Q:
I got an iPod for my birthday from my kids and I finally have all my music loaded on it and all of that good stuff. Now, do you have any tips I can use for keeping my playlists organized? I would like to create different lists for different activities I do, but I don't want them to get all messy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

A:
First of all, welcome to the wonderful world of iPods! I'm sure you're enjoying it as much as everyone else who has one does. This is a very good question, because in a day and age when music players are so popular, it's typical to have a huge collection of music on just one device and it's too easy to let it "go crazy" and get all jumbled together. This tip is good for anyone who has any type of music player. It doesn't have to be an iPod. If you have an MP3 player or if you just have a lot of music stored on your computer, you can use these organizational tips as well.

Below are six tips you can use to keep your playlists organized and neat. The tips will also help you in understanding what you need to do to follow up your proper playlists. If you follow these tricks, you will have the best music collection in town! Plus, you will be able to find particular songs much faster and sometimes, you just can't beat that. Okay, here we go!

1.) Create Subfolders – One of the most important things to do when making playlists is to create subfolders that will stay on your hard drive. What do I mean by subfolders? Well, you should put all of your music into different categories. You can either separate it by genre or whichever way you'd like to do it. Create a new folder for each type. For instance, one folder for country, one for pop, one for classical and so on. Don't just keep all of your music in the main music folder (My Music) on your C: drive. Subfolders are definitely the better way to go.

2.) Check Your ID3 Tags – First of all, ID3 tags are used to store the important information about your music files, such as the song title, the artist name, the album name, etc. It's also the information that shows up on the screen of your iPod or MP3 player. (Read here for more information on ID3 tags). Sometimes when you put music onto your player, it comes through all wrong. So, make sure you take the time to edit your ID3 tags correctly. Now, you may need a software program to help you do this and one good example is called TagScanner, among others.

3.) Have Proper Music Management Software – It's pertinent that you have the best music management software for yourself and for your music player. There are several you can choose from. If you have an iPod, you probably use iTunes, but some other options are Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey and MusicMatch Jukebox. Each program brings its own features, so you'll just have to decide what all you want and then go get it!

4.) Keep It Legal – If you're using an illegal music download program, you may get some files that come through in an odd way. They may have a weird file name and the songs may also sound a little different than the original version. You don't want that, do you? Yes, you may have to pay for a good online music service, but it's well worth it in the end. Good examples are again, iTunes and there's always Napster.

5.) Create Proper Playlists – As was stated in the question, it's fun to make different playlists for the different activities you're going to be doing. This is also a perfect way to keep your music organized. If you combine certain songs together, you'll come up with some pretty jammin' playlists, along with keeping them neat and tidy. Another thing you can do is just create playlists from the subfolders you created in step one. Keeping all of your music in separate categories is the perfect way to propecia shampoo stay organized when it comes to your tunes.

6.) Your Hard Drive Size – Depending on how much music you download onto your computer, it's important to have a hard drive that will be able to handle it all. Running out of room will certainly mess up your organized music files. Yes, you may have more than one hard drive on your computer, but it's not ideal to store some of your files on one hard drive and the rest on the other. It's important to have all of your music files together in one spot, so just make sure you have enough room. If you think you're going to run out soon, delete some songs you don't listen to very often or just stop downloading!

There you go. Hopefully these tips will help keep your music collection in line and in order. Yes, if you follow all of these steps, it will take you quite a bit of time to complete your organized music collection, but trust me, it will be worth it in the end. Now, get going, you music lovers!