Something I seem to never stop doing, is filing albums whether they are physical CDs and Records or mp3 collections.  Up to now I've been just punting on the name conventions and just alpha sort by the performer name, mostly out of convenience.  I'm finally biting the bullet and made a list of how performer names should be sorted.  Individuals are "last name, first name" and band names are always sorted by the first letter. 

The easy....

"Diana Ross" becomes "Ross, Diana"
"The" and "A" get dropped... so "A Flock Of Seagulls" becomes "Flock of Seagulls, A"
Some look like band names "Mungo Jerry" but are really bands... so they stay "Mungo Jerry"
".38 Special" gets written out so it sorts "Thirty Eight Special"


The "edge cases" that always screw these things up...

Some look strange when they take a stage name, "Meat Loaf" should become "Loaf, Meat" following that convention.
Then there's "Alice Cooper" which was the name of a band until "Alice" went solo as "Alice Cooper" in 1975.
And of course there's "Foetus" who recorded under names like "Foetus Under Glass" and "You've Got Foetus On Your Breath" until he settled on just "Foetus", but even then he's recorded as his real name "J. G. Thirlwell" and "The Foetus Symphony Orchestra".  For these, I'm at least saving a separate field in my datafield for spelling variations, etc.


I have more examples of each of the above...

I guess "Meat Loaf" still seems like it should be under M instead of L for me...

When it came time to rip and tag the CDs and vinyl, I punted.

I didn't want to deal with the possible embarassment of "Floyd, Pink" or "Jerry, Mungo", so I went with "Diana Ross".  Then I didn't have to decide if "Glen Miller" was a performer, or "Glen Miller and His Orchestra" was a band.

The important question - did you go with the gramatically-incorrect apostrophe "The Go-Go's" (umm, "Go-Go's, The")?  I did.  But I agonized over it.

I punted on Foetus.  Filed under "F".  

I went with numeric/ASCII order on .38 Special, 2 Unlimited, and 16 Bit, 45 Grave, and am willing to overlook that ".38 Special" would have been a hidden directory.  

And then there was à;GRUMH..., for which I dropped the Unicode character and dropped the semicolon, resulting in "a-Grumh", because no script should ever have to deal with that sort of crap, and I'm just grateful that I didn't try to encode the performers' stage names.

I also took the liberty of tagging the artist of a soundtrack by movie as a matter of personal choice; I'm not personally interested in the fact that John Williams did it, but about whether it was in Star Wars or not.

Serious edge case question: For classical, do you punch in the composer or the conductor of the orchestra into the "artist" field?  (I'm glad my collection of classical is small and I don't have to worry too much, but that's an absolute dealbreaker for ID3v1 and still a big shortfall of many devices' treatment of ID3v2.)

I set up the alphabetizing scheme for my radio station library.

All  English articles except the definite article The are first.
So it's
A Flock of Seagulls
but
Clash, The

If the artists name is stage name, do not reverse:

Meat Loaf

not

Loaf, Meat

Boy George

not

George, Boy

If the artist uses an initial for a last name, file under first name:

Simon F

not

F, Simon

I had to pull the A Minor Forest records out of the M section and explain to the music director about the key of A Minor.

The The

not

The, The

People from Eastern cultures have different naming systems than Westerners.  I try to follow those.  For instance, in Chinese the family name comes first and the given name comes second.

Thus the Chinese composer Chen Yi is entered into the database as "Chen Yi," not "Yi, Chen"

But if the name has been partially Westernized, I treat the name as I would a Western name.

The pianist Margaret Leng Tan is listed as "Tan, Margaret Leng"

If an artist starts with a numeral, I enter it as the artist intends indicated the first initial of the spelling of the first number is its designation.

10,000 Maniacs (T)
.38 Special (T)*
5th Element (F)

*ignore initial punctuation, such as decimal points and ellipses. 

In the case of a;GRUMH...., I left the semicolon in because our data base could read it.

One-off side projects I often keep with the main band.  For instance, I keep Acid Horse and 1000 Homo DJs in the Ministry Section, but
Revolting Cocks get there own section.

I often debate what to use when an artist changes their name or the spelling of their name.

