in my mind's zen garden

Organizing Your Music Collection

Posted by Randomguru | Filed under Music, Ubuntu Linux

Introducing A New Pet Project

So, I recently embarked on the monumental task of consolidating my entire music collection. After all these years, perhaps I’ll finally get it all organized!

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a screenshot of rhythmbox in action

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Nowadays, most people have “media collections” which comprise of music, videos, pictures, PDF files, eBooks, etc… but, for now I’ll be focused on the music, since it’s the most extensive (and least organized).

Unfortunately, No iTunes with Ubuntu

I like the iTunes player, but unfortunately it is not available in Ubuntu.

And being that my laptop is running on 100% Ubuntu “Karmic Koala”, I had to abandon iTunes. Though I still have iTunes on my older computer that runs Mac OS X.

iTunes won’t work in Ubuntu, even with the Wine platform. I’ve tried it.

So, after trying out most (if not all) of the music players/organizers available with Linux, I settled with Rhythmbox Player (which incidentally is included with “Karmic Koala”, the latest version of Ubuntu.

Settling on Rhythmbox

That said, I’m happy with Rhythmbox, over all other Linux music players, and for the following reasons:

• Better Stability – It seems to be the most stable of all the music players under Linux.
• Simpler Interface – Its user interface is simple and logical. Though others like Amarok and Banshee have more features, bells and whistles, I ended up going back to Rhythmbox for it useability factor and stability.
• 10 Band Equalizer – I am happy with the 10 band Equalizer Plugin that can be added to Rhythmbox. iTunes also had a similar Equalizer Plugin, so that is a plus.
• Last.fm Scrobbler Capability – And I like the Last.fm Plugin with audioscrobbler. This allows you to listen to various “radio stations” on Last.fm from Rhythmbox. The audioscrobbler puts everything you listen to on Rhythmbox into your profile on Last.fm, so if you want to let everyone know what you listen to everytime to play some music, then that’s good. But not everyone will like this feature.

My Favorites on Last.fm

Well, my music seems all organized on Last.fm!

Getting Started

But, my most prized possession right now is my music collection. Well, I do cherish the grand piano and the drumset, as far as personal belongings, but I was first inspired by the Music… so, the music collection is an essential ingredient.

Though the music collection is not very organized:

• CDs Everywhere – I have CDs all over the house and in the garage.
• Untouched Vinyl – I have vinyl LPs that I basically haven’t touched in years.
• Need to Consolidate MP3 Tags – My MP3 collection on the computer REALLY needs to be organized. MP3s that were downloaded from various sources are missing ID tags and other important information.
• Homemade CDs are A Mess! – I have homemade CDs of mixed music and those aren’t organized. I have CDs with music on it that I compiled but there is no label on them! And if so, it’s something not very descriptive, like “Jazz Music”.
• Exploring Other Formats – And, I’m debating whether to start using the FLAC format.

Here We Go…

So, as I write this, I’m already in the process of organizing my CD collection first, and making a “security” copy in the computer.

I’m really curious if people have already stored all their CDs in digital format. Have you?

I never did, except for my most favorite CDs or ones I was currently listening to. But, now I’m determined to getting every CD in the house copied to either MP3 or FLAC format.

I’ll be blogging more about this pet project. And writing about any details or revelations I come across. But I know it’s going to be tedious work. A little at a time.

So, here we go….

Tagged : Linux, music player, rhythmbox, Ubuntu

Comments (View Comments) | December 4th, 2009