Skip Links

Network World

  • Social Web 
  • Email 
  • Close

Organizing audio

Gearhead By Mark Gibbs , Network World , 03/22/2007
Gibbs

When we first started getting a serious collection of digital music, we weren't too fussy about organization. Then we started digitizing our CD collection and downloading music from the Internet in earnest.

One of our favorite sources of music was eMusic.com. EMusic was, and still is, the place to find the independent labels, and when it first started, it allowed unlimited downloads! This was fantastic but alas, such audio riches could not last.

Some subscribers took "unlimited" literally and got kicked off and eventually the company changed the subscription terms: from unlimited downloads for $9.99 per month to just 30 downloads per month for the same price. Even so, it is still worth subscribing because eMusic has content that's hard to find.

The result of being a subscriber to eMusic was that our collection increased with wild abandon. It was at that time we discovered a program we found invaluable for organizing our music: MP3/Tag Studio published by Magnus Brading. We reviewed this outstanding $19 tool in 2003, and it has only gotten better. MP3/Tag Studio is the best tool we've found for batch reorganizing, retagging and reporting on MP3-encoded files. The latest version boasts macros and command line operation, along with performance improvements.

But by '02 our music collection surpassed 50GB, and we fooled around with devices such as the Turtle Beach AudioTron (reviewed in this column back in 2002) to make operations easier and test certain features. As an aside, we have to say Turtle Beach did the user community a huge disservice when it decided to discontinue the AudioTron in 2004. Any company with a piece of hardware they want to disown should turn its code over to open source so enthusiasts can keep it alive.

Since then, the organized part of our collection has grown to more than 100GB: 1,933 albums with a total of 14,215 songs by 1,075 artists. There's another 25GB of music waiting for MP3 tags. This lump consists of CDs that weren't recognized by CDDB when they were ripped, or never had proper tags in the first place, something that happens a lot for some reason with very long DJ mixes.

A big problem is that, over the years, about 10% of the albums have become duplicated, so we have several hundred files with names like song.mp3, song1.mp3, song2.mp3, song3.mp3, and so on. Apart from the names, they are identical in size, duration and tags.

Partner Content

Explore the Ultrium Edge

The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.

Find out more

Disk and Tape Square Off

Discover what disk and tape really cost -- and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization

Download the White Paper

Don't Fall For The Myths

The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.

Download the White Paper

Will You Add Tape Too?

Over two thirds of disk-only users look to add tape back into storage infrastructure according to recent survey.

Download Survey Information

Comment
Login
Forgot your account info?
Add comment
Anonymous comments subject to approval. Register here for member benefits.
Have a NetworkWorld account? Log in here. Register now for a free account.

Videos

rssRss Feed

Whitepapers

Sun Microsystems: The Green Tide Is Coming. Pressure Builds for an Energy-Efficient Data Center

It's safe to say that most companies, if presented with hard numbers on their energy consumption...

Consolidated Disaster Recovery Using Virtualization

Server virtualization is providing enterprises of all sizes with exciting new options for...

Secure Wireless Printing Options

Discover how you can reduce the TCO of your wireless printers in this whitepaper. Learn how to...

Webcasts

Direct from Microsoft: Tips for Integrating Exchange 2007 and Double-Take Software

Double-Take (r) Software and Microsoft are teaming up on September 9, 2008 for a webinar focusing...

Transforming the Enterprise WAN Edge: Video from Cisco

Life on the edge of your WAN has changed dramatically. With the need to deliver advanced services,...

PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE Market

The standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE), IEEE Std. 802.3af(tm)-2003, advanced networking,...

Special Reports

The New Network/System Management Challenges

Increasingly popular technologies such as virtualization, wireless networking and data center...

Virtualization Reality Check

Find out why analysts say approaching virtualization with an ounce of caution is wise. And also why...

Closing the Loop: Extending Wireless LAN Security to Wireless Printers

Enterprises cannot overlook wireless printers when assessing network security. The print jobs and...

Get instant email notification when white papers, webcasts, executive guides are added to our library. Stay informed and up-to-date with the latest on IT Technologies with Network World's Resource Alerts.