Managing Huge Music Collections: Power Tools
Directory Structure and File Name Layout
I prefer to keep my audio files named as such:
Artist/Album/01 Name of Song.mp3
Achieving a consistent naming scheme requires either loads of time and patience or a genuine power tool. I have found that Bulk Rename Utility is a indispensable tool for almost any file naming job, and it is thus highly recommended.
ID3 Tag Editing Including Album Cover Embedding
With regards to ID3 tag editing there are two excellent choices: Foobar2000 and Mp3tag. I do prefer the former, but only for the somewhat easier navigation. Foobar2000 does however not support album cover embedding. This concept enables JPEG images to be embedded in the ID3 tag of MP3 audio files, and is supported by Mp3tag.
It is even possible to automate the embedding if album covers if they reside in the folders of the albums. Suppose each cover is named folder.jpg. Drag all relevant folders into Mp3tag, select all the files and press Shift+Alt+5. Select Import Cover From File and type folder.jpg as the format string. The album covers are then automatically embedded in each audio file.
Using Foobar2000 for ID3 tag editing (Alt+Enter or right click followed by Properties) enables one to make use of the magnificent Automatically Fill Values feature. If for instance one’s naming scheme for files is the track number followed by a single space followed by the title of the track, then this pattern will fill those exact values correctly:
%TRACKNUMBER% %TITLE%
Conversion Between All Sorts of Formats
If one wish to convert massive amounts of audio files from one format to another Foobar2000 is the way to go. Like everything else in Foobar2000 converting is really easy. Just import the audio files, select them, right click and choose Convert followed by Convert to Same Folder (for convenience). If you want a file naming scheme that is not retarded you can choose More Settings and insert
[%tracknumber% ]%title%
into the Single tracks field.