Armin van Buuren” not both.
+ Basic genres, unless you have a huge amount of a specific genre and really need it split up don’t. (Electronic in place of Electro/Trance/Dance/Goa/Chilled)**

* Not sure if things like Anthology 1 should be considered compilations or not… as of right now I don’t treat them as compilations
**for most things just making a playlist with the best of each sub-genre would work well.