Just Don’t Bite

Time and time again I get asked about mp3s and how to deal with them. This might have something to do with having a sizable mp3 collection and the fact that I keep it very well maintained and clean. What will happen typically is someone will get a new mp3 player, and not surprisingly want to add music to it. Now I love mp3 players, I really do. I just hate how they deal with media most of the time. For me it has always made sense to organize my mp3s as follows.

\Artist\Cd\Track-Title.mp3 -or-
\Artist\Cd\Track-Artist-Title.mp3

Thats how they’ve always lived on my hard drives, it makes using just about any media application a snap. I can quickly and easily locate and load a cd. Now when it comes to things like iTunes, Windows Media Player, and the newer Winamp you get these nice library functions. This can make for a mess if your mp3s are not organized or were not ripped properly. You see these application rely on the ID3 tag to get info about the file, and (possibly) the file name to some extent. Or course when you throw things on your mp3 player, they like to use the ID3 tag.

This works great IF all your ID3 tags are clean… not so great if they aren’t clean. Worse if you have mp3s all over your hard drive and have to do a search for them and then consolidate them into one folder so that your library is easier to clean and maintain. Yet it is done. Once it’s done you end up with them on your mp3 player and your good to go. This is perhaps one of the biggest selling points of the shuffle like devices. You have no control, so it don’t matter how messy your files are. They’re just going to play at random.

Perhaps this is a step backward for the industry, but can we come up with some common playlist format that doesn’t require me using your damned media library to build it? Very simply I’m going to assume that all mp3 players read the file structure that they have. I’m going to assume that they understand the concept of directories. Lastly I’m going to say that the m3u playlist format (from Winamp) is probably the best bet for this. I’m saying very little and assuming a lot aren’t I?

Since every mp3 player I’ve ever seen can be used and seen as a mass storage device, it is clear they are just that. Once the music is on there via what ever you put it on there with it’s going to show up. The device clearly can navigate folders since they usually keep video/music/pictures separate. It must know about these folders in relation to the root of the file system. So would it make sense that a folder labeled “playlists” that contained a set of text files that looked something like this:

\music\Band\BandCD\01-song.mp3
\music\Band4\BandCD3\05-song.mp3
\music\Band3\BandCD1\10-song.mp3
\music\Band8\BandCD\08-song.mp3

Would be understood by the device as a play list. It would also mean that I can VERY easily load mp3’s on to the device in a manner that allows for easy navigation even if the ID3 tags are butternut squashed. The program to make the list would be pud to make and light weight. The ability to export to this playlist format would be easy to add to any existing program. You’d just have to know how your mp3 player likes it’s info.

Maybe I’d be better off going and finding one of them “how to” articles on building your own mp3 player.