Sorting Through MP3 Tracks

I recently decided to organize my various MP3 tracks that I have scattered throughout my hard drive. A couple of years ago, I received an Ipod Shuffle for my birthday, and tried to organize the tracks then, with varied success. I was able to get a compilation of my favorite songs into Itunes, but that was about as far as I went.

I'm looking at getting another MP3 player, and thus have decided to begin organizing my files so I can use the player properly. However, another problem I have, a lot of my MP3 files have inconsistent naming schemes, no MP3 tags, etc. I discovered a database application called MediaMonkey which essentially manages the MP3 files, and takes care a lot of the tasks for you. For example, it will automatically retrieve MP3 tags from Amazon.com based on the filename, etc. It will also rename and move files as necessary to organize your collection.

So, I've begun the somewhat daunting task of going through every MP3 file I have, assigning tags, renaming with a consistent scheme, and organizing into folders. It's not an easy process, but one that is necessary. Last night, I categorized about 300 songs. I still have about 500 songs to go. These are really just my all-time favorites. Now I know this isn't a huge collection, but it's good enough for me. We do have 40 or 50 CDs that I'd like to rip a few songs from too. Ideally, I don't think I'll rip every song from every CD, but just my favorites.

After getting everything organized, perhaps a new MP3 player is in store. Just another toy. Ha.