[glynnw]

Help me show a friend he is an ignorant goose.  As background, I spent much of my career as a salesman going into record stores. So when I set up my naming conventions for my music files, I simply acted as if I were walking into a record store.  Where would I find a title or artist?  To me it was just like a library - a variation of Dewey decimal with last name first, then the first name... Smith, John not John Smith.  So all my music is set that way. Now the issue with my ignorant friend.  To get you on my side, he is not an audiophile.  He is a retired phone company engineer.  To get his motor running I forward him ads for ridiculously expensive interconnects and such...great fun.  We recently discovered that he has everything listed by First name first.  He insists that is how it is done everywhere and I am again stuck in some weird audiophile detour.
So who is right?  Me or my ignorant slut of a friend?

[WGH]

I list my albums the same way I speak and think, with First Name first, your ignorant friend is right. That way when artist or band's name and album names are the same as in Laurie Lewis or Lindsey Buckingham my little pea brain does not get confused. And Lady Gaga does not get filed under Gaga, Lady.

A artist's performing name is their trademark, Reginald Kenneth Dwight became 'Elton John', never John, Elton - that would be plain stupid. Elton John legally changed his name after his first four albums so how to list his name could get confusing.

In the old days when you go looking for an album in the vinyl record bins would you go to the "J" or "E" section to look for an Elton John album?

[toocool4]

I store my albums in last name first then first name, but then it depends on the name of the group / artist.

Example Paula Abdul is stored as Abdul Paula, Tony Allen is stored as Allen Tony, David Bowie is stored Bowie David. That makes sense.

Other examples Amp Fiddler is Amp Fiddler and not Fiddler Amp, Gotan Project is Gotan Project and not Project Gotan, Baby Ford is Baby Ford not Ford baby. That would make no sense.

At the end of the day, whatever works for you.

[sebrof]

I store First Name First because that is how most computer applications / lists do it. So in the past when I did Last name First I was always in conflict to the lists I had on computer. Now it's all nicey-nice.

[jseymour]

My FLAC metadata has Stevie Wonder just that way in the Artist field. He is Wonder, Stevie in the Album Artist field. Back in my college days I managed a record store.  Stevie Wonder was filed in the W section. I prefer to sort my albums that way also.  A band name is different. Tragically Hip is in the T section.

[toocool4]

sebrof you can make the computer store and list anyway you want.
Here is my database with everything listed in alphabetical order.
https://cloud.collectorz.com/toocool4/music

[nlitworld]

I currently is both systems. My digital files are sorted first name first, but my records are sorted last name first then chronological order after that. One day I'll reorganize my digital files accordingly but that's a lot of work and I'm lazy.

[Jack the cat]

The same way record stores of yore filed albums - all physical media is last name first except when used in a band name - Alan Parsons Project is filed in "A"s, etc. Oh, yeah, no "The"s. There are other exceptions, Elton John is a good one but as has been said, whatever tickles your pickle.

[GeneS]

In alphabetical order last name first. If it’s a band name or fictitious band name (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jethro Tull) it gets listed by first “word”. Elton John threw me, so I asked my wife’s elementary school building librarian. She said “it’s really up to you.”
 I have seen that filed under either in record stores and I always check them both (E,J). I have Lady Gaga under “L”- because it’s a stage name.
It should be known that I’m talking about my album collection, as I don’t have enough digital files that need organizing. Basically however Roon does it. I don’t change a thing.

What about “Paul McCartney and Wings”?

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I listen by artist

[WGH]

Aye, there's the rub lads - there are always exceptions. Does filing by last name make it easier or harder to find an album? C'mon, be truthful.

By filing by first name there are never any exceptions, ever.

"American Fool" is always next to "Scarecrow".



And Classical throws all naming conventions out the window.

[sebrof]

What about “Paul McCartney and Wings”?

So that's one of the reasons I file by first name first.
If you do last name first and then first word of band names, you'd have your Paul McCartney music under M and Paul McCartney and Wings under P. That's just dumb.

[Craig B]

If we're talking about people's names, it's always last name first in my system, unless that name is either fictional, or it simply isn't the name of any of the band members. For example, Uriah Heep is a fictional character from Dickens, so the band is filed under "U" (or it would be if I still had any Heep records). Jethro Tull was an actual person - an agronomist, I believe - but it isn't the name of any of the members of the band, so they're filed under "J." In both cases, the name may be a proper noun, but it doesn't represent an actual person, so it doesn't get filed as though it does. Tom Petty, on the other hand, is the name of the musician, so his records, with or without the Heartbreakers, are filed under "P."

[Craig B]

So that's one of the reasons I file by first name first.
If you do last name first and then first word of band names, you'd have your Paul McCartney music under M and Paul McCartney and Wings under P. That's just dumb.

I think those who file by last name first (like a librarian) would file those as (in order) McCartney Paul (for those records that are issued under just his name) and then McCartney Paul Wings (for those issued under the whole name. Then there are the albums just issued as "Wings" (like London Town, if I remember correctly) that would be filed under W.

[Craig B]

And Classical throws all naming conventions out the window.

Yes, classical is an entirely different, and unwieldy, beast. I do those in this order, and even then it gets tricky:

1. Composer name (last name first)
2. Type of work (concerto, quartet, symphony, etc.)
3. Number of the work (Symphony 1, Symphony 2, etc.)
3. Performer name (last name first), in order of:
  a. Soloist (or primary soloist)
  b. Conductor
  c. Ensemble

The hard part (sometimes) is when you have an album with multiple pieces by multiple composers. Then you have to do your best to decide which one is the primary piece. Sometimes the record makes that easy, sometimes it doesn't.

[Letitroll98]

In my last move a little over a year ago I threw out all alphabetical classifications.  I put the selections I like best on top shelves and worked my way down to least favorite on the bottom shelves.  I got tired of having to get on my hands and knees to find Wilco while Bare Naked Ladies kept staring me in the face.  Digital files are organized by the software, I don't interject my opinions on what it wants to do.

[Digi-G]

I see the OP's point of filing by artist last name.

But that isn't how I do mine.  No particular reason, but I do first name first.  Like someone else said, that's how I think of their names.  I don't have any issues finding things so it must work, at least for me.

There are always some exceptions it seems.  I don't use 'The' at the beginning of any band names. 

Compilations get a little tricky.  I use Various as the album artist for compilations; the artist name is still in the filename.  Actually, the filename I use for compilations is Tx Artist - Songtitle, where Tx is the track number (T01, T02, etc.).  This way the files have all of the info AND they display in order.

[Jack the cat]

All are kept in the same order as they are listed in the spreadsheet, so locating an album isn't an issue no matter how I file them......

[charmerci]

I store First Name First because that is how most computer applications / lists do it.

I pretty much only listen to music via my computer music program, so that seems to be the new de facto standard. However, I do go through them and remove "The"s so The Who and the Beatles are listed under W and B.

[DGoosen]

In libraries, (at least back when books were a thing) authors were generally alphabetized by their last name on the shelves, (including Mark Twain, under T). That model gets followed here for the most part. Elton Dean is under D. (don't have any R. Dwight stuff), but Don Caballero is under D...it's a crazy world sometimes, but it seems possible that Glynnw's friend and Jane Curtin may have at least one thing in common.