.38 Special is a good example:  'Caught Up in You' in 1982 was by .38 Special.  'Second Change' in 1988 was by Thirty-Eight Special.

Years before Prince tried to be painfully cool by adopting a squiggle as his name, a British band tried to be painfully cool by doing the same thing...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_etZTCxXJy3w/TFmZDeJ3qDI/AAAAAAAAC8A/WxPc4Apv_BY/s1600/freur+-+doot+doot+(1983).jpg

And lo, how the DJs and chart compilers did moan, which led to the band eventually being promoted under the name of Freur...

I often debate what to use when an artist changes their name or the spelling of their name.

.38 Special is a good example:  'Caught Up in You' in 1982 was by .38 Special.  'Second Change' in 1988 was by Thirty-Eight Special.

What about Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/ plain old Starship?

As for numerical performers, I often treat it as if it were spelled out (for example, 8 under the letter 'E', for eight). (Just my personal preference, that's all.)

Years before Prince tried to be painfully cool by adopting a squiggle as his name, a British band tried to be painfully cool by doing the same thing...

And lo, how the DJs and chart compilers did moan, which led to the band eventually being promoted under the name of Freur...


That was Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, later known as Underworld. 

Exactly how to pronounce Freur was also ambiguous.  I used to say it like "Freud" only with an "r"!
8)

What about Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/ plain old Starship?
Best to put it all under J.  Post as: Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship.
To alleviate confusion enter under S:  Starship: see Jefferson Airplane

Clan of Xymox changed their name to Xymox and back.  I keep it all under C for Clan of Xymox.  Under X, I put Xymox: See Clan of Xymox.
It would have been nice to have a few more artists to file under X, though!

As for numerical performers, I often treat it as if it were spelled out (for example, 8 under the letter 'E', for eight). (Just my personal preference, that's all.)

Yeah, that's what I do.

Best to put it all under J.  Post as: Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship.
To alleviate confusion enter under S:  Starship: see Jefferson Airplane


This one I have to disagree with.  Those are all different bands even though they share some common members.  I find it hard to consider the band that gave us "White Rabbit" also gave us "We Built This City".  I think that would be like filing Audioslave under Rage Against the Machine because it's 3/4ths of RATM.

A-ha are another act who have spread confusion in various books...

In the British chart book, they appear midway into the 'A' section - as the hyphen is ignored BUT I've seen books where they appear at the very top of the lists, the hyphen taken as gospel and the A taken as a kosher word...

I'm not losing sleep over this...honest!  :D

Clan of Xymox changed their name to Xymox and back.  I keep it all under C for Clan of Xymox.  Under X, I put Xymox: See Clan of Xymox.
It would have been nice to have a few more artists to file under X, though!

I know! All I can think of is Xscape, XTC, Xzibit, and of course...plain old X!



Yeah, that's what I do.

...however, some stores that sell CDs and other music recordings might put all the numbers first. Or they might treat them as words, like I mentioned above (which I think is preferable; in fact, many books do it that way, including the Billboard Top 40 book series).

This one I have to disagree with.  Those are all different bands even though they share some common members.  I find it hard to consider the band that gave us "White Rabbit" also gave us "We Built This City".  I think that would be like filing Audioslave under Rage Against the Machine because it's 3/4ths of RATM.


Well, yes and no.  Sometimes bands radically change their styles.  The Ministry that did "Work for Love" is hardly the same band as the Ministry that did "Filth Pig."  Unlike Jefferson Airplane, Al Jourgensen retained the name Ministry from one end of his career to the other.  I see the difference.  Al Jourgensen was Ministry from the start, whereas Grace Slick joined Jefferson Airplane after the band's founding.  However, if I was arranging a record shop, I would want to keep the three bands together because of their intimate association with Grace Slick.  The first place I'd look is the J section. 

The band would have continued as Jefferson Starship if Paul Kantner hadn't filed an injunction in 1984. 

Clan of Xymox changed their name to Xymox and back.  I keep it all under C for Clan of Xymox.  Under X, I put Xymox: See Clan of Xymox.
It would have been nice to have a few more artists to file under X, though!Yeah, that's what I do.


