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This is a plea for help as much as it is a conversation starter. When MP2s (and soon after, MP3s) took off in the 90’s I started converting cassette tapes and CDs to digital files. For mainstream music it was simple enough: Aerosmith is rock, Ace of Base is pop, and Tchaikovsky is classical. There’s loads of sub genres you can debate over but I think most would agree on the basics. When it came to video game music, though, I wasn’t sure how to keep things straight.
Ultimately, I decided that whichever platform I played a game on was where its music would go. Want to listen to Aero the Acro-Bat? Navigate to ‘Music > Game > Sega > Genesis’ and there it is. Nevermind that it also came out on the SNES. This scheme has stuck with me for nearly twenty years but as game music evolves I think it may be time for a change. Remixes, covers and chiptune artists who are inspired by their favorite games make it harder to organize by console alone. My system gets even muddier when a console exclusive like Peggle 2 debuts on Xbox One — where I go crazy tracking down the music and cataloging it — and then jumps to Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and eventually PC.
I’ve never had many people to bounce this off of so now that I can address the OSV audience I’m curious: how do you organize your game music collection? Alphabetically? By style, composer, platform? Or does it even matter with software that searches through file tags by whatever criteria you throw at it? Let us know in the comments, I’m really interested in how everyone keeps it all straight.
Comments Disabled To "Community Question: How do You Organize Your Game Music?"
#1 Comment By Patrick Kulikowski On July 12, 2015 @ 1:18 pm
Ahhh what a great question! Folder-wise:
“My Music –> Video Game Music –> ‘Game Series Name’ –> ‘Album'”
MP3 file-wise: “## – Title of Track”
Tagging: Artist Name = Arranger/Composer Specific to that track; Album Artist = All composers/arrangers that were involved and/or Sound Team Name
#2 Comment By Shawn Sackenheim On July 12, 2015 @ 2:04 pm
Nice! Do you use a single genre? I have everything just as “Game” right now but I’ve been thinking for a while about using alternate or secondary tags to denote 8-bit, 16-bit, orchestral, etc. so if I’m in the mood for a bunch of NES era music I can find it without making playlists.
#3 Comment By Patrick Gann On July 12, 2015 @ 2:56 pm
This is the greatest article ever.
Music -> VGM (and Related) -> Album Title
The “Album Title” will go through whatever hoops it has to to get the game title first. Generally, this involves one or more commas. Anything as simple as “Banner Saga, The” to “Final Fantasy XI Seekers of Adoulin Original Soundtrack PLUS, Forever Today”
(I picked up this kind of listing from my days doing RPGFan soundtrack review indexing)
More fun for me is how I organize my physical collection. Because space limitations have created some … weird categorizing. 🙂
#4 Comment By Shawn Sackenheim On July 12, 2015 @ 8:18 pm
Hmmm yeah, the “The” situation would get annoying with folders laid out that way. I like it though, I may combine your naming structure with Patrick’s folder layout. I like the idea of keeping all series related soundtracks close together. That would make for one Y’s or Street Fighter folder instead of flippin’ 18 separate folders for each soundtrack and arrange album I somehow have!
I should probably post this on the VGM reddit or a forum somewhere. It needs more room to breathe 😀
#5 Comment By Chris Hoffmann On July 12, 2015 @ 8:14 pm
I just arrange my albums so one section kind of flows into the next. For example, I have all my Sega stuff in one section, which ends with my Shining Force albums, which then goes into a Motoi Sakuraba section, which ends with my Tales albums, which then leads into Go Shiina and the rest of my Namco stuff.
#6 Comment By Shawn Sackenheim On July 12, 2015 @ 8:36 pm
That’s an awesome way to organize!
#7 Comment By Chris Hoffmann On July 12, 2015 @ 8:18 pm
As far as digital stuff goes, I sort by “album artist” in iTunes, since I like to organize by familiar composers. This way all my Yoko Kanno or Falcom Sound Team JDK stuff is in one place.
#8 Comment By Kaleb Grace On July 14, 2015 @ 1:20 pm
I used have my music in game or album folders, but now I have all my music automatically organized in iTunes. I use tags such as Album, Album Artist, and Sort Album to aid the process. Then I just use the search function to find what I need. I’m familiar with all the soundtrack names for the games so I don’t have problems finding things. I’ve never felt the need to categorize my music by system, even prior to iTunes.
#9 Comment By Shawn Sackenheim On July 14, 2015 @ 2:23 pm
I’m glad you commented, I was hoping to hear from some people who just use searching and what software they use. Most of the time I use the search in MediaMonkey or Windows 7 to find stuff but I still have that desire to organize and classify everything myself.