What? No Xynn in your collection...? (My brother had the album once)

Are compilation albums with various artists filed under 'V' for Various Artists?

There's also the issue with bands whose names include the first and last name of a key member, such as...

Ben Folds Five
Dave Clark Five
Dave Matthews Band
Edgar Winter Group
Huey Lewis and the News
J. Geils Band
Spencer Davis Group
Steve Miller Band

I always wondered if they should be filed as names of bands, or under the surname of the mentioned person. I guess either way would do, as long as you're consistent with your choice.

There's also the issue with bands whose names include the first and last name of a key member, such as...

Ben Folds Five
Dave Clark Five
Dave Matthews Band
Edgar Winter Group
Huey Lewis and the News
J. Geils Band
Spencer Davis Group
Steve Miller Band

I always wondered if they should be filed as names of bands, or under the surname of the mentioned person. I guess either way would do, as long as you're consistent with your choice.


The correct way would be to file them under their given surname...same applies to the countless orchestras of the 1930s/40s...


Are compilation albums with various artists filed under 'V' for Various Artists?


In the chart reference book that I have, they are...

Sorted by label of issue, which makes for a bit of a plough-through!  :P

The correct way would be to file them under their given surname...same applies to the countless orchestras of the 1930s/40s...


Ouch.  I might be able to live with "Folds, Ben, Five" but "Lewis, Huey, and the News" is pushing it :)


Sorted by label of issue, which makes for a bit of a plough-through!  :P


Stacks of copi*cough*mpilation albums under "Various"?  I thought that was a rough plough-through, and then I remembered there are people for whom English is a second language.  Ugh :)

There's also the issue with bands whose names include the first and last name of a key member, such as...

Ben Folds Five
Dave Clark Five
Dave Matthews Band
Edgar Winter Group
Huey Lewis and the News
J. Geils Band
Spencer Davis Group
Steve Miller Band

I always wondered if they should be filed as names of bands, or under the surname of the mentioned person. I guess either way would do, as long as you're consistent with your choice.

Since the bands are known as in the manner you listed them, I'd leave those as is. As FooBar said,  filing them as "Folds, Ben, Five" but "Lewis, Huey, and the News" would give me a headache when I try and find them.

Since the bands are known as in the manner you listed them, I'd leave those as is. As FooBar said,  filing them as "Folds, Ben, Five" but "Lewis, Huey, and the News" would give me a headache when I try and find them.

I would too. That's how they've appeared in the Misheard Lyric section on Amiright. However, if one of those performers were to go solo (and a couple of them actually did), it would make sense to file the performer under their last name (i.e, "Folds, Ben" or "Matthews, Dave").

What if the performer was known by a first name followed by a single letter, such as Sheila E., or Stacey Q?

I would too. That's how they've appeared in the Misheard Lyric section on Amiright. However, if one of those performers were to go solo (and a couple of them actually did), it would make sense to file the performer under their last name (i.e, "Folds, Ben" or "Matthews, Dave").

What if the performer was known by a first name followed by a single letter, such as Sheila E., or Stacey Q?

I'd file it as Sheila E,, and Stacey Q.
Filing it as "E, Sheila" and "Q, Stacey"  creates another headache, IMO.

I'd file it as Sheila E,, and Stacey Q.
Filing it as "E, Sheila" and "Q, Stacey"  creates another headache, IMO.

Thought so. Treating single letters as pseudo-last names is probably not necessary.

I always write or enter artist's names as first then last even when alphabetized by last name.

David Byrne, not Byrne, David
Bob Dylan, not Dylan, Bob

People are smart enough to figure it out.  Databases are not, so I will enter "Jones, Tom" not "Tom Jones" so the computer will recognize it.

Eponymous band names are tricky.  Consistency is the key.  If you're going to go by first name, always enter it as first name:

"B" for "Ben Folds Five"  or "C" for Charlie Hunter Trio.  Not "F" or the first and "C" for the second. 

"D" for Charlie Daniels Band.

I just enter the names if I have to use a database.

"Davis, Miles" 

"Davis, Miles Quintet" or "Davis, Miles -- Miles Davis Quintet"  are cumbersome.
:-